(09-12-2021, 06:31 PM)Bullseye Wrote: 1.  I have no problem bashing my team if it commits stupid penalties that kill themselves.  But for the life of me, I don't understand ANY of the first three horse [BLEEP] holding penalties against us.  Linder threw what looked like a clean block with no holding.  I'm not a huge fan of Jawaan Taylor, but I have no clue what the refs saw on his holding call.  They actually managed to call offensive holding on a CB-#40.  It got to the point where I was actually surprised when we had a positive run that WASN'T called back due to offensive holding.  It was down right insulting to see Texans fans indignant about the false start penalty on the 4th down when the C lifted his head and the ball.  In fairness to them, I thought Griffin interfered on that end zone pass  Having said all that, this was far from a solid game penalty wise.  There were still plenty of mental errors and dumb penalties.  How many illegal formation penalties can we have from Ts lining up too far back?  We blew two time outs in the first quarter.

2.  For years, people clamored for a switch to a 3-4 defense as if it would solve all our problems.  Clearly after today, it's not proven true.  While I know we needed 3-4 DL to stock the roster, I did not see us sign any true dominators.  That showed today because we weren't able to really stop the run.  While Josh Allen got an early sack, we didn't do a good job pressuring the QB.  Much like in the preseason game against the Browns, we had difficulty defending short passes outside, and compounded that by giving up deeper passes.  Cooks was the one guy who could beat us deep. and we let him do it twice (More on this later).  The bottom line is we are a long way from being solid defensively.

3.  I thought the secondary would be an area of comparative strength for us with the infusion of speed.  But I didn't imagine how poorly the team would be in terms of playing the ball.  Griffin made a great play on the ball early in the game, but dropped an INT on the first drive that could have changed the game for us.  We can't afford to NOT make a play like that.  Lots of people were upset that Wingard started ahead of Andre Cisco.  It appears they were right.  There were several times he appeared out of position and beaten, even if the completion wasn't made-like when he was beaten badly by the TE down the right side on an incomplete pass.

4.  What will it take for our receivers to consistently catch passes that are catchable?  There were, what, three dropped passes in the first quarter alone?  Granted, some of those passes were a little behind the receiver, but all of them hit the receivers in the hands.  

5.  During the preseason, I had some concern that there was offensive imbalance.  That cooncern crept up again, as TL had some 51 passes, and there was a stretch early on where they had 7 passes and zero runs.  Penalties had much to do with the imbalance early, and then it got exacerbated when the team fell behind.  But the team has to stop killing itself with penalties that put them behind schedule, and then they have to have more offensive balance, especially against teams with superior pass rushes like Denver and Arizona coming up.

6.  I know this will invariably sound like "So Mrs. Lincoln, aside from your husband being shot in the head, how did you like the play?"  But all of the penalties aside, the O-line did not play too, too badly.  Considering we were constantly in long yardage and behind throughout the game, I thought the protection was decent, only giving up a sack.  I thought they also did a decent job opening holes in the running game, considering those early holding calls were complete fiction.

7.  Rookie Watch:

     a.  Trevor Lawrence-I thought he was okay today, all things considering.  He had moments where he looked really good, like the TD passes to Manhertz and Chark.  He climbed the pocket well, and moved while looking to pass.  There were times it looked like he could have run, and most rookie passers similarly situated might have run, but he kept his eyes downfield to his credit.  He had moments where he didn't look so good, as would be expected by a rookie making his first start.  The numbers show he threw 3 INTs.  I think the first two picks were the direct result of being in long yardage due to penalties and him trying to play hero ball.  That was especially true on the first INT where he scrambled to his left and tried throwing against his body and overthrew the receiver.  The second INT was set up by a holding penalty that negated a decent play, putting the team in long yardage.  I don't know what the hell happened on the 3rd INT.  As I said earlier, he suffered from some drops, but there were plays his accuracy was off.  All in all, I saw enough from him to be encouraged, but if his rookie inclinations to try to do too much are to be minimized, the team will have to reduce the penalties-actual or fictional.

     b.  Travis Etienne- DNP-on IR.

     c.  Tyson Campbell-Once again, the whole scouting report thing about him being unable to play the ball effectively reared its ugly head early on on that first deep pass to Brandon Cooks.  Once again he was in a position to possibly knock the ball down, and once again, he didn't/couldn't do it, and it flipped the field, leading to the first Texans' TD.  He i already one of the most frustrating Jaguars I've seen in a while.  I don't know how he can improve his awareness, but I hope Ash, Cullen, Meyer et al get it figured out fast.

     d.  Walker Little-I did not see him play at all.

     e.  Andre Cisco-I saw him play, but he did not stick out, aside from not being in the game when Wingard was inexplicably the starter.  I have to think he would have done a better job on the TE than Wingard, and I shudder to think of Wingard against Noah Fant next week.

     f.  Jay Tufele-I don't know if he played.  I didn't see him.

     g.  Jordan Smith-See above.

     h.  Luke Farrell-see above.

8.  For all of the hype surrounding Agnew, he didn't make much of an impact.

9.  Speaking of special teams, Lambo missed a needed 55 yard FG.  Granted, a 55 yarder is no chip shot, but in order for us to win this year, he will have to make those.

10.  I think Urban Meyer and Company deserve some criticism for the way this game played out.  From the team's inability to line up properly to wasting two TOs in the first quarter, too many things looked like the results of a team not prepared.  We'll see how this team will bounce back, but there were too many ugly, sloppy moments in this game.  Lots of his critics have said that there aren't any directional schools or Northwesterns on the NFL schedule.  They are wrong.  The Jaguars are the directional school/homecoming opponents.  Shaking my head in dismay.

11.  Bottom line-Aside from the flashes from Lawrence, there wasn't much to like in this performance.  As vastly outplayed and outcoached as this team was today, the level of competition will step up a couple of levels in the next couple of weeks.  The penalties that weighed this team down like an anchor will have to disappear if this team is to have any balance.  Otherwise, the pass rush will be far more of a problem for Trevor Lawrence than it was this week, resulting in far fewer of these positive flashes.

1. The penalties were a problem, real or phantom. That just can't happen. 

2. I had a feeling that this team was so focused on stopping the run in the offseason, that the pass defense was gonna suffer as a result. When you stack the box to make sure the opposing runners are contained, you leave the secondary in man to man coverage. I hated several of the moves we made in the secondary during the offseason as well. We signed Griffin to be a "shut down" CB, but no one took into consideration that Seattle had the 2nd worst pass defense in the NFL in 2020. How is this an upgrade? We drafted Tyson Campbell and his one big knock was that he had trouble tracking the ball in the air. That has reared it's ugly head on more than one occasion this year. We traded Sidney Jones for basically some "magic beans," even though he was our best CB last season, when healthy and in a move that baffled the entire fan base, Wingard was chosen to start the game. I have said that he is quite possibly, the most undisciplined player I have ever seen in the NFL. He plays like an indy car with no steering wheel and the gas pump stuck all the way to the floor. All of these factors, contributed to making Tyrod Taylor look like a Pro Bowl QB in this game. At this point, I don't even know what can be done to fix it. If this team can make Taylor look that good, what will happen when Kyler Murray, Russell Wilson, Josh Allen and Matt Stafford face us? I don't really blame the 3-4 scheme, I blame the coaches for not recognizing that we don't have the talent to make it work. We have zero pass rush other than Allen and we don't have corners who can hold their own in man to man coverage. When you can't do those two things, you shouldn't be in a 3-4 scheme. 

3. Unfortunately, I feared this would happen. See #2 above. 

4. I'm not so much worried about the dropped passes. Our receivers were used to catching "off-speed" passes from the carousel of QB's we've played in the last couple of years. Now we've brought in the NFL equivalent to Justin Verlander and it's gonna take our receivers time to adjust to catching "fastballs." D.J. Chark has been injured all of the preseason, so it might take him the longest to adjust. He wasn't able to develop any chemistry with Lawrence in game situations. I am confident that by game 4, the drops we saw in this game will be a thing of the past though. 

5. Again, I don't know if this is gonna change. Urban Meyer isn't used to trailing in games especially as bad as we were getting blown out. At Ohio State, in the very few times it happened, he would panic and abandon the run. Well, we fell behind so early, that Meyer panicked very early and it made things even worse. Making a rookie QB like Trevor throw 51 times in his very first game is ridiculous! The worst possible thing you can do to a young QB is make him do too much, too fast. If this is a precursor for what is to come, Lawrence will have a "ragged out" arm by the time he is 25. There has to be more balance within the offense. Robinson has to have way more than 5 carries. There is no way, Carlos Hyde should get more carries than Robinson. 

6. Agreed, but remember, this was the Texans. Without J.J. Watt, they don't really have a pass rush. 

7a. Trevor played like a rookie who was forced to throw 51 times in a blowout loss. There will be speed bumps with this kid, but I still think he will be elite. It's just gonna take time. 

7b. DNP

7c. More of the same. This pick was a mistake. 

7d. I cannot believe he wasn't activated for this game. 

7e. He should've started the game. 

7f. Did he play?

7g. Did he play?

7h. Did he play?

8. Agreed.

9. Agreed. 

10. I think the Urban Meyer experiment will be short lived. This team is bad and Urban Meyer does not like losing and he's not used to it. I think he rides off into the sunset after the season is over, if not earlier. He's not gonna want to stay and tarnish his legacy. 

11. This is gonna be a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG season.

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