(09-19-2021, 05:53 PM)Lucky2Last Wrote:

(09-19-2021, 05:08 PM)Bullseye Wrote: After a disastrous week one at Houston, our beloved Jaguars returned to Jacksonville and TIAA Bank field for their home opener against a very solid Broncos team that featured excellent skill players on offenselike RBs Melvin Gordon and rookie 2nd round pick Jevonte Williams, WRs Cortland Sutton and 2nd year speedy slot WR  KJ Hamler and TEs Noah Fant and Albert O.  On Defense, they offer formidable  pass rushers Bradley Chubb (returning from injury) and possible Hall of Famer Von Miller. 
 
My thoughts:
 
1.      Coming into the season, most of us identified offensive line as the area of biggest concern for the Jaguars since it was so bad last year, returned intact this year, and is now tasked with protecting prized rookie QB Trevor Lawrence.  Last week, even though they only gave up one sack, it was far from a good game by the unit because they gave up some pressures, had four holding penalties and several other illegal formation penalties.  Needless to say, I was not confident about this team’s chances coming into this game against Denver.  That said, I was pleasantly surprised by the pass protection today.  I saw Taylor get beat when Von Miller got his hand in his chest and got him off balance by giving him a long inside arm, but he didn’t give up the sack.  Von Miller did get the sack in the second half, but the play started off with a TE blocking him, and then the TE released.  I’m not sure who was to block him after that.  I would have thought it was Taylor, but he was engaged with someone else by the time the TE released him.  Still, not nearly the disaster I thought it would be.

2.      I think a good part of that success was due to not putting Trevor Lawrence constantly behind the chains with stupid penalties.  The only time the Jaguars were in bad down and distance situations –at least in the first half- were on two dump offs into the flat that were well defensed by Denver. 

3.      While the defense has played much better this week than last week, there are still some very frustrating moments.  Having them 2md and 16 deep in their own territory only to not just have them convert that, but then drive down for the score made my teeth itch.  We have to find a way to tighten our coverage.

4.      Laviska Shenault is an exciting player for us, but he has to start catching these passes.  I counted 2p3 drops by him, which brought some drives to a screeching halt.

5.      The team did a better job being a little more balanced, but the team still needs work in that area. That second series repeated the mistakes of last week.  I get you want your best player (TL) to make the plays, but give him more help.

6.      Now is officially the time to worry about Lambo.  He missed I think a 55 yard FG last week, and a 53 yarder this week on a high snap.  While you want him to make those, misses on those kicks were understandable.  But late in the first half, he missed a 48 yard FG.  More worrisome was his body language after both kicks.  He put his head down after both kicks.  Andrew Wingard came up to him and literally picked Lambo’s head up.  We can’t have Lambo go into a slump now.  Lambo aside, special teams was actually a plus.  Logan Cooke had a great game.  I was just thinking that so far Agnew has been a disappointment right before he had the kickoff return.  That was good to see.
               
7.  Rookie Watch:
 
A.     Trevor Lawrence-Started out great on that first drive, then after that was off.  Suffered from some drops from Shenault mostly, and had a drop from Farrell, which would have been called back due to penalty.  Seems streaky.  I think part of it is his aggressiveness, where he is always looking to attack downfield, but that may come at a cost.  When he rolled to his right and threw long, he bypassed an open Chark shorter, which would have gotten him a first down.  His two INTs hurt, but at least weren’t the results of disastrous reads.  The first INT, he was late in getting the ball out.  I think a more experienced TL would have trusted his eyes and pulled the trigger a little sooner.  The second, he threw deep downfield and gave the receiver a chance to make a play.  While that was costly, I can’t fault the throw too much, at least not without seeing the coaches film to see if anyone else was open.

B.     Travis Etienne-DNP-IR

C.     Tyson Campbell-I didn’t see him get much playing time until it was announced that CJ Henderson went out with the hip injury.  However, as down as I have been on him, today I saw signs of progress.  He made a good play on the ball on that pass in the end zone.
 
D.     Walker Little-I don’t think he played.

E.      Andre Cisco-I think I saw him briefly.  Still no idea why he isn’t playing more.

F.      Jay Tufele-Don’t think he played.

G.    Jordan Smith-DNP

H.     Luke Farrell-Saw him more today than I did in any game so far, including the preseason.  However he didn’t make any real impact.  There was the play where he dropped the short pass, but it would have been negated by penalty anyway.  Then he got open nicely on the INT, but Trevor waited too long.
 
8.        The passing offense is not consistent.  But I think a huge problem is the lack of a quality receiving TE to give Trevor Lawrence a safety blanket over the middle.  When there is a play that needs to  be made, TL almost always looks to his WRs deep,  A good receiving target over the middle would work wonders for this offense, and will eliminate many of those long stretches we can't move the ball.
 
9.        I have to give credit to the coaching staff this week.  Even though we didn’t win, this was a much cleaner game than we played last week.  Offensively at times it seems like the coaching staff doesn’t really know what it has, and at times they seem to get away from the run.  Still, this represents some improvement.
 
10.     Good to see Josh Allen make another sack.  It looks like he could be on his way to a good year. RRH had some good pressures, and Gotsis had a good sack.  Chaisson even caused disruption on a running play.
 
11.          Bottom line-Going in I thought this would be a tough matchup, and I was right.  But it didn’t develop like I thought.  The pass protection was not an issue.  Problems with the defense and a lack of continuity on offense were the issues, and I think a lot of that is personnel related. Again, not the desired result, but there were signs of progress.

I'm not sure that wasn't partially on Farrell. I have a suspicion Farrell was running the wrong route, which is why Trevor didn't throw it sooner. He was running and looking over his inside shoulder. It wasn't until he broke to the post that Trevor threw it. Maybe it was an option by the TE, but just looked like Trevor was waiting on him. I don't know much about football, though. I could be wrong.