Jacksonville Jaguars Still Learning to Overcome Making Bad Mistakes

The Jacksonville Jaguars suffered the incomprehensible pain of letting a win slip out of grasp last week against the Indianapolis Colts. At 1-3 and reeling from poor mistakes, Sunday's away trip to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was thought of as a must-win.

Instead, the Jaguars experienced a similar feeling after their 38-31 loss in Tampa. They trailed by two scores on two separate occasions, and despite a roaring offensive comeback, it still wasn't enough to secure a win.

This was mostly due to numerous errors and miscues that rest less on the players and more on the coaching staff. The team looked woefully unprepared, and it showed through the two turnovers and great field position for Tampa.

It would be easy to look at the Buccaneers' 38 points and assume the defense had an off day, but that really wasn't the case, as seen in the table below.

	Tampa Bay Drives Within Jaguars Territory	Tampa Bay Drives Outside of Jaguars Territory
Number	3	6
Touchdowns	3	0
Field Goals	0	3
Punts	0	3
Total Points	21	9

In reality, the defense did its job relatively well, especially when given a decent opportunity to defend itself. However, the Jaguars gifted the Buccaneers the ball at the Jaguars 41-yard line or closer three times, which all resulted in touchdowns. 

Taking away those 21 points or even limiting it to 10 points gives the Jaguars the victory, but when you tack on running back Corey Grant's fumble returned for a touchdown, it's relatively apparent that they should've won this game.

Ryan O'Halloran of the Florida Times-Union shared why Grant was on the field for the fumble:  

A disciplined and well-executed performance could've possibly resulted in a 31-10 or 31-20 scoreline, but the Jaguars could not do what was necessary to put last week behind them.

This becomes even harder to understand when you look at the offense's numbers. While the running game wasn't great and quarterback Blake Bortles was sacked six times, the Jaguars still scored four touchdowns through the air and had their best offensive performance of the year.

Completing 23 of 33 passes for 303 yards, four touchdowns and an interception, Bortles easily had his best game of the year. The four touchdowns were a career high, as was the 125.4 rating he received.

When the offense finally comes together for 31 points and the defense does well in reasonable situations, there is no reason the Jaguars should've lost. Special teams and poor coaching have to shoulder the majority of the blame, and understandably so.

Punter Bryan Anger and his coverage seem to be out of sync week after week, and that resulted in Buccaneers drives that started at the Jacksonville 40- and 17-yard lines. However, even those mistakes revert back to preparation and execution, which the coaching staff is responsible.

Brian Blanco/Associated Press

Head coach Gus Bradley's loss column is growing ever higher, now reaching 29 losses in total. While the first two seasons were excused due to a massive rebuild, the product this year was supposed to be either close to the end goal or at the goal itself.

If the end goal is here, and Bradley can only achieve a 1-4 record with that squad, then there is plenty of reason to be concerned. The Jaguars have yet to show they can secure a victory earlier than a late field goal that became a knockdown thanks to a bad penalty in the 23-20 win over the Miami Dolphins.

For the Bradley regime to continue, Week 6 has to show the positives of this week and the growth and maturation that comes with a built team. If the Jaguars lose in similar fashion to the Houston Texans this coming Sunday, it seems improper that Bradley should remain the head coach.

What do you think? Answer the poll and comment below!

All stats provided by ESPN.com unless otherwise stated.

Evan Reier is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report covering the Jacksonville Jaguars. Follow Evan on Twitter @evanreier.