"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

 

This great quote by the late Edgar Allen Poe sums up the Jags first game of the season. Through two quarters, we looked like the best team in the NFL, and for the final two quarters we looked like Blaine Gabbert was playing all 11 positions on offense, defense, and special teams. While the leadership of Josh Scobee, Bryan Anger and Allen Hurns set the tone for the first half of the game, it was plainly clear that Gus Bradley's inability to make any halftime adjustments was our downfall. Chip Kelly was playing chess while Gus Bradley was playing checkers and to give a collegiate analogy, it looked like one coach was groomed for the NFL in the Pac 12, while the other was groomed for the NFL in the NCC. Obviously Bradley's decision to bring in a another kicker in the preseason to compete with Scobee is still effecting his psyche, and the coaching staff and only the coaching staff should be held accountable for Scobee's two misses on Sunday as Scobee missed twice as much Sunday as he did all of last year. I am not suggesting at this point that special teams coach Mike Mallory be fired, but supervision over special teams this week must be something that is micro managed by Gus Bradley.

 

Moving on to this week, the odds are stacked against us, and Jags nation should not be happy. Come Sunday, we would have had twice as many road trips as our opponent the Washington ########## (still refuse to state their team nickname) and although the Jags are more talented, better coached, and have a much better overall corporate infrastructure, my fear is that  over exhaustion from this excessively cruel travel schedule could be the great equalizer. In order for us to start the season 1-1, this is an absolute must win game for us - no one in their right minds can argue that. The conditions will be dramatically different as the Jags will go from practicing in upper 80's degree weather at 16 feet above sea level to playing in chilly mid 70's weather at conditions that could be as high as 409, yes 409 feet above sea level. I realize that every team must travel for at least half of their games, but come on, do we really have to do this in our first two weeks? Then factor in the plane ride, where that time in the skies could have been used for more practice time, and this is all of the sudden setting up to be a huge trap game for us. I have not looked ahead as I am taking things one week at a time, but I trust the schedule will equal out and we will have back to back games at some point this season - knowing Goodell though, probably not. They key for this game is very simple - we must play the second half as well as we played the first half in week one. We then must not play the first half like we played the second half in week one. Doing so would eliminate 31 points for our opponent, and would then double our output to 34 points. 

 

To quote for Husker Head Coach William P. Callahan "our goals are still intact" and "this week we are not going to take what they give us, we are going to take what we want."

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