Game Preview: Week 4: Tennessee Titans at Jacksonville Jaguars
| Date: | October 4th, 2009 |
Location: | Jacksonville, FL |
| Time: | 1:00 pm EST |
Stadium: | "The Jack" |
| TV: | CBS |
Favorite: | Tennessee -3 |
| Radio: | Click Here | Over/Under: | 41.5 |
| Weather: |
Low 80s, 20% chance of rain |
Injury Report: |
Injury Report |
| SBN Coverage: | Music City Miracles | Coverage Map |
Click Here |
Sorry for the lateness of this week's preview, now on with the show.
The Tennessee Titans travel to Jacksonville to play the Jags in a desperate attempt to save their season while the Jaguars look to pull to 2-2 before going heading into a 4 game stretch against teams that are a combined 1-11. The fixture of the day will be the battle between two of the best running backs in the NFL, Maurice Jones-Drew and Chris Johnson.
Johnson had his breakout game as a rookie against the Jaguars and will look to have a similar performance on Sunday. Jones-Drew has traditionally struggled against Tennessee, however, he is coming off his best game as a full time starter and will hopefully carry that momentum into this week.
Things to Watch For: Jacksonville Jaguars
1. David Garrard: Garrard had his first truly solid performance of the year last week only to have pointless drama occur on Friday involving head coach Jack Del Rio. Garrard handled himself well, so this will hopefully only be a bump in the road as the team heads into Sunday.
2. Pass Defense: The Jaguars finally catch a break and don't play an elite passing team this week. Now we can really tell how far along the pass defense is. If Kerry Collins get's back on the Pro Bowl watch after this week expect to see heads to roll, and not just players.
3. Eugene Monroe: Monroe faces test #3 this week against Kyle Van Den Bosch. While Monroe was schooled against Dwight Freeney, Monroe handled Texans All-Pro Defensive End Mario Williams. Another solid showing on Sunday will help ease concerns about his progress to this point.
4. Mike Sims-Walker: Sims-Walker is beginning to finally show why there was so much hype for a player who has done so little. Dare I say he is beginning to look like Jimmy Smith did early in the 96 season? Not yet, but maybe he is due for a true break out game this week.
5.The Crowd: With another sub-50,000 crowd expected, let's hope that they will be a lively bunch none the less.
Thing to Watch For: Tennessee Titans
1. Beating themselves: One reason why the Titans are 3-7 since starting 10-0 is that they find ways to beat themselves. Last week's return issues were just the latest reason why. Whether it is Kerry Collins throwing an untimely pick or a personal foul call keeping a drive alive, the Titans have to cut down on those issues.
2.Keep it on the Ground: Will the Titans try to test the Jaguars lowly pass defense or will they stick to what they do best and give it to Chris Johnson on the ground? If they want to not start 0-4 they'll give it to Chris Johnson.
3. Pass Defense: The Titans own pass defense has been suspect and Cortland Finnegan will be out of the game on Sunday. If the Titans fail to keep the passing game in check, then they open themselves up to Maurice Jones-Drew through the middle.
4.LenDale White: White has been a non-factor so far this season for the Titans and that isn't a good thing considering Chris Johnson may not be able to take a full time load. White needs to get himself in the game this Sunday.
Player On The Hot Seat
Kerry Collins, QB, Tennessee
Collins is in a do or die situation right now. It was his play in early 2008 that led to the Titans benching Vince Young and handing him the keys to the team. Now Collins is reverting back to his latter days in Carolina and is dragging the team down with him. If he can't get things done against the worst ranked pass defense in the league, expect a lot of water cooler talk.
Prediction
Jacksonville Jaguars 27
Tennessee Titans 17
-Jonathan Loesche
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I just don't
like our chances in this game. A good team can only have so much bad luck.
Think about that muffed punt recovered by the Titans that wasn’t actually a muff technically, but instead it was a penalty against the Titans. I mean how often does that happen? Then Collins was throwing darts to his receivers last week, but somehow his receivers just kept dropping the ball making them finish the game with 13 straight incompletes. It may have been the rain that made things worse, but I highly doubt they are gonna be that bad at dropping the ball 2 weeks in a row.
And unless we throw the house on Collins I really don’t see us getting to the QB at all, especially with Knighton, Peterson(the new guy), and Landri all banged up. I imagine any pass rusher that goes against David Stewart the RT is gonna be in for a long long day. And no one is getting passed Roos on their left side.
We are going to have to stop the run and pass the ball well. We also need our secondary to play lights out. For an old guy, Collins makes some bad decisions sometimes. Unfortunately for us he usually only makes bad decisions when pressured or when trying to force passes due to their situation. If we can get a lead on them early that can go a long way for us.
Or at leat keep it close at half...
the Titans are not the greatest at making adjustments, so if we can keep it at 7 points either way, I like our chances to win.
They are actually
really good at making adjustments. Last year we were whipping them, and then during halftime Fisher made a few adjustments to come back and win the game.
Last week the Titans were down against the Jets, then they made adjustments to get back into the game. Unfortunately for the Titans, they stopped executing which caused them to lose the game.
27-17 win?
Homer Simpson.
This is a tough battle, look for a 12-10 game. Scobee to the rescue.
Big Cat Country!:: The Official Home of the Unofficial Blog of the Jacksonville Jaguars!
Excuse me for being bullish for once
I had to keep up with the headline I wrote for MCM
"I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real........ What have I become, my sweetest friend, everyone I know goes away in the end"
Nine Inch Nails "Hurt"
by Jonathan Loesche on Oct 2, 2009 10:06 PM EDT up reply actions
I highly
doubt the score is going to be that low. Neither pass defense is playing their best right now.
When the secondary isn't playing well
get the QB and hit him hard. I see a real blitz strategy forming on both sides.
Big Cat Country!:: The Official Home of the Unofficial Blog of the Jacksonville Jaguars!
25% of them got somewhat near to scab--Schaub
We say a glimpse of a long-forgotten pass rush last week. I believe that Mel will give us another good showing.
"HULU: An evil plot to destroy the world. Enjoy"
The Flavour of the Day is Turf. - Courtesy of the Jacksonville Jaguars
"As for me, Life goes on."-TheTealDeal
I definitly think 27-17 is possible
but I’m thinking we’ll have to get there through the air. Look for Mike Sims-Walker, Torry Holt & Mike Thomas to be active throughout the game with the possibility of a 4th WR in Dillard be sprinkled in with 4 maybe 5 wide formations. Dirk is going to open up the playbook this week after gaining more confidence with Garrard after his performance versus the Texans last week. Look for the Titan’s secondary to be tested early & often. Maybe we’ll see a triple option play?
In the face of adversity, what you do from then on dictates who you really are...
The guy I expect to break out this week ...
… is Zach Miller. The Titans’ D will be susceptible to a speedy, pass-catching tight end, and probably won’t be game-planning for it. Creativity on offense took us a long way last week and can again. I like our speed at LB to neutralize their running game, and expect our corners to stay with their wideouts. 27-17 sounds good to me.
Our corners
that’s one place we do match up well. Our CB’s are perfect counterparts for the Titan receivers. Basically we got tall lanky guys to cancel out their tall lanky guys.
To be honest, we need more than few turnovers
The Titans have been plagued by turnovers. They are not coming in here as underdogs. Jaguars winning this game will be an upset.
Big Cat Country!:: The Official Home of the Unofficial Blog of the Jacksonville Jaguars!
The Jags have this one in the bag
Unless JDR and the team screws it up.
We have the talent, and the momentum to win this football game. Kerry Collins and their team is not all that great.
And Mr. Hanesworth will not be here to terroize MJD or David G.
I like our chances, and I pick my jags by 21 if we play right.
Yo.
This the kind of talk
that gets JDR into trouble. The Titans lose a couple fluky close games to some good teams and we beat the “lowly” Texans, and suddenly we are supposed to beat a team that had the best record in football last year, and by 21 points.
First of all, you don’t ever have a game in the bag. Just ask the Redskins. This isn’t college football of a few years ago. This is the capped version of the NFL. There are no cakewalks.
The Titans are not a fulke
The Titans are 0 and 3, and cannot stop the run or pass.
If Jacksonville executes with precision, and the defense just plays half decent, the team can easily win by 21.
You probably did not see the NY game.
Yo.
Pass maybe... but certainly not the run
they’ve only allowed 60.7 YPG during the last 3 games and rank 6th in rush defense so far. They only allowed 84 yards on 31 carries in the gave vs the NYJ keeping their top RB under 3.8 YPC. I’d spit out the stats on their rushing attack… but I think I’ve done enough you may need to do some more homework before you make claims that they’re as bad as you THINK they are. Animals are @ their most dangerous when they are down… don’t look past this one.
After saying that… I still expect the Jaguars to win, but I believe it will have to be through the air. Now if we could just beat them this game, then their season is pretty much over and I’d just for the Jaguars to be the one to end it for them… but it’s no time to get cocky & have such high expectations for the team this early. Yo!
In the face of adversity, what you do from then on dictates who you really are...
Damn... I'm sleepy LoL
Yo!
In the face of adversity, what you do from then on dictates who you really are...
Game in the bag
You have a game in the bag, with a team that is playing as poor as Tenseness is.
All games in the NFL are tough, but Jacksonville should be able to do really well in this game.
MJD Against Titans with no Hainesworth = Long Day for Jeff Fischer and company.
Yo.
Good Luck Jags.
Please punk Tits down to an 0-4 record. Sims-Walker will shred their horrible secondary if Gerrard has time.
If carrots got you drunk, rabbits would be fucked up.
You are banned from Music City Miracles.
Happy Now Tits?
You are banned from Blogging The Boys.
You are banned from Silver Screen and Roll.
I will would feel better
if I knew we had a pass rush that could get to Collins. That is the weakest link and it is killing us right now.
Well
It’s going to be a tough game defensively for us. If we can pressure Collins, then the passing game goes out the window (hopefully). But, the tits run the ball damn well, and our run defense is not exactly spectacular. And if we have to sell-out to stop the run, what are the chances of pressuring collins?
I don’t know what to expect from the Jags, in terms of defense. We struggle against both the run and the pass…. and yet we’ve done “OK” in terms of points allowed, no major blowouts allowed yet.
The blueprint for this game will be similar to last week.
We will have to win another shoot out – get used to it – with the state of our D, that’s pretty much how it will be every week this year. The Tits will take away the run with 8 in the box and bring pressure on Garrard. David will have to establish the pass if MJD is to have any kind of a game, and even then it will be fairly limited.
Everyone knows that our pass D is non existent, but our run D ain’t exactly top shelf either. This doesn’t bode well. I believe the Jags must load up and attempt to slow down their run game and force Collins to throw more – however, if he does, he’ll have success. Passing is preferable since usually, that takes less time off the clock than running does, and the Jags will need every possession they can get in an attempt to score a lot of points.
The Jags will have to get on top early and try to stay there. If we fall behind by a couple of scores, turn out the lights – the Tits will just pound the rock and take the air out of the game.
I like the 27 – 17 prediction – but I believe it’ll be the Tits that come out on top this week.
Good points
I think it will be closer than 27-17 though, and maybe more high scoring than that too. I think a lot of people underestimate how our passing offense has improved. It’s not all about MJD now.
Also, I truly do believe this is a developing Jags team, much more so than the titans. I honestly don’t know what to expect from the Jag week to week – the offense does seem to be evolving (into what?) and the defense has been different every game so far. This is truly a “benchmark game” for us. Make no misake, this is a decent titans team which is quite capable of beating us. Can we step up and be competitive? Can we suprise them and win? Or are we about to show how mediocre the texans are, and how unlucky the tits have been?
Guys
It will be a close game. The Jaguars must play their best football yet, to beat this Titans this week.They are desperate to get their 1st win, plus defeat a divisional opponent at their stadium.
I hope the injuries, and other issues (This “Garrard radio show” is really not something we and the players/coaches/media sould focus about) will be a little or any effect on Sunday.
I think the ky will be how Garrard and the passing game will work. If Sims-Walker, Holt, Mike Thomas, and the TEs (maybe Dillard and Underwood) can moving the ball and score, the jaguars could win this. Maurice alone will not help us this time.
And the D. Wow, I just can’t see they will shut down Chris Johnson, AND the passing game at the same time. I’m hope I’m wrong here, but they are just not ready to do that.
But if the passing game works, and they made no big mistake(fumbles to TDs, big ST errors, pick-sixes), playing their best futball yet this season and they can keep the Titans under 14-20 points we hve a shot to win.
Life without knowledge is death in disguise
by Zoltan from Budapest on Oct 3, 2009 8:06 AM EDT reply actions
24-21 Jaguars
We barely fend off a late rally and MCM play at the end.
"HULU: An evil plot to destroy the world. Enjoy"
The Flavour of the Day is Turf. - Courtesy of the Jacksonville Jaguars
"As for me, Life goes on."-TheTealDeal
to indulge myself
This may be the game where Vince Young gets thrust back on field and Kerry Collins goes back to the Bench, thinking of good times, long past.
"HULU: An evil plot to destroy the world. Enjoy"
The Flavour of the Day is Turf. - Courtesy of the Jacksonville Jaguars
"As for me, Life goes on."-TheTealDeal
i don't get this
people think Garrard (and not all are saying this) has suddenly gotten better
the line gelled. the end.
LateRoundPick.com
Yup
but then again, I never thought Garrard regressed from 07 either. IMO the team was letting him down.
You are right
Big Cat Country!:: The Official Home of the Unofficial Blog of the Jacksonville Jaguars!
So let me get this right
You guys think that David is an adequate QB for right now, but won’t get us past the first round of the playoffs?
No I think he can
and he has. And he would have gotten past the second round had we not run into the Pats in their nearly perfect year, and that game would have been different if Northcutt would have held on to the ball a couple of times.
I just don’t think Garrard can do it by himself, much like every other QB ever.
exactly
I won’t say that Garrard could been hall of fame had he started earlier. the guy makes plenty of mistakes. But for right now and where we are as a team. How many QB’s could’ve hung in through all this beating (physical and mental and emotional) and yet blame themselves.
I’m impressed at Garrard as a human being and player
LateRoundPick.com
David is good enough to win a Super Bowl with
but he won’t carry the team on his back like Ben did
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