Did that really just happen?
As the dust has settled on the 2025-26 Jacksonville Jaguars season, it’s hard to imagine THAT is how it ends, in a Trevor Lawrence interception to seal a 27-24 home loss to the Buffalo
Bills.
It’s been more than well-documented just how well the Jags had played to that point: winning the AFC South and clinching a home playoff game to cap an eight-game win streak to close the year. But Josh Allen is Josh Allen, after all, and he was just too much for the Jaguars’ defense to hold up against.
There were some fine players on Sunday but just as many that got exposed and picked on. These types of things happen when you play the likes of Allen and the Bills. It was a great and record-setting season, but it came up just a drive short when it mattered the most.
WINNERS
EverBank Stadium
Personally, I was not at the Chargers playoff game a few years back. This was my first playoff experience with the modern-day Jaguars but it was without a doubt the best environment in that stadium I have ever been a part of.
The energy around the stadium was incredible. Jags fans showed out and dwarfed the Bills contingency, and it was loud as hell all game long. Despite some of the backbreaking plays by the Bills, the Jags fandom was in that game from start to finish. It didn’t end quite the way we all would have liked, but this city and its fans showed up on Sunday.
If you build it, they will come. It seems that everyone is bought in on that from a fan perspective, with James Gladstone, Tony Boselli and Liam Coen in charge.
Parker Washington
It’s fitting that Parker Washington was the team’s no-doubter at WR1 on Sunday.
Washington led the Jags with 107 yards and a touchdown while catching seven balls. Travis Etienne caught all five of his targets but it was Washington who got a team-high 12 targets on the day. Etienne and Brenton Strange had the second most targets of any Jag but Washington’s target number tripled the four targets given to Jakobi Meyers. When faced with who to throw to, it was clear where Lawrence was going to go and it led to Washington finishing with the second-most receiving yards in a Jaguar playoff game ever.
Washington did miss some time with a concussion evaluation (dubious circumstances there) but did play through. I am also positive you have seen the video of Washington being over the top on Lawrence’s second interception. Oh, what could have been.
Washington played incredibly this season for a former sixth-rounder on a team with star receivers already. Three of his final games this year went for over 100 yards with three touchdowns to show for it.
If you’re reading this, Parker, you have my permission to take a day or two off from chopping wood and carrying water. You have earned it.
Running Backs (in the first half)
Ok, so the Bills have an awful run defense. We know this. It ranked 31st in the NFL heading into the playoffs. And the Jags took advantage of that.
Bhayshal Tuten got off to a crazy hot start, with runs of 20, 14 and 13 to kick off the Jags’ second half touchdown drive. Prior to that, Etienne had run the ball well.
Tuten finished with 51 yards, Etienne with 67. But the team flat-out abandoned the run in the second half.
There were two guys making a giant impact on a defense that can’t stop the run and doesn’t do terribly much to try, giving the Jags light boxes all game. They weren’t given an opportunity late.
The running backs did their job on Sunday, but only for as long as they were allowed to.
Al’s Pizza
For the last time this season, at least in Winners and Losers, we are giving a shoutout to our friends at Al’s Pizza. On Jan. 12 and 13, use code JAGSSZN online or in store for 50% off your order. As fans, I think we have earned it.
LOSERS
Trevor Lawrence
This one hurts to say, especially given how well he had been playing, but Lawrence is on this week’s loser list because he simply didn’t win.
We can sit around all day and debate whether he should have or could have seen Washington over the top on the final play on offense or if the offensive line wasn’t helping or whatever. But Lawrence didn’t really step up in the biggest moment in the same way someone like Allen did.
By no means is Lawrence the reason the team lost on Sunday. Cam Little missed a kick, play calling was strange, the cornerbacks were awful and more. It is true that Lawrence was pedestrian at best and now has a troubling amount of interceptions in his playoff career- seven in three games.
Maybe Lawrence’s game on Sunday was a bit more glaring considering how he had protected the ball so well in recent weeks. On the flip side, Bill Barnwell of ESPN wrote last week that Lawrence’s numbers in recent weeks were maybe just smoke and mirrors. Who knows.
Either way you slice it, that was a rough way to end and much of that blame will now be directed at Lawrence as we go into the offseason where people are bored, needing someone to blame.
Play Calling
As mentioned, Coen outsmarted himself by giving up on the run.
Jacksonville was winning in the run game, as mentioned, and the Bills just cannot stop it. Coen seemed to think otherwise and turned the ball over to Lawrence and his arm to win the game. Hindsight is obviously 20/20, but even during the game, it seemed like the run needed to be incorporated further to give the offense a jolt and take a bit off of Lawrence’s shoulders.
To Coen and Lawrence’s credit, Lawrence did lead the offense to a field goal drive and two touchdown drives to close the game. Even on those drives the Jags were running well. It just didn’t last for one reason or another.
Mistakes certainly happen. Human error is a thing. That all came back to bite the Jags, but maybe not in the eyes of Tuten himself.
Cornerbacks
Oh boy, Greg Newsome, you were god-awful on Sunday. You and Dyami Brown will be the first ones out of here when the front office starts making moves.
Sometimes, even a guy like Gladstone doesn’t hit, and that seemed apparent with how Newsome played over the weekend. It was Newsome who allowed an over 150 passer rating and who was a part of the coverage bust at the end of the game for the Bills’ game-winner. Yet he wasn’t even alone.
Jarrian Jones played poorly, too. He allowed 78 yards as the nearest defender and seven total catches on eight targets. Both Jag starting corners were bullied by the Bills offense which certainly helped send Jacksonville to an earlier trip to Cancun.
This would not have been the case had Jourdan Lewis not gotten hurt. Even Travis Hunter staying healthy could have helped this. Doesn’t matter now, though.
Newsome and Jones played poorly while Montaric Brown played OK. This was maybe the weakest unit on the roster given the health of it all which the Bills rightfully took advantage of. Keon Coleman, Brandin Cooks and Khalil Shakir are certainly not a deadly lineup but they looked like it against the Jags secondary. You can probably, and rightfully, blame this group for much of the loss on these guys.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
