(03-11-2018, 06:32 PM)DragonFury Wrote: [ -> ] (03-11-2018, 05:58 PM)JUNGLE CAT 2017 Wrote: [ -> ]New England beat us because they loaded up to stop the run in order to put the football in Blake Bortles' hands. Any team can stop the run albeit might look like the famous 10-1 electric football formation some times.
Bortles was given the football with 2:48 left.
Here is that drive:
Not a single rushing attempt. Not one.
What's your point? Because that drive happened when everybody knew we weren't going to run the ball. Prior to that last drive the Patriots stopped dead pretty much every single running play. The five longest runs in the second half covered 14, 7, 3, 3, and 3 yards. Our longest run the 4th quarter was 2 yards. Yes, the Patriots loaded up against the run but you're forgetting the most important thing: it worked.
Pittsburgh was in Cover 0 with 10 men in the box (TEN!) on Fournette's 90 yard run. Seattle was crowding the line (six men on the line, two more in the box) when Fournette went 13 yards on 3rd and 11 to seal the victory. Plenty of teams played the run and we still beat them. The Patriots beat us by playing the run and it ended up costing us the game.
Bortles was handed the football with the big game on the line. I think that's the most important thing. The Patriots stopped the pass and that ended up costing us.
The point is football is a
Hundred Yard War. You do understand how many great NFL teams have lined up with the entire stadium knowing they were going to run the football?
I recall John Madden's Oakland Raiders. Gene Upshaw and Art Shell were two of the finest offensive linemen in the history of the game. When the conditions were right, Madden pounded the football at the opponent mercilessly.
Before him, Vince Lombardi was famous for running the 'Packer Sweep'. Fuzzy Thurston and new Hall of Fame inductee, Jerry Kramer were his two pulling guards. Every defender knew it was coming.
Who is old enough to remember the devastating ground attack of the Miami Dolphins? Larry Csonka crushed people like aluminum cans and consumed the clock tick after tick after tick.
Washington? The Hogs paved the way for "Diesel" John Riggins. They used to blow a big rig horn to notify the opposing defense what was coming.
Every single one of these teams succeeded at running the football when pretty much everyone knew what they were doing.
When you say the Patriots took away the Jaguars' ability to run the football what you are saying is the Jaguars came up puny. You are saying they weren't tough enough to win the one on one match ups. They were rendered useless. They were over-powered. They knew we were gonna run the ball and stopped us.
Yet over the last four Jaguars' drives the offense attempted just four rushes. So much for having the ability to inflict your will upon the opponent?
The point is Blake Bortles was 5 of 13 for 68 total yards on those last four offensive drives. The Jaguars offense against New England was 4 of 6 on 3rd down in the first half, but just 2 of 9 in the second half.
Did Bortles choke? Not really. He just failed to perform under pressure with the big game on the line. He completed just five passes total on the last four drives. His completion percentage on those last four drives was 38%. His NFL passer rating was 55.9.
We all saw Bortles two weeks prior unable to complete passes twelve feet in front of him to the right. Blake played against the Buffalo Bills like a golfer on the green with a case of the yips. We had no more than 25% of the offensive play-book active. Fortunately the team around him continued to perform. That TD pass Bortles threw to ice the victory against Buffalo was thrown through the center of the line of scrimmage at eye-level. Take a look at it again. This time notice A. J. Cann's block on the defender covering the center. Cann flattened the defender to the turf. If he didn't execute the block, the pass most likely was broken up - batted down at the line.
Bortles had a better game against the Steelers, but the difference was the 50-yard TD fumble recovery return by Telvin Smith.
As for Blake, lots of people warned about reading too much into many of those 35 TD passes a few years back. 27 were trash-time - after the game was decided and/or the opposing defense was simply being passive.
The point is we really didn't attempt to force our will on the Patriots. We didn't sustain the rushing attack to demoralize them. Instead we put the football in Blake Bortles' hand and expected him to win the game.
It's a Hundred Yard War. You have to pound the opposing defense into submission.