This has been a trying week. First we lost a game to the Texans we could have and perhaps should have won, and in the process, learned that Jalen Ramsey wants to be traded. So when I tell you how good it feels to get a win over the hated tacks, believe it baby! Words cannot express my elation! My thoughts on the game...
1. The Tacks reached Sacksonville city limits! NINE (9) sacks was awesome!!! As dominant as he was tonight, this wasn't even Calais Campbell's best game. Taven Bryan had either 1.5-2 sacks. Combine that with his two pressures last week, it looks like he is making progress. Smoot had a couple of sacks. Only Ngakoue didn't have a sack. But a great day all around for the D-Line.
2. Continuing on the defense, I found it interesting that Bouye played RCB tonight while Ramsey played LCB. Bouye had an outstanding night, and looked ready to step in.
3. In a lot of ways this was a strange game, notable in part by the horrible games had by Fournette and Westbrook. Fournette had no room to run and was in negative yardage for most of the game. However, he had two fairly important plays despite all of the futility. He had a one handed 3rd down catch that, although it didn't make a first down, put the team in much better FG position to help make the score 20-7. Then he had a 69 yard run in the 4th quarter to put the ball deep in tack territory late in the game. As for Westbrook, he had three drops, including what would have been Minshew's 3rd TD pass. Had the tacks come back to win, thse two guys would have been big time goats.
4. Speaking of that last possession, what was Marrone thinking going for it instead of kicking the FG? Take the points!
5. The offensive line simply has to do better in run blocking, no two ways about it. On top of that,we've got to cut out all of the holding penalties.
6. Cook had an okay game and Lambo was like clockwork. But the real hero of special teams was Leon Jacobs, who recovered the fumbled punt early in the game and had a good game shutting down Derrick Henry on the ground.
7. Rookie Watch
- Josh Allen-Played a part on the QB carnage tonight. Had his first forced fumble of Mariota, I think he was credited with a sack when he bull rushed tack RT Conklin into Mariota, drew a holding penalty on Conklin, and had another pressure forcing a bad pass from Mariota. Congrats!
- Jawaan Taylor-Did a good job in pass protection, as Minshew was not harassed too much tonight. Run blocking is problematic with him and every other lineman.
- Josh Oliver-DNP
- Quincy Williams-Did not have that whoa play like he had last Sunday, but I would say he played well. I DO, however, wonder how in the hell he wound up covering Humphries.
- Ryquell Armstead-Was not listed among the inactives, but I did not see him play.
- Gardner Minshew II-had an outstanding game. After the 1st quarter, by which time he had already thrown 2 TDs, I was wondering when the last time a Jaguars QB threw two TDs against the tacks. Once again, he generally avoided bad throws, though he had one dangerous but accurate throw into double coverage. He wasn't afraid to attack downfield on closely covered receivers, trusting them to make a play, and placing the ball perfectly and putting them in the position to do so. As I referenced earlier, he should have had a third TD, but Westbrook dropped a perfectly thrown pass. For Minshew to NOT have thrown an INT at this stage of his career, or for that matter to have many other look like a rookie type moments is more than anyone could reasonably expect, and I am absolutely thrilled.
- Dontavious Russell-DNP
9. Hope Jack is okay.
10. Screw the tacks!
11. D.J. Chark had yet another strong performance. He caught contested balls, got vertical, and scored a TD, averaging almost 20 yards a reception.
12. Bottom line-Though I don't want to see Ramsey get traded, I feel better about our short term and longer term future right now. We finally got our first win of the season, playing disciplined defense. We finally beat the [BLEEP] Titans and guaranteed they will be in last place for the weekend due to two division losses and the head to head loss to us. Though I am loathe to make this analysis, I can't help but think we caught a break with the schedule in the coming weeks with Darnold, Brees, and newton all seemingly unhealthy for our upcoming games. With all of the rumored suitors for Ramsey, it's looking more and more like we'll get the 2 first round picks for Ramsey and maybe more if the team decides to grant his trade request. Oh yeah...SCREW the tacks!
Worst to 1st. Curse Reversed!
