In a wide ranging interview with the Jacksonville media Saturday morning in London, Jaguars Owner Shad Khan addressed the Jaguars record, the future of Head Coach Gus Bradley and General Manager Dave Caldwell, playing more games overseas and the practice facility/Shipyards project among a variety of other topics.

“Frankly, it’s never crossed my mind,” Khan said when asked about getting rid of Bradley and Caldwell during the season. Although he’s disappointed as any fan would be of the Jaguars 1-5 record, he’s not making a change anytime soon.

“It’s the only sane and proper thing to do,” Shad added about keeping Gus and Dave through the season.

Would he then make a change?

“There are 10 games left. Like any fan, I want to see us win. I think we deserve it. No one is more disappointed in our record than Gus and Dave,” Khan explained. “There are a variety of factors to making that kind of decision. ‘Where are we compared to two years ago? What’s in our future? Are we headed in the right direction?’ We’ll consider all of those things before we decide if we’re going to make a mid-course correction.”

I did get the sense that while Shad was disappointed in what’s happened, especially in the last three weeks, he seems committed to what Bradley and Caldwell are doing and appears to be patient enough to give them through the 2016 season to prove themselves. (Provided the Jaguars don’t get blown out for the rest of the year.) He didn’t blanche at the question of benching Davon House, even though he paid $6 million for him in the off-season as a free agent.

“I think it shows that you shouldn’t be playing players because of what you’re paying them. They should earn their position. There are a lot of reasons for encouragement. The way you measure a football team is wins and losses. We should have won the last three games. Everybody feels we should have won. It’s very important we don’t become a victim of status quo.”

“There’s light years difference between three and three and one and five,” Shad said, his expression clearly showing him stepping between his role as the Jaguars Owner and being a Jaguars fan. “But life, like football, is not a straight line going up. We want to see where the journey’s been over the last three years.”

It’s clear that the Jaguars organization has benefited from playing a game in London and today Khan reiterated that he’s thrilled to extend the deal to play at Wembley Stadium. He added that the Jaguars are committed to London and won’t be interested in playing a game elsewhere. The NFL owners have approved games in Germany and in Mexico and he’s all for that, just not for the Jaguars. He thinks it’s good for the NFL but won’t include his team.

“It’s not on the Jaguars radar,” he said.

That doesn’t exclude another game in London though, as the visiting team. The Jaguars won’t take another home game away from the city, but Khan said he was open to the possibility of playing a second game here, back-to-back with their home game. While it doesn’t seem imminent, it does seem like a possibility.

“There might be a time where that would make sense. We have the NFL’s support. We’re in conversations.”

Being an entity on the sports landscape in London is a priority for the Jaguars and for Shad Khan. He might have wanted a longer deal, perhaps through 2030, to play games in London, but for now, the deal is through 2020 with an option for another five years.

“I’m delighted to see it for 5 years and perhaps another five years. Jacksonville has benefited greatly for another five years. Nothing happens without economic growth.”

“Money is the resource that allows us to be competitive,” he explained when asked about the revenue stream that comes from the London connection. “We should use the power of football for the common good. That’s the ultimate goal. To create jobs for Jacksonville.”

“I think there’s been a lot of personal growth in Jacksonville,” Khan said regarding the way business is being done in North Florida and the Jaguars connection to that.

Everybody remembers Shad’s comment about the lack of “mojo” in Jacksonville so I asked him if there was more mojo at home than in the past.

“You have to create mojo,” he said, pointing to the number of young people who are creating opportunities at home. Khan has spent most of his week working with London civic leaders and Jacksonville’s representatives here trying to create a synergy between the two cities.

“I’d like to see direct flights from Jacksonville to Europe,” he mentioned as one idea of how the city can benefit from the game in London. “That helps put Jacksonville on the map. There’s a missing connection point between Atlanta and Orlando for overseas flights and I think Jacksonville can fill that void. That could really help.”

That’s a pretty good example of the big thinking Shad Khan brings to the table when it comes to driving the economic connection of the Jaguars, Jacksonville and London.

Sitting at Khan’s side, Jaguars President Mark Lamping echoed how well the deal has worked. About 15% of the Jaguars revenue is derived from sponsorship opportunities in London. In fact, the Jaguars have assigned one of their Vice Presidents, Hussein Naqi, permanently to London to continue to explore the revenue possibilities and the possible connection between the Jaguars and Khan’s soccer team, Fulham FC.

“Absolutely,” Lamping explained when asked about creating a bigger connection between the two cities and the two clubs. “Visit Florida is the primary sponsor on the front of the jersey at Fulham. That deal was done in Jacksonville, not London.”

With only eight wins over the last three seasons, Lamping said the appetite for a connection to the Jaguars either in London or in Jacksonville hasn’t been dampened because of the record. “Businesses are looking at it as more of an opportunity rather than what the record is on the field.”

And how have the fans reacted to that?

“We have really smart football fans,” Lamping said. “They’ve gone through a lot of speculation about their football team over the years. They’ve clearly outperformed the team.”

Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bulls will be the first live, streamed NFL contest worldwide. (Although it will be televised in a traditional manner in Jacksonville and Buffalo). Yahoo announced that the sponsorship of the game has sold out, not surprising to Khan.

“I see it as an historic moment. It’ll be the answer to a lot of trivia contests 20 years from now. It’s the first. Other sports are finding the value in being able to go directly from the provider to the consumer.”

As the Jaguars owner, Khan seems committed to Jacksonville, saying the team will start to build, in a small partnership with the city, a full practice facility on the south side of the stadium starting right after this season. It will include an indoor practice field and will have a “destination” quality to it as well. While it’s not tied to the Shipyards project, he said it will be “architecturally integrated with bridges and the like” when both projects are completed.

Environmental issues remain with the Shipyards that the city, the state and even the federal government are working through. That’s why Khan said the practice facility would come first.

“That will give the city a chance to look at what we’re doing. We’d like to engage with the city” (with the Shipyards project), perhaps sending a message to Mayor Lenny Curry and the City Council.

At the upcoming NFL Owners meeting, Khan doesn’t expect any decisions on playoff expansion or putting a team in LA. But he expects those subjects to be discussed.

“The stars will align,” he said when asked if either of those will happen.

Will the NFL ever put a team in London? A whole division in Europe?

“I know there’s been a huge amount of speculation but I don’t know if the fans here have the appetite for it. There will be more games here. Team’s playing home games, that’s for sure.”

It’s certainly no surprise that the Jaguars have extended their agreement to play one home game a year in London through 2020. It’s only a bit surprising that the new deal is not for longer.

“Our interest in extending our agreement to play a home game each season in London is nothing new. So, we’re very happy to make it official today,” said Jaguars Owner Shad Khan from London.

Khan was interested in extending the deal through 2030 but instead; it’s an arrangement to continue to play at Wembley Stadium through 2020 with an opportunity to extend the deal into 2025. Although Khan has also expressed an interest in playing a game in Europe as well, for now, just one game a year overseas will be on the schedule for the Jaguars. Perhaps if the team was winning there’d be more thought of expanding the footprint onto the Continent but for now, the focus is to get a winning team on the field.

NFL clubs recently approved a resolution to continue playing international regular-season games through the 2025 season and expanded the league’s ability to play those games in countries and territories beyond the UK. Germany and Mexico City are the two places the league would like to play next. If he can figure out how to make it work and not impact the revenue or the product on the field, Khan would like to have the Jaguars in the game in Germany. It’s possible the Jaguars could play a “road” game there either the week before or after the London game. But that’s just a thought for now.

A quick look at the Jaguars revenue makes it clear that London is a key component in the Jaguars profitability. Khan has said many times that a “sustainable franchise in Jacksonville is only helped by playing a game in London.”

Today he reiterated that.

“This is great news for the Jaguars and the stability of the team in Jacksonville, which has come to embrace London as our home away from home.”

An important part of the deal for Khan was to continue to play at Wembley. Earlier this year, the NFL and the English Premier League’s Tottenham Hotspur franchise announced an agreement to play a minimum of two games per year during a 10-year partnership at Tottenham’s new state-of-the-art stadium, due to open in the summer of 2018.

That means the league will have two different stadiums hosting games in London. The NFL’s Vice President of International Mark Waller said today at the announcement, “We are very appreciative of the Jaguars extending their commitment to the UK market, which emphasizes the club’s and league’s strong ambition to continue to grow the fan base for NFL football beyond the borders of the United States.”

When you’re in London for the game, you see a lot of Jaguars gear on fans and for sale. While Americans who have made the trip wear some of it, a surprising number of International NFL fans have embraced the Jaguars as “their team.”

In the UK, FA Group Operations Director JULIE HARRINGTON said today, “We are proud that the NFL identified Wembley Stadium 10 years ago to serve as the focal point of its vision for international expansion. Since then, we have forged a very special partnership with Mr. Khan and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Today’s news and this deal shows their trust and long-term belief in our venue.”

Just about every losing team in the NFL talks about ignoring “the noise.” “The noise,” by the way, is what you and I have to say about how the team is playing. After their 31-20 loss at home to the lowly Texans, there has been plenty of noise from outside the stadium about how to fix it. Fire Gus. Cut some players. Puts guys on the bench. Get rid of Dave Caldwell.

They hear it, but they’re trying to ignore it.

“I always want to make sure that we play hard in front of our fans and we give them a good product,” Bradley said at his Monday’s press conference. “What goes on in that locker room and how we handle it in the team meetings and how we talk, there’s not a lot of conversations about ‘here’s what they’re saying outside.’ ”

That’s not unique. Patriots Head Coach has a sign on the door to the Patriots practice facility that says, “Ignore The Noise.” At least Bradley admitted what would put an end to all of that talk.

“They will be happy if we get this right so we put all of our attention into that.”

For the second week in a row, the Jaguars had a lead and lost it and for the third straight week chances to win the game were at hand, and lost. “Very challenging time that we’re going through right now. We’re in that stage where we have to find a way to pull these off,” Bradley explained as part of the growing process. “I believe in the guys in the locker room, I think that’s important that they believe in each other and they do.”

Were expectations too high going into the third year? Bradley declared the team built and immediately everybody thought that meant they’d be competitive and win games. In comparison to 2013 and 2014, there’s no question the Jaguars are better and more competitive. It’s the winning games that’s not happening. Bradley spoke today as if he expected this all along. “Going through this, you knew this was going to be challenging: to teach this team what it takes to get through this and do enough right things to earn that victory. So that’s where we’re at.”

Fans appear particularly dismayed because the Jaguars are collapsing at the exact wrong time and finding a way to lose late in the game.

“That’s the part where I think we have to teach our team, when you have the lead, now you even go more if there is such a thing,” Bradley said, addressing losing leads late in games. ”

“I think instead of dipping your toe in the water, you get immersed in it. And that’s what we need to learn.”

Although practices are closed to team coaches and officials only, apparently the team looks different behind closed gates than it does on Sunday afternoon in stadiums. Bradley wants to see the team that practices show up on Sunday. It appears the Jaguars are now a team full of Blaine Gabberts.

“I want to make sure what we see in practice is what we get in the game. I think that that same competitive spirit transfers over. What we’re seeing now in some guys is they compete 90 percent of the time; I’m just talking about a few. Ninety percent of the time, and then they have a let-up or they lose their focus for a period of time.”

When he said that, a lot of eyebrows were raised. Being able to see that on video when a guy isn’t giving 100% on a particular play means he’s headed to the bench, soon. Gus was particularly critical, without naming him, of Davon House and how he performed late in the game. De’Andre Hopkins was held pretty much in check for most of the game but he torched House on three consecutive drives in the 4th quarter to put the game out of reach.

“You can’t do that, you can’t do that in the NFL. In the secondary, if a guy gets behind you, there’s no excuse. If you lose your eyes, there’s no excuse. You have to be able to do those things, that’s part of being in the league. It’s playing that complete game.”

So they’ll evaluate performance this week and decide who gets to play in London against Buffalo and who’s sitting. Making one mistake can be written off. But the same mistakes over and over, Bradley calls that a lack of accountability.

“But if it’s a repeated action, then what is accountability? If they repeat it and they continue to play and go out there and play, what takes place?” he noted when talking about figuring out who will play and who won’t. “That’s the decisions we have to make this week.”

And how will they make those decisions? Bradley gave us some insight into how he’ll approach the situation. The short answer is: different ways for different players.

“To me, accountability is changing someone’s behavior. If putting the hammer changes someone’s behavior, then put the hammer down. That’s why you have to understand your players and know what they’re all about. If I told Poz I was going to fine him five dollars, he would straighten up. If I told someone else I would fine him five dollars, they may not. Everybody is different, so you have to find out what they value and what’s important to them and hopefully it’s this team. I’m sure it is.”

Hope he’s right.

It’s not hard to see that the Jaguars could have won three of the four games they’ve lost this year if they had only gotten out of their own way. But you are what you earn in the NFL and the Jaguars have earned one win and four losses. That has lead to a lot of soul searching this week at the stadium about the whole process. I’ve said all along that Head Coach Gus Bradley’s coaching style is one huge experiment, trying to empower the players instead of the coaches standing over them with demands. Bradley confirmed that this week in not so many words with some of the things he said regarding a change in his approach.

“Whenever things don’t go the way you had hoped you always search inside to try to find out what can I do to help be a part of this?” Bradley said at the end of the week. “Rather than say he’s wrong, he’s wrong or he’s wrong you say what can I do? How can I be a bigger part of this?”

If you’ve ever been on a team at any level, you know that’s a whole different approach to getting things done from a head coach. Usually they have their ideas and they put them in place. You can either get on board or ship out. For Bradley though, he’s looking for answers not just among his team and his staff, but within himself as well

“A hundred things run through your mind saying ‘maybe we should do this, let’s take a look at that, let’s take a look at this,’ and your mind is constantly racing trying to find out what works and that’s the competitive side in you.”

Does that mean he’s not sure about what he’s doing? Hardly. Bradley believes in the process and how to get there. He’s said often that his conviction has been tested but he’s staying on course. There’s a philosophy of the “servant leader” that Bradley adheres to as a coach. He’ll give you the tools to get better: it’s your job to do it.

“I don’t want them to rely on me or their coaches for juice or to always be corrected,” he explained. “They’ve got to self-correct. That’s what happens in a game. There’s no one out there in a game and they’ve got to learn to do it on their own.”

And while having a young team is no excuse, it is the young players who are having the most difficult time self-correcting and staying focused play after play, game after game, week after week.

If you compare scores in the last three years you could make the case that the Jaguars are light years ahead of where they were in 2013 and last year. But it’s no solace to continue to see losses mount when the expectations were so much higher.

When asked about the process, Bradley points to the progress made by Blake Bortles, the defensive backfield, the offensive line and other places. But when I asked him if part of the process of improving the pieces and becoming a better team is actually finishing and winning games, he agreed.

“That’s the next step, to be consistent and precise and finish,” he told me. He also said this week was a big step forward in that process.

“They’ve had good weeks but I just felt like the whole emphasis on putting these things together. I felt more accountability. I’m not saying from me, I think it’s more powerful if you feel from player to player,” as he reiterated where he hopes to put the team permanently.

“We’re learning a lot of lessons about our team. Each week there’s going to be new things that come up, that’s just how the NFL is. That’s how it goes but we’re trying to minimize these things as much as possible. I think how they’re holding each other accountable is a big part of it.”

As they get healthy and mature, the Jaguars appear on the verge of stepping out of the cellar of the league and becoming very competitive. But they have to take that step. There are hundreds of teams that get to this point and never take that step. If they do, they have the talent to be good for a long time. If they don’t, the players will have to adjust to a new message in the future and the fans will continue to wait.

After flashing a bit of anger on Sunday after the loss to Tampa Bay and still being disappointed after watching the video on Monday, Gus Bradley was back on the field with his team Wednesday. Bradley told us Monday that he was going to try and be more of a “presence” on the field with the whole team, so they would know he was there and recognize his voice and interest. He said he stepped it up during practice but wasn’t sure if it had an instant impact.

“I don’t know. I think that was more at the point in time I was a little emotional. We want to keep the things that are building, we want to ensure they keep building and then these things we need to correct let’s act on them and get it done.”

Being consistent is what most NFL coaches strive for, so Bradley wanted to keep the same routine, but ramp up the results.

“It breeds credibility to players but at the same time, act,” the Head Coach said about not being all over the map when it comes to what he’s like in practice. “Talked to them about being pros, going out there and really playing at a high level at practice. Like I said, I thought that was accomplished.”

In a bit of a surprise, Blake Bortles practiced on Wednesday. It was reported that he had a mild shoulder contusion and might not practice early in the week but he reported he felt better Wednesday morning and went through the normal practice with the team. Sen’Derrick Marks and Denard Robinson also participated in practice and have a chance to play Sunday.

“Very pleased with Blake Bortles how he practiced, going through what he’s going through,” Bradley noted at his normal Wednesday press conference. “Sen’Derrick Marks and D-Rob. All three I thought performed pretty well today and we’ll wait and see how it goes.”

Bradley reiterated that the Jaguars didn’t tackle well on Sunday either on defense or on special teams. He did reveal that they’re looking for a 4.8 second hang time average from Bryan Anger on punts and a few were under that, giving the returner a chance to react. By the way, 4.8 seconds is a long time and that’s what the time is on a 60-yard punt. But the Jaguars want that number even on shorter ones.

There was a new face on the practice field working with kicker Jason Myers. Apparently Myers was looking for a “tune up” every now and then and the Jaguars said he could bring his own kicking coach to practice to see how it worked out.

“Dave (Caldwell, Jaguars GM) and I talked about that we’re out there coaching these guys and he feels really good about his kicking coach that he’s had in, so we’re looking at bringing him in every four weeks or so just to fine-tune some things.”

Switching from special teams to starting running back is what the Jaguars have asked of Toby Gerhart this year. This week Gerhart might get the start because of injuries to Robinson and T.J. Yeldon, who didn’t practice today.

Bradley sees Gerhart as finding a groove. “I think he’s getting used to that and also transferring over so it was a little bit of a time period there, an adjustment period. But he practices good and I think this is the time for him to get some reps and he’s been pretty excited.”

“Still painful.”

That’s how Gus Bradley starting talking about his observations of Sunday’s loss to Tampa Bay after looking at the video and having 24 hours to reflect.

Bradley admitted he didn’t know what to say after seeing the multitude of mistakes, including 23 missed tackles in the game.

“You look at it and you go, how can we get this fixed? Sometimes I think the biggest message to our team is personal responsibility.”

That’s been a selling point of Bradley’s head coaching “experiment” as he is trying to empower the players to take the responsibility as well as hold their teammates responsible. He was particularly wounded by the defensive performance and the lack of somebody stepping up and making a play instead of waiting for somebody else to make a tackle.

“No, no. You make the tackle,” Bradley said, his voice still strained from yesterday’s game. “Take personal responsibility for making that tackle, Take personal responsibility, take accountability for it and let’s get these things cleaned up.”

While players make plays, even Bradley wondered if his team was prepared to play against the Bucs. That brings into question the whole coaching philosophy, the coaching staff and Bradley’s role in what’s happening in games and during the week.

Gus admitted his demeanor has to change. “I think I can be stronger on the practice field. If I do that, I think the players need to feel me that when a situation like that occurs, to hear my voice, offensively, defensively and special teams. That’s where I take personal responsibility. I don’t think I’ve been as animated on the field when it comes to those issues. So that part, I think you’ll see that part will change.”

It’s obvious Bradley has confidence in the physical ability of his team and the talent level he and General Manager Dave Caldwell have put together for the 2015 version of the Jaguars. But he’s stumped when it comes to why the players are making mistakes, albeit different players making different ones in each game, and not able to maintain a level of precision and consistency necessary to compete every week in the league.

“You know what, it’s personal responsibility. You’re in the NFL. You’re a player in the NFL. Take care of your business and focus. If you do three good things and you didn’t do it that time, you’re losing focus.”

Does that mean they need to start cutting players? As Tom Coughlin once said in the expansion year, “These are our players.” As in, “Where are we going to find new players right now?” But the Jaguars need to decide whether some of their current players are part of the solution or just part of the problem.

“Yes, you’re right,” Bradley agreed. ” You trust people until they prove unreliable. If they’re unreliable, you have to make changes. I agree 100 percent The NFL is ‘tolerate until you can replace.’ That’s for all of us. That’s the environment that we know that we’re in, the players know that we’re in that environment and the coaches. That’s just a fact of life. The players need to sense that. But we need someone that we can replace them with.”

Why haven’t the Jaguars cut anybody? For now, not one player is standing out as making the same mistakes over and over. It’s a shared responsibility, team-wide. And with a team that stops itself as much as dealing with the opponent, Bradley reiterated their margin for error is small.

“We are not a team that’s going out there and winning 31-7.” Then he corrected himself a bit. “We’re not a team that’s going out there and winning, first of all. You’re playing close games there’s little margin for error.”

Will yelling and screaming and a bigger presence in practice be the solution? Gus isn’t sure. But he is turning up the heat on his players.

“These conversations that we have I want to shock them, I’m going to hold them accountable for that. I’m going to watch them closely and make sure they take it upon themselves. This group is special, they take personal responsibility. If they’re not we’ll ensure that they do and we’ll hold them accountable for it.” Which maybe means roster changes are imminent.

And being a defensive coach, Bradley wants a team with his trademark on it to be tough on defense, stopping the run and pressuring the quarterback. Against the Bucs, the Jaguars did neither.

“This game was more disappointing because this is our strength. We are built to stop the run and we didn’t. That’s what’s disappointing more so than anything else.”

Much of the discussion on the drive to Tampa this weekend centered on the good and bad teams in the NFL and where the Jaguars fit in that discussion. We came up with New England, Green Bay, Atlanta (sort of), Denver and maybe a couple of others as possible good teams. Both the Jaguars and the Buccaneers qualified among the bad teams in the league along with the Raiders and a few others. So that left about 22 average teams in the league.

But if the Jaguars play at their best, can they win? You’d like to think so but after a week of supposed “great practices” the Jaguars looked anything but even close to good against the lowly Bucs.

After deferring to the second half the Jaguars defense allowed the Bucs to march down the field in the opening drive, giving up a field goal and trailing 3-0. I never worry too much about opening drives because they’re on a script and each team is figuring out what the other is doing. But in this case, Jameis Winston had way too much time and Doug Martin was chewing up yardage on the ground at will.

After a couple of three and outs by both teams, the Jaguars put together a nice drive. Blending the run by T.J. Yeldon and Blake Bortles passing, the Jaguars scored a TD, Bortles to Hurns and a 7-3 lead.

But the Bucs kept chewing up yardage and were gaining confidence for a team that had lost 10 straight at home. They kicked a field goal to pull within 7-6.

A big 61-yard punt by Bryan Anger was negated by a 58-yard runback. The Bucs scored after some horrendous tackling by the Jaguars, Martin taking a quick pass from Winston for 10 yards and a13-7 lead.

That’s when Blake Bortles threw an interception, trying to force the ball on the outside to Marcedes Lewis giving Tampa Bay good field position. He had receivers open all over the field, but never saw one of them. In fact, the Bucs were scrambling on defense, knowing at the snap of the ball they didn’t have the formation covered.

It didn’t take long for the Bucs to capitalize, Martin scoring on a 1 yard run to make it 20-7. Do the Jaguars have enough offense to overcome a team that scores 20 points?

At least they got the two-minute drill right. It’s a mystery why they don’t run more “up tempo” more often, considering how comfortable Bortles looks in that situation. They marched right down the field and scored on a 13-yard TD pass from Bortles to Allen Robinson, 20-14 Bucs at the half.

Getting the ball to open the second half, the Jaguars had a nice drive going but it stalled near the red zone with Bortles getting locked in on one receiver again. A Jason Myers field goal made it 20-17.

A good defensive stand gave the Jaguars the ball at their own 40. Again a little success bred some confidence for the Jaguars and they went 61 yards in 6 plays, a TD pass from Bortles (his third) to Yeldon gave the Jaguars a 24-20 lead. The pass was back across the field and had interception written all over it but Yeldon was wide open and held onto it for six.

After a Bucs FG made it 24-23, the Jaguars gave the ball to the rookie Corey Grant at the ten where he promptly fumbled and gave up a score for a 31-24 lead after the 2-point conversion. That’s where the Jaguars can’t get out of their own way. Leading, holding the other team to a field goal and still holding onto a one-point lead, it’s imperative not to do something silly that gets you beat. But they seem to find a way. And what’s Grant doing in the game at that point anyway?

After not moving it on their next possession, the Jaguars special teams and tackling let them down again, giving the Bucs a short field and they took advantage. Martin scored again to give Tampa Bay a two-touchdown lead, 38-24.

Not much happened for the next six minutes as the Bucs just ground the clock out with one first down after another until the Jaguars scored on a 59 yard catch and run by Allen Hurns and a 5 yard TD catch by Allen Robinson. It was Bortles 4th TD throw of the day.

But the Bucs recovered the ensuing onside kick and the final score was 38-31, Tampa Bay.

For the second week in a row, it’s a particularly disappointing loss since the Jaguars had the momentum and the lead but couldn’t hold it. It’s their 12th straight road loss and snaps a 10 game home losing streak for the Bucs.

I’ve asked a lot this week if the Jaguars were good enough to win if they play their best.

We still don’t know.

It’s a short trip but a regular week for the Jaguars as they prepare for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. Coming off the tough loss to Indy where Head Coach Gus Bradley said, “We missed it,” the team seemed to bounce back quickly.

“A very crisp practice today. I really liked this week as far as the attention to detail and those concepts,” Bradley said after Friday’s walk-thru.

Talking with Gus on his television show, he admitted he wasn’t sure how the team would respond but that by Wednesday’s practice they were looking forward to the game against the Bucs. That’s what they’ll need for their third straight road game where the opponent thinks it’s an easy chance for a “W.”

Despite the injuries and the uncertainty at several positions, Bradley likes how the team has taken to the idea of going on the road this week and coming home with a win.

“The ownership of it, the ownership of our mentality going into the game, the ownership of the game plan going into the game,” is what Bradley said he liked about this week’s preparation. “So three really good days of practice, so we’ll see how it pans out.”

Since Tampa is just over a three-hour drive, several thousand Jaguars fans are making the trip. Some groups are even having an organized tailgate on Sunday morning (we’ll have coverage of that on the pregame show on Channel 4).

Bradley is impressed by that. “Yeah it’s unbelievable. We talked about it last night on the show. It’s amazing. I know we mentioned it to our players and it’s unbelievable. I don’t know if words can express it.”

Emotions were still running high Monday at the stadium after the Jaguars watched video of their loss to Indianapolis in overtime. Fans, players, and coaches all seemed to feel the same way: Confused and disappointed.

“It’s a tough game to watch,” Head Coach Gus Bradley admitted in his opening statement during his Monday press conference. “I think we had a great opportunity yesterday with our team and the way we wanted to approach it and go about it. I truly felt we missed it, it got away from us and it’s very disappointing.”

“We missed it,” was a theme running through Bradley’s observation of the game. A chance to win, slipping away through inconsistency and a myriad of other problems. Last year, the Jaguars were the least penalized team in the league. This year is a different story. They’re on pace to give up over 1,300 penalty yards after 13 flags were thrown against them on Sunday.

“There’s self-inflicted wounds that are hurting us badly,” Bradley explained. I look at one drive defensively, (5 penalties for 40 yards on the Colts only TD drive) Good teams consistently don’t have even a series like that so far too many penalties in that situation.”

It is interesting that Bradley uses the phrase “good teams” when he’s outlining how things should go versus how the Jaguars are playing. There are flashes, and perhaps that’s what the realistic expectation should be for a team with a second-year quarterback and with their best players rehabilitating injuries. But even Bradley admitted he was confused after seeing the game a day later at how on one series the Jaguars could be so solid and in the next, clueless.

“Yeah, disappointing because we did miss it (an opportunity). I’m probably a little confused like our fan base is. When you see good plays, when you see big plays, when you see guys taking shots or guys making plays and it feels like it should, and then you don’t see the consistency.”

If “precision” was the word last week, “consistency” was what was lacking against the Colts. Offensively,, Blake Bortles had a strong first half, taking the team to a 13-10 lead going to the break. While it could have been more, it still was a lead. Nonetheless, not getting more points in the first half lead to more inconsistency in the second half, perhaps because they were pressing and eventually the game came down to a kick. Or two.

Bradley saw the same thing we did. “Offensively we moved the ball but the issue is this; in the first half I think we had first and ten on the six, first and ten on the 13, we had first and ten on the 16 and came away with two field goals and a touchdown. We’ve got to score more points than that. Its self-inflicted wounds again; botched snap, not handling it right, penalties, disciplined and staying focused throughout.”

And while social media was flooded with “Bring back Scobee” talk, Bradley reiterated his support for Jason Myers, despite missing two game winning kicks.

“I think when we first signed Jason and we made that decision we knew that there was going to be some waves I think that we were going to have to go through. I like his mentality, we’re very confident in him and he had an unfortunate day yesterday.. We know with a younger kicker like this he’s going to go through some of these situations.”

No team wants the game to come down to a kick, especially one from around 50 yards. The Jaguars are no different and there were numerous opportunities lost all over the field “There were mistakes made out there by multiple players.” Bradley agreed. “They took their turns, and his is more visual. Everybody saw it. I think we just have faith in his demeanor.”

“I think it’s a work in progress, I do. To say that it’s like a well-oiled machine where we’ve been together for seven or eight years, no it’s not that but I’m seeing good signs. But also to be real I’ve seen some signs that are disappointing, It has the capabilities, we’re just not seeing it consistently.”

So again this week, Bradley will ask his team to bounce back, but in a very different way than after the loss to New England.

“Both are tough. It’s tough, it really is. I think games like these, they really challenge your conviction and how you want to approach it. I do know that it might be where everybody wants us to become negative, but I know becoming negative isn’t going to work. Challenging our guys and demanding that we do things right and are disciplined and focused, that’s what we need.”

It’s a quarterback league, no question. So when one of the top quarterbacks in the league might not play, it’s news. In their first three games the Jaguars have gotten all starters: Cam Newton, Ryan Tannehill and Tom Brady. This week Andrew Luck is officially listed as “questionable” but reports are now that he won’t play against the Jaguars today.

Jaguars Head Coach Gus Bradley says they need to be prepared for whoever is taking snaps in Indianapolis.

“Every week you go into it, you know who the backup is and you show some clips of him. This week it might be a little bit more real so I think that you go into it, you prepare for Luck, you know everything that he likes to do, the style and mannerisms,” Bradley explained. But you might spend a little bit more time on Matt Hasselbeck. I think it’s probably more real than a normal week, no one can argue with that, so you have to be prepared for both.”

Another factor in the Colts’ decision to sit Luck today against the Jaguars is the quick turnaround for a Week 5 Thursday night game against the Houston Texans. Luck has not missed a game or snap because of an injury in his four seasons in the NFL.

Hasselbeck, who just turned 40 on September 25, hasn’t started an NFL game since November 4, 2012 when he was with the Titans. He’s thrown 56 passes in the last two seasons. But it’s not as if he lacks experience. Hasselbeck has thrown for nearly 35,000 yards and 203 TD’s in his 17 year career that included leading the Seattle Seahawks to a Super Bowl.

So with a 40-year old quarterback and an inexperienced offensive line, the Colts will be a very different team facing the Jaguars today.

When the Jaguars are on offense, Bradley expects Blake Bortles and company to be thinking about moving the ball downfield quickly.

“I think every week we understand the importance of explosive plays. I think you see us we’re taking more shots, more shots downfield, because of the importance.”

Against the Colts, whether it’s Luck or Hasselbeck, Indy can score points. The Jaguars have to match that. Luck has more turnovers, 28, than any other player in the NFL since the beginning of 2014. If he gives the Jaguars the ball, they have to take advantage of it.

“We all know the scoring opportunities rise with explosive plays within a series, so it’s always important whatever week it is. That’s kind of our mentality,” Bradley explained.

As the week progressed for the Jaguars, their routine started to take over and the focus went from what went wrong in New England to what can happen in Indianapolis. Head Coach Gus Bradley saw the progression from one emotion to the next.

“I would say that Monday it was tough when we went through everything and Tuesday you started to see them go down there and they were good, ” Bradley said after Wednesday’s practice. “Then Wednesday they showed up and it’s back to work. They were great. I was very, very pleased with today.”

Sometimes when things don’t go right, a team wants to fix it right away. In baseball, it could be the next night. In basketball and hockey it comes up pretty quick. But usually in the NFL, you have to wait a week. On one hand that’s good, but Bradley says on the other hand, the quicker they now move on the better.

“I think our team feels like they wish we could play tomorrow,” he explained. But we need these practices and they’re excited about the opportunity.”

For the second week in a row, Blake Bortles will take the field with a QB counterpart who’s an established star. Last week he was quick to point out that he wasn’t playing Tom Brady. This week, Andrew Luck, a little banged up (shoulder), is another player who can make the opposition look silly. The comparisons of young quarterbacks are inevitable and when you put Bortles in a division game, he’ll be head to head with Luck despite just now entering his second full year as a starter.

“I think similar feeling but I think way more prepared going into games now than I was 16 games ago,” Blake answered when asked if he felt different from when he went in last year against the Colts. “I feel a lot more prepared. I think just a better weekly routine of how to prepare; a better process has been put together. It’s still every week and every opportunity you get to go play is exciting, no matter if it’s your first or last. It’s an awesome feeling to be able to play football on Sundays.”

Bortles admitted it was a “Bad read and a ba throw to kind of compound it,” last week when he threw the interception to Devin McCourty at the end of the half. But he said he moved passed it right away.

Keeping with his development and going through his progressions is what Offensive Coordinator Greg Olson is looking for. It’s not getting the tight end the ball or avoiding mistakes. It’s just getting better every day, every play.

Olson outlined what he expects from his quarterback. “Blake’s concern is understanding where he’s at in his progression and one, two and three, and understanding match-ups when he does have the match-ups that we’re looking for with Marcedes and getting it to him.”

As far as having a tough time running the ball because defenses are filling up the line of scrimmage and daring Bortles to beat them, Olson said that was expected.

“We knew that going into the season that would be the case. Anytime you have a young quarterback, I think you’re going to have loaded boxes until you can prove that you can beat them consistently in the passing game.”

From his comments in his post-game interview yesterday, it sounded very familiar for Jaguars Head Coach Gus Bradley. He was adamant about his team’s ability to bounce back and how much learning would come from watching the video of the Patriots 51-17 thumping of his team.

Reading those comments was one thing. Seeing his expression as he spoke was another. Bradley was not happy one bit. While the words were familiar, his expression was not. He was a bit perplexed, admittedly discouraged but short of saying he was mad, let’s just say he wasn’t happy.

At Monday’s press conference after seeing the video of the loss, Bradley wasn’t any less happy but did see some things that surprised him.

“What as disappointing was we didn’t play up to our capabilities. From 23-3 onward, we got out of character,” he explained.

That’s something that has happened in the last three years on a Bradley coached team. No matter how much he stresses “Do you job” when things start going downhill, the players start to try and do too much and things get really out of hand.

Bradley knows his team has to play well to win a game in the NFL and nearly perfect to beat one of the top teams. He admits not only did the Jaguars not play well, they got away from who they are and what they’re capable of doing.

“Our margin of error right now is tight,” is how he explained what happened as things started to unravel. From a less talented team three years ago, Bradley know that even at their best, they were still going to take their lumps. But this year, while their best might not compete in the NFL at the highest level, it should make them competitive every week, even against a team as experienced and as talented as New England.

“Biggest thing for this week is get back to who we are,” Bradley said. Whoever is in there, get back to who we are.” That’s a reference to the injury situation for the Jaguars who might have 22 starters who can compete every week, but with the rash of injuries here in the first quarter of the season, they’ll rely on what limited depth they have. This week they’ll evaluate Luke Joeckel, Andre Branch, Julius Thomas and Dwayne Gratz, all starters who haven’t seen action in a couple of weeks. Thomas hasn’t played since the first preseason game.

It was impressive to see the character of the team on display between week one and week two. They were a “no-show” against Carolina but were able to regroup in week two and beat the Dolphins.

“They are a prideful group. We will come back,” he said of his team’s resiliency. “I know how they will respond. No doubt they will come ready to play.”

They’ll need that kind of attitude this week as they go on the road to Indianapolis and Tampa Bay as part of this three-week road stretch of the schedule.

We’ll have full coverage on News4Jax and 6 and again on Jaguars All-Access with Ryan Davis as our guest.

After a dismal performance in the opening day loss to Carolina, the Jaguars responded with a solid game against Miami and earned their first win of the year. It showed a lot of character for this team and Gus Bradley gave all the credit to the players.

“It was them,” he said earlier this week. “They took it upon themselves, they concentrated on the process and stayed true to it.”

If the players were able to rebound without any magic message from the coaching staff after a disappointing loss, handling prosperity shouldn’t be a problem this week, especially with the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots looming on the schedule Sunday.

“It’s a good opportunity for us, a good opportunity,” Bradley said when asked about taking this team on the road to New England. “Guys are excited about it. I really like how we’ve locked it in this week and come back after Wednesday. Like I said, it was a solid day and very sharp practices.”

Bradley termed Wednesday’s practice “Good but not great,” but said the team was much sharper on Thursday and Friday.

Gus is big on treating “The two imposters the same. Prosperity and despair. Learn from both and get better.”

Earlier in the week the Jaguars Head Coach was asked if he thought his team was “snakebit” after the injury to Dante Fowler in mini-camp and the rash of injuries they’ve suffered early in the year.

“The Truth?” he said jokingly after a moment of contemplation before he added,

“We do have quite a few that are down but I look at guys like Sam Young that step it up and had a good game. Peyton (Thompson) made a critical play at a critical time, so I think you look more at the guys that are here and know that when they get their opportunity you’re excited for them.

It looks like Luke Joeckel, Jonathan Cyprien and Brandon Linder will be game-time decisions after their work on Friday. Denard Robinson won’t play because of a knee injury but Toby Gerhart appears ready to see his first action of the year. Bradley said he didn’t think about adding another running back to the roster this week because of they number they kept to start the season.

“You usually have five, maybe four and one (a full back) so we had a little bit higher number of running backs anyway, so it worked out that we had an injury. If we can get Toby back that would be good.”

This week the Jaguars were looking for a win against Miami but more than that, legitimacy in the NFL.

After a much ballyhooed offseason with money spent on free agents, a retooled defense and draft picks expected to be impact players, the Jaguars looked like last year’s team in the season opening loss to Carolina. Not much offense, lackluster drives and pretty good defense that couldn’t get off the field on third down.

To start the game against the Dolphins, it was a very different team with a very different mindset that took the field. Blake Bortles looked like a different player and Allen Robinson made the plays he missed last week as they took the ball downfield on the opening drive in 10 plays, over 82 yards and scored to make it 7-0. It’s the first time the Jaguars had scored a TD on their opening drive in 8 games.

Next offensive possession, they came right back down the field including a 52 yard Bortles to Robinson completion and kicked a field goal to make it 10-3. The Jaguars had more first downs (8) than the Dolphins had plays (7) in the first half. They outgained Miami 168-52 in total yards. In other words, they looked like the team we saw in the preseason on offense, blending the run (with T.J. Yeldon) and the pass to keep the defense off balance and make some big plays.

While Miami seemed to gain their footing in the second quarter, the Jaguars responded with a 46 yard TD catch by Robinson from Bortles to make it 17-6. At 17-13 and under 2 minutes to play, it looked like the Jaguars might just kneel on the ball and go to the locker room with a four point lead. Instead, they let Bortles wing it. After throwing an near interception on first down, the Jaguars gained enough yards, helped by a pass interference call to let Jason Myers attempt a 58-yard FG. Myers has the leg and showed some moxie by hitting it solid and online, hitting the crossbar and bouncing over for three points and a 20-13 halftime lead.

Without a lot of pass rush, the Jaguars defense couldn’t hold off the Dolphins in the opening drive of the second half, eight plays, eighty yards and Miami tied the game at 20.

After that it was a lot of back and forth with a couple of drops by Rashad Greene stalling a drive in the 4th quarter. Greene somewhat redeemed himself with a nice 24-yard punt return but Bortles and the offense couldn’t do anything with it.

If you’ve been a Jaguars fan in the last couple of years you have a bit of a fatalistic outlook no matter the game situation. So despite playing tough and being in this game, the expectation was for them to make some mistake to cost them a chance at winning.

So with under three minutes to play, free agent acquisition and former Dolphin Jared Odrick had a big series with a sack near the goal line and forced a punt. The Jaguars got the ball at their own 24 with under two minutes to play. And this is where quarterbacks make their money. A couple of good passes, the second a 19 yard out to Allen Hurns put the Jaguars in Dolphins territory. An offensive pass interference call on Marqise Lee pushed them back to midfield.

A Hurns catch, a Yeldon run and a stupid unsportsmanlike on Olivier Vernon gave the Jaguars first down at the Dolphins 20.

A couple of Yeldon runs and Jason Myers came on to kick a 28-yard field goal (shorter than an extra point this year) to give the Jaguars a 23-20 lead with 40 seconds to play.

The North End Zone was rocking like it was 1999.

A nice defensive play by Telvin Smith on 4th down ended Miami’s chances and the Jaguars got their first win of the year in dramatic fashion.

If last week’s loss was more than just one loss in the column, this week’s win might be just the opposite. After looking inept and out of their league last week, they were questioning themselves and their teammates as to who they really were going to be in 2015. They could have just skulked into the corners of the locker room and let the season play out as the lapdogs of the NFL or they could have done just what they did against Miami: Come out and fight. Head Coach Gus Bradley’s “rush to maturity” comments seemed prophetic as you might say the Jaguars grew up this week.

They learned a lot about themselves this week and in this game and while they’ll be a decided underdog in the next two weeks on the road at New England and Indianapolis, they at least established, if only to themselves, that they’re a legitimate NFL team each week when they take the field.

Last week I was wondering if this team had to learn how to not lose before it learned how to win. This Sunday they did both.

It didn’t take long to distinguish between the preseason and the regular season opener once the Jaguars and the Panthers took the field. While the preseason is about learning, evaluating and developing, the regular season is about production and early on, the Jaguars didn’t have it. Three and outs on offense, drops by Allen Robinson and Rashad Greene, a missed Jason Myers field goal and a fumble by Allen Hurns kept the offense in check through the first 30 minutes. Add to that Blake Bortles looking tentative and a little off to start the game and Carolina had control early.

In fact, the Panthers took their first drive for 14 plays with a mix of the pass and run to get a field goal and take a 3-0 lead. Bus Bradley talks about the “fits” when it comes to his defense and there were some “misfits” that were glaring leading to the Carolina score.

When the Jaguars offense got going, it was rookie T.J. Yeldon that looked sharp, dodging tacklers, getting first downs and keeping the Panthers defense at bay. Jason Myers converted his first FG of the year from 22 yards out to tie the game at three. But Bortles looked a little tentative inside the ten and they settled for a field goal.

They had a couple of other chances, particularly when Paul Posluszny intercepted a Cam newton pass to give the Jaguars good field position. But Myers missed his first FG of the year from 44 yards and it remained 3-3.

A sustained drive by the Panthers in the second quarter looked a little too easy, particularly the TD pass from Newton to Jeremy Cotchery to take a 10-3 lead.

That’s when Bortles started to look at bit like the player he showed in the preseason. Under two minutes to play, he took the underneath stuff, glad to get positive yards and had the Panthers defense on their heels. The he found a wide open Hurns near the goal line (with Hurns doing a good job keeping two feet in bounds) to nearly complete the 2 minute drill. Now with only :21 to play in the half and no timeouts, the Jaguars had to throw it and after one unsuccessful back shoulder throw, Bortles hit Greene at the goal line for six. But Myers missed the extra point and the Jaguars went to the locker room trailing 10-9.

Carolina isn’t by any means a good team and the Jaguars are still figuring out who they are. So after some back and forth to start the second half, Bortles tried to throw the quick out one too many times, and Josh Norman picked it off and scored easily to give the Panthers a 17-9 lead.

Give Blake credit as he came right back and started driving the ball down field. A nice run after catch by Denard Robinson gave the Jaguars a first down but Hurns dropped a strike by Bortles on third down and the Jaguars had to punt. Too many of those for the Jaguars receivers in critical situations.

One of my favorite golf sayings is, “I’d like to play my normal game, just once.” In other words, I see a good game in my mind, but I just can’t get it out of there and execute it on the course. Watching the Jaguars game felt a lot like when you hit it great on the range and can’t find the fairway once you get to the first tee. The Jaguars didn’t have the same snap, the same precision they seemed to have acquired in the preseason. And when you do that, the other team makes you pay, even if they aren’t a good team themselves. I’d probably take the Jaguars talent over the Panthers, but getting it all working in game one was a struggle.

In the 4th quarter, the Jaguars had Carolina pinned at their own goal line on 3rd down but had some confusion in the defensive set up on third down that had Dan Skuta running for the sideline. Newton threw incomplete but the Jaguars weren’t sure if they had 11 or 12 men on the field and called time out. Good news for Carolina who converted their second attempt and ground over 7 and a half minutes off the clock before kicking a field goal to make it a two score game. A Bortles interception ended the chances for the Jaguars who open the season, again, with a loss.

This one particularly stings because of the promise they showed in the preseason but for some reason couldn’t bring it to the stadium against the Panthers. The beginning of the year schedule doesn’t favor the Jaguars with a home game against Miami next week and then three straight road games. A win in the next three weeks would be a big upset, so they’re staring at 0-4 after starting the last two years 0-8 and 0-6. If nothing else, they needed this for a little momentum and some confidence, but got neither.

“We said we were going to build this team,” Gus Bradley said last week, “And now it’s built.”

And with that statement, Bradley raised expectations for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2015.

Building the franchise has been no easy task, winning just seven games in the first two years. While he wasn’t given a chance to do the same, former Head Coach Mike Mularkey knew it was a long-term project. “We’re going to take our lumps,” Mularkey said before he embarked on his lone season running the team.

He was right. They won two games.

“At the end of our first training camp,” one coach still with the franchise told me, “We were in the meeting for the final cuts and all of the position coaches submitted who they thought should make the team. We put those names on the big board and wee thought we were done until somebody noticed we only had 46 players. We had to go back and find seven guys to keep just to fill out the roster.”

While that’s a pretty funny story now, it’s also indicative of the state of the franchise at the time. In his first year of ownership, Shad Khan listened to his football people who told him signing Jerry Porter and Aaron Ross as well as re-signing Jeremy Mincey would make the team competitive.

“So what did I get for that,” he said recently. “Two wins. I knew something had to change. I just wish I had started it sooner.”

Khan brought in Dave Caldwell as the GM, who in turn hired Bradley as the process began. They tore the roster to the bare bones and started to rebuild. I thought the one guy they should have kept was Montel Owens. Veteran player who could have guided the way and would have flourished and help create the culture Bradley was looking for. Nonetheless, at the end of that first training camp they only had 46 players deemed NFL worthy. Chad Henne probably deserves some kind of medal just for sticking around.

“Quarterback, left tackle, offensive and defensive line,” is how Caldwell categorized the important building blocks in the franchise re-make. Thus, Luke Joeckel, Blake Bortles and Dante Fowler have been his 1st round picks in three years.

Having said this roster is now built, both Caldwell and Bradley admit they are still looking for depth but believe they have enough talent across the roster to compete. The 2015 version of the Jaguars might be a bit young to expect a post-season berth but you can see how they can be a team on the rise. You don’t expect everybody to have a career year at the same time (those teams go to the Super Bowl) but even incremental improvement over last year’s performance would put this team in games.

How many games do they have to win? I don’t think Khan has a number in mind. When asked how he’ll judge Caldwell and Bradley last week, the Jaguars owner said, “It’s pretty simple. Are we better than we were two years ago? The answer to that is yes.” Still, winning more than three or four games is expected and to be competitive in the rest will be very important. No more 30-0 halftime scores like last year at home against the Colts. No more double-digit blowouts.

A couple of key cogs won’t be available for the opener. Julius Thomas, a real difference-maker, should be available in week 4. It could be week 4 as well before Sen-Derrick Marks is ready to play. Losing Fowler for 2015 is an obvious setback. But the additions of Jared Odrick, Dan Skuta, Davon House and Sergio Brown made the defense better. On offense it all revolves around Bortles but the addition of Stefan Wisniewski and Jeremy Parnell up front should keep him upright more often than not. He won’t be sacked 55 times this year. And the kind of running backs available will give new offensive coordinator Greg Olsen more options.

You can look at the cuts made this year to get down to 53 players and see guys like Cap Capi, Ike Igbinosun, Ben Koyack, Neal Sterling and Tony Washington on the outside looking in. In the past three years, they make the Jaguars roster. Capi is a good example of where they are. He had a nice preseason, some sacks in games and “flashed” a few times as Bradley likes to say. But his ability to set the edge and stop the run was in question, so he didn’t make it in 2015. He’s another example of how good you have to be just to make it to the 53rd spot on an NFL roster.

All teams like to get off to a fast start, but it’s especially important for the Jaguars this year because of how the schedule is set up. Opening with two home games, they need to beat either Carolina or Miami before they go on the road for three at New England, Indianapolis and Tampa Bay. Going 2-3 in that first five game stretch would make the rest of the season look bright as they get some players back and start to figure out how to play together. Anything less than that and 2015 could be no fun at all.

With Atlanta, Buffalo, the Jets, Houston (twice) and Tennessee (twice) in the second half of the season, you expect the Jaguars to win some of those games. Everybody expects road trips to New England, Indianapolis, Baltimore and New Orleans to be difficult.

Saying and doing are two different things. So while this team is better, they need to go prove it on the field.

In his fourth year as the Jaguars owner, Shad Khan can look around the stadium and see what has changed. Scoreboards, pools, chalets, suites and a host of other changes have been put into effect since the ownership change.

Apparently other NFL owners have noticed as well.

“When the other franchises visit, they can’t believe it’s the same stadium,” Khan said after the annual “Back to Football” luncheon in the Terrace Suites. “You’ve got to keep innovating, keep moving forward. With what’s going on in Atlanta and other places, you have to keep up.”

Khan also confirmed plans for a permanent practice facility that will include an indoor field situated on the current stadium campus south end.

“Incorporating what’s already there, making it almost an extension of the stadium,” Khan said of his plan. “But it’ll be a multi-use facility. It has to be suitable for pregame tailgating and other events. It’ll have a unique look. It’ll be mostly our money.” The Jaguars owner said he’s giving the City Council and the Mayor a “sneak preview” and expecting the city to continue to be a partner in the project. “I’d like it very much to be done before next year. It’ll be very much a destination. I’d like it to raise the bar. ”

Regarding the Shipyards, Khan said he thought, when asked about how the deal is playing out. “It’s a process that’s moving. It has to go through a process.”

He’s waiting for the city to continue to move forward on the deal he’s proposed but said if they want somebody else to do it, “I’m all for it.” At this point, Khan’s idea has gotten the approval of the Downtown Investment Authority but the revenue streams and the involvement of the city, state and federal governments in the initial cleanup is still being worked out. The price tag to make the site viable for a new project to start is about $35 million.

In the meantime, Khan reiterated that his commitment to Jacksonville remains strong and the London game has made the Jaguars a viable, sustainable franchise. “For us, London and Jacksonville is almost a marriage made in heaven. We want to have a focus and Jacksonville supplements with London is our focus.” Khan says the amount of sponsorship available in London and the excitement of the fans there has created a revenue stream for the Jaguars that he wants to continue. “I can see extending the deal to 2030,” he confirmed. “Fourteen years is a good number.”

“It’s been the number one element in stabilizing the Jacksonville Jaguars. I think it’s a critical part of our franchise to play games there, have the fan base and get sponsors.”

Expect that announcement to come sometime while the Jaguars are in London to play the Bills on October 25th.

When asked about the football team, Khan said he’s very pleased. “You can see the growth and the potential we have. We’re building something.” And when asked how he measures Gus Bradley’s progress as a head coach, Khan said it was simple. “You can see we’re a better team than we were three years ago.”

“It would have to be something really good,” Khan explained when I asked him about the talk of changing the preseason from four games preceding a 16 game regular season. “We talk about everything (in the owner’s meeting) but there’s hasn’t been much talk about that.”

While the Jaguars aren’t mentioned as a possible tenant in Los Angeles as San Diego, Oakland and St. Louis are. But there’s a rumor that Khan and other Jaguars representatives had met with San Diego authorities. Khan dismissed it, calling it a “rumor.”

“What I want to be addressing something that I talked about three and a half years ago here. And that’s my commitment to a viable franchise in Jacksonville. It’s a public private partnership and it’s been everything we could have asked for and more.”

I asked Shad how his new boat was working out after the first year. “Fabulous,” he quickly said with a big smile. “In fact it’s worked out so well I’m missing that it’s not here right now.” Khan has parked his “Kismet” in front of the Hyatt on the St. Johns in the past and said he’ll probably do that again this fall.

“It’ll probably be here around October 1st.”

Of all the preseason games, the third one is the most critical for most teams. It’s the game where the starters play the most and given a chance, players who want to make the team throughout the rest of the roster have to show something in this game.

“From the players I think the first team to go out there and play at least a half and to go out there and put it together and be able to come out of the locker room and play another portion of the game is important,” Head Coach Gus Bradley said leading up to Friday’s contest with Detroit. For the Jaguars, it’ll be an amount of time they’re playing and not necessarily a set number of plays.

That’s why Bradley thought it was important to name a starter at Center before this game to give the winner of that competition some time to work with the other four guys along the line. Stefan Wisniewski has 4 years behind him in the league so getting him into a rhythm with his new teammates is a high priority. And even though he’s out of the starting lineup, Bradley says Luke Bowanko is athletic enough to play pretty much anywhere on the line, even left tackle. “You think right, but he’s athletic enough to play left so he’s been working there as well. He’s taking extra reps before practice, working hard.”

Eleven different players won’t see any action against the Lions, including Toby Gerhart who’s out with an abdominal strain. “He’ll be ready to go for the regular season, ” Bradley said. “We’re just glad it’s not a sports hernia or anything more serious that would keep him out.” Gerhart seems to have solidified his position on the roster by being an effective short-yardage back for third and 4th down situations. A lingering foot problem last season kept him in check.

The team did put Auerllous Benn on injured reserve with a broken collarbone. It’s the third time Benn has been on IR in his career; the other two seasons it was knee injuries. “I told the coaches I know how to deal with this. I’ll be back.”

In game one against the Steelers, the Jaguars had numerous two tight end sets ready and kept with them even though Julius Thomas left the game early. In week two, they went to an offensive plan with three wide outs, preferring to keep the two tight end sets under wraps for the regular season. That might have changed Blake Bortles stats but it didn’t change his effectiveness. Look for Bortles to take charge in this game, knowing he’ll be in the game for a while with the other first teamers. His comfort level with this offense is obvious, coming to the line of scrimmage with an idea of who’s going to be open and showing a willingness to check down when his first two reads are covered. “This year, no matter the situation, we have a play for that,” Bortles said summing up his third offense in three years. “I’m concentrating on owning this offense and making it work.”

Bortles, like any quarterback, has plays he likes better than others, but overall, the offense new Offensive Coordinator Greg Olsen have brought to the Jaguars has put the quarterback in the best position to succeed.

“We like his toughness, his smarts, his arm, his willingness to get better, all of it,” Bradley said about Bortles.

On defense, look for the Jaguars to concentrate on keeping the big “explosive” plays to a minimum. With Calvin Johnson providing the best test to the defensive backfield, it’ll be a good measure of where they’re at on the learning curve of playing together.

With the first cut from 90 to 75 players looking on Tuesday of next week, the end of the third and all of the fourth quarter will be very competitive as guys are trying to make the team. Special teams is where players can lock up one of the 53 spots and the more they can do, the more valuable they are. Players like Thurston Armbrister and Tandon Doss have made enough of an impact as position players to add to their special team prowess as well.

The final cut to 53 will come on September 4th the day after the final preseason game against Washington. That game can be seen live on Channel 4 starting at 7:30. This week’s pregame show is also at 7:30 Friday night.