Howdy,
Before diving into what's left of our season, I'd like to share some interesting Jag's stuff done by our devout, albeit sparce, internet fan base.
First, the often loud but always passionate RasheanMachine has put together on his site a wonderful compliation of early Jaguars history. I especially enjoy the year by year breakdown. Check out 1996 if you need something to perk up after Sunday's defeat.
Yeah, some of the material is grabbed from other places on the Internet, but it's coming together and getting the resources of another Great Jag's fan site over at JagNation. So give them some attention, help some good fans out.
I think I've found my favorite football blog of all time. It's from the Math Wizzes at Pro Football Reference. It's mathtacular and often concerning (they predicted pretty well what would happen to Jacksonville) but always entertaining.
I've been thinking a lot about what needs to change for this team. I've got too farsighted of a perspective to advocate "blowing the thing up" and starting over like I've seen floating around the internets, but it's hard not to wonder what's gonna happen this off-season.
I think that Carl Smith should be replaced. His playcalling is designed to not lose games and instead puts Jacksonville in the posistion of running dangerous plays late in the game to keep up. We've lost all three games decided by three points or less, we've got absoutly no deep threat, and oh yeah, where'd Reggie Williams go? His game plan against the Patriots was only Maurice Jones-Drew, and aside from a Fluke TD, failed to keep the Jags in the game. It wasn't till the "game-plan" was tossed out late in the 4th that Jacksonville moved the ball with any energy at all.
Along those lines, Byron Leftwich, for better or worse, is going to go. No team this close to greatness can survive a two headeded beast in the Locker room. Del Rio made his choice, now he's gotta stick with it. Hate on Garrard all you want, but he's still developing as a starter and I think he'll keep improving. He just needs to quit trying to win the game with his feet.
I hate the Wide Receiver situation, but I think it's very important in the off-season to acquire a top ten wide receiver. We need the guy who demands double coverage every time and we've got the Cap Space and the situation to handle it. I'm not saying we need TO or Randy Moss, but someone.
Defensivly all we need is time. Get everyone healthy again combined with the depth we discovered we have this season and you've got the potential number one overall defense next season. Put Hayward, Peterson, and Darius back in the mix and you've given every Offensive Coordinator in the league nightmares.
Obviously we've got a long time to talk about these things and decide what needs to be done. But this is what I'm thinking as of now.
Happy Boxing Day!
-C