Jacksonville Jaguars vs Tennessee Titans: A Post-Mortem

You could see it coming when the entire O-line practically went down all at once. Garrard did OK, Defense did OK, special teams, OK, O-line protection, BAD!!! It was talked about during pre-season and we just saw it LIVE in the first game of the year. If this is not corrected, it’s gunna be a looooong season. Go Jags……. At least the Texans lost so we have some company at the BOTTOM of the division.

we had zero offense. Except for scoring points, the Jaguars blew Tennessee away. Average starting position was tremendous. Vince Young crying on the bench in the third quarter. The Titans reduced to running every play just to prevent a turnover. This was a blowout.

Except we had no offense, no offensive line, no running, no receivers, no scheme, no plan, and worse of all, No Maurice Jones Drew!. It was horrible on offense but don’t take away how good everything else was.

How good everything else was? Special teams got us tremendous field position and we squandered time and time again.

The running is great affected by the O-line performance. It all starts with the o-line.

There were bright sides though. VY was hurried often. Matt Jones actually looked like a receiver out there. Troy lost a few, but he was fighting for the ball all the way to the ground. Finnegan is just too damn good. And don’t forget watching Harvey have the presence to put hands on the ball when it hit him in the chest.

That said, I wish I would have been saying that about preseason and not the first game. Oh well, remember last year. We’ll pull it together. Sometimes a smothering Defense will make your O look very dumb. We do it every year to other teams. It was our turn today.

Best thing about today is that there are 15 more games to be played. I hope next weeks home game will be a rebound game for the Jags. The only question now is “who?” Who will be on the O-line. I think we have lost everyone!!! Dennis Norman can’t do it alone. I’m still glad it’s football season.

On another, much more important note, I would like to mention that my family is still praying for the recovery of Rich Collier. All thoughts and prayers remain with him. Get well Rich!

Looks like what they say is true, “misery loves company.” With the Texans and Jaguars loosing today, and the Colts down 15 to 6 to the Bears at halftime, The AFC South race could be pretty interesting this year.

This looks like a continuation of the sorry play we saw in preseason. The Titan D was constantly playing 8 and sometimes 9 in the box. They took away the run very effectively (get used to seeing this by other teams by the way). Our O line is weakened by the Meester injury and Barnes just doesn’t cut. The O line was absolutely physically dominated yesterday. Of course, our complete predectability on offense really helped them out also. I thought the play calling was terrible as well.

Receivers – we don’t have play makers on the outside and it shows. Several of the 7 sacks were due to receivers not being able to break open and Gerrard holding the ball to long as a resut.

QB play wasn’t very good. Gerrard needs to get the ball out faster, if nothing’s there, come back and fight another play. The fumble was absolutely inexcusable as was the complete lack of production considering how many times we had the ball in Titan territory. Give Tenn a lot of credit, they played great defensively, but I also think a lot of our offensive shortcomings were exposed this week.

Defense – overall a fair effort, but only fair. As long as the Titans were playing their second best QB (Vince – I’ll never be an NFL passer) things were going fairly well. Run D wasn’t as good as it could have been and we missed several tackles. D line still can’t generate QB pressure on thier own and scheme was the only way to get QB pressure. Of course, that blew up in our faces in a critical point in the game when Tenn started playing their best QB (Collins). He just promptly came in and marched them strqaight down the field for a score.

Special teams – The return game was outstading and set us up with beautiful field positioon. Shame that was squandered. Missed FG really hurt .
Coverage teams did a good job.

We can expect more of the same going forward. This Ain’t the year! I know it’s only one game – but this team is not as good as last year’s team and our schedule is much much more difficult than last year’s schedule. I don’t want to hear about Porter coming back either. He’s never proven to be a number 1 receiver and until I SEE IT, I’m not buying it. He had a couple of good years in Oakland as a number 2 playing opposite Moss. Last time I checked, we don’t have anyone who could hold Moss’s jock strap.

I know this was a harsh review, but it’s accurate.

We made the Onion ;-) Before you freak, realize that we are just blades of grass blowing in the wind, and pontificate on how our lives could possibly be changed by the flip of a metal disk every Sunday.

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/pre_game_coin_toss_makes?utm_source=onion_rss_daily

They get pretty existential here, so take it easy if you don’t understand philosophy.

Why was Walker out?
When is Porter gonna play?
How will they fix the O-Line?
Why didnt we get a sack?
Why all the bad play calling?
Did Q. Groves even play?
What else can happen?

Could someone please shed some light on these questions for me?

Was in on a first down that I saw, which was interesting.