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Cowboy Killers

Week One Wrap-up.

Aight folks, the Jacksonville "Cowboy Killer" Jaguars get to celebrate their victory over the Dallas Cowboys with a long week of preparation against their old AFC Central rivals, the Pittsburg Steelers.  We'll have some discussion here about the legacy of the terrible towel in Jacksonville and why this Monday night will be a different prime-time experience for the TV friendly steelers.

But first, let's go around the "Pundit-o-Sphere" and hear what the national media thought of Jacksonville's victory.

ESPN.com's Michael Smith had some nice things to say about Jax (also posted here in case ESPN takes it off their NFL section).  My favorite bit was where DE Marcellus Wiley said that

"We don't ride the waves as much as other teams I've been on."

That's a good statement on Jacksonville.  We don't have the up and down motions in season that other teams suffer from.  We play pretty consistant every week, with exceptions made for when Byron went down from injury last year.  

Actually, I lied, my REAL favorite part of the article is this shot across the bow to the sports commentary world from Byron Leftwich, he said:

"I'm not a slow quarterback. I'm just the slowest black quarterback. I'm in the middle of the pack with everyone else."

Byron makes a good point.  He's considered a slow immobile quarterback...when he's placed next to Daunte Culpepper, Michael Vick and Donovan McNabb.  If you toss him into the whole league, he's faster than Mark Bulger, Trent Green, Matt Hassel"quarter"back, etc.  But when you start implying that black quarterbacks should be more athletic than their white counterparts, you undo the work of decades of integration at the QB position.  Why should we question the athleticism of a black pocket passer when we don't do the same for a white one?  Peyton Manning averages 2.7 yards per carry, Byron 3.3, yet nobody questions that Peyton is a good quarterback in spite of his obvious immobility.  (Golden Boy Brady averages 1.7 ypc, Vick 6.9)

Anyhow, enough of that tangent, that's a good debate for the comments.

Well, it's to be expected...defeat a team with a national audience and what happens...their defeat gets covered by a national media.  Yeah, I scoured the web yesterday and today, all the big time sports pundits with their post game wrap-ups of the weekend were sure to mention the possible quarterback controversy in Dallas, but few would even mention the Jaguars (or even go for the negative story with the loss of Reggie Hayward)  Gregg Easterbrook who claims to cover every team in his "Tuesday morning quarterback" had just this to say about the Jags

Yes, the blitz sometimes works: a Jacksonville six-blitz on third-and-10 in the fourth quarter forced Drew Bledsoe into a killer intentional grounding
SI.com's Peter King did not mention Jacksonville's side of the game at all, just a bit of coverage on the struggles of Drew Bledslo.

Don Banks just noted that it was

t was Bledsoe who got the Cowboys beat with those three picks in Jacksonville on Sunday. In a game Dallas dominated in the first half, he sucked the momentum right out of the Cowboys. Terrell Owens can't be the difference-maker in Dallas if Bledsoe doesn't keep his team in the game.

Don obviously diddn't watch much of the first half, Jacksonville dominated the Second Quarter pretty soundly.

Ok, enough bitching at the national media.  Next I'll be doing a closer look at the situation at Defensive End with the loss of Reggie Hayward.

-Chris