The 2011 Jags

[JaxRed]

Officiating wasn't great. And I do think the Jags benefited from that. But these were pretty evenly matched teams as the stats would indicate.

Again to me the difference was coaching.

We had 3 things that had been problem before that were not fixed and they bit us in the butt again.

1. Turk has been terrible all year. There was no reason for him to be on the field. He should have been cut. Instead he had 3 punts under 35 yards (2 of them less then 30). And at the time we need a punt to really be boomed (end of game with Jags ahead and on their own 6 he unleashes a 22 yarder. Bengals take it in to go ahead. COACHING

2. Punt Returner - Mentioned in 2 other game recaps, our punt returner seems to make the wrong decision on every punt. He catches them inside the 10 to pin us back, but lets ball outside the 10 bounce and get downed inside the 10. And that's why we were on our 6 yard line. He let a ball bounce and it went out at the 2. He should have been replaced as punt returner. We have at least 2 other guys who have done it previously. COACHING

3. The infamous snap to nowhere. It was incredibly obvious last week that 2 minute offense was a MAJOR problem. (and had occurred in pre-season also). Last week the center wouldn't snap the ball (among other issues) and this week he shouldn't have. COACHING

4. And a new issue came up this week that showed Del Rios lack of knowledge. Last week it was his not knowing the clock would start after the review was over. This week he managed to blow the coin-toss.

If you remember at the beginning of the game, the announcers said the Bengals won the coin toss and elected to defer. That means the Jags would be able to choose to either get the ball to start the game or to choose a goal to defend. The Jags took the ball. That means the Bengals have the same choice to start the 2nd half. The could get the ball or get the wind at their back in the 4th. Probably because the game was tied, the Bengals elected to get the ball, and let the Jags have the favorable wind in the 4th. Except a funny thing happened on the way to the forum, the Jags chose to defend a goal that would have the significant wind in their face in the 4th quarter.. COACHING.

I'm ready now. Pull the trigger. Let him go tomorrow.

[Sea Ray]

I'm glad you brought up # 4 and I agree. In fact even Dave Lapham had to be corrected on that after the game by Marvin Lewis. It was the Jags choice on when to take the wind in the 2nd half. That was poor coaching but coaches do that all the time. For some reason when kicking off teams often choose the wind advantage for that qtr. The only time that strategy works is if the wind dies down late in the afternoon.

[Redsfaithful]

I think Jacksonville has an interesting core. They don't seem more than a year away if they make good decisions. Gabbert looked solid to me when he had time to throw.

[bucksfan2]

Wow. Was that ever prophetic?

I saw a pretty decent defense and a QB worth sticking with. Definitely Del Rio needs to go but is an interim coach the way to go? We have a lot of experience with that here and generally what happens is the new coach brings energy over and above what the old, stale coach had and ends up finishing well. That usually earns the new guy a long term contract but the new found energy can't continue into the new season and you're left with a less desirable situation than what you could have had. The only reason I'd switch coaches in mid season is if I felt we had a shot at the playoffs. If not, take your lumps and enjoy the nice draftpick.

This was one of those games that I figured could go either way and that's exactly how it turned out. Jacksonville's not too good but our Bengals aren't good enough to blow anyone out, especially on the road.

I thought the officiating was real shaky. On one play the nose tackle was literally touching our center, Cook, before the ball was snapped yet no call. How do you miss that?

I got the feeling that the Bengals were the superior team. I thought having to go into the wind coupled with Andy's awful int early in the game made Gruden go ultra conservative in the 3rd quarter. I think they felt that defense was playing well enough to wait until the 4th quarter. In the end the Jags go ahead TD was on a blown pass coverage and nothing more than that.

Winning on the road in the NFL is difficult. I wouldn't exactly put the Jags on the Bengals level. The Bengals D is better, Dalton is further along in development than Gabbert, and the Bengals have better special teams. For what its worth, Marvin has gotten a lot of flack lately about his coaching, but I think he coached a very good game yesterday. Some gutsy play calls and the decision to go for it on 4th down and also run the clock down to the 2 minute warning were decisions that ended up working. The game reminded me of Tressel ball. Not exactly exciting but the job got done.

[Sea Ray]

Not surprisingly, the Jags cut Matt Turk today but what hit me was that they signed him for $2mill earlier this year and I guess they're on the hook for all of that. Can you confirm this Jax?

[JaxRed]

Yep, Jags screwed up by letting a good punter go in FA, then signing someone no one else wanted for more than league minimum. Stupid.

[Redsfaithful]

The new punter they signed isn't very good either. Unless he's improved. He was frustrating when he was a Bengal.

[JaxRed]

So the Jags just lost on the road to the Steelers 17-13. This game was not as close as the score indicated. Especially in the first half the Steelers dominated.

But Jags defense tightened and Jags had a chance to win, but couldn't do it. So, the obvious problems all year have been coaching related. So how did coaching do this week?:

1. Punter - Punter released, new punter in. Result: punting problem solved. See how easy this is?

2. Punt returns - Jags decide NOT to replace the punt returner. Result: Steelers punt 6 times we ended up with 1 return for 7 yards. He ran away from a couple punts afraid to make a mistake. Punt Return Problem not solved.

3. All we really know about the 2 minute drive issues is that they did not screw up a snap and when Gabbert needed to spike the ball he did.

4. But bad coaching decisions still raised their ugly head. Partway thru the game when the Jags ran on first down they mentioned that the Jags run on 1st down more than any other team 66% of the time. In crunch time with 4:00 left on the clock, Jags down by 7 the ball on the Pittsburgh 25, 3rd down and 4..... Jags decide to run and not throw, (questionable) and.... they take out Jones-Drew and run it with the backup.

Later with Steelers up 4 and the Jags on D, the Jags let 20 seconds run off the clock before they call time out.

[Sea Ray]

Let's hear it for the Jags for upsetting the Ravens last night! Again, Del Rio had coaching issues. Why in the world challenge that Flacco was out of the endzone when he was in by 2 feet? I'm sure Jags fans were scratching their heads over that one. But that pales in comparison to the coaching mistake made by the Ravens when they tried an onside kick with 2:02 remaining and two TOs. You've got a great run stopping team vs a rookie QB. Kick it out of the endzone without the clock starting and stop three Jag runs and you'll end up with the ball around midfield. I can't believe they handled it that way. Oh well. Good to see that it's not just here in Cincinnati that we have coaching gaffes.

[medford]

yeah, that move was head scratching. If (I don't know how easily their kicker could kick it out of the endzone, but the announcers made it sound like he should have no problem with it) they kick it out, Jacksonville would need a 1st down to ice the game. Don't recover the onside kick, and Jacksonville still needs a 1st down to ice the game. It would seem that the % play would be to kick it off deep and hope for the punt at about the 1:30 mark, setting you up in good field position for a GW field goal. The % of recovering the on sides, and driving the additional yardage needed from that point over the expected spot you'd start w/ the punt has to be lower.

[JaxRed]

So, the Jags win a game, that no one thought they could. It was all on the defense (and the placekicker).

Jags spent on defense in FA and it has shown well all season but never like tonight. All the defenders were back and healthy (although Kampman is playing he's not back to normal).

Jags finally did the right thing, replaced the punt returner. Boom, problem solved.

The funny thing is, in the weak AFC South, if the Jags beat the Texans this week, they are one game out.

Obviously the offense has to get way better, Gabbert has to start showing improvement, and the O-Line has to get healthy. It's been a patchwork.

Sundays game should say a lot about the rest of the season.

[Redsfaithful]

That defense is for real. Has me thinking I dismissed the Jags too early.

[JaxRed]

Playing catch-up. The Jags had a bye week and I was in Arizona for a week. The Jags went into Texas and showed they are not quite ready to play with the big boys. (essentially on offense). Gabbert had his worst game yet. The big question was whether Del Rio would survive the off week. Obviously he did.

Coming back after the bye the Jags went to Indy and handled the Colts fairly well 17-3. Defense outstanding and Gabbert was a little better.

At this point, seeing Gabbert get better is what the Jags need to see over the rest of the season. Although there's some dreaming that with Texans QB doing down for year, if they falter there is a slight chance. (so you're telling me there's a chance....)

[Razor Shines]

Defense outstanding? They allowed the Colts 3 pts without Addai and Clark. A good high school team could have done that.

[JaxRed]

Yea, real sorry they gave up 3. Defense obviously was weak that day.