FanPost

Thoughts and Observations regarding the 32-3 Loss



I am not going to come out and say I am pleased that the Jaguars lost, but I will say that I am kinda glad I was able to see this game, because it really allowed me to straighten out my expectations for this team. I knew last week was a win, but I was not pleased with the win for various reasons, some of which allowed me to foresee some of what happened this week vs. The Jets.

Overall there was obviously good and bad in this weeks game, and I came to some significant conclusions following watching the game today.

THE GOOD

  • Plaxico/Santonio combine for 42 receiving yards, with Plaxico not getting any of those yards - I was pretty pleased with what I saw out of the secondary and their play against the Wide Receivers of the NY Jets. I foresaw this as potentially being an issue, and it turned out not to be the case.
  • Shonn Greene averages 3.1 YPC - this Jags front is going to be a pretty solid run stopping unit, and that is not a bad thing at all when you play 4 games vs. C. Johnson and A. Foster.
  • MJD averages 4.9 YPC - as dominant a front as the Jets have, the Jags still were able to "break through" a bit and get some solid gains out of MJD.
  • Zach Miller - Without Marcedes, I figured the TE production was actually going to be non-existent. That was not the case. Miller made a few nice catches and did end up with close to 30 yards.
  • Marc Sanchez threw 2 INT - While forcing Sanchez to throw 2 INT is no big deal in my opinion, I must say that as a whole, I was impressed with the overall defensive effort I saw on the field today. Obviously it was nowhere near good enough, but I can say that I am warming up a bit to Mel Tucker and his play calling.
  • Matt Roth - 2 game and 2 sacks. Pretty solid addition for the team.
  • Matt Turk - the dude was punting a lot and still in the end managed to average 40.6 yards a punt. I must say I am impressed that his leg still has enough juice left.

THE BAD

  • Luke McCown - Up until the 3rd INT, I was still kind of satisfied with how Luke played against the Jets impressive defense. By the time he was pulled, I was clearly not satisfied, and declared McCown to have had a disaster of a game. I attribute some of it to the excellence of the Jets defense, but those last 2 INTs were just ugly.(more on McCown down below)
  • Dustin Keller:101 yards 1 TD - Keller is a good TE, but given the $$ poured into this LB corp, there is not really a good reason for him to have thrived as he did today with his 6 receptions and 1 TD. It is also pretty unexcusable to allow him to go over 100 yards receiving with the group of LBs that are now in Jacksonville.
  • Lack of sack(s) from the DTs- no excuses. Once Mangold was out of the game, Alualu and/or Knighton should have figured out how to get to the QB for a sack. On running plays, I certainly saw a much weaker middle of the Jets O-line. Not sure why on the passing plays, they could not net a sack or 2.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

  • I am VERY confused. Prior to looking at other scores, I was figuring the Jaguars success last week was due to the inferiority of the Titans. Then I see the Titans winning by 10 over the same Ravens team that had a field day with the reigning AFC Champs last week. I am going on a limb, and going to say that the Jaguars are nowhere near as good as last week might have made you think. While thy are definitely improved over last year, there are still some key weaknesses on this team that are going to prevent them from going very far in the league this year.
  • It is very hard to win a game vs. the Jets with a passing game as weak as the Jags'. The Jets knew that they did not really need to worry about the passing game, and so they focused on stopping the run. Problem is that the Jags passing game is so weak that they could not even really go to the the pass to get the Jets defense off balance. I am no expert, so I am not sure whether the play calling needs to be improves, or if it really is a lack of talent at WR, but by the time Gabbert is fully ready to start, this situation better somehow be resolved.
  • Marcedes Lewis might be the most important offensive player on the Jaguars this year. Take MJD out, and Karim might be able to provide 1/2 of MJD. Take out Marcedes Lewis, and you don't even get 1/10 out of the TE position as you do with him in.
  • I have no clue what JDR should be doing at QB next week. Gabbert looked good, but it was garbage time he essentially was playing in. Do I really believe that Gabbert playing real minutes vs. a defense nowhere near as good as the Jets' is better than McCown against the more mediocre D? I cannot say that at all. One thing I will say is that as enticing it is to try and get DG back on a much reduced contract than the one we cut him with, I think the bridge was kind of burned once he was released. Maybe Favre is available?!!
I am sure I left things off the lists inadvertently, but I am not really in the mood to fixate on this game. I came into it expecting the Jaguars to lose, and they did. I did not expect the Jags to come out looking as bad as they did(score-wise in particular) but it was what it was and we need to live with it. What I do hope came out of this game is that Jag fans around the nation and the world actually stop and think that maybe Alfie is not crazy in some of the seemingly negative things he might say about this team. This is still a team that is lacking in areas, and so they WILL put up games like this one and look really awful.

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