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The Jaguars lose to the struggling Raiders and gain ground in the NFL Draft race

The Jaguars lose to the struggling Raiders and gain ground in the NFL Draft race

The Jaguars keep finding new lows.

On Sunday, it was the Raiders, mired in a 10-game losing streak and battling with the Giants for the top pick in the draft, who handed Jacksonville its final loss, a 19-14 game that even marked a new low for head coaches Doug Pederson.

The Jaguars have now lost to the Raiders (3-12), Browns (3-12), Jets (4-11) and Bears (4-11), teams that are ranked in the top nine. According to the website Tankathon, Jacksonville moved up to No. 3 from No. 6 in Sunday’s draft. Only the Giants (2-13), who are now on a 10-game losing streak, have a worse record than the Jaguars.

The Jaguars appeared to have converted a four-and-1 after a great run by Travis Etienne, but a call by Cole Van Lanen put paid to the game. Mac Jones’ throw to D’Ernest Johnson was well short of the first down and the Raiders were able to use the last 52 seconds to end a miserable losing streak.

Both teams are fighting

It hasn’t been pretty for either team, but the Jaguars continue to make undisciplined plays that hurt them.

During a sequence late in the second quarter, penalty flags were thrown on four consecutive plays, two each for each team. On the fifth play, Aidan O’Connell’s pass over the middle to Alexander Mattison was dropped, which would have resulted in a first down. That drop saved Jacksonville from at least one more Raiders field goal attempt.

After recovering a Tank Bigsby fumble at the 45, they had regained excellent field position. It was only the second fumble recovery of the season for the Raiders. They added another critical fumble recovery incident in the final seconds of the first half as the Jaguars attempted a field goal.

Brenton Strange caught Jones’ pass over the middle, was hit by Isaiah Pola-Mao and coughed up. Thomas Harper recovered at the 33 with 9 seconds to play and killed a Jacksonville field goal shot.

BTJ shines

Brian Thomas Jr. was the only bright spot in a miserable offense. He broke Justin Blackmon’s receiving record as a rookie with a third-and-9 catch that went for 16 yards in the first quarter. It set up Bigsby’s 1-yard touchdown run four plays later.

Thomas made Jacksonville’s biggest play of the game late in the third quarter, sneaking past the Las Vegas secondary and catching a 62-yard touchdown pass from Jones. That catch gave Thomas more than 1,000 receiving yards this season. Thomas and Raiders rookie tight end Brock Bowers lead all first-year pass catchers in yardage. The touchdown was Thomas’ ninth. He led Jacksonville with 132 yards on nine catches. Thomas has 1,088 yards on 73 catches.

Thomas is one of only six rookies since 2000 to reach 1,000 yards and nine touchdowns in a season. Odell Beckham, Kelvin Benjamin, Ja’Marr Chase, Mike Evans and Michael Thomas were the others.

Jags strike first, but can’t take it

A 26-yard punt return by Devin Duvernay and an unnecessary roughness call at the end got Jacksonville to the Vegas 29 and quickly into scoring position. Bigsby scored his sixth touchdown of the season to give the Jaguars a 7-0 lead.

The Raiders came right back with a 1-yard touchdown run by Mattison and a 49-yard field goal by Daniel Carlson.

Young players are coming

Second-round pick Maason Smith has been somewhat of an unknown this season, having played in just nine games and having both a healthy player and an injury-inactive player in the other games. Jacksonville expected more, but it didn’t work out that way. On Sunday, Smith had perhaps his best game, sacking O’Connell in the first quarter and then fending off a third down pass in the third quarter. Smith had two tackles for a loss and a quarterback hit in the game, by far his best mark of the season. He has as many sacks in nine games as high-value free agent signing Arik Armstead did in 15 games.

Rookie seventh-round corner Myles Cole and fifth-round corner De’Antre Prince also saw significant playing time.

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