Tampilkan postingan dengan label Jacksonville Jaguars. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label Jacksonville Jaguars. Tampilkan semua postingan

Selasa, 17 September 2013

For the entire NFL season, we will be breaking down the rest of the NFL not named Green Bay by looking at it like a liquor cabinet. Why did we choose this method? I like to booze and it makes things really easy to determine what's great, average and poor.  

TOP SHELF
Seattle looks decent - I talked about Seattle's struggles last Sunday and felt like San Francisco would make a statement in Seattle. The Seahawks made a statement and dominated all facets of the football game on Sunday. Russell Wilson did not have the best day, but he did not need to with how the defense played plus the rushing attack was solid. To think, they are missing four top flight stars as well makes Seattle pretty scary for the rest of the season.

Cutty comes back - 4th quarter comebacks are overblown, but I am impressed overall with the Chicago Bears offense. Jay Cutler finally has a tight end who can catch the football. Remember Cutler went to his tight ends fairly often even last year with Kellan Davis who dropped at least half of them last season. Cutler stayed protected for the most part as well.  Additionally, the worries about the Bears defense might be overstated.  Minnesota's defense and special teams both had a touchdown meaning Chicago only allowed 16 points.  

Denver just going to blow everyone out? - It looks like it right now.  Who cares if the Denver defense might not be that good, but their second half against New York was eye-opening. The Broncos had a slow build with it too. They scored a late third quarter touchdown with Knowshon Moreno who somehow is still on the Broncos, force the Giants with a three-and-out and they get another touchdown with Peyton Manning throwing to Julius Thomas. Trindon Holiday delivered the knockout punch with the punt return to put the Broncos up 21 points somehow in game that was close for three quarters.

Miami... Sneaky good or too early? - I sold low on Miami to start the year, but they are playing well so far this season. The Dolphins started out the season with consecutive road games and won both of them holding both Cleveland and Indianapolis under 20 points. Ryan Tannehill went for over 300 yards and got Mike Wallace's season started with a 100 yard game. One thing the young quarterback has to cut it is the fumbles. He lost three balls but thankfully, Tannehill recovered two of them.  We shall see how they look at home though as they have been worse there in years past.  

MIDDLE SHELF
Texans pull another one out of their asses - Everyone is talking about the Patriots being the worst 2-0 team right now, but why not Houston? They played one good quarter against San Diego and then they trailed Tennessee by eight with four minutes left in the game yet found a way to win the game in overtime. People will say the cliche line of 'Good teams find a way to win football games' but still, Houston seems a bit overrated to me.  

Atlanta holds on - The Falcons jumped out to a 24-3 lead on Sunday afternoon against St. Louis yet they could not stomp the foot on the throat.  Atlanta kept letting St. Louis come back in this game and thankfully got a big drive from Matt Ryan and Jacob Snelling in the fourth quarter. But the Falcons are going to be without Kroy Biermann, Sean Weatherspoon and Steven Jackson next week, all three are vital to the team's success. Biermann is done for the year, Weatherspoon is on selective IR but that's not a guarantee he will be back this season. Atlanta is much more of a mess than people are talking about right now.  

Joe Flacco does not catch flak... Surprising? - I am somewhat surprised Joe Flacco did not receive much backlash for not being there for the birth of his second child. I asked both my mom and dad about it because they had two kids. Both of them said the same thing, 'Well it's not the first child, the second child, it's more of a been there, done that.' If my sister Annie is reading, please take this up with them, not me.

Eagles score points but cannot stop anyone - Philadelphia might be a year away. It is still super early to say something like that, but it seems like there are some significant holes in that defense. Sure, they can put up 30+ points with the best of them, but their defense cannot stop anybody. I realize San Diego has some tools on offense yet I would never expect them to have 33 points on the road.

BOTTOM SHELF
Oh noooo Dez - Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant balled out on Sunday with nine catches for over 150 yards, but he made two vital errors. Bryant had a crucial drop that probably cost the Cowboys a game. We can have a discussion about Dallas's inabilities to win on the road, but I feel that might be overstated. Dez also retweeted a picture of a vagina, not a great moment in social media.

Ron Rivera or Greg Schiano... Who gets fired first? - Oh boy, I think both of these coaches might be getting the pink slip before November 1st. Let's remember Carolina had the toughest schedule in the NFL before the season started this year.  The Panthers play New York Giants at home this week and then a bye week before two road games in Arizona and Minnesota. If they get blown out by New York, it becomes a real awkward two weeks for Ron Rivera. As for Tampa Bay, the chemistry seems completely off with Schiano and yes, they are two field goals away from being 2-0, yet it does not seem like a good situation.  They play in New England this week before heading home to play Arizona before a bye week.  I will take Rivera.

Poor Jacksonville - I just feel bad for Jacksonville. Just struggling. I am not really going to go in what's wrong with them because it does not matter as they have all sorts of problems. Also they have all the Tim Tebow shit, it is entirely annoying and I feel for the fanbase. Shock the world this week in Seattle.

Detroit remembers they are Detroit - Everyone started to get real excited about Detroit in Week 1 forgetting how much the Lions struggle on the road.  They had a 14-10 lead at halftime, but their offense went silent in the second half. DeAndre Levy netted them an interception return in the third quarter, but that was it for scoring from Detroit. Arizona's defense is good, but if Detroit is as good as everyone wanted them to be in Week 1, their offense does not go scoreless in the second half.

Charlie.

Kamis, 15 Agustus 2013

Another year of 32 for 31, Sports News on Tap takes the month of August to preview the National Football League. We spend every day of the month looking at a new team and how they will fare in 2013. 

In all professional sports, there are those teams where a person can see the development of the team growing and growing by the minute. The Jacksonville Jaguars feel like a team on the rise that just needs a couple pieces to contend for a playoff position. 

The first step was getting new management whom seems to have a commitment to the city as well as making the experience of going to Jaguars games a great one. The second step was getting a coach in there with a vision. Former Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Gus Bradley takes over the reign and he sounds like a breath of fresh air. Hearing him talk to Mike Florio on Dan Patrick earlier this year, it sounds like he is the type of guy the Jaguars need and will help them maybe surprise a few teams this year. The next step is the players and while the Jags have some, they still need a few more to be successful .    

OFFENSE
Maurice Jones-Drew battled a Lisfranc injury all last season leading him to only play six games last season and rush for a career-low 414 yards. MJD looks to improve those numbers this season as the two prior, he had well over 1200 yards. I do not think it is time to start worrying about Jones-Drew regressing as we have seen with other running backs in the past. I still believe he has a couple years left in him. One thing that should help him this year is it appears the offensive line should be better with Luke Joeckel and they get Will Rackley back from a training camp injury last season.

The Jaguars currently have a quarterback battle between Chad Henne and Blaine Gabbert. Both started multiple games for the team last season, and Gabbert should have the slight edge due to his age. Hear me out, Gabbert gets another year under his belt and if it is clear, he's terrible then it is no-brainer to draft a quarterback very high in next year. If Gabbert ends up being better than expected then maybe drafting a quarterback in the first or second round might not be needed.  If it is Henne, it's clear the Jaguars want to rid themselves of the Gabbert era. Since I see some chatter about it, get out of my face with Matt Scott talk for quarterback. There is a reason he was an undrafted rookie.

DEFENSE
Paul Posluszny is the key cog of this team. He had a great year for this team last season with 231 tackles, three interceptions and seven quarterback pressures. Posluszny should be great for the team again this year and move like an angry hornet nest on defense. Russell Allen did nice work for the Jags on the outside last season and they hope he continues with his strong play.

Personally, Johnathan Cyprein was one of my favorite picks of the draft no matter what team he ended up on. I wanted the Packers to draft him and when they passed, I knew some team was going to get an All-Pro safety. I realize that's a strong thing to say without him playing a game, but he has all of the ability to reach that ceiling. Unless he has a woeful camp, Cyprein should be starting from day one and start getting truly familiar with Bradley's system and then make the move to become a leader in the back by the end of the season.

SPECIAL TEAMS
Sure, people love to give the Jaguars a lot of shit, but they do have some of the best special teams in all of the NFL. Josh Scobee is nearly automatic as a kicker and can definitely kick 50-yard+ field goals at will. Bryan Anger is very solid punter as well.  They added Ace Sanders in the draft and he will have multiple highlight reel returns this year.

KEY ADDITIONS
DT Sen'Derrick Marks, CB Marcus Trufant, RB Justin Forsett, CB Alan Ball, LB Geno Hayes - None of these excite me much but Forsett is a nice backup option if MJD goes down agan.

KEY DEPARTURES
S Dawan Landry, DT C.J. Mosley, CB Aaron Ross, WR Laurent Robinson,  RB Rashard Jennings, CB Derek Cox,

JAGUARS DRAFT PICKS
OT Luke Joeckel, S Johnathan Cyprien, CB Dwayne Gratz, WR Ace Sanders, ATH Denard Robinson, S Josh Evans, CB Jeremy Harris, CB Demetrius McCray - I am truly interested to see how the Jags utilize Robinson this year. I can definitely see him like a homeless man's Randall Cobb doing everything on the field including a pass once in awhile.

GAME TO WATCH
Thursday December 5th vs. Houston 7:25 pm - This will be a fun game for multiple reasons. One, Houston could come sleepwalking into this game meaning upset potential will be high. Two, people talking shit about 'Why the Jaguars are on national television' and those same people getting torched by Jaguars Twitter which will be hilarious. Jaguars Twitter is a personal favorite of mine.

PREDICTION
4-6 wins - Not quite there yet.  They have the burden of facing off against the NFC West this year making things even more difficult but Bradley will pull the upset every now and again.

Charlie.