Jaguars must avoid an ambush against the Chargers
by Alfie Crow on Sep 16, 2010 8:36 AM EDT
in Jacksonville Jaguars News
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The Jacksonville Jaguars will fly to San Diego on Saturday and keep a "normal" work week schedule, rather than fly out early like they did last year. This will eliminate idle time, and you know what they say; an idle mind is the devil's workshop.
It was definitely a workshop last year on the west coast.
I hate to be the Debbie Downer coming off a good win against the Denver Broncos where the Jaguars looked like a resilient and relentless football team, but I'm still weary of the trip out west. It just seems ripe for an ambush.
The San Diego Chargers got surprised by the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday night in the rain in a packed Arrowhead Stadium. It's a Chargers football team that's had a lot of turnover in the off-season and not the same team we've watched the past couple seasons. Shawne Merriman isn't the same old Shawne Merriman anymore. The team is without their best wide receiver in Vincent Jackson and their best left tackle in Marcus McNeill. The Chargers lost LaDainian Tomlinson to the New York Jets after feeling like he had nothing left in the tank, but despite unimpressive numbers on Monday Night looked like he still had some fuel left. Kassim Osgood, while primarily a special teams player, was big time guy in the locker room and the Chargers special teams was atrocious. Then troubled cornerback Antonio Cromartie was traded to the New York Jets, leaving a hole in the Chargers secondary. Finally, veteran nose tackle Jamal Williams left for the Denver Broncos in free agency.
That's a lot of pieces to lose in a single off-season.
A lot.
Realistically the Chargers didn't play that poorly against the Chiefs. Two big plays really sealed it for them, Dexter McCluster's 94-yard punt return before the half and Jamaal Charles' 56 yard touchdown run in the first quarter. Other than that, the Chiefs offense was non-existent. The Chargers gave up two big plays and turned the football over, that's what killed them.
If you just go by the numbers, Phillip Rivers threw for nearly 300 yards and two touchdowns. The Chargers ran the ball for over 100 yards and 4.1 yards per carry. Their defense held the Chiefs to 68 (SIXTY-EIGHT) passing yards and outside of the 56-yard touchdown run held them to 75 rushing yards and 3 yards per carry. The Chargers dominated everything but the scoreboard.
The Jaguars do look to have the make up of a more mentally tough football team this season, so it's tough to see the west coast being an issue again. I cannot however, get the 61-3 west coast trips out of my head from last season. Before heading to Seattle to get run over by the Seahawks in a 41-0 loss, the Jaguars were on a high coming off a 37-17 drubbing of the Tennessee Titans that had David Garrard throw for over 300 yards and three touchdowns.
Match-up wise, it should be a fairly even and competitive football game.
This game in my gut just feels like a trap, though. Hopefully when the Jaguars make their way out of the tunnel in Qualcomm, they will see Admiral Ackbar on the way out and heed the warning.
The Jaguars are 2-1 under Jack Del Rio against the Chargers and 10-7 all time in 4 o'clock kick-offs. The lone loss against the Chargers was in San Diego in 2004.
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I would disagree
that it looks like an even football game match-up wise. I mean sure the Chargers lost some pieces and the Jaguars are on the rise but they won 13 games last season and the Jags used smoke and mirrors to win 7.
Hopefully we’ll come away with a win but I’ll be satisfied with a competitive performance.
DG is the best we have and help is not on the way. I realize he's not perfect, but I feel a lot better about him at QB than I do the O-Line, DB's and LB's ability to cover a TE.
The chargers really are spectacular
at anything but QB. They have a rookie runner combo’d with a 3rd down back. The WRs are not proven. The OL is missing its top tackle. The defense is getting old. Merriman hasn’t recovered from the lack of steroids/injury. Haven’t heard anything about the secondary.
Sounds like the Jaguars stack up well to me. Very even.
I think the biggest match up is the QB play. Can we match them and win the turnover battle. I think thats it. That and obviously we have a better ST unit.
by The Linebacker on Sep 16, 2010 9:07 AM EDT up reply actions
The Chargers didn’t just lose “some pieces”. They are playing right now without their Pro Bowl WR and Pro Bowl LT. In the offseason they lost their starting running back, nose tackle, cornerback and special teams ace. All former Pro Bowlers as well. I don’t think anybody is saying the Chargers aren’t talented. Rivers is an elite QB, Gates might be the best tight end in the league and their interior offensive line is outstanding. But they are nowhere near the team that went 13-3 last year.
by Fivus Viener on Sep 16, 2010 9:22 AM EDT up reply actions
The Chargers
didn’t play with their nose tackle (J. Williams) the entire year. If anything, their defensive line is playing much better than it did 2009. The LT who is filling in for McNeil could start on half the NFL teams and is a better run blocker than McNeil, who was very average in that regard. Cromartie was very overrated at CB as the Jets quickly found on on MNF when he committed two penalties and was torched the whole night. Cason, while not as flashy, is proving to be a solid upgrade. Naane would never get 100+ plus yards if VJax is playing, but Rivers still puts up 300 yards in the rain and wind.
Sorry, but don’t believe the hype on the Chargers. The rookie fumbled (LT even fumbled 3 times in his first 2 games) and a few slips in the rain let the Chiefs get two big plays. Other than that, the Chargers completely dominated the Chiefs, as they should. I would do yourself a favor and not get your hopes up too high.
We suggest the same to you buddy
frankDUBZ aka Frank Silba
"I'm smacking you with the truth......" - Me
I was gonna say the same things
about your personnel. Jamal was gone basically all of 09, Dom is nearly as good as McNeil, Cason might be upgrade over Cromartie, and Matthews is about equal to what a healthy LT is.
If not for the blown coverage.....
the game wouldn’t have been close and Rivers numbers would not be as great. Cassel was playing like garbage, I give you that. Mathews is a good back, but he was not moving the chains. Did you see how porous their 3-4 is??? I’m really not afraid of this team at all. Last week, I asked many Bronco fans what the strength of their team was. They said “the secondary”. David Garrard 3TD’s no picks…………NUFF SAID!
frankDUBZ aka Frank Silba
"I'm smacking you with the truth......" - Me
If allowing roughly 200 yards of total offense is considered porous, I hope the Jaguars defense is porous every week.
by Alfie Crow on Sep 16, 2010 11:01 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
You hit it Frank....
the one TD pass was a result of blown coverage or someone falling down. It is important and expected for a QB to see those things, but it is not as impressive as a great move by the WR or a perfect pass by the QB.
The same goes both ways.
The punt coverage was blown and defenders slipped on the long run and the punt return. Without those, plus the turnover from Mathews, the Chiefs throw a complete egg on the field. The blown coverage on Naane’s TD was because of the Chiefs trying to deal with Gates. That’s not exactly an aberration. This happens pretty frequently with him on the field. You might as well be saying, if the Chargers didn’t score that one TD, they would have had 7 less points on the board.
no it was blown coverage.........
why the excuses? and that is exactly what i said, if not for the blown coverage this game would not have been as close
frankDUBZ aka Frank Silba
"I'm smacking you with the truth......" - Me
they found that doubling Gates created a problem......
but that doesn’t mean you leave a WR wide open
frankDUBZ aka Frank Silba
"I'm smacking you with the truth......" - Me
Charger fans love them some excuses don't they?
All I’m hearing is Charger fan saying “because we’re soft we couldn’t win”. Weren’t the Chiefs playing in the rain too? Did they have super cleats and the Chargers weren’t allowed to change theirs?
All I hear in all these posts is Charger fan getting pissed because Jag fan believes we can win. Like how dare we take on the mighty Chargers?!?!? Probably because they’re not that good. Just like every other year we hear about how good they are and then they get blown up.
WTF IS THE INTERNET?!?
I have point that I disagree
Chargers limit KC 68 yards partly because Matt Cassel had a terrible day throwing the ball. SD had good secondary (Not as good as Denver by the way….) but not just them was the reason why the Chiefs had 68 yards passing…
Life without knowledge is death in disguise
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by Zoltan from Budapest on Sep 16, 2010 10:48 AM EDT reply actions
exactly! cassel was just plain sloppy..........
frankDUBZ aka Frank Silba
"I'm smacking you with the truth......" - Me
I'm in the middle.
This game will be mixed bag of this article and some of the comments. Considering how much the Chargers have lost, the mathups are closer to being considered even across the board, although I do believe the Chargers are a slightly better team. But as stated in the article, this is a different Jaguar team. With the West Coast woes of last year, it is a legitimate factor to be taken into account. I’m with pksiv as I just expect to see a competitive game. And with The Linebacker as the QB play will be the ultimate decider in this game. I will say that as Phillip Rivers is considered to be a better QB than David Garrard, Garrard should be able to take advantage of the fact that Maurice Jones-Drew is a better RB than Ryan Matthews at this point. Meaning that Garrard should be able to make more use of Play Action than Rivers due to the fact that the Chargers defense will be more keyed in on Jones-Drew than the Jags defense on Mathews. With that being said, I think whichever team has a more effective running game should hold the advantage.
by kjones407 on Sep 16, 2010 11:28 AM EDT reply actions 2 recs
Good analysis
You should work for ESPN, you’re already smarter than 99.9% of them.
You can't reason with unreasonable people.
Just remember
PA depends on a good RB, but more importantly, how effective the run game is. If the Chargers can stop the run with their front 7 PA doesn’t work so well regardless of the fact that MJD is better than Matthews.
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