Coming off of the bye week, the Jacksonville Jaguars will travel to Oakland in Week Seven to battle the Raiders. As a conference, it's no secret that the AFC is weak this year, and despite having a 1-4 record, the Jaguars certainly aren't out of the running yet for a potential Wild Card spot. The Houston Texans look to have full control of the AFC South, so if the Jaguars want to have any shot of making it to the playoffs as a Wild Card team this year, they must leave the Golden State with a win on Sunday.

I've enjoyed my time off for the bye week, but I'm back, and it's time to talk about the Jaguars as they come off their bye week to play the Oakland Raiders.

Sunday's game in Oakland is scheduled to begin at 4:25 PM, and it features a pair of 1-4 franchises. While both of the featured teams are anything but mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, it would be a long stretch for either of them to make the playoffs.

In the past, I've dropped all of my loose thoughts into one post. That's what this is all about, half-baked ideas with no real point or message. Take them for what they're worth.

Blaine Gabbert hasn't looked like an NFL quarterback so far this season. That being said, he hasn't been put in a position to succeed very often either. That's the Jaguars' challenge coming out of their bye week.

Jacksonville's defense has been the biggest disappointment of the season for me. I had hoped that a dominant defense would give their offense an opportunity to stay in games late. The defense delivered against the Vikings, the Colts and the Bears, but the Texans and the Bengals moved the ball nearly at will.

The Colts are in the process of modeling what a short-term rebuild looks like. You find a great quarterback and just start adding talent where ever you can find it.

The Titans are in the same boat with Jake Locker as the Jaguars are with Blaine Gabbert. If he doesn't show something this season, they may be looking to moving on down the line.

That's all the thoughts I have off the top of my head. Enjoy the bye week folks.

The Jaguars have been pretty much mediocre to simply bad since making it to the divisional round of the playoffs in January of 2008. Since then, they've hired a new GM, a new head coach, and the team now has a new owner.

The franchise is currently in a bad place, but I don't believe it's as bad as it really looks, and it does look bad. There are some very big problems with the Jaguars that need to be addressed over the course of the next year. If that happens, the Jaguars should be able to turn a corner, and make it back to where the franchise was in the mid to late 90s. Here's what needs to be done.

Every so often, there's a story that makes us take stock of what is actually important. The murder of 42-year-old William C. Pettry is exactly one of those stories.

Pettry, according to CBS Sports was a Bears fan that lived about 50 miles from Chicago. He traveled to Jacksonville to see his Bears play the Jaguars last Friday. While at Fionn MacCool's, an Irish-themed restaurant in Jacksonville, Pettry was murdered while presumably enjoying a pre-game meal.

Matthew Hinson is being held without bond, and he's been charged with the murder of Pettry.

It's not immediately clear that Pettry was murdered because he was a Bears fan, but common sense seems to strongly suggest such a connection.

Regardless, the point here is that sports are great when we can watch a game, enjoy it (or perhaps be miserable through it) and move on. I realize that the overwhelming majority of fans never physically harm a fan of another team, but it seems appropriate to take step back and realize one important thing. This is a game. The Jaguars will almost certainly lose multiple games before the end of the season. It's okay. We, as fans, will move on.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Pettry's family and friends.

Oh, that's not good. That's not good at all.

The Jaguars went in to halftime today tied with the Bears at 3 to 3. The final score? 41 to 3 in favor of the Bears. That shouldn't happen, ever.

Heading into the bye week, the Jaguars now sit at 1-4, and it would suddenly take a small miracle for the team to claw its way back into the playoff discussion. At this point, however, we're really waiting on the team to get back to being competitive. Throw any playoff talk out the window. It isn't going to happen.

Maurice Jones-Drew was never able to get himself going against the Bears' stingy defense. He rushed the ball just 12 times for 56 yards, and nearly half of those yards came on one run.

Blaine Gabbert wasn't able to get it going either, completing barely over 50% of his passes, and tossing two interceptions that were both taken back for touchdowns.

In short, it was the type of second half that makes you queasy.

Today we're introducing the open thread to The Jaggernaut. Yes, I realize there are threads that will have a lot more happening, but if you have a question/comment/observation, drop a line in the comments. I'll be popping in from time to time as well.