02-04-2019, 09:20 AM
Over the twenty-four seasons of Jaguars football, few things were as consistently as annoying to me as the Times-Union's Tuesday morning QB feature. There was one comment in particular that lingers in my mind as particularly noxious, and that was the sentiment that TC needed to go to Tallahassee or Gainesville to learn how to win from a couple of college coaches who had never coached in the NFL, who had so many innate advantages in terms of home grown talent, eight wins a season were pretty much guaranteed with good recruiting. However, if you would permit me this near dalliance with hypocrisy for the moment, I'm going to employ a somewhat similar line of reasoning here. I maintain that if the Jaguars were paying attention, they could learn a lot from the Patriots watching yesterday's Super Bowl.
Let me preface by stating that for the purposes of this discussion, my focus here is primarily on the defense for three practical reasons. First, the offensive line suffered so many injuries last year, there was no circumstances under which they could have had sustained success or consistency. Secondly, the Patriots offer Brady, the GOAT QB. GOAT QBs are so rare, most offenses are going to suffer by comparison to the Patriots. Finally, despite the defense being this team's clear strength over the last few years, I focus on this side of the ball because in a lot of ways, it was the most disappointing/underachieving unit on the team last season. I continue by stating that my thoughts are not designed to disparage our coaching staff, though plenty of able and astute posters can take these same facts and argue against them. But history has proven that few can devise a defensive game plan like Belichick, who has shut down the Walsh-Montana-Rice led offenses of the 49ers, the Kelly-Thomas-Reed led Bills of the 1990s, the greatest show on Turf Rams, the Manning/Luck Colts offenses, and now the McVay led Rams. It's not a knock against Marrone/Wash to suggest they would suffer by comparison to Belichick in that area. However, in terms of professionalism and playing effectively as a team, the Jaguars suffer by a fair and warranted critical comparison to the champs.
Judging strictly on talent, an examination of the Patriots and Jaguars defensive rosters would show maybe two or three guys on the Patriots who could start for the Jaguars: LB Donta Hightower would start over Myles Jack, CB Stephon Gilmore would start over A.J. Bouye, and SS Patrick Chung would start over Barry Church. In offering those three, I readily none of those replacements would be wholly without controversy. But those three notwithstanding, there is no way that Patriots defense is more talented player for player than the defense we have here.
Yet when I follow the offseason, you don't hear any Patriots giving brutally honest antagonistic interviews like Ramsey gave. Make no mistake, I absolutely believe players-especially those who walk the walk like Ramsey- have as much right to voice their opinions as candidly as anyone else. But they don't seem to invite unneeded controversy with their words. Yet when I watch the Patriots play, notably absent are galling mental mistakes that so riddled this defense last season. Though I concede Belichick may disagree, absent are the ridiculous personal foul penalties and blown assignments that spread through our defense like the plague. Yet when I watch the Patriots play, I don't see the games where I question the overall effort the way we did on the Thursday night game against the tacks. Granted the team was working on a short week, with the burden of trying to carry the team all year with very scant help from the offense, but I never seem to see any performances like that from the Patriots. They may have games where they aren't as effective as they would prefer to be. But on the whole, the other team makes the big plays (see the Keelan Cole catch) to achieve those results. The Patriots make them earn it and don't give non tax deductible charitable contributions to opposing offenses the way the Jaguars' defense did last year. When the Jaguars play a focused brand of football on the defensive side of the ball, when the team is motivated and adhere to their assignments, when the energy and effort are there, they are capable of some amazing things (see the shut out of a red hot Colts team). But too often last year, the free yardage and points readily surrendered by penalties and other mental mistakes hurt this team's performance last year and, if not curtailed, can cause more damage to this team's chances once the offense is back up to a more acceptable level.
As distasteful as the 2018 season was for the Jaguars, perhaps, in some sick and twisted way, it was needed for the team to mature. Maybe the team needed to learn that as talented as they are on defense, they can't just throw their helmets on the field and expect the opposition to roll over. Maybe they needed to learn they weren't invincible. But I submit a close study of the Patriots would be a good way for this team to internalize those lessons and become the team we think they can be.
Let me preface by stating that for the purposes of this discussion, my focus here is primarily on the defense for three practical reasons. First, the offensive line suffered so many injuries last year, there was no circumstances under which they could have had sustained success or consistency. Secondly, the Patriots offer Brady, the GOAT QB. GOAT QBs are so rare, most offenses are going to suffer by comparison to the Patriots. Finally, despite the defense being this team's clear strength over the last few years, I focus on this side of the ball because in a lot of ways, it was the most disappointing/underachieving unit on the team last season. I continue by stating that my thoughts are not designed to disparage our coaching staff, though plenty of able and astute posters can take these same facts and argue against them. But history has proven that few can devise a defensive game plan like Belichick, who has shut down the Walsh-Montana-Rice led offenses of the 49ers, the Kelly-Thomas-Reed led Bills of the 1990s, the greatest show on Turf Rams, the Manning/Luck Colts offenses, and now the McVay led Rams. It's not a knock against Marrone/Wash to suggest they would suffer by comparison to Belichick in that area. However, in terms of professionalism and playing effectively as a team, the Jaguars suffer by a fair and warranted critical comparison to the champs.
Judging strictly on talent, an examination of the Patriots and Jaguars defensive rosters would show maybe two or three guys on the Patriots who could start for the Jaguars: LB Donta Hightower would start over Myles Jack, CB Stephon Gilmore would start over A.J. Bouye, and SS Patrick Chung would start over Barry Church. In offering those three, I readily none of those replacements would be wholly without controversy. But those three notwithstanding, there is no way that Patriots defense is more talented player for player than the defense we have here.
Yet when I follow the offseason, you don't hear any Patriots giving brutally honest antagonistic interviews like Ramsey gave. Make no mistake, I absolutely believe players-especially those who walk the walk like Ramsey- have as much right to voice their opinions as candidly as anyone else. But they don't seem to invite unneeded controversy with their words. Yet when I watch the Patriots play, notably absent are galling mental mistakes that so riddled this defense last season. Though I concede Belichick may disagree, absent are the ridiculous personal foul penalties and blown assignments that spread through our defense like the plague. Yet when I watch the Patriots play, I don't see the games where I question the overall effort the way we did on the Thursday night game against the tacks. Granted the team was working on a short week, with the burden of trying to carry the team all year with very scant help from the offense, but I never seem to see any performances like that from the Patriots. They may have games where they aren't as effective as they would prefer to be. But on the whole, the other team makes the big plays (see the Keelan Cole catch) to achieve those results. The Patriots make them earn it and don't give non tax deductible charitable contributions to opposing offenses the way the Jaguars' defense did last year. When the Jaguars play a focused brand of football on the defensive side of the ball, when the team is motivated and adhere to their assignments, when the energy and effort are there, they are capable of some amazing things (see the shut out of a red hot Colts team). But too often last year, the free yardage and points readily surrendered by penalties and other mental mistakes hurt this team's performance last year and, if not curtailed, can cause more damage to this team's chances once the offense is back up to a more acceptable level.
As distasteful as the 2018 season was for the Jaguars, perhaps, in some sick and twisted way, it was needed for the team to mature. Maybe the team needed to learn that as talented as they are on defense, they can't just throw their helmets on the field and expect the opposition to roll over. Maybe they needed to learn they weren't invincible. But I submit a close study of the Patriots would be a good way for this team to internalize those lessons and become the team we think they can be.