Jaguars Raise Concerns About Team's Progress with Deflating Week 16 Loss

The Jacksonville Jaguars' playoff hopes were already crushed coming into Sunday's NFL game, thanks to the Houston Texans 34-0 demolition of the Tennessee Titans, but the 38-27 loss to the New Orleans Saints was saddening for other reasons.

Obviously, the 24-0 drumming to start the game likely "hurt" the most, but it's when you put that situation in context that it starts to really burn. Although the Jaguars are 5-10, they've competed and beaten better teams than the Saints this season, but they got thumped to start.

Whether that is due to the playoffs already being out of the question or a similar sentiment doesn't matter. The Jaguars weren't "tanking" on Sunday. They were just unprepared and looked generally uninvested.

The offense started extremely conservative, which isn't how they've found success this season. The defense was absolutely shredded, thanks to consistent four-man rushing that allowed Saints quarterback Drew Brees plenty of time to wait for receivers to get open and make the right throws.

Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Just rushing the front four is a fine idea if that group has established they can get after the QB, but throughout 2015, the defensive line has done the exact opposite: They've failed time after time, and a decent QB, much less Brees, should be able to succeed without pressure.

When your secondary has also proven that they can't make those big plays or even stay on their targets, it makes even less sense that you would continue to look to it to make the plays, rather than hope that the blitz can get there in time.

The defense deserves special focus due to it being head coach Gus Bradley's specialty. It's his "baby," so to speak, and the defense being the major letdown of the season, not the offense like the past few years, is concerning.

A young offense, which has made more than its fair share of mistakes, has at least progressed and is quickly on its way to becoming one of the most exciting offenses in the NFL. It produced tangible results, so why hasn't the defense and the team as a whole (as seen below)? 

Year	Record	Divisional Record	Double-Digit Wins
2013	4-12	3-3	0
2014	3-13	1-5	1
2015	5-10	2-3	1
Total	12-35	6-12	2

When you consider the Jaguars have had to rely on last-second execution from this young offense and QB Blake Bortles to win four of its five games, it makes the five wins this season a little less convincing.

All this poses the question: Has Bradley actually improved the Jaguars?

Sure, respect goes to the defense for keeping the Jaguars in the game more often than not, but it's still requiring heroics from Bortles and his weapons to win, save for the 51-16 victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Dec. 13.

Last season, the defense was easily the better side and had an explosive knack for forcing turnovers, even though it would still allow points and yards. It wouldn't have likely saved the Jaguars season this year, but forcing turnovers and getting the ball in the offense's hands sounds a lot better than getting steamrolled.

The standouts of the season on defense, linebacker Telvin Smith and corner Davon House, have arguably excelled on individual levels, not due to some kind of scheme or fit.

Bradley deserves some credit for creating a positive atmosphere that will help draw in players, but this season was supposed to be about results. While the offense has made tangible progress, the defense and the win column have not.

It's nearing the end of year three, and the Jaguars just suffered one of their most uninspiring, lackluster losses in a while. The offense's success in the second half was nice. But the game was out of hand, and there is no way the Jaguars should go down by three scores less than 20 minutes into the first half.

The Jaguars have looked close to jumping that hurdle all season, but they simply haven't. Bradley may have another season to prove it, but he's done little to nothing so far to prove he deserves it.

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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.