First off, I would like to thank John and the rest of the guys at Gang Green Nation for coming over and being so classy all week.
The Jaguars have often been called the most consistently inconsistent team in the NFL. Up one week and down the next. This time, they decided to trump that and go schizo in the process of one game. The Jaguars came out in the first half and took it to the Jets second ranked defense. Pounding away with Maurice Jones-Drew and then giving David Garrard time, the Jaguars stupefied defensive genius Rex Ryan.
However, in the second half, Ryan made a few adjustments that tipped the scales in his favor. Having Darrell Revis stick on Mike Sims-Walker was the first adjustment. The other was having his defense sellout to stop Jones-Drew. That combination managed to limit the Jaguars to just 18 yards of offense in the first 26 minutes of the second half. However, the Jaguars managed to rekindle the offense for a final drive that saw this team's best crunch time performance since the 2007 playoff win at Pittsburgh.
Offensively, I'm of two minds right now. I give Dirk Koetter a lot of credit for coming in with a solid gameplan that got the Jaguars up to a 21-10 half time lead. However, his refusal to adjust when the Jets clearly had it figured out is troubling. However, all in all I believe he did a good job.
Maurice Jones-Drew continues to show how important he is to this team. Jones-Drew had 91 yards going into halftime, only to be stopped consistently in the 2nd. Also, Mike Sims-Walker's forced absense showed how much he is a key to the offense. The fact Revis so totally shut him down shows he still has a ways to go before joining the upper tier of wide receivers.
The fumble at the goal line almost cost the Jaguars their season and is yet another bad red zone play in a season full of bad red zone plays. Expect more on that in this week's Comcast article.
Defensively, I genuinely liked what I saw from this team. I'll go so far as to say I think this was the best 60 minutes they've played all year. Until exhaustion creeped in during the 4th quarter, they were playing lights out and forcing mistakes.
The defense held the #1 rushing unit in football 60 yards below their season average. The Jaguars also held the Jets to a season low 3.8 yards per rush. If this isn't an indication the 4-3 is here to stay, I don't know what is.
Watching Mark Sanchez today, I thought about the first time the Jaguars went against Vince Young. Young was flat out horrible that game and convinced me he was never going to be an effective Pro QB. I don't get that feeling from Sanchez. He's learning on the job and makes plenty of mistakes, but he seems like he has the head and arm to be a Pro QB.
Congratulations go out to Rashean Mathis. His interception to start the ball game set the franchise record with 28 career INTs. H/T to Vic for pointing that out.
Also a shout out to Sean Considine. He played easily his best game as a Jagaurs delivering a few big hits to knock balls out and was a sure tackler today.
Whether or not you agree with Maurice Jones-Drew's decision to kneel at the one, I think it showed a great football acumen and how unselfish he is.
Jarrett Dillard's season ending injury is certainly a blow for this team. Perhaps this means Nate Hughes will get a second chance.
This was a game neither team seemingly wanted to win until the very end, with plenty of mistakes on both sides. However, the Jaguars got a big road win against a wild card competitor, and that is all that matters.
-Jonathan Loesche