Preseason football lives in a strange twilight zone. It’s all the sound and fury of the real thing, signifying… well, practice. Like dress rehearsals for a Broadway smash, the stakes feel monumental in the moment, yet vanish by opening night. For the Jacksonville Jaguars, Saturday night’s 25-31 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers was a masterclass in this peculiar duality (like Travis Hunter); flashes of brilliance illuminating a landscape littered with self-inflicted errors.
As one voice from the Jaguars faithful, UCF Jaguar, put it bluntly: “Jaguars last night in their first preseason game fall to the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25… The Jaguars first preseason loss since 2022. So, uh there’s something for you guys. Shows you really how much uh how much preseason actually means.” Yet, meaning is found in the margins.
Travis Hunter: The duality and the detail
Aaron Rodgers might call it “not necessarily real football,” but for rookies finding their footing and veterans shaking off rust, the film doesn’t lie. And the overriding positive? “I think the number one takeaway… the number one most important thing is no injuries,” the reporter emphasized. “Um that’s the biggest scare… luckily it did not happen yesterday. So hopefully… we kind of avoid the I-word.” Survival, first and foremost.
The real story, however, was the Jaguars seemingly determined to trip over their own cleats. “A lot of penalty sloppiness… which I guess could be expected, but hopefully it gets ironed out.” Expectations of early-camp hiccups collided with the frustration of seeing them flare under the lights.
Amidst the penalty flags and Rudolph’s precision, all eyes were inevitably on the No. 2 overall pick, Hunter. His two-way debut was a fascinating glimpse into the future. He played 10 snaps on offense with the starters (2 rec, 9 yards) and 8 on defense with the backups. “Travis Hunter got some play… I also, he was pretty good in coverage, it looked like. I mean, he was hanging with the guys.” Do the physical tools and fluidity translate immediately? Check.
But then came the moment that sparked the reporter’s critique. “The only bad part is that he didn’t miss a tackle. um a tackle that he should I would think that Tyson Campbell would have made… but he missed. So, gotta correct that.” A single missed tackle in preseason isn’t a catastrophe.
It’s the reaction – or perceived lack thereof – that niggled. “Some kind times in his interviews he’s a little bit like aloof and kind of underplay stuff… yesterday they asked him like oh how you think you did he’s like oh I think I did pretty good… dude like you missed a tackle like that you should have made… I would think that most players… if they have one bad play it sticks with them… But he didn’t really seem to mind.”
Syndication: Florida Times-Union Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Travis Hunter 12 runs during the first organized team activity at Miller Electric Center Monday, May 19, 2025 in Jacksonville, Fla. Jacksonville , EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xCoreyxPerrine/FloridaxTimes-Unionx USATSI_26226438
It’s a subtle observation about accountability and the fire that drives elite competitors. Travis Hunter’s supreme confidence is legendary, a key to his two-way prowess, but does that unshakeable swagger occasionally mask a needed urgency to correct the small, costly errors? It’s the ‘biggest mistake’ highlighted not necessarily for its on-field impact Saturday, but for what it might signal about his approach to refinement.
“Like you would expect a lot of penalties maybe… at the beginning of training camp but I would have hoped that during like live bullets that this would not be happening.” The evidence was jarringly immediate: “The very first snap on offense, Anton Harrison had a false start. The very first snap on defense, Jarian Jones has like a defensive holding. Not ideal.” Head coach Liam Coen later labeled these “self-inflicted wounds” the day’s defining theme.
The starting offense, facing Pittsburgh’s backups, moved the ball but was its own worst enemy. “We drove the ball a little bit, but unfortunately got held back by uh by penalties… Uh I mean, two penalties in one play… not only did you have a pass interference… but you also had a block in the back… The Jaguars offense was almost not even stopped by the Pittsburgh defense. The Jaguars stopped it themselves.”
It was drive-killing chaos that overshadowed modest goals: “I just kind of wanted to see you nail a few first downs, spread the ball around… the Jaguars did just that… [but] had to settle for a field goal.” One possession, amplified beyond reason.
The Mason Rudolph redemption arc (against Jacksonville, anyway)
After Travis Hunter’s rookie error came the defensive series that raised eyebrows. Steelers backup QB Mason Rudolph, a player whose previous encounters with the Jaguars inspired descriptors like “awful… looked like crap… awful,” according to the UCF Jaguar, suddenly looked like Joe Montana Lite. Facing the Jaguars’ starting defense, Rudolph was surgical:
“Mason Rudolph came in there, went seven for seven, 70 yards and a touchdown… The Jaguars starting defense just kind of allowed him to go all the way downfield… Tyson Campbell was getting burned. The pressure wasn’t really getting home. So, that’s something that could be a little bit of a concern.” It was a stark, efficient dismantling – Rudolph finishing his night a pristine 9/10 for 84 yards and a TD, a passer rating of 135.0. For one drive, the ghost of Rudolph past was exorcised, leaving a slightly embarrassed Jaguars first unit in his wake.
Of course, no discussion of this game is complete without Cam Little’s right leg writing history. His 70-yard field goal as the first half expired wasn’t just good; it was seismic. While it won’t grace the official NFL record books (preseason, alas), “we’ll all remember it honestly forever… this will be the most memor memorable preseason moment probably for me ever.” Little was flawless (4/4 FG, 1/1 XP), but that 70-yarder was pure, unadulterated magic – a soaring punctuation mark on a messy night.
So, the Jaguars walk away 0-1 in the preseason. The sky isn’t falling. Rodgers’ “not real football” axiom holds. But within the scripted chaos, lessons whispered: Clean up the penalties. Tighten the starting defense’s screws. Let Hunter’s brilliance shine while ensuring that unflappable confidence fuels meticulous improvement on the details, like that lone missed tackle.
And maybe, just maybe, savor the pure, unexpected poetry of a 70-yard kick that defied logic, even if the record books remain stubbornly silent. As Coen succinctly framed it, the “self-inflicted wounds” were the story. The task now is ensuring they stay confined to the rehearsal stage.
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