Jacksonville enters Monday night's matchup with the Houston Texans as a team in disarray.
Fred Taylor doesn't know what the problem is, but the 11-year veteran called this team the worst he's ever been on. This season's 4-7 start has been a shocking turnaround from last year's 11-5 regular season finish and trip to the second round of the playoffs.
"It has to be something,"
Taylor said."Right now the chemistry, it's not good ... the team, the (team) concept more so than our franchise. The chemistry is bad. The chemistry, the mix isn't ... something's not right."
The Jaguars prepare for their AFC South rival Houston after losing four of the last five, including last week's embarrassing and error-filled loss to the Vikings.
"We went out and we made certain moves in the offseason and we expect to do better,"
Taylor said. "Expectations are always high. That was just across the board from players in the locker room to the people up front. When the production isn't where it should be on the field, when the success isn't here yet, we haven't been real."
The problems for Jacksonville began before the season opener when backup tackle Richard Collier was shot and critically injured. With center Brad Meester already out for the start of the season, the Jaguars lost both their starting guards to season-ending injuries in the opener.
Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio refused to point to injuries on the offensive line as a reason for the struggles of his team.
"Well, I think certainly everything adds up,"
he said. "I think trying to pin it on any one thing is not going to be entirely accurate."
David Garrard has already been sacked 30 times after being taken down 21 times last year. Meester has been back for five games, but the protection hasn't improved much with his return. Garrard has been sacked four times in each of the last two games.
Though Garrard isn't looking for excuses, he acknowledged the difficulties Jacksonville has endured in the wake of the injuries.
"I know offensively it's definitely taken a toll on us, but we've got to get over that and stop talking about that, and we should have done that,"
he said. "But whenever you lose two starters and your top backup, that is going to be tough on your offense."
"Especially when your offense is built a certain way and those guys were key guys in us being able to run the ball effectively. And we really haven't had very many games where we've been able to do that, so it's been tough."
Jacksonville's rushing production has plummeted after the Jaguars were second in the NFL with more than 149 yards a game last year. Despite the combination of Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew they're currently 17th in the league with just more than 110 yards a game on the ground.
