It almost seems difficult to be as bad as the Jacksonville Jaguars have been in recent Septembers.
According to Mike DiRocco of ESPN, the Jaguars are 1-10 over their last 11 games in September, dating back to the start of the 2013 season. All 10 losses have been by at least 10 points, with an average loss of 23.7 points.
The franchise hasn’t had a winning record during the regular season’s first month in almost a decade.
“We’re very aware of that,” linebacker Paul Posluszny said, via DiRocco. “Start fast, start fast has been something we’ve been emphasizing, not only in practice but in preseason games. Absolutely. Week 1 we want to be able to open up and be playing at a high level. That’s something, like you said, we haven’t been able to do in the past.”
Changing the past won’t be easy. The Jaguars begin the 2016 season with September games against the Green Bay Packers, San Diego Chargers and Baltimore Ravens. Of the three, only the Packers went to the postseason in 2015, but all three—with Aaron Rodgers, Philip Rivers and Joe Flacco—feature game-changing quarterbacks capable of making life difficult on the young, improving Jaguars.
Overall, Jacksonville has given up an NFL-high 372 points over the team’s last 11 September games, or an average of 33.8 per game. The Jags have only scored 138 (12.5 per game, least in the NFL), providing a point differential of -234—far and away the worst in the NFL since 2013.
The lone Jaguars win in September came last year, when Jacksonville beat the Miami Dolphins by a 23-20 score in Week 2. The next week, however, New England stomped the Jaguars, 51-17.
Of course, a team with only 12 total wins over the last three seasons isn’t going to have a sparkling September record. But with quarterback Blake Bortles and several talented pieces on offense and defense, many believe the Jaguars to be trending up. Exorcising some September demons would be a good start for Jacksonville’s push to legitimacy in 2016.