Jaguars in the giving mood

JACKSONVILLE, FLA. - In order for a team to get out of the hole it's dug for itself, it first has to quit digging the hole deeper.

The Jaguars began digging their hole on the first play of Sunday's game against Minnesota and didn't stop until Adrian Peterson's 16-yard touchdown run with just under seven minutes left in the game. That gave the Vikings a 20-point lead and safely secured a 30-12 victory.

The Vikings slammed the door on the Jaguars' playoff hopes, which were faint at best. Jacksonville has lost four of five, with its only victory against winless Detroit.

It was a somber Jaguars locker room afterward.

"This hurts and it feels bad, it feels real bad," defensive end Paul Spicer said. "I'm at a loss of words for the way I feel right now. Usually I'm not, but today, the way things started, it turned into a snowball effect and we had no answer to climb out of that hole we put ourselves in."

Jacksonville's troubles started with the first play from scrimmage. Center Brad Meester botched the snap, and Vikings linebacker Napoleon Harris scooped it up and raced 27 yards to the end zone for a touchdown, 13 seconds into the game.

The Jaguars' Brian Witherspoon fumbled returning Ryan Longwell's kickoff, with the Vikings' Dontarrious Thomas recovering the ball at the Jaguars 28. Three plays and 81 seconds later, the Vikings took a 14-0 lead on Chester Taylor's 3-yard run, and the hole was quite deep.

Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio gathered his team near the sideline and vented.

"I said there's an awful lot of football left, don't sit here and sulk and feel sorry for yourself," Del Rio said. "Let's go compete and get ourselves back in this game. We've dug ourselves a hole, let's dig our way out of it. Let's go one play at a time."

But it never happened. In all, the Jaguars gave the ball away five times, three on fumbles and twice on David Garrard interceptions.

Madieu Williams and Benny Sapp had second-half interceptions for the Vikings, and Darren Sharper recovered a fumble after Antoine Winfield hit Jacksonville wide receiver Matt Jones.

When the Jaguars did make a positive gain, it was negated by one of their eight penalties, which went for 81 yards. Tackle Tony Pashos was called for holding four times -- the Vikings declined one of the four -- as he struggled against Ray Edwards and Brian Robison.

Del Rio, a former Vikings linebacker, got his team to the second round of the AFC playoffs last season. Now Jacksonville is 4-7, and there are nine AFC teams with winning records, making the playoffs awfully unlikely.

And he took the blame.

"I found that performance today to be totally unacceptable, and I've got to take full responsibility for not doing a better job of preparing my football team," Del Rio said.