The Jacksonville Jaguars were among the least-penalized teams in the NFL over the first three games of the season, averaging five flags per game for an average of 40.3 yards.
The last two games have wrecked those averages.
After back-to-back games of 13 penalties for 100 or more yards, the Jaguars are now averaging 8.2 infractions per game for 69.2 yards. The good news is that they've won both, beating Cincinnati 22-17 on Oct. 4 and Philadelphia 19-17 on Oct. 11.
But there's no one within the organization who honestly believes the Jags can keep winning despite hitting triple digits in penalty yards. Before beating Tennessee 25-3 last year with 13 penalties for 98 yards, the Jags had lost 10 games in a row in which they committed 13 or more penalties,
and were 6-11 overall when reaching that number of yellow hankies.
"The penalties are concerning when you start the season off in the first three weeks as the second least penalized team in the NFL, and now over the last two weeks, we're arguably one of the most penalized teams in the NFL," Jaguars coach Liam Coen said Oct. 12 during a virtual news conference from London. "[It's] alarming that it goes from few to so many in a short period of time. Still trying to work through that."
Linebacker Dennis Gardeck, speaking from the defensive standpoint, said the unit obviously doesn't want to back down on the aggressiveness that has led them to the top of the NFL in run defense and among the leaders in turnovers.
But he said the defensive pass interference, holding and personal foul penalties can be minimized without sacrificing the team's style of play.
"You can just commit to playing cleaner football, which I think is definitely the Campanile approach," he said, referring to Jaguars defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile. "Let's not have to be passive. Let's not have to pull punches because we're afraid. Let's dial in our technique and let's be clean."
From the offensive side, quarterback Trevor Lawrence admitted after two games in which there have been four delay of game penalties and four false start calls, "there's a lot of stuff to clean up."
Who's committing the penalties for the Jaguars?
Through five games (and pending the outcome of the Monday night game between Buffalo and the Los Angeles Rams), the Jags are ninth in the NFL in penalty yards per game and eighth in average penalties per game. Through three games, they were fourth with only 40.3 yards per game and tied for second with 5.0 infractions per game.
All figures are for accepted penalties. Offsetting and declined calls are not counted.
The offense has been penalized 28 times for 202 yards. The infractions include:
Holding: 10 (there was only one in the first three games).
False start: Seven.
Delay of game: Four (None in the first three games).
Illegal shift: Two.
There has been one flag each for illegal forward pass, blocking below the waist, chop block, illegal use of hands and offensive pass interference.
Assuming blame for delay of game penalties falls on the quarterback: Lawrence has five penalties, four delays and an illegal forward pass. Rookie guard Emmanuel Pregnon also has five, four of them holding.
Center Robert Hainsey has four penalties, and tackle Anton Harrison and rookie tight end Nate Boerkircher have three each. Right tackle Cole Van Lanen is the only Jaguars offensive lineman who has not yet been called for holding.
The defense has been penalized 11 times for 124 yards. The infractions include:
Pass interference: Three.
There has been one flag each for unsportsmanlike conduct, taunting, unnecessary roughness, holding, facemask and offside.
Cornerback Jarrian Jones leads the defense with penalties, one each for interference, face mask and holding. Cornerback Travis Hunter has two interference calls and defensive end Travon Walker has two penalties for taunting and offside.
There have been only two special teams penalties, holding calls on Quintin Morris and Jahlani Tavi.
Have the Jaguars improved over last year?
The regression of the last two games has pushed the Jaguars' penalties and yards per game on a pass to pass last year's numbers, especially on offense when they have numerous operational issues early in the season as they got acclimated to Coen's system.
The Jaguars averaged 7.2 penalties per game in 2025, fourth-highest in the NFL, and 60.6 yards per game, fifth-highest. The average of 8 yards per flag suggest more 5-yard infractions on offense.
Coen said it goes back to coaching, and he said the offensive line will be working on fundamentals and technique this week before the Jags play Houston on Oct. 18 at Wembley Stadium.
"The fundamentals and techniques inside, with some of our hands, and where can we get better at that?" he said. "What we can control is what I told the team in the meeting [on Oct. 12]: we have to go into this week with extreme intentionality. Intentionality as we've had with every single time that we get fit on a block, we have got to have our hands inside. We cannot even allow ourselves to get out there."
While Coen hinted the day after the Bengals game that he would send some video to the NFL office for an explanation of some of the calls in that game (the Jaguars were penalized 125 yards on 13 flags), no one within the organization is publicly complaining about the calls. Replays of almost all of the key penalties against the Eagles showed that the officials made the right call, although some were borderline, such as the holding on Branson Combs that nullified Josh Cameron's kickoff return for a touchdown."
"It's football … literally, [officials can] call hold on every single football play," Coen said. "There's some of that you have to give your players grace as well because it's an imperfect game. Some of those things are going to happen."
Operational penalties stalling drives
What frustrates coaches, players and fans alike are "operational" penalties, such as delay of game, false starts, illegal shift and illegal formations. The Jaguars have had a combined seven of those calls in the last two games, after only three in the first three.
Both Coen and Lawrence took the blame, especially on a sequence in the red zone when the Jaguars got a first-and-goal at the Eagles' 1, and were hit with a false start on tackle Walker Little and two delay penalties.
On the second, Lawrence slammed the ball into the turf in anger.
"I do like seeing him have that fire and that competitive edge," Coen said. "He wants it to be good. He wants the operation to be clean. I think there was a lot of frustrations throughout that game that probably built up."
Coen took the blame for one of the false starts for being slow getting the play called but Lawrence said it falls on him.
"It was loud for sure," he said of the partisan Eagles crowd. "It wasn't so much that; it was just getting behind in the play clock. I've got to do a better job in the huddle of getting the play call in. I thought coach did a fine job. I've got to get the play called and get out of the huddle so we can operate and not be behind the clock so much."
Reshuffled offensive line has faced elite fronts
There might be a couple of ingredients in the recipe for the Jaguars' offensive line hit with their recent flurry of holding calls.
The starting line includes a rookie in Pregnon at left guard, with Ezra Cleveland moving to right guard to take the place of the injured Patrick Mekari. Harrison and Van Lanen also flipped tackle positions (Harrison going from right to left and the reverse for Van Lanen) and Van Lanen didn't start donning pads and hitting until Aug. 20 after recovering from knee surgery.
Harrison moved to left tackle after training camp started. That leaves only one player returning from last year at the same position, Hainsey at center, and the starting five the Jaguars began the season with had only two weeks of training camp as a unit. Their communication during games, crucial for an offensive line, still might not be smooth given those changes.
Now, the team might have to deal with Harrison's injury against the Eagles, with Walker Little stepping in.
The line has also faced elite defensive tackles in the past two weeks: Dexter Lawrence of Cincinnati and Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis of Philadelphia.
To the credit of the Jaguars coaches and players, adjustments were made at halftime against the Eagles and the last holding penalty on an interior lineman was early in the third quarter and Carter had only one tackle and one assist after four solo tackles and two sacks in the first half.
"I thought those guys responded well in the second half," Coen said of the line. "I thought we handled [Carter] and the front better in the second half ... settled down a little bit more in the second half as a group. They played hard. They played their tails off. That's a damn good [Eagles] front. It's one of the bigger fronts that we'll see. Obviously, have a huge challenge again this week with another good front. But I was proud of the way that they played."
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Jaguars keep winning despite recent rash of penalties
