Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images
The Jaguars encouraged their fans to stay positive, and accidentally started a Twitter dunk contest.
Jacksonville Jaguars fans are intimately familiar with pain. The franchise has just one winning season in the last 13 years. Last season started off in promising fashion as the Jags beat the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1, but then they proceeded to lose 15 straight games. It was the worst season in franchise history, and only the 11th 1-15 season the league has ever seen.
Hope arrived for the Jags this season in the form of No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence, the Clemson product who was considered one of the best quarterback prospects in recent memory. Jacksonville made a bold hire at head coach with Urban Meyer to start the Lawrence era. The Jags weren’t expecting some miracle turnaround right away after coming off a one-win season, but for the first time in years, the vibes around the team felt positive.
That feeling only lasted for two weeks.
The Jaguars fell to 0-2 on Sunday by losing to the Denver Broncos, 23-13. This loss came on the heels of Jacksonville dropping their opener to the Houston Texans — a team widely expected to be one of the worst in the league — in a game they were actually favored to win on the road.
While the loss to Denver wasn’t quite as disappointing as the opener, it was still a frustrating performance from the Jags. The team managed only 189 yards of total offense, their fewest since 2018. Lawrence threw two interceptions, averaged a paltry 3.6 yards per attempt, and ended the game with a 37.2 QB Rating. The Jags again failed to get running back James Robinson going after his breakout rookie season last year. As our Jaguars community Big Cat Country wrote, this looks like a team without an identity.
After the loss, Meyer tried to encourage the fanbase to stay positive. It might be a nice sentiment, but it wasn’t one the fans wanted to hear after falling to 0-2. The Jags’ official Twitter account then made a graphic for Meyer’s comments, and it ended up starting a dunk contest on social media.
Here’s the Jaguars’ post.
A message for #DUUUVAL pic.twitter.com/fmB3RGRexX
— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) September 20, 2021
Here are some of our favorite replies:
you guys are the jaguars. you’re not going to get better. you also don’t need to put out a whole ass statement about it, everyone knows what you are by now lol https://t.co/RkYi2YnVvd
— Robert O’Neill (@RobertONeill31) September 20, 2021
Jaguars saying “hang in there” to a fan base that’s seen one winning season since 2008 lmao https://t.co/EDgDepj6Qv
— Adam Stites (@AdamStites_) September 20, 2021
It’s week two of a rebuild … and they have a letter from the head coach to the fans. There’s 15 weeks left in the season. https://t.co/VhQKrTvlyp
— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) September 20, 2021
Wow. Thought Urban Meyer was going to give up on the Jaguars? Think again after this statement. What a message. pic.twitter.com/7geP0yAvwK
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) September 20, 2021
This really does feel like the type of statement a team issues at the end of a bad season. That it’s coming only two weeks into the year should be alarming. Jaguars fans are among the most loyal in the NFL, but it’s already apparent they are going to be in for another long year.
A few days before falling to 0-2, Meyer had to issue a statement shooting down rumors that he could be a target for the USC job. Clearly, everything is going great in Jags land. Hey, at least Lawrence threw a nice TD pass:
Trevor Lawrence is going to be a problem.#DENvsJAX on CBS pic.twitter.com/MMfnTA6YJZ
— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) September 19, 2021
Even if Meyer’s message fell on deaf ears, Jags fans know things HAVE to get better eventually, only because they can’t get any worse.
