Jacksonville Jaguars Fan Forums

1. Simplify the run game- we saw this against Indianapolis and Ryan O even wrote an article(http://jacksonville.com/sports/2016-10-0...over-colts) on it, the Jaguars simplified the run game with more "North/South" power runs against the Colts and had plenty of success. The Jags were using more of a stretch "ZBS" their first 3 games which is really baffling, considering they like to run behind Cann and Parnell on the right side of the line, both Cann & Parnell profile as more power/gap linemen. I think we'll see more North/South power runs moving forward.

 

2.Replace Dan Skuta with Myles Jack- this is a no brainer, there isn't anything Skuta does that Jack can't do, when Skuta is on the field the Jags easily have one of the slower line-backing cores in football, even with Telvin Smith in there, it's the exact opposite with Jack. Sure he's going to make mistakes, every rookie makes mistakes, but the more playing time Jack gets the more comfortable he'll be as the season wears on, I think this team has a legitimate shot of  winning this division, it's important to get your best players on the field for the important battles to come.

 

3. Find a way to incorporate Allen Hurns into the offense- We all know what Hurns can do when the ball is in his hand, we saw it in London last week, Hurns needs to get targeted 6-8 times/game, he's a legitimate play-maker in the short, intermediate, and deep passing game, he isn't just a one trick pony. Teams are giving A-Rob extra attention, make them pay by getting the ball to your next best play-maker.

 

4. Get creative in blitz packages- with the return of Aaron Colvin, the Jaguars easily have one of the more talented and deeper CB cores in football, we also have a very good/deep defensive line, but I think the edge pressure is going to be inconsistent given the fact that we're relying on essentially two rookies at that position. Both Fowler and Yannick have exceeded my expectations so far, but there will be games where these two "rookies" will struggle to generate pressure from the edge, allowing teams to double Malik Jackson which will limit the effectiveness of our pass rush. This is where the strength of the secondary comes into play, the Jaguars have 4 corners that are capable of "holding" up in coverage for 2-4 seconds, this should afford Gus & Todd the opportunity to create blitz packages that capitalize on the strength of it's secondary<b>. </b>We don't necessarily have to "sack" the QB, the goal is to disrupt the timing of opposing offenses forcing the ball to come out "quick", we have a lot of inexperienced and ineffective QB's coming up on our schedule, blitz the leaving heck out of them and force them to make quick/decisive decisions. More times than not, they'll fail in this regard.

 

5. Find a way to get the ball deep downfield to our home-run hitters- specifically A-Rob & Marqise Lee, this is predicated on our ability to run the ball, assuming the simplified run game works, this should afford Greg Olsen the opportunity to capitalize by dialing up plenty of deep vertical routes and deep crossing routes. This is an offense that if it's able to run the ball, it should be able to pick passing yards in "chunks" due to the personnel at WR & TE.

 

6. Figure out the Nickel CB spot- this spot is ideal for Aaron Colvin, I'm assuming Davon house will be relegated to the 4th or maybe even 5th CB position, he doesn't have the quickness (or tackling prowess) to man the slot. This is actually a good problem to have, like i said before, we're loaded at the CB position. 

 

7. More aggressiveness (early in games) on both sides of the ball- We don't necessarily have to come out and play "Al Davis" ball early in games, but it would be nice to see more vertical shots early in games, on the flip side, I would like to see more "manufactured pressure" (blitzes) early in games on the defensive side of the ball. The goal should always be to "stress" your opponent, I don't think we do that enough. This team has to find a way to start fast, particularly on offense.

 

8. Be ready (and willing) to make in-game adjustments- I have no idea why it took 3 weeks for this coaching to staff to simplify a run game that was ineffective for 12 quarters, it shouldn't take that long. It also shouldn't have taken this long to get Myles Jack on the field, this is one of one my pet peeves of this coaching staff, they're incredibly stubborn in their approach. The best coaching staffs in football are willing and able to not only make "half-time" adjustments, but they make drive-to-drive adjustments as well, in terms of personnel & ability to adjust to what the other team is doing. Case and point, I was watching the Chargers-Saints game last week, the Saints easily have the worst defense in football and were getting absolutely abused by that Chargers offense in the first half. They were able to basically shut-out San Diego in the 2nd half by going away from zone coverage, and switching to a man-press blitz heavy scheme. This dramatically slowed down the effectiveness of Philip Rivers and the rest of that Chargers offense, allowing Drew Brees to work his magic late in that game, leading to an improbable Saints win on the road. 

 

Well, these are my bye week adjustments, what are yours? 

I misread the title...I thought you had to do an 8" adjustment...my bad.

Quote:I misread the title...I thought you had to do an 8" adjustment...my bad.

Haha yea now looking at it, it is kind of confusing

I agree with everything you said. My only tweak would be to stretch the field more with Robinson and Hurns. I'd leave Lee in on short/intermediate routes to allow him to run after the catch. That's his bread and butter. A good tight end can help open some of those shorter lanes, too. We saw that some with Julius.

It's pretty sad that it takes this coaching staff so long to figure out simply changes.

 

Sign Ivory. Force him into a zone blocking scheme. Doesn't work? Oh man... (4 games later) Let's try something else.

 

Jack is an exceptional LB you say? Well not in this house. Skuta is our man.

Quote:I agree with everything you said. My only tweak would be to stretch the field more with Robinson and Hurns. I'd leave Lee in on short/intermediate routes to allow him to run after the catch. That's his bread and butter. A good tight end can help open some of those shorter lanes, too. We saw that some with Julius.

 

I agree with this, the truth is Lee (like Hurns & Robinson) can be effective at every level of the field, each guys is almost interchangeable in terms of their ability to work each part of the field. The reason I mentioned Lee is Blake has missed him on a couple of would-be long TD's, he's the one guy that can take the top off secondaries with his speed. Not a bad problem to have for Greg & Blake, 3 dynamic pass catchers on the outside and at TE.

Don't you people realize this coaching staff is incapable of making adjustments? Don't expect too much or you will just end up disappointed. 

Quote:I agree with everything you said. My only tweak would be to stretch the field more with Robinson and Hurns. I'd leave Lee in on short/intermediate routes to allow him to run after the catch. That's his bread and butter. A good tight end can help open some of those shorter lanes, too. We saw that some with Julius.

 

Since Blake is having big time accuracy issues throwing deep to Lee, this seems to be exactly what they already are doing to utilize him.  (I don't think it's his bread and butter though. Blake has just failed to hit him on the deep stuff.)

 

In my opinion numbers 1,2, 3 and 6 in the OP are fixes that have also already been made. They changed the run game up a bit in London and even though they ran outside some, there was less pulling by guards and tackles. Less ZBS concepts in general. I expect that will continue. 

 

BTW  - this myth of Hurns not being involved is weird to me. Just because he hasn't made as many plays as some people expected doesn't mean he's not part of the game plan.  He's had 27 targets.  That's pretty "involved." He's also been on the field for 72 more snaps than Lee. 

He's only had 16 catches because of Blake's issues (plus a few drops and some just quality secondary play by SD)

We'll see more from 88.

Quote:It's pretty sad that it takes this coaching staff so long to figure out simply changes.

 

Sign Ivory. Force him into a zone blocking scheme. Doesn't work? Oh man... (4 games later) Let's try something else.

 

Jack is an exceptional LB you say? Well not in this house. Skuta is our man.

 

I think Ivory profiles as more of a "one cut and go" ZBS back, Yeldon doesn't at all, but I agree with your overall assessment. Whats truly baffling is the two linemen the Jags like to run behind the most (Cann & Parnell) don't profile as ZBS linemen, Cann profiled as a "mauler" coming out of South Carolina with limited athleticism, Jeremy Parnell replaced Doug Free in Dallas an excelled in their power-gap scheme, we bring into Jacksonville and ask him to do something totally different, it's completely non-nonsensical, it's an indictment on this coaching staffs stubbornness/unwillingness to adjust their scheme to fit their player personnel. 

I agree with the OP on all of these

Quote:Since Blake is having big time accuracy issues throwing deep to Lee, this seems to be exactly what they already are doing to utilize him.


In my opinion numbers 1,2, 3 and 6 in the OP are fixes that have also already been made. They changed the run game up a bit in London and even though they ran outside some, there was less pulling by guards and tackles. Less ZBS concepts in general. I expect that will continue.


BTW - this myth of Hurns not being involved is weird to me. Just because he hasn't made as many plays as some people expected doesn't mean he's not part of the game plan. He's had 27 targets. That's pretty "involved." He's also been on the field for 72 more snaps than Lee.

He's only had 16 catches because of Blake's issues (plus a few drops and some just quality secondary play by SD)

We'll see more from 88.

I thought they said last year zone blocking was kicking the bucket and we would focus more on gap blocking? Perhaps I'm wrong but their run selection, i.e. zone concepts, seemed present the first three games. Never mind the fact that it appeared as if they were gap blocking during the preseason. I also thought part of the reason they drafted Cann was so they could gap block. Well, what do I know?

Quote:I thought they said last year zone blocking was kicking the bucket and we would focus more on gap blocking? Perhaps I'm wrong but their run selection, i.e. zone concepts, seemed present the first three games. Never mind the fact that it appeared as if they were gap blocking during the preseason. I also thought part of the reason they drafted Cann was so they could gap block. Well, what do I know?

 

I think most all of us found it odd that they injected the zone stuff back in there when reg. season started. I doubt we see much of it moving forward based on Bradley's comments about "simplifying the run game" in a recent presser. 

Quote:I think most all of us found it odd that they injected the zone stuff back in there when reg. season started. I doubt we see much of it moving forward based on Bradley's comments about "simplifying the run game" in a recent presser.

Hope this is true, because if it is, bogus penalties may not help teams going forward. Defensive ranking may also see a benefit as well.

What I don't understand is why when we win, the staff always says "our plan was to be much more aggressive" and it works. But then all of a sudden we go into the next week not as aggressive and lose, and then say we have no idea why...


Why not just always be very aggressive?

Quote:What I don't understand is why when we win, the staff always says "our plan was to be much more aggressive" and it works. But then all of a sudden we go into the next week not as aggressive and lose, and then say we have no idea why...


Why not just always be very aggressive?

 

I thought their plan to adjust the aggressiveness of the pass rush versus Rodgers was a wise one. 

 

They tried to ramp it up against Rivers but just got beat by that O-Line.  They sent DBs, LBs, stunting ends and the kitchen sink a couple of times. 

 

Didn't work. In fact two of the explosive plays from Rivers came when there was a blitzing DB and someone running uncovered in the secondary:/

I think we're all in agreement on these issues. It's pretty straight forward, so let's just hope the coaching staff realizes the same thing...... and fast!

Quote:I think Ivory profiles as more of a "one cut and go" ZBS back, Yeldon doesn't at all, but I agree with your overall assessment. Whats truly baffling is the two linemen the Jags like to run behind the most (Cann & Parnell) don't profile as ZBS linemen, Cann profiled as a "mauler" coming out of South Carolina with limited athleticism, Jeremy Parnell replaced Doug Free in Dallas an excelled in their power-gap scheme, we bring into Jacksonville and ask him to do something totally different, it's completely non-nonsensical, it's an indictment on this coaching staffs stubbornness/unwillingness to adjust their scheme to fit their player personnel.

I can't remember where exactly I heard this but it was some podcast that had an analyst breaking down the Jaguars season thus far. They said we run the outside zone stuff because it's more naturally integrated with our play action deep passing game, and plays to Bortles' strengths as a passer.


The struggles of the ZBS might also partially explain why they're having more issues with attacking downfield like last year.