The Jacksonville Jaguars enter their bye week with an impressive 4-2 record after playing the toughest part of their season. 

Losses to the Denver Broncos and Houston Texans are the only blemishes on Jacksonville’s record. Their four wins have all come against quality opponents. The Jaguars defeated a pair of AFC contenders in the Patriots and Bengals. They also beat the surprising 4-2 Cleveland Browns in Week 1 and earned a walk-off win against a depleted Philadelphia Eagles in the first of back-to-back “home” games in London. 

Making their record even more impressive is that the Jaguars have played only two of their six games in Jacksonville, and will have only four more in the city until the start of the 2028 season due to ongoing renovations on their home stadium. 

Unfortunately for the Jaguars, they missed an opportunity to open up a four-game lead over the Texans in the AFC South in Week 6. Jacksonville lost 34-31 when Houston kicked a 49-yard field goal as time expired. 

The game exposed a handful of flaws the Jaguars must clean up, but head coach Liam Coen expressed full confidence in his team’s ability to respond and correct its issues. 

Heading into the bye, Jacksonville has proven it is one of the NFL’s best teams. 

The Jaguars’ loss to Houston may have prevented them from having an even larger lead in the division, but it didn’t hurt their standing in ESPN’s weekly NFL power rankings. 

For the third week in a row, Jacksonville is ranked fifth by ESPN. 

Must Fix Issues With Penalties

In this week's power rankings, ESPN highlighted one offensive issue for each team in the NFL.

For the Jaguars, Michael DiRocco chose penalties as the main issue holding the offense back. In the last three games, Jacksonville has been called for 32 total penalties. While the defense is certainly guilty of its fair share, many of the flags have been called on the offense and have taken plenty of points off the board, as DiRocco notes.

Biggest issue on offense: Penalties

"Penalties have cost the Jaguars three touchdowns, including a pair of 3-yard touchdown runs by running back Bhayshul Tuten. It happened again in Sunday's loss, with a questionable holding call on tight end Brenton Strange. The Jaguars didn't get points on that possession because QB Trevor Lawrence threw an end zone interception two plays later. Jacksonville did score touchdowns after the other two penalties, against New England and Cincinnati, but it finally caught up to them in a three-point loss to the Texans. -- Michael DiRocco"

To be fair, the holding call on Strange was way worse than "questionable." It was downright awful. However, it was the third time Tuten has had a touchdown wiped out by a penalty this season.

The offensive line has also been flagged for several holding and false-start penalties as well. Last week against the Eagles, two delay-of-game penalties in a span of three plays resulted in the Jaguars scoring zero points after having a first-and-goal from the one.

The penalties resulted in Lawrence showing a rare outburst of frustration on the field.

The Jaguars will certainly focus on correcting their lack of discipline over the bye week. However, Jacksonville has already made it through the toughest part of its schedule and should return from the bye week as an even better team.