Well... Joe Gibbs used to say his teams would throw it deep at least once a quarter just to keep the opposing defense honest. It didn't matter to him whether the pass was completed or not. I didn't keep track how many times we threw it deep today, but I have no problem with that strategy in general.

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Yeldon is 70 for 259 on the season for a 3.7 average. That average got a huge boost on that overtime 36 yard scamper. If you remove that one play, his average on the season is 3.2 yards per carry. To the eye, he appears to have talent. His numbers are not good enough though. They need to figure out a way to fix the running game or Jags fans should buckle up for a very long season.

 

Generally any RBs average goes down if you remove their best runs. That said, run blocking isn't as good as it should be though it looked a little better today. The line hasn't really moved their opponents off the block, they've merely engaged them and the holes aren't opening because of that.

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Colts run game sucked and they won. Patriots run game was irrelevant because they destroyed us without it. Panthers run game sucked and they won. Jags run game sucked against the Dolphins and we won.

 

Somethings fishy here.

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In today's NFL you don't have to keep hitting deep passes. If you can consistently hit those intermediate routes for 12-24 yards at a time you will dominate. That's what Brady and Arod do. If Blakes accuracy improves to keep hitting those throws we will be in good shape.

 

I disagree. i believe its the other way around. Defenses give cushion to receivers because they don't want to get beat deep. Defenses know that Brady/Rogers WILL make them pay deep if they get beat, so they tend to give the underneath. This is why receivers from NE and GB always look "open". Now, they are additionally deadly because Brady/Rodgers are accurate and scans the field quickly, so even short passes becomes dangerous weapons for them.

 

They are also experienced, so you can't really blitz them because they'll know where its coming from and kill you.

 

In general, defenses want to keep the offenses in front of them. Until we show, consistently that our receivers are good enough to get behind their coverage and that our young QB can deliver the ball, they'll keep sitting on the shorter routes and blitz.

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Generally any RBs average goes down if you remove their best runs. That said, run blocking isn't as good as it should be though it looked a little better today. The line hasn't really moved their opponents off the block, they've merely engaged them and the holes aren't opening because of that.

3.7 per carry still isn't acceptable. Hopefully that overtime run will be something that becomes more frequent for him. I understand that a back will chip away and chip away and then break one, but yds per attempt is a pretty good indicator for RBs or for a teams running scheme and/or blocking talent in general. 3.7 isn't good enough. My expectation is that number will get better but I think that is a huge reason why we are struggling right now.

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More big plays on offence this year. That's a good sign. A good game by Yeldon. There's another. Basically it comes down to 2 (really, 3) missed kicks (which weren't gimme distances). Trying to stay positive.

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More big plays on offence this year. That's a good sign. A good game by Yeldon. There's another. Basically it comes down to 2 (really, 3) missed kicks (which weren't gimme distances). Trying to stay positive.

Oh I agree. The single most important reason we lost today was the kicking game. If we include yeldon's overtime run this was clearly his best game and that's a good thing. He needs to keep it up and have more 5+ yard runs. The number of 1 and 2 yard plays on the ground are killing us.

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I disagree. i believe its the other way around. Defenses give cushion to receivers because they don't want to get beat deep. Defenses know that Brady/Rogers WILL make them pay deep if they get beat, so they tend to give the underneath. This is why receivers from NE and GB always look "open". Now, they are additionally deadly because Brady/Rodgers are accurate and scans the field quickly, so even short passes becomes dangerous weapons for them.


They are also experienced, so you can't really blitz them because they'll know where its coming from and kill you.


In general, defenses want to keep the offenses in front of them. Until we show, consistently that our receivers are good enough to get behind their coverage and that our young QB can deliver the ball, they'll keep sitting on the shorter routes and blitz.

I'll tell you a secret.... The defense you play against a qb you don't respect is a stacked box. You already know they cant make the stick throws in one-on-one coverage so you crowd the box and take away the run. You do this all game until they show they can beat it consistently. We have seen this type of defense since 2008.


Just because its man to man doesn't mean the play call should be a deep bomb. Man to man means put the ball on target so the wideout can catch it and make a move. Open in the NFL is a yard or two. For the most part good qbs are constantly making stick throws into tight windows.


The wideouts for the most part are usually as open as they are gonna get. This ain't college where guys are open 10 yards down the field every play. The qb has to excel at making tight window throws. This is like the same conversation I had with previous qbs. In my mind this is not a good sign.


Like I've said I am a defender of this team and will possibly be back to it tomorrow. I really want Blake to excel but he is not making the throws and getting the chunk yardage consistently. 298 on 50 attempts is not quality. That is very average. Hopefully next week is the week we see humans this team turn the corner.


I just knew that week was this week.....

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We have gotten 13 first downs by rushing the ball all season with a good portion of that coming from Bortles scrambling. 6 of those came in the first game alone.

 

We aren't moving the chains enough on the ground to be effective.

 

I'm not buying the 8 men in the box argument. I've seen too many run plays blown up by linemen. Teams that are good at running the ball are effective even when the other team knows they are going to run the ball. We just aren't very effective at it right now.

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Yeldon dances too much for my liking, but i'm not sure that its entirely him. There hasn't "appeared" to be a lot of holes. And there's runs he's gotten more due to his moves. Overall, I think it balances out. 

 

IMO, the problem is still the same...teams aren't afraid of getting beat by our passing game. Part of that is the QB, part of it is the lack of weapons. Part of it is lack of a legitimate running game. 

 

Bazinga. My thought exactly. He'll settle in though. I've seen enough in four weeks of his NFL play to believe he'll be solid, and potentially quite good.

 

Oh I agree. The single most important reason we lost today was the kicking game. If we include yeldon's overtime run this was clearly his best game and that's a good thing. He needs to keep it up and have more 5+ yard runs. The number of 1 and 2 yard plays on the ground are killing us.

 

Debatable. It's easy (actually, beyond easy) to say that the primary reason we lost today was the kicker. Had he made either of his missed attempts, we walk away with a win and this board is completely different tonight. However, there were so many times in the second half that the offense should have put some amount of points on the board that it should not have come down to his leg in the closing seconds. Many, many missed chances.

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In today's NFL you don't have to keep hitting deep passes. If you can consistently hit those intermediate routes for 12-24 yards at a time you will dominate. That's what Brady and Arod do. If Blakes accuracy improves to keep hitting those throws we will be in good shape.

I think thats the whole problem.  12-24 yards is what Thomas and Robinson are for.  Lee is supposed to take the top off Robinson and Thomas are supposed to eat up the midrange and everyone else is just 5-10 yards at a time possession.  Denard is supposed to get us running chunk yards when the defense is playing pass and Yeldon is supposed to avg 4 yards a carry behind Linder.


the problem is the offense we have designed is missing 4 of its key pieces.  

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Go Jags!
*To stay up for atleast 2 years 3/6/17
2016 draft players I think will be good

• On the Fournette train, will be best back of his class 3/6/17
  
• Lattimore please,  Lockdowns on both sides would be nice
  
• Engram at TE and the MJD clone Samaje Perine
  

From the Colts paper...heraldbulletin.

 

40-year-old Matt Hasselbeck, the oldest quarterback in the NFL, produced the best game by a Colts passer so far this year, completing 30 of 47 attempts for 282 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. But fumbles by Josh Robinson and Frank Gore helped set the offense back, and the running game gained just 60 yards on 24 carries. Tight end Coby Fleener came up big with nine catches for 83 yards, including a 28-yarder to help set up the winning field goal.

 

The Colts allowed Blake Bortles to throw for 298 yards and gave up 105 rushing yards to rookie T.J. Yeldon. But Indy surrendered just a single touchdown drive, and that came on a short field following Robinson's fumble. The Jaguars' eight possessions in the second half and overtime yielded six punts and two missed field goals. It was bend-but-don't-break at its finest, with an assist from a struggling Jacksonville kicker along the way.

 

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I guess hearing it from the winning team's media side, is a new perception for many fans on here.

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The team is still improving.  This was one of their best games in years actually. 

 

This loss is strictly on the kicker.

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...is the lack of an effective running game. Yeldon's statline for the game against the clots looks good... 22 attempts for 105 yards. However, 36 yards came on 1 particular run in overtime. That means if you exclude the outlier, he was 21 for 69 or a hair under 3.3 yards per carry. That's not getting it done and Blake Bortles threw 50 pass attempts this game. For this team, that combination is a recipe for a loss much more often than not. That being said we were still in a position to win the game if we had a decent kicker and we should have still walked away with the win which is what makes this loss so much more painful.

Until this team is able to establish a running game consistently, this will be a familiar theme for the rest of the year. Blake Bortles is not Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. His presence on the field doesn't diminish the importance of the running game like those two Hall of Fame QBs do. I'm not here to assign blame to Yeldon, the O-line or the coaching as I'm sure any subsequent posts will make various cases for or against each of those. But I think it's fairly obvious this is the biggest problem for this team right now.

I agree that the running game needs much improvement, but watch out using average yards per carry as the primary statistic to measure a running back's performance. Most RB's in the NFL pound away in 2 or 3 yard efforts, then have breakaway runs of 20, 30 or more yards, which, obviously, improves their per-yard average.

Adrian Peterson, for example, who leads the league with 372 yards on 75 carries ( 5.0 yes/ carry) has had 3 breakaway runs totaling 118 of those 372 yards. Take those 3 runs away and his average drops to 3.5 for the remaining 72 carries.

If there is a valid criticism of Yeldon, I think it's that he seems to lack the breakaway speed that can turn a 9 yard run into a 45 harder..

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