There was some dodgy play-calling, for sure. But… I don’t know if I agree with your overall arguement. Mojo had 33 carries (rushing) in that game, it’s not exactly like he wasn’t being given the chance. And, quite frankly, our passing game was going damn well. Why would we stop doing what was successful?

I’m also not entirely sure we SHOULD be a run-first team. In the 1st half we had practically NO success with running the ball, or even with keeping the offense on the field. In part I believe this is because we ran too much. Once we started passing, the running game kicked off very nicely. I LIKED the fact that it was a balanced offense with BOTH the run and the pass having success. That only happens if you don’t try to force your offense into being either a “run first” OR a “pass first” team. Balance is awesome, and it makes both sides of the offense better.

Remember too that Dirk Koetter is still sort of “feeling out” what this team is capable of on offense. I honestly believe we have the potential to be an extremely good, if not dominating, offense. Not right now, of course. But, the potential is there… once the rookies have improved some and we’ve gotten some of the little kinks worked out (including play-calling and figuring out who is capable of what) we could scare defenses.

Good game Jags, feels so nice looking down at those sagging tits in the basement.

This game should have been open and shut, with the whole second half being garbage time, well that couldn’t be farther from the truth. First and foremost, yes we won the game, yes we had pretty good 3rd down conversions, etc but we won that game on pure talent and heart, NOT ON PLAY CALLING. Blind luck got so through most of the crap Dirk was calling, I know our passing game is developing nicely with Sims-Walker and Holt etc but when you have a top 3 RB and FB against a 23 ranked rush defense you RUN THE BALL. Oh and when Dirk did run the ball IT WAS INTO A STACK BOX OF 9!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DEFENDERS, LIKE COME THE HELL ON!!!! I was going to imploded during the game. The bottom line is he should be packing his bags, and his head is the one we ALL should be calling for!

Currently – we have run the ball 161 plays and passed 131 plays. That’s a 55% to 45% run play advantage – so it’s not accurate to say that we are no longer a ’run first" team. It would be more accurate to say we are no longer so lop sided towards running plays ( a sorely needed change).

Player personnel has changed the dynamics of this team. We no longer have two high caliber backs and our interior line is no longer as dominant as they once were. Opposing defenses are stacking the box to defend the run and daring David to beat them. And guess what – when David has played well we’ve won and when he hasn’t we’ve lost. This team has needed to develop a serious passing game for the longest time – we are currently in that process and I welcome it.

The best game we’ve played was against Tenn. There the tits stacked the box and the play calling was superb – we did break tendancies but more important – David was able to EXECUTE the plays that were called. As a result – David repeatedly burned the tits to the point that by the 2nd half – they had abandoned stacking the box and our running game became more effective as a result.

I think the bigger problem has been David’s inconsistent play vs Koetter’s play calling.

He’s probably researching counter-points now…

I will say I like Dirk Koetter, but he gets too cute for his own good, and has the issues I listed above. Those are my problems…

Last year we were crying about how we don’t passing game , DG doesn’t have good WR, so when we couldn’t run the ball it was because we couldn’t strech the D.
Now we have good passing game, 2 good WR’s, RB that can catch the ball, but our O-Line needs to adjust to pass-pro, as we all said we were run first team, it’s proces , long one, and for our young OT’s to get to know older guys in Line, experience.
We need to give guys some more time, it may be ugly but I’m sure it’s gona be good at the end.
I think Dirk is still testing what our guys can do, like a test drive, get to know what is our strenght, and weaknes.

but I agree with those who says players not plays. It is a pass first offense, because right now, The Jaguars have depenable receivers. A lot of them. (Holt; MSW; Thomas; Marcedes; Zach Miller-and he he can step up then Dillard plus MJD too) The running game is Maurice and that’s it. You cannot build on 1 man (actully Garrard is running a lot- for his life mostly) your running game. I love too see a bit Greg Jones and Jennings, but they are not in the same category as maurice. Fred was last year in that category, but now I think nobody belongs there(maybe Garrard?)
So yeah sometimes you don’t understand the playcalling. But I’m not throwing anyone under the bus in the next 2 weeks.
But I think this article creating a legitim debate about Koetter, so thank you very much Collin.
(Oh and by the way, Koetter has one secret weapon, he can count on a battleteal T-shirt (almost) every Sunday what the Titans got for example:? They suffer from the curse of the Terrible Towel since weeks. I hope on Nov. 1 the curse, and the Battleteal TS combine will help Koetter and the Jags for another win!)

With all due respect…
…when they couldn’t pass we complained about that. Know that they pass too much that is an issue. It can be argued that at times the play doesn’t match the situation, however I’m sure no one questions Manning or Brady throwing on 3rd and 2. With the youth at WR and the OL, I am ok with this team attempting to establish a passing game by throwing on run situations. It keeps the defense off guard and demands respect in the passing game, thereby opening up the run game. As we’ve seen the past 2 weeks, teams can stop MJD if they’re not respecting the pass.

What Koetter may be exposing, or attempting to assess, is whether DG is worth keeping. I’m all for making him make plays rather than resting on whether he will simply manage the game. They’ve invested a great deal of money in DG and he should be able to come through in clutch times, as he did yesterday.

In all honesty why are we questioning the offense period when the huge disadvantage we have is our defense…Also as far as MJD goes he whines too much….Look at his stats early they were stuffing him easily…Then we pass and open up which opens up the run….If we really focused on MJD getting the ball early we would be behind so much in games…IMO we shoulda never gave him a big contract…The truth is one develops the other and thats a fact…If you are running well the pass game opens up cause theyre focused on the run and vice versa…

The more MJD gets the ball more of a chance to fumble and thats a fact based on his past…So apples to apples….Too…If the Jags developing into a nice passing team would always be exciting and put people in the stands..>Watching the Jags is like watching rugby when they run so much…puts me to sleep…

This is a very well-written piece. I don’t agree with all of it, but as always, you’ve done your homework and brought the big guns.

Aside from 4 runs by David and 1 by Jennings, MJD had 33 carries. Over a 16 game season, that would be 528 carries. History suggests that MJD would never be the same after that. Goodbye, best offensive weapon. In that light, [honest question] would you really have wanted Koetter to have MJD take even more pounding? Would you have preferred more draw plays for Garrard? Maybe more carries for Jennings or Greg Jones?

Get it straight, it was 2nd and 10. How in the world do you put the blame on Dirk. Give credit to Little, he made a move towards David then dropped back and made a great play. Wasn’t everyone just praising him for his brilliant play calling a few weeks ago? We just won yesterday, I want ot hear some positive stuff not this negative nonsense that we usually have to hear,

And I’d tend to agree with you, seeing as I love a traditional running offense between the tackles.

That said, I find it hard to criticize an offensive coordinator who’s team just put up 500 yards of offense and if it had not been for a few untimely turnovers, would have translated to at least 30 points. As long as the Jaguar offense continues to produce, I’m going to be inclined to think that Dirk is at least doing well enough to earn a B.

Completely with your article. What I was going to say had been already stated above by various blog members. But I do have a few quick points…
-Like someone mentioned above, Drew had 8 carries for 11 yards in the first half. I would be turning to the pass as well, in fact, I would throw the gameplan in the garbage and open up the shotgun.
-I play defensive back for my JV team, but I’ve played some scout team quarterback before. We run the spread, so all shotgun. You don’t have to look to receive the ball. Football players are athletes, they can place their hands on a ball without staring at it.
-32 carries, 107 yards, 3.3 average. Thats what the rushing totals of Jones-Drew would have been had he not had that 26 yard scamper late in the game to pad his stats.
-The running game under Jones-Drew averaged 4.0. The passing game averaged 7.8 yards per attempt. Which was working better?
-A screen pass is about the safest pass play you can call. All Dirk was trying to do was pick up yardage and keep the ball moving, I mean, how often does a screen pass go incomplete? Plus, you were corrected above, it was 2nd and 10. If you run the ball and get the normal 2 yards we averaged most often running the ball, low and behold, your in third and long.
-And he doesn’t get cute for his own good. Explain how Jones-Drew gets three straight carries inside the 3, finally getting a touchdown on the third, as he was stuffed the first two times. Obviously Drew doesn’t get every short yardage situation like you said above.

…It’s funny how people are still calling the Jaguars a run first team. This is exactly what Jack was talking about when he said he doesn’t want to label his team as anything. It’s even funnier that people are saying we’re not playing to the strength of the roster, when this year, we’re carrying an extra receiver just so we can pass more. Raise your hand if you thought the Jaguars would run the ball they way they used to when they let Fred go, then picked up Torry Holt, Jarrett Dilard, Mike Thomas, and Tiquan Underwood.

To win in this league, you have to evolve. We should know this first hand. Look at our record against the two passing teams in our division. It’s not good. And to make the playoffs you have to win the division. Run the ball, stop the run only works if you have the 08 Titans defense. In this division, and especially with our defense, you’re gonna have to put up points. That means passing the ball more.

For this game, you can’t argue with 500 yards and 33 first downs. That’s video game numbers right there. If the defense had a clue how to play ball, this thread wouldn’t exist.

that’s exactly what our record is since he came along… a perfect .500

To PKSIV…… stop being so irate and defensive. Yes, I rewatched the tape, and I was wrong about the distance. I was, however, right about it being the fourth quarter with a lead and the ball… The Ball shouldn’t have been in the air on that play unless it was a play action pass.

As for Dirk, anyone who frequents this site with any sort of regularity knows I’ve praised him when he’s called good games, and I’ve called him out on bad calls. Just because we won this game doesn’t mean all the calls were great calls… Please take the teal glasses off and look at the facts…. How many 3 and outs did we have yesterday… the game shouldn’t have gone to overtime because we should’ve gotten a field goal when we had the ball on second and short at the 30 yard line…

Because they’re both in the bible. How you translate it is up to. What I’m saying is there’s no right or wrong way to win a game. Nazeem Richardson always says that if you get in the ring and win, no one can say you did something wrong. If you go in there and lose, than obviously you did something wrong.

Silence, i see what you’re saying and I agree. With the the backs we have we should have run it right at them. However, you can also make a point the other way. You line up to run, they line up to stop the run. What happens if they stop you and you have to punt? 5 minutes of watching our dreadful defense get sliced for a game winning touchdown.

When these guys are coaching they’re also trying to stay away from dominating tendencies. If everybody in the house knows your running it, a pass might be the best way for you to move the ball. The bad pass should have been on David. That was a horrible read. Almost like he had that route picked out before the snap and was gonna throw it no matter what.

On most message boards, this would have devolved into a flame war and name calling. While the discussion is a bit heated, it is also a very informative one. Right or wrong.

I believe that we just had some stupid mistakes that kept the Rams in the game. I believe it was the players, and not the plays. I also believe we still can’t know anything definitive about this team, yet. We don’t really have a good performance against a solid team to gauge ourselves (except for the Dolts, but that was opening day, and they can say some of the same things we’re saying now).

I think this goes back a discussion we had last week on BCC radio (Tomorrow night and every Wednesday night at 11pm) when talking about MSW and the offense. The offense has been evolving, and this is the kind of offense you saw from Arizona St when Koetter was the HC there.

This team is 3-3, and is doing that without any semblance of a pass defense.