The Sports Xchange

JACKSONVILLE — For the fourth year in a row, the Jacksonville Jaguars have zero or one win in the first quarter of the season.

They dropped to 1-3 Sunday after a 16-13 overtime loss to Indianapolis. The previous three years, they didn’t recover, finishing 2-14, 4-12 and 3-13.

That first one was under general manager Gene Smith and head coach Mike Mularkey, who were fired after the season. Dave Caldwell was then hired as general manager and Gus Bradley as head coach to rebuild the team, but they haven’t managed much in the way of results yet.

Now the question is: will they do better in the second quarter and go on to win more than four games?

In the next quarter, they go to Tampa Bay, come home to face Houston, go to London to play Buffalo, have a bye and then go against the Jets.

Looking at that in terms of quarterbacks they face, the names are (rookie) Jameis Winston; Brian Hoyer or Ryan Mallett, young Tyrod Taylor and shopworn Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Maybe they have a chance. Then again, those teams aren’t eyeing the Jaguars as a tough weekend, either.

The Bucs and Texans are 1-3, the Bills 2-2 and the Jets 3-1.

If the Jaguars don’t do better than 1-3 against those four teams, the heat will increase on the regime of Caldwell and Bradley.

The team is 8-28 in its first 36 games and the fans are getting restless and frustrated. Of course, these fans have had plenty of practice.

Even Bradley’s upbeat personality is wearing thin.

“Unbelievable game to be a part of,” he said after the overtime loss to the Colts. “Tough, hard fought on both sides.”

The fans, though, want more than tough and hard fought. They want victories. Bradley later clarified he was talking about it being a better game to watch than the lopsided game in New England.

And Caldwell’s personnel decisions often misfire. He traded kicker Josh Scobee to Pittsburgh for a sixth-round pick and handed the job to Jason Myers of Marist, who was in the Arena League last year.

Myers had two shots at a 53-yard game-winner at the end of regulation because Indianapolis coach Chuck Pagano called timeout after the first miss. And then Myers missed the do-over. In overtime, he missed a 48-yard field-goal attempt before veteran Adam Vinatieri showed how it is done, albeit on a gimme 27-yarder to decide the debacle.

It turns out Scobee flopped in Pittsburgh, but that’s of little solace to anybody on either side of that infamous trade.

The Jags now have lost six in a row to the Colts, but the first five were to quarterback Andrew Luck, who sat out the game with a shoulder injury as Jacksonville lost to 40-year-old backup Matt Hasselbeck, the oldest non-kicker in the league, although only a year older than Peyton Manning.

“It’s hard because if we make one of the field goals, we’re talking about the tremendous effort, the competitiveness, getting turnovers, scoring off a sudden change – the things that led to a win,” Bradley said. “But we’re not quite there and not doing good enough things consistently yet to get us over the hump.”

So Bradley and Caldwell are running out of time to get over the hump.

REPORT CARD VS. COLTS

–PASSING OFFENSE: C. Blake Bortles completed 28 of 50 passes for 298 yards and a touchdown and didn’t throw a pick. But Bortles and the Jaguars were blanked in the second half. They had first downs at the Indianapolis 32, 44, 40 and 40 in their last four possessions and Bortles couldn’t make the big plays to pull the game out so it didn’t come down to Jason Myers’ field-goal attempts.

–RUSHING OFFENSE: B. Rookie T.J. Yeldon rushed 22 times for 105 yards, but they weren’t able to use his runs to sustain long drives. A 105-yard rusher and a 298-yard passer should translate into a victory but not for the Jaguars.

–PASS DEFENSE: B. The Jaguars weren’t burned by Matt Hasselbeck even though he completed 30 of 47 passes for 282 yards. He only put one touchdown on the board but the Jaguars committed five penalties on that drive. But they did give up a 28-yard pass to TE Coby Fleener, who got behind Telvin Smith in overtime that helped set out the game-winning field goal.

–RUN DEFENSE: B. The Jaguars bottled up Frank Gore throughout the game until his final carry when he went 22 yards on third down in overtime to give Adam Vinatieri a chip shot for the game-winning field goal. Until that run, Gore had just 31 yards in 16 carries.

–SPECIAL TEAMS: F. Jason Myers missed two field-goal attempts that would have won the game from 53 yards at the end of regulation and 48 yards in overtime. On the 53-yarder, he had two shots when Indianapolis head coach Chuck Pagano called a timeout just before he kicked it wide. He may have been affected by the whistle. But then he missed the one that counted. Rookie Nick Marshall fumbled a punt and went out of bounds as a gunner, costing the Jaguars 18 yards in field position and helping to set up a Colts field goal.

–COACHING: D. The Jaguars seemed to show a lack of discipline as they committed 13 penalties. And that’s on coaching. Gus Bradley also doesn’t seem to have the answers. He also makes puzzling decisions. He went with a rookie, Nick Marshall, over Bryan Walters as his punt returner even though Walters has fielded punts in the Super Bowl. After Marshall fumbled a return, he switched to Walters, who only had 17 yards on three returns because he didn’t have room to run, but he didn’t fumble the ball. Although the players like playing for Bradley, who has an update personality, they’re not getting results.