Bleacher Report - Articles by Jack Harver

Jacksonville Jaguars Rank (Tentatively) Among Contenders After Week 11

Jack Harver — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:48:40 -0500

In eking out an 18-15 comeback victory Sunday over the run-down Buffalo Bills, the Jaguars (6-4) continued to ride a string of closely-contested wins against less-than-stellar competition.

Jacksonville's last three opponents boast a combined record of 10-20, and each came within a field goal of leaving the Jaguars at .500 or below.

Nevertheless, six wins over the past nine weeks have pushed Jacksonville near the front of the AFC's wide-open wild card race. Mathematically, though long shots to catch the undefeated Indianapolis Colts in the AFC South, the Jaguars are strong contenders for a playoff berth.

Some weeks, they even look like it.

Having beaten the Houston Texans solidly (31-24) and taken the Colts to the final minutes of a 14-12 loss, Jacksonville's play has seen high points. The Jaguars' successful comeback drives against the Bills, St. Louis Rams, and New York Jets, too, have featured the late-game mettle so crucial to postseason success.

From game to game, though, Jacksonville's results this season have been head-scratchingly inconsistent.

Coming off a 37-17 beating of AFC South rival Tennessee in October, for instance, the Jaguars were blown out 41-0 by the Seahawks in Seattle. Three weeks later, they lost 30-13 to those still-winless Titans.

Ranking the NFL's 32 teams amidst a season of weekly revelations is, in itself, a difficult task. Ranking them from Jacksonville's perspective? Doubly so.

Still, as the Jaguars begin a six-game stretch that will test them for the football's "second season" in January, their strength against the rest of the league is a good indication of how far they have to go.

The list starts at the bottom with teams Jacksonville should own:

32. Cleveland (1-9) — Blowing a 24-point lead against the Lions managed to shock even the most flabbergasted Browns faithful, who were convinced this season couldn't get worse.

31. Tampa Bay (1-9) — Losing 38-7 to New Orleans, the Bucs returned to familiar territory at home after two exhausting weeks of competitive football and competent play.

30. Buffalo (3-7) — The Bills took advantage of the Jaguars' inexperienced secondary, but only had 15 points to show for it. Their defense let up on the worst possible drive.

29. St. Louis (1-9) — Teams in this tier generally do much worse than losses by five and eight points against New Orleans and Arizona. Steve Spagnuolo doesn't let his team quit.

28. Washington (3-7) — The NFL's highest-paid underachievers enter the teeth of what had been an easy schedule: the Redskins' last six opponents are a combined 39-22.

27. Detroit (2-8) — "Bobby Layne would be proud," SI.com's Peter King told rookie quarterback Matthew Stafford after Sunday's comeback win. The Lions' future isn't bleak.

26. Oakland (3-7) — The Raiders beat 7-3 Cincinnati with their $60 million quarterback on the bench. Shouldn't JaMarcus Russell be an essential ingredient, somehow?

25. Kansas City (3-7) — A trap game is only as dangerous as the team being overlooked. The Chiefs caught Pittsburgh looking toward division rival Baltimore, and capitalized.

24. Seattle (3-7) — The only way the Seahawks could make their drubbing of the Jaguars more embarrassing? Going 1-4 with a -70 point differential in their five games since.

Considering Jacksonville's 3-1 record and -32 point differential against this group, "should" is the operative word. Teams in this tier of the league are easy fodder for most playoff-caliber teams, but several unspectacular opponents have been able to cause problems for Jacksonville.

The Jaguars' 24-21 defeat of Kansas City wasn't as close as the final score would suggest, but St. Louis and Buffalo both took them to the wire.

Jacksonville's Week 17 game against hapless Cleveland could be a ticket into the postseason, but it might not come easily.

Past the NFL's pariahs, the next tier up consists of teams the Jaguars should respect:

23. N.Y. Jets (4-6) — Their trust in Mark Sanchez is admirable, but he needs training wheels. A heavy dose of his team's second-ranked ground game, for instance, might help.

22. Chicago (4-6) — Jay Cutler had as many picks through nine games (17) as Peyton Manning did in his rookie year. The Bears hope it's a sign of developmental delay.

21. San Francisco (4-6) — Late-to-the-party rookie receiver Michael Crabtree draws Jacksonville's first-year corner Derek Cox Sunday. Another close game is in store for Frisco.

20. Carolina (4-6) — The Panthers aren't as bad as their difficult schedule makes them out to be, but losing winnable games against New Orleans and Miami doesn't help.

19. Miami (5-5) — Without Ronnie Brown, the Dolphins' traditional running game rolled on behind Jake Long, Anthony Fasano, and their offensive line. Bill Parcells' plan for them is taking shape.

18. Denver (6-4) — Losing to the Redskins two weeks ago was a bad omen. East coast trip or not, that's a team Detroit and Kansas City beat. Still, the Broncos aren't freefalling—yet.

17. Atlanta (5-5) — During the Falcons' current 1-4 skid to level out their 4-1 start, they've faced four teams coming off bye weeks and three top playoff contenders. Tough.

16. Houston (5-5) — Perennial preseason darlings, the Texans are two late-game field goals away from having broken free of .500 in the past two weeks. Them's the breaks.

15. Tennessee (4-6) — Nationally, the media stresses that Vince Young is responsible for the Titans' resurgence. Meanwhile, Chris Johnson's averaging 160 yards a game.

Jacksonville's 3-1 record against this group represents three of the Jaguars' best performances this season and one of their worst. In wins against New York, Houston, and Tennessee, Jacksonville moved the ball efficiently on offense and made plays in crucial situations on defense.

The Jaguars' loss to the Titans, though, demonstrated their capacity for poor tackling, haphazard offensive playcalling, and lapses in coverage. Against this caliber of opponent, Jacksonville's margin for such errors shrinks significantly. They've proven capable of beating these teams by simply keeping mistakes to a minimum.

Next, though, are teams who are always on the Jaguars' level:

14. Baltimore (5-5) — Having visited New England and Minnesota, and hosted Indianapolis, on their tour of the NFL's elite teams, the Ravens are prepared for Pittsburgh.

13. Green Bay (6-4) — Aside from one hiccup against Tampa Bay, the Packers have plowed into their opponents—good and bad alike—with a consistent, efficient brand of football.

12. Pittsburgh (6-4) — Speed bumps are a minor nuisance, but it's important to slow down for them. The Steelers must have felt sure they'd beat the Chiefs up until they didn't.

11. N.Y. Giants (6-4) — Regardless of Eli Manning's nine-figure contract, this team still hasn't found a playmaker to replace Plaxico Burress. Their players are all good—not great.

10. Cincinnati (7-3) — Sweeps of Baltimore and Pittsburgh legitimize the Bengals more than any one goof-up—even against the Raiders—assuming they beat down the Browns.

Jacksonville's schedule doesn't include any of the five teams who have consistently played at a level that would pose a threat to an on-the-ball Jaguars team this year. Each of these teams boasts the talent and coaching to counter Jacksonville's balanced offense and big-play defense on the Jaguars' best day.

In racing toward a wild card spot, Jacksonville's next three games are against San Francisco, Miami, and Houston—three teams a notch below these five. Facing the "respect" tier, the Ravens, Packers, Steelers, Giants, and Bengals are a combined 7-3.

Most teams are dangerous some of the time, but good teams still take care of business. These are the Jaguars' role models.

Lastly, the NFL's upper crust consists of teams above Jacksonville's level:

8. Philadelphia (6-4) — With weapons aplenty, the Eagles have the talent on both sides of the ball to play better than they're playing. A tragic case study in over-coaching.

7. Dallas (7-3) — Tony Romo and the Cowboys' offense leisurely attempt to work out their kinks as Dallas' defense strains under the burden of keeping this team competitive.

6. Arizona (7-3) — Judging from Matt Leinart's performance in limited action, the Cardinals' offense is all in Kurt Warner's concussed head, blossoming ground game or not.

5. San Diego (7-3) — "L.T." retired years ago after a successful career as a linebacker for the Giants, but LaDainian Tomlinson has those initials and some gas left in his tank.

4. New Orleans (10-0) — True, the Saints haven't lost yet. Too true, they've shown impressive grit in battling back in several games. Still, the Patriots aren't St. Louis or Miami.

3. New England (7-3) — With that said, they're not the Vikings, either. The NFL's top two teams are distinguished by their dominance, while the Patriots have lapsed at times.

2. Minnesota (9-1) — Aside from passing into a brick wall against the Steelers, the Vikings have seemed invincible more often this season than all of the league's other teams...

1. Indianapolis (10-0) — ...except for the Colts, who, in repelling Miami's 45 minutes of possession and New England's 17-point fourth quarter lead, have seemed untouchable.

The Jaguars, not surprisingly, are 0-2 this season against this level of competition. Starting four rookies and overhauling over half of the team's roster, Jacksonville simply lacks the man-power to match up with the best of the league's best.

These teams aren't invincible, of course. The Raiders, Jets, Panthers, and 49ers boast upset wins over some of them—outliers, all. Jacksonville came within a two-point conversion of interrupting Indianapolis' 19-game regular season winning streak.

Most teams, truth be told, have a similar story of an "almost" win.

This list jumps from the Giants (10) to the Eagles (8), leaving a gap at the ninth rank. On a good day—with Maurice Jones-Drew running downhill, Mike Sims-Walker taking advantage of spaces in the opposing secondary, and the defense forcing opponents into low-percentage passes—that's where the Jaguars rank.

9. Jacksonville (6-4) — Game-changers Maurice Jones-Drew and Mike Sims-Walker lurk behind an inconsistent line and a defense that can't wait to get Rashean Mathis back.

Maurice Jones-Drew's Kneel-Down in Jaguars' Win: Smart, Not "Unselfish"

Jack Harver — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:54:29 -0500

By now, Maurice Jones-Drew's refusal to take a fourth-quarter touchdown against the New York Jets has been widely witnessed, argued about, and gushed over.

For those who managed to miss its coverage in the sports media, Jacksonville's vertically-challenged star running back skidded to a halt one yard from the end zone on the Jaguars' game-winning drive in New York last weekend.

A score would have given his team the lead, but Jones-Drew's play (dialed up, for the record, by much-maligned head coach Jack Del Rio) allowed Jacksonville to retain possession for a decisive last-second field goal.

In the aftermath of the Jaguars' 24-22 win, "unselfish" has been the adjective most often used to describe Jones-Drew's kneel-down—an odd word choice, considering his stated ambitions for Jacksonville's 2009 season.

Throughout the year, ESPN.com blogger Paul Kuharsky, among others, has noted Jones-Drew's insistence that the Jaguars are the NFL's best team and that they have their sights on the Super Bowl. Through spirit-dampening losses to the Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee Titans, Jones-Drew has remained optimistic about his team.

Even when speaking out to demand the ball after Jacksonville's blowout loss in Seattle, Jones-Drew's concern was for the offense as a whole.

"[Opponents need] to respect the run game," he said in his postgame press conference. "That's going to open up the pass game and open up the run game later on."

With his own interests tied up with the Jaguars' success, the truly unselfish play for Jones-Drew this past Sunday, really, would have been to give New York the ball. Jets defenders Jim Leonhard and Darrelle Revis were close by, and either would surely have accepted such a self-denigrating sacrifice.

(In fact, the replay shows Revis trying to "accept" it after the whistle had blown.)

For a player so concerned about winning, taking a knee to keep the Jets' offense off the field was practically selfish—and that's a good thing.

The popular conception of a "selfish" football player is that of a black hole who demands attention and revels in statistics, personal accolades, and big-money contracts.

Notorious personalities like Buffalo Bills receiver Terrell Owens ("I love me some me!") and former Jets receiver Keyshawn Johnson—author of Just Give Me the Damn Ball! —strike fans as self-interest personified as they bounce, dissatisfied, from team to team.

Recent examples include former Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson, who "tweeted" about breaking franchise rushing records amidst his team's struggles, and Dallas Cowboys receiver Roy Williams' outspoken dissatisfaction with his targets from quarterback Tony Romo.

But as Johnson has fallen to injury fill-in status and Williams' Cowboys have struggled with their passing game chemistry, ironically, Jones-Drew's team-first play has brought him the national media attention and Pro Bowl votes—191,123 as of Tuesday, second in the AFC—that such malcontents crave.

Beyond following Del Rio's orders to forgo a sure touchdown, Jones-Drew has used every bit of energy and grit in his 5'7", 208-pound frame to fight for Jacksonville in his four years with the Jaguars.

Whether throwing vicious blocks in pass protection (as Shawne Merriman of the San Diego Chargers can attest ) or shoving quarterback David Garrard forward on sneaks, his high level of effort without the ball in his hands is the mark of a player who takes pride in bearing subtle burdens in pursuit of team triumphs.

In short, Jones-Drew's the kind of player whose selfish desire for the joy of winning is a blessing for his team—even as his agent determines how best to account for the missed score in his next contract extension.

Bill Belichick's Patriots, Jack Del Rio's Jaguars Scoffed at Late Risks

Jack Harver — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:30:29 -0500

By and large, fourth-quarter strategy is discussed in terms of timeless horse sense. Kill clock to protect a late lead, run out of bounds to save time for a late comeback, cling to your timeouts for dear life—that sort of thing.

(And, of course, John Madden's sage admonition to play for overtime when tied.)

Within that school of thought, punting for field position when leading and never taking sure points off the board when trailing are two sacrosanct truths.

This past Sunday, New England and Jacksonville committed blasphemy.

Facing 4th-and-2 from the Patriots' own 28-yard line, with just over two minutes left in the fourth quarter and a six-point lead over the Colts in Indianapolis, Bill Belichick kept his punt team on the sideline as New England's offense attempted to sustain a game-ending drive Sunday night.

Earlier in the day, Jaguars' running back Maurice Jones-Drew startled onlookers (and enraged his fantasy owners) by kneeling down on a red zone run—one yard away from a score that would have put Jacksonville up 27-22 on the New York Jets—on coach Jack Del Rio's orders, with less than two minutes remaining.

Belichick's gamble fell inches short as running back Kevin Faulk caught a pass short of the first-down marker, while Del Rio's paid off when kicker Josh Scobee's game-winning field goal split the uprights.

Both, though, drew criticism from advocates of traditional tactics.

Wednesday on Football Fix , ESPN Radio 's Colin Cowherd acknowledged Belichick and QB Tom Brady's 76 percent success rate on fourth down, with an interesting twist.

"Suppose you're jumping out of a plane," Cowherd analogized, "and 76 percent of the time, you have a great time. The other 25 percent, [sic] death."

"You're not jumping out of that plane."

Former Denver Broncos' linebacker Tom Jackson, similarly used math to question Del Rio's decision on ESPN 's Monday Night Countdown. Arguing that a short field goal was hardly a certainty, Jackson noted that the Jets were allowing Jones-Drew to cross the goal line.

"100 percent of the time [in that situation], you score," he quipped.

Those down-to-earth counterarguments have merit, of course.

By turning the ball over on downs so close to their own goal line, the Patriots practically handed Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning and his receivers six points. Two plays, both passes, put the Colts on the one-yard line with time to burn, and a slant route touchdown toss to Reggie Wayne made their comeback official.

New England punter Chris Hanson, averaging 44 net-yards per punt that night, could (theoretically) have flipped the field, pushing Indianapolis' offense back to their own 28-yard line.

Manning had completed seven of his 10 passes in the quarter, throwing for over 100 yards and a touchdown, but 72 yards in two minutes would hardly have been a cinch.

For the Jaguars, Jackson's caution that even a field goal from extra point distance isn't an automatic three points should have rang especially true.

Two weeks earlier, a botched point-after by their field goal team blunted Jones-Drew's potential game-tying touchdown in the third quarter against the Tennessee Titans. Coming onto the field for the kick, Scobee was an unimpressive 9-of-15 on field goals and had already pegged one of Giants Stadium's left uprights earlier in the game.

Injuries—the indefatigable bugger of even the best-laid football plans—factored into both coaches' decisions.

Had Belichick been able to count on absent defensive linemen Ty Warren and Jarvis Green to pressure Manning, he might have been more willing to trust his defense against the Colts' aerial attack. For Del Rio, cornerback Rashean Mathis' groin injury on the Jets' last drive left his defensive secondary dangerously thin.

The decision by both coaches to kill clock and keep their opponents' offenses off the field was, in and of itself, hardly radical. Their aggressive pursuits of that strategy though, have sent shock waves through the national sports consciousness.

As of Monday morning, every major news outlet and NFL blog had an opinion, and every water cooler, break room, and work shop has been buzzing with talk. Depending on who's asked, Belichick either made an epic goof or showed big-time chutzpah; Del Rio's call was either a heady play or a lucky gamble.

Overlooked in most of the back-and-forth is the simple fact that both men refused to react passively in crunch time.

Punting and taking the free touchdown, respectively, would have been inoffensive calls. Both coaches would have been given credit, at least for "trusting the defense." Neither would have received much postgame attention had Manning or New York's Mark Sanchez led successful comeback drives.

In the gut of a head coach though, is the realization that—as Del Rio said after his Jaguars' 24-22 win—in such close games, "It comes down to being able to make a play to win the game."

On that task, neither wanted to defer to his opponent.

Hindsight says that one stumbled into a loss while the other escaped with a win. But come January, teams steered by coaches bold enough to go all-in on one play are better equipped to succeed under the win-or-go-home pressure of playoff football. On 4th-and-2, or with one shot at a game-winning kick, they've been there before.

Because at some point in any playoff team's season, there's a deciding play and, as Belichick said after the Patriots' 35-34 loss, "You only get one chance."

Stadium Journey: Jacksonville Jaguars' Half-Empty House a Good Bargain

Jack Harver — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:20:29 -0500

[Article originally published by Stadium Journey .]

Ten weeks into the 2009 season, Jacksonville Municipal Stadium has been one of the NFL's most buzzworthy facilities. Not for being big and flashy like the Dallas Cowboys' new billion-dollar home—it isn't—and not because it's on a farewell tour like Giants Stadium. (Not yet, at least.)

Instead, "The Jack" has been a hot topic for the national media because it's practically empty for Jaguars games.

There are over 67,000 seats in the stadium, not including almost 10,000 in the upper corners that remain covered—like training wheels for drawing a "sellout" crowd. But Jacksonville sold less than 46,000 tickets on average for each of the team's first three home contests this year, with reported attendance figures closer to 40,000 per game.

The upshot? Walk-up ticket buyers can score seats that would be prime real estate in other NFL stadiums.

Lower-level tickets were available on the team's website less than a week before the game, including one in the corner of the north end zone that provided an excellent view of the Jaguars' 24-21 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

With Jacksonville residents spending their Sunday afternoons elsewhere—in one of the many churches within walking distance of the stadium, perhaps—the Jaguars have won three of their four home games. At 5-4 on the year, they're dark horse playoff contenders despite bidding good-bye to over half of last year's 53-man roster and starting four rookies from their 2009 draft crop.

Factor in top-tier superstars like running back Maurice Jones-Drew and cornerback Rashean Mathis, and Jacksonville's on-field product figures to be respectable for years to come. Like the team, the fan experience at The Jack isn't mind-blowing, but it has its pluses.

FANFARE Score: 24

[StadiumJourney.com's unique "FANFARE" metric scores venues on a five-point scale in six categories, with additional bonus points awarded at the reviewer's discretion.]

F ood & Beverage: 5

"Stadium Classics" stands spread throughout the stadium cater to the traditionalist "peanuts and Cracker Jacks" crowd, selling hot dogs, sausages, popcorn, pretzels and the like for $5 apiece. For a few bucks more, though, several local-flavor niche options offer a departure from the regular: "El Gato Grande" (which translates, fittingly, to "The Big Cat") is an outpost of Burrito Gallery, a local Meixcan restaurant, and Andrew Jackson's BBQ makes a decent 'que in the trademark Florida style: sauceless, smoky, and tender.

Soft drinks are $4-6 and beers are $5-8 everywhere, with stiffer concoctions available for $10.

Want the camaraderie of a bar at the game, or just to get closer than a nosebleed ticket would otherwise allow? The Bud Zone, situated behind the lower-level seats in the stadium's south end zone, is a full-on sports bar, complete with rows of TVs tuned to other NFL games. In the past, this part of the stadium has been open (with no cover charge) for fans to watch the Jaguars' away playoff games and the NFL Draft.

Nothing beats a pro football stadium—even an empty one—for year-round atmosphere at a bar.

A tmosphere: 3

With that said, the feel of the stadium itself leaves something to be desired.

The lackluster attendance detracts from the magic of game day, to be sure. There's bustle outside the stadium and around the concourses, but not the kind of heavy human traffic that screams "This is NFL football, the place to be!" at venues like the New England Patriots' Gillette Stadium or even FedEx Field, home of the Washington Redskins' financially-exploited, pessimistic fans.

Still, those in attendance would be milling around in an atmosphere worth at least a "4" had the Jaguars not ripped out a walk-through exhibit showcasing the team's 15-year place in football history. "Decades of the NFL," marked by an overhead entrance sign featuring Jacksonville greats like Mark Brunell and Jimmy Smith, filled one side of the lower concourse, with a sprawling Jaguars logo on one wall and a visual history of NFL football on the other, as recently as last season.

In its place? A merchandise hallway shilling the same garden-variety shirts and souvenirs found in the many team shops around the stadium. From inside, it's easy to forget that The Jack is the site of "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party"—and the accompanying Florida-Georgia football game—every year and hosted the Super Bowl in 2004.

N eighborhood: 3

Churches. Lots and lots of churches. St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, St. John's Cathedral, First Presbyterian Church, Church of the Immaculate Conception, First United Methodist Church, and the nine city blocks occupied by First Baptist Church—all within a 15-minute stroll of the stadium.

Looking to take in a worship service before kickoff? Pick one.

Out-of-towners in search of other entertainment, though, have fewer options. With most of the Jacksonville Landing—a riverfront mall downtown—and surrounding shops closed until noon, even if the Jaguars' game starts at one o'clock, the immediate area around the stadium is the only part of Jacksonville that's awake.

Thanks to Tailgate Bar & Grill, which sits in a grassy lot across from the stadium's east entrance, it's not a terrible predicament.

Catering to those who aren't in with one of the many tailgates set up in lots around the stadium, Tailgate's outdoor grill cooks up $7 wings, fish, shrimp, turkey legs, and barbeque ribs ($8) in addition to burgers and dogs, and beer comes in small (16oz. - $4) and large football-shaped (44oz - $8) cups. Meanwhile, WOKV (690AM) broadcasts its Jaguars pre and post-game shows from upstairs, starting at 10am on game days.

For a Monday or late-Sunday game, or after an early game, the Landing is worth a visit. A quiet morning stop, Jacksonville's downtown center picks up its pace as the sun sets with live music, dining options ranging from Hooters to Koja Sushi and the more-upscale Benny's Steak & Seafood, and a view of the bridges that criss-cross the St. John's River.

F ans: 2

To be fair, the fans who fill two thirds of The Jack deserve at least a "3"—especially those in the rowdy north end zone. They're pin-drop quiet for the Jaguars' offense and raucously loud for the defense. They wear jerseys, body paint, team-color beads, and anything else to show their support. After first downs, touchdowns, and big plays, there are high-fives for everyone around.

Most endearingly, they pick favorites apart from the team's superstar players. Tight end Ernest Wilford, in his second stint with Jacksonville after the team decided against re-signing him last year, earned respect as a red zone target in his first two years with the team and has a banner dedicated to him in the south end zone. Recently-released long snapper Joe Zelenka also enjoyed a significant following among Jaguars faithful as the NFL's only player at his position with a fan club.

But there just aren't enough butts in the seats to give these fans their full due. Those present are true-blue enough for any fan base, but almost 17,000 season ticket holders decided not to renew for the 2009 season and the city at large seems only mildly interested in its team. With the stadium at two-thirds capacity, the fans get two thirds of their grade.

A ccess: 5

Then again, that's 17,000 people who aren't taking up parking spaces near the stadium or forming lines for concessions or bathrooms. Parking in The Jack's immediate vicinity goes for $20, but room in $10 lots abounds in all directions, including several to the west along Duval St.

After the game, leaving the stadium is a matter of painlessly shuffling out along cone-lined lanes. Traffic disperses in all directions, north and south on I-95 and west on I-10, clearing up within an hour or so of the game's final whistle.

R eturn on Investment: 4

The Jaguars realize that they aren't exactly packing this house on game days, and the price of a day at The Jack reflects that fact. Despite an on-field product that would command higher prices in every facet of the fan experience in most other NFL cities, they continue to attempt to lure Jacksonville citizens to games by reducing their impact on a fan's wallet.

One metric the NFL uses to measure its teams' affordability is the Fan Cost Index (FCI): the average price for a family of four to buy four tickets, soft drinks, and hot dogs, two small beers, programs, hats, and parking. League-wide, the average FCI is close to $415; at a Jaguars game, it's barely above $300.

For any team except the 2008 Lions, that's relatively fair. For Jacksonville, a team on the rise with enough star power to entertain, it's a bargain.

E tc. (Everything Else & Bonus Points): 2

One point for the jaguar statue in front of the stadium's west entrance, whose heel is signed "Go Jags!" by team owner Wayne Weaver and dated to 1995. A great photo opportunity if there ever was one.

Another, for the Jacksonville coaches' fondness for pre-game "catch." Receivers coach Todd Monken is all business with up-and-coming star receiver Mike Sims-Walker, but head coach Jack Del Rio tosses around with the players in early warm-ups and running backs coach Kennedy Pola has thrown with fans on occasion.

Jaguars-Chiefs: Jacksonville's Ground Game Returns, Controls Clock in Win

Jack Harver — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:13:37 -0500

At first glance, the Jaguars don't appear to be back from an off week of running the ball.

Jacksonville's 170-yard output Sunday against the Chiefs fit right in with the Jaguars' previous two games, in which their rushing attack—the NFL's sixth-best through nine weeks—hit for over 150 yards, including 217 in last week's 30-13 loss to the Tennessee Titans.

Running back Maurice Jones-Drew's 97 yards against Kansas City, too, was relatively pedestrian—only slightly above his 92.1 rushing yards-per-week average.

But Jacksonville's 41 carries (29 by Jones-Drew) were a marked improvement after the Jaguars managed only 16 rushing attempts while getting blown out at Tennessee. This week, Jacksonville wore the Chiefs' defense and the game clock down, run by run, en route to a 24-6 lead late in the fourth quarter.

By the time Kansas City's offense found the end zone for their first touchdown with 2:41 left to play, it was too little: Jacksonville's 36 minutes of possession had ensured that the Chiefs' ensuing 15-point run would come too late.

In calling a run-heavy game, the Jaguars channelled the source of their other three wins this season. Including Sunday's victory, Jacksonville's rushing attack has led the way with at least 30 attempts in each of those four contests, averaging just under 35 per game.

The Jaguars' four losses, by contrast, were games in which they ran the ball less than 20 times on average. Jacksonville's 26 carries in a hard-fought 14-12 loss to the Indianapolis Colts were the closest the team has come to that 30-run benchmark in defeat.

Counting runs, admittedly, seems like hindsight reasoning. Generally, teams run the ball to kill clock when leading and pass the ball to come back when trailing, meaning rush attempts can be a symptom of success instead of its cause.

Even with the caveat that winning tends to inflate run totals, though, NFL teams can have markedly different winning styles.

Having won their first eight games, the Colts are averaging under 23 runs a game while typically attempting over 39 passes. The Jaguars, for comparison, are only 1-1 in games where quarterback David Garrard has thrown the ball at least 39 times.

Indianapolis' offense is built to win with the pass; Jacksonville's, obviously, isn't.

Primarily, the Jaguars' hang-up is their lack of quick-strike capability. Despite having an effective offense which ranks ninth in the NFL in yards per game, they put up less than 20 points on average.

Without the ability to quickly and consistently answer opponents' scores, Jacksonville's best bet this season has been to establish the running game on time-consuming scoring drives. The Jaguars' 36-minute time of possession against Kansas City was on par with their average in wins against the Titans, Houston Texans, and St. Louis Rams.

All four of those teams, of course, rank among the bottom half of the NFL in terms of stopping the run. Three of Jacksonville's four losses have come against run defenses in the top half of the league.

Sunday, the Jaguars followed up on a loss at Tennessee marked by sporadic over-consumption on the ground with a win against the Chiefs that featured a steady diet of solid runs—only two went for more than 10 yards.

For Jacksonville, it's that kind of slow and steady that wins the game.

Identity Crisis: Jacksonville Jaguars' Passing Game Humbled in Loss

Jack Harver — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:22:04 -0500

Jacksonville's 30-13 whipping at the hands of the previously winless Tennessee Titans Sunday sent out a news flash that should hardly have been news:

The Jaguars aren't the New England Patriots.

Nor, for that matter, are they the Indianapolis Colts.

After watching two of the NFL's perennial passing powerhouses drub Tennessee by a combined score of 100-9, Jacksonville's aerial attack came into Sunday's game smelling blood.

Five of the Titans' first six opponents had gained over 300 yards through the air—including a 323-yard effort by Jaguars quarterback David Garrard and his receivers in the teams' first meeting, a 37-17 blowout win for Jacksonville.

As the Jaguars' 14th-ranked passing offense traveled to Nashville, they clearly intended to trounce Tennessee with more of the same. Their play-calling suggested as much: of Jacksonville's first nine plays from scrimmage, eight were passes.

The results?

Five yards, incomplete, intentional grounding—punt.

Four yards, sacked, incomplete—punt.

Incomplete—then a seven-yard end-around run—and an interception.

Three drives. Eight passes for nine yards and a turnover. Three three-and-outs.

Try as he might, Garrard couldn't crack the Titans' pass defense the way New England's Tom Brady and Indianapolis' Peyton Manning did in throwing for 689 yards in two dominating performances—or, indeed, the way Garrard himself had done against Tennessee back in early October.

Part of the problem was the return of All-Pro cornerback Cortland Finnegan to the Titans' secondary. Finnegan, who missed Tennessee's three blowout losses while recovering from a hamstring injury, hounded the Jaguars' receivers in coverage while recording three tackles and an interception in his first game back.

Torry Holt and Mike Sims-Walker, who had been combining for nearly 150 yards per game as Jacksonville's two top pass-catchers, managed only four receptions for 26 yards between them against the Titans' recharged defensive backfield.

So much for exploiting the NFL's statistically-worst pass defense.

The Jaguars' bigger issue, though, was a lack of trust in their wildly successful rushing attack—an uncharacteristic lapse for a Jack Del Rio-coached team.

In four of Del Rio's six years in Jacksonville, the Jaguars' ground game has ranked among the league's top 10. Emphasizing a tough brand of "run the ball, stop the run" football, his teams have always prided themselves on running early and often—with varying degrees of success.

Entering Sunday's contest, Tennessee did boast a run defense which, outside of a miserable effort against the Patriots, had held opponents to an average of less than 80 yards per game.

On the rare occasions when Jacksonville deigned to run, though, the Jaguars had their way with the Titans, who seemed unwilling—or unable—to tackle running back Maurice Jones-Drew. Two of Jones-Drew's first five carries were spectacular 80- and 79-yard touchdowns, and only one of his eight runs gained less than three yards.

When asked after the game why his offense had shied away from running the ball, Del Rio noted that several called runs had been audibled to passes in Jacksonville's first three drives.

Eventually, he said, Garrard was told, in no uncertain terms, "Look, just hand it to [Jones-Drew] and let him run with the ball."

The concern, here, isn't that the Jaguars had to force themselves to commit to their ground game, even in the face of its marked success—or, for that matter, that Jacksonville strayed once more to the pass, down 23-13 with 20 minutes still to play.

It's that it was even a question to begin with.

Past Del Rio's preferred "smash-mouth" style, these Jaguars just aren't built to be a pass-first team. With a pair of road-grading guards in Vince Manuwai and Uche Nwaneri, a stable of capable blocking tight ends, and a top-caliber feature back in Jones-Drew, Jacksonville's offense has the tools for a knockout rushing attack.

Add to that mix a pair of rookie tackles (Eugene Monroe and Eben Britton) who have blocked well for runs while struggling against pass-rushing defensive ends, and the argument for favoring the ground game becomes even stronger.

Running the ball hasn't always been a viable option this season, of course. Facing three-score halftime deficits against the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks—and having to drive downfield late in the fourth quarter to tie the St. Louis Rams—the Jaguars have needed Garrard to step up more than in years past.

But when Jacksonville's rushing attack is working, as it was Sunday against Tennessee, there shouldn't be a moment's hesitation to ride it.

Whether that's a matter of having Garrard be less of a leader and more of a lead blocker—as he was on both of Jones-Drew's long touchdowns—or refocusing the offense as a whole is up to the coaches as the Jaguars prepare for next week's game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

From Del Rio at the top down to his position coaches, after six years of run-first football and a blowout loss marked by ineffective passing, they should know that it needs to be done.

Pack Your Brooms: Jacksonville Jaguars' Keys to Complete Sweep of Tennessee Titans

Jack Harver — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:00:43 -0400

For the first time in three years, Jacksonville's second game against Tennessee offers a shot at a season sweep. The Titans spoiled the Jaguars' season openers in 2007 and 2008. Last year, Tennessee followed up on that Week 1 triumph with a 24-14 road win in Jacksonville—their third sweep in the series since 2000. Over that stretch, the Jaguars have lost 11 of 19 games in the rivalry. In the teams' Week 4 meeting this year, though, Jacksonville thumped the Titans 37-17. But, even with Tennessee still winless on the season, the Jaguars travel to Nashville this weekend as three-point underdogs. To beat those odds and improve to 4-3, they'll need to do three key jobs.

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Where's 91? Week 6: Derrick Harvey's Role Expanding in Jaguars' Defense

Jack Harver — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:22:33 -0400

The answer to this column's central question—"Where's 91?"—gets more complicated every week.

Jacksonville's coaches tried Derrick Harvey out at outside linebacker and defensive end in the Jaguars' first few games this year before deciding to use him in both roles. Further into the season, his responsibilities as an outside linebacker were becoming distinct from his duties as a down lineman.

Standing up, he'd rush the outside edge or drop into short zone coverage. With his hand on the ground, he'd bull forward into the pocket or the running back. The trick was to see where Jacksonville would use Harvey in a given situation.

Then, this past Sunday, the Jaguars showed that his function through five weeks had only been the tip of the iceberg.

He lined up in the same spots, playing on the line for one-fourth of his snaps and as a linebacker the rest of the time. From there, though, Jacksonville sent Harvey all over the field.

Coming off a game in which he had excelled against the Seattle Seahawks' interior linemen, the Jaguars expanded their use of two-man fronts. Pairing Harvey with rookie nose tackle Terrance Knighton in the middle in obvious passing situations and on most third downs, Jacksonville forced St. Louis' offense into six drives of four plays or less.

On one second-quarter play, the Jaguars dropped Harvey from tackle into underneath coverage on a zone blitz. With Jacksonville's safeties straying wide, Rams running back Steven Jackson leaked out and made a catch over the middle before Harvey took him down in pursuit.

Had Jackson not flashed open, the Jaguars might have notched a sack. Going forward, Harvey's ability to separate and cover should make for more opportunities to blitz quick second-level defenders inside.

From outside linebacker, his coverage responsibilities expanded from run-of-the-mill short zones as St. Louis took to the air. The Rams tested Jacksonville's 30th-ranked pass defense early and often, throwing on two-thirds of their snaps and just under half of their plays on first down.

Unwilling to commit to the pass on 1st-and-10 and in short-yardage situations, the Jaguars responded by locking Harvey onto Bulger in spy coverage. Performing a task normally reserved for true linebackers, he dropped back to read and react to St. Louis' quarterback and the flow of the Rams' receivers.

With his back turned to most of the action, Harvey's results were mixed.

Fixed on Bulger, he made two big plays. On the game's first drive, St. Louis looked to convert a 2nd-and-2 with a quick slant route to receiver Keenan Burton. At the snap, Harvey checked for a run before cutting between Bulger and his target, buying time for Jacksonville's only sack of the day.

Later, with the Rams driving for what would be a game-tying field goal at the end of regulation, Harvey read an underneath throw to tight end Randy McMichael in the red zone and closed. By bringing McMichael down in-bounds, nine yards from the end zone, with 15 seconds left, he kept St. Louis' offensive options limited.

More often than not, though, Harvey's coverage role hurt the Jaguars' pass rush more than he helped against the Rams' passing attack. Short passes still gashed Jacksonville for significant yardage, including six to Jackson for 78 yards.

As a pass rusher, Harvey found St. Louis left tackle Alex Barron less vincible than Seattle's backups.

His bull rush worked, against Barron's lean 6'7", 300-pound frame, to collapse Bulger's pocket on several occasions—including an impressive effort that forced an underthrow for Rashean Mathis' first-quarter interception . But Barron proved difficult to beat around the edge, nudging Harvey past the pocket repeatedly throughout the game.

Harvey continues to beat blockers when anchoring against the run, as evidenced on his impressive first-quarter stop of Steven Jackson for no gain. On the day, the Rams managed only 15 yards on five carries in his direction, nine of which came on one play.

But he has yet to show a good-enough inside move to keep athletic tackles like Barron from squaring up to him on the edge and forcing him wide.

The Jaguars' defense is the league's worst at getting to the quarterback, having managed only five sacks through six games. Harvey has filled his diverse role admirably, in coverage and beating blockers on the line, but opposing passers must go down for Jacksonville to improve in pass defense.

With a decent rip or swim move, he'd be able to do that from any position, too.

[Photo courtesy of Jaguars.com's gallery.]

From Knucklehead to Spearhead: Jaguars' David Garrard Needed Comeback

Jack Harver — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:43:16 -0400

With under five minutes left in Sunday's game, Jaguars quarterback David Garrard seemed to have lobbed a softball to the St. Louis Rams and his detractors.

His absent-minded screen pass to fullback Greg Jones hung in the air in front of Rams defensive end Leonard Little, an indictment of the tunnel-vision that critics have cited in deriding Garrard as a subpar signal-caller. As Little raced toward the end zone and a 17-13 lead for St. Louis, Garrard had—for the moment—blown the game.

Having already turned the ball over twice inside the Rams' 20-yard line, the Jaguars' meager advantage had been mostly a product of their suffocating defense.

After allowing a touchdown on St. Louis' first drive, Jacksonville had forced five three-and-outs and limited the Rams to a field goal. Handed the ball and a lead, the offense needed only to kill clock to escape with an ugly win.

Then came the pick that turned the tables.

Chasing futilely after Little, Garrard probably wasn't thinking about his 16th career start , back in 2006, when his four turnovers gave the Tennessee Titans a game in which their offense managed only three points.

Jaguars fans, though, were likely bemoaning a flashback performance from their "game manager" as St. Louis kicked off. Many of the 38,425 present at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium headed for the exits.

Meanwhile, Garrard was readying his teammates for one last effort.

"I said, 'Let's get back out there and go down and score,'" he told reporters after the game.

After a first down incompletion, Garrard took that task into his own hands.

Under pressure on the next play, he escaped through a hole between blockers and turned up field. Rather than sliding down safely, Garrard cut back into the defense and evaded a tackle before stepping out of bounds after 13 yards.

More than a fortuitous gain, the run was a sharp statement against the lazy play that had ended the Jaguars' last drive. Shoulders squared, Garrard's body language showed both his frustration and determination.

Needing nothing less than a touchdown against a defense on its heels, Garrard found receiver Mike Sims-Walker downfield for for a 26-yard completion two plays later to break into the red zone. After a check-down to running back Maurice Jones-Drew for 13 yards and three grinding runs, Jacksonville regained the lead.

"David made some big throws," coach Jack Del Rio said of the drive. "I thought we collected ourselves and the offense went out and played ball."

St. Louis pulled even with a field goal at the end of regulation, but Garrard gave them more of the same in the only drive of overtime. With 39 yards on six passes—including a 17-yarder to rookie receiver Mike Thomas to convert on 3rd-and-6 and cross midfield—he marched the Jaguars downfield to Josh Scobee's game-winning kick.

As Jacksonville moved slowly but surely against the Rams' defense, taking underneath routes and short runs before gashing St. Louis on Thomas' catch, all trace of Garrard's deer-in-headlights interception had vanished.

In its place, his steely, focused performance injected killer instinct into his teammates and an offense that had finished poorly through three quarters against one of the NFL's worst defenses.

"[They needed] to be able to see me keep my head, even after a tough play like that," Garrard said.

Rallying behind Garrard, the Jaguars' rookie starters keyed in on those two crunch-time series. Tackles Eugene Monroe and Eben Britton helped give him time to throw in the face of several all-out blitzes by the Rams, and Thomas' drive-extending catch kept St. Louis' offense off the field in overtime.

"For Mike Thomas to make a great catch there on third down—a play that we needed—[was important,]" Garrard remarked after the game.

It wasn't the playoffs, or even for a playoff berth, and an overtime nail-biter against the winless Rams is hardly fit for a signature win. Without Garrard's turnover, arguably, Jacksonville could have closed out the game in less-dramatic fashion.

But after putting his team in a hole, Garrard had to prove himself capable of dragging them back out.

It's a brick in building of a reputation as a leader—instead of a "manager"—if nothing else.

Where's 91? Week 5: Derrick Harvey Whips Blockers in Vain for Blown-Out Jaguars

Jack Harver — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:27:49 -0400

Against an offensive line decimated by injuries, this past Sunday was supposed to be Derrick Harvey's coming-out party.

With the Seattle Seahawks missing both starting tackles and their starting left guard, Harvey was considered a sure bet to notch his first sack of the season. In light of the picks the Jacksonville Jaguars spent to acquire him in the 2008 draft, anything less than a prominent stat line—in the eyes of the Jacksonville media—would be unacceptable.

Sunday's game came and went, with Harvey notching five tackles, four hurries, and one pass defensed. Returning home without a sack, the negative fan reaction was predictable.

Meanwhile, for anyone who cared to watch, the Jaguars' much-maligned second-year pass rusher had the best day of his young career.

Harvey opened the game with a ho-hum effort on the Seahawks' first drive. Stuck in pursuit on runs and zone coverage on passes, he made little noise as Seattle broke into Jacksonville territory before punting the ball away.

On the second play of the next series, though, he awakened the Seahawks rudely to their danger.

Left tackle Brandon Frye, making his second start in place of injured veteran Walter Jones, charged at Harvey to lead the way for running back Julius Jones. He punched out to push Jacksonville's end away—and all 6'5" and 281 pounds of Harvey hunkered down.

Crunched, Frye dropped to the ground. Jones gained six yards on the run before a second-level defender could bring him down, but Harvey's counterpunch sent Frye to the sideline.

Recently, Seattle announced that the neck and shoulder injuries Frye suffered on that play will end his season.

Not content with merely beating his blocker up, Harvey shoved backup tackle Kyle Williams aside on the next snap and tackled Jones himself near the line of scrimmage. Three plays later, he jumped and extended in shallow zone coverage to knock down a high pass by quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.

During the drive, Harvey lined up at outside linebacker, right end, and defensive tackle in the Jaguars' different looks, funneling runs in from the outside and putting heat on Hasselbeck up the middle.

The next time the Seahawks' offense took the field, they double-teamed Harvey on two of their five plays. He responded by splitting his blockers both times, forcing Hasselbeck into a panicked incompletion on 3rd-and-1 after breaking through between the tackle and guard.

Throughout the game, Harvey had his way with whichever Seahawks he lined up against. He dug his heels in on runs to his side for two more of his tackles and penetrated consistently as a pass rusher—including a nasty inside swim move late in the second quarter—even as Jacksonville fell further behind on the scoreboard.

For the first time this year, an opposing quarterback had to think during his pre-snap read: "Where's 91?" Hasselbeck rolled out away from Harvey on several plays, throwing from the side of the pocket that wasn't quickly collapsing, and shied away from tight end John Carlson when Harvey drew him in one-on-one coverage.

In spite of Harvey's best efforts, though, Seattle moved the ball at will against the Jaguars' defense and kept Hasselbeck upright for most of the afternoon.

This week, Harvey has been criticized for failing to produce on par with his draft position. When the Jaguars traded up to the eighth overall pick in 2008 in search of a premier pass rusher, they certainly didn't envision him failing to register a sack against a third-string left tackle.

Even the NFL's best sack artists aren't expected to generate pressure alone, though. Minnesota's Jared Allen gets help from the Vikings' interior linemen, Pittsburgh's James Harrison is complemented by fellow linebacker LaMarr Woodley, and Indianapolis' Dwight Freeney benefits from playing opposite Robert Mathis, to name a few.

On Sunday, Harvey's teammates provided little disincentive for the Seahawks to scheme heavily against him.

Jacksonville's defense, in transitioning to new coordinator Mel Tucker's 3-4 scheme, employs down linemen who are responsible for hitting gaps in the offensive line to get penetration and draw blockers in. Even on Derek Landri's sack, that group did little against Seattle to keep Hasselbeck from stepping up into the pocket to throw.

Linebacker Clint Ingram, a capable blitzer, was playing on an injured ankle Sunday. After notching a sack two weeks ago at Houston, he couldn't get upfield quickly enough to punish Hasselbeck for rolling out to the right.

The most damning evidence against Harvey's supporting cast, though, comes from film of Nate Burleson's 44-yard touchdown catch-and-run.

With Seattle devoting three blockers to Harvey, a gap was left for linebacker Brian Iwuh to hit home on the blitz—until Hasselbeck spotted Burleson wide open underneath the Jaguars' secondary for the easy completion.

On that play, Pro Bowl corner Rashean Mathis was the guilty party. Rookie Derek Cox, though, has been a repeat offender in Jacksonville's secondary, inflating his total tackles (23 solo through five games) by giving huge cushions to opposing receivers.

Facing linemen who need only ride him wide of the pocket and quarterbacks who can roll out away and hit quick short passes, Harvey's hurries are as close as he's likely to get to a sack.

There's plenty of blame to go around after the Seahawks' 41-0 shellacking of the Jaguars. Harvey, for his part, could stand to refine his inside pass-rush moves, because he'll need them to do damage against starting-caliber tackles.

But too much has been made of his failure to record a sack against Seattle's banged-up line, especially after a dominating performance that left them worse for the wear.

Thankfully, Jacksonville head coach Jack Del Rio seemed to recognize Harvey's effort. Trailing 34-0 after three quarters, he pulled three key starters to avoid fluke injuries: quarterback David Garrard, running back Maurice Jones-Drew, and Harvey.

After his performance this past Sunday, Harvey should be considered on his way to becoming that caliber of player.

[Photo courtesy of Jaguars.com's gallery.]

Jacksonville Jaguars' Eugene Monroe Must Start, Despite Recent Struggles

Jack Harver — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:18:26 -0400

To say that the past two weeks have been an "unkind" stretch for rookie left tackle Eugene Monroe would be quite the understatement.

Coming off an impressive performance against the Houston Texans, where he held All-Pro defensive end Mario Williams without a sack, Monroe was one of three Jaguars to catch the flu in the week leading up to Jacksonville's home win over the Tennessee Titans.

The illness caused him to lose 14 pounds as he missed a start against Pro Bowl defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch, whom Tra Thomas handled effectively in Monroe's absence.

Then, having worked himself back into shape enough to start this past Sunday, Monroe turned in the worst performance of his young career against the Seattle Seahawks.

Statistically, he was responsible for as many sacks (three) as he'd been in his first three starts combined.

In those games, though, Monroe was facing top-caliber ends: Houston's Williams, Indianapolis' Dwight Freeney, and Arizona's Bertrand Berry—two All-Pros and a Pro Bowler, all seasoned veterans. Against the Seahawks, he was beaten just as badly by rotation lineman Darryl Tapp and rookie Nick Reed.

Monroe's health, only a week removed from the flu, was likely part of the problem. That the Jaguars, trailing early, were forced into a pass-heavy offense didn't help his cause against Seattle's aggressive defensive front, either.

Still, with Thomas lurking behind him on the depth chart, Monroe's hold on his starting job might seem tenuous.

Thomas, a 12-year veteran and former All-Pro, was one of Jacksonville's few newsworthy summer signings. In limited action this year, he's done nothing to suggest that his talents have diminished from when he started for the Philadelphia Eagles.

The prevailing sentiment in this type of situation is that the best player should play. Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio said as much before Jacksonville's season opener.

Considering Monroe's recent form, that would seem to support Thomas' case to start.

One of the reasons Thomas might be considered a better player, though, is his versatility. The Jaguars have used him as a sixth lineman in several goal-line and short-yardage situations this season, and he's physical enough to be an effective lead blocker at right tackle—a role where a technician like Monroe wouldn't fit.

Contrary to the "best player" logic, that's also a reason why Jacksonville should keep him behind Monroe. With rookie right tackle Eben Britton having already missed one game and the situation at right guard unsettled, Thomas provides solid depth at both tackle spots and a gritty presence as a fill-in.

That Monroe flashed big-time talent against Houston is equally important. After Freeney overwhelmed him with speed and technique and the Cardinals' linemen bulled him back, Monroe used his footwork and leg strength to play aggressively against Williams, both in pass protection and on runs.

Abused though he was this past Sunday at Seattle, the Jaguars need look back no farther than two weeks ago for evidence that his game experience will pay dividends.

As Jacksonville's long-term solution to the problem of protecting quarterback David Garrard's blind side, Monroe will be a full-time starter sooner or later. Sitting and watching wouldn't have prepared him for Williams, and it won't help him going forward; the more he can learn on the job, the quicker he'll catch on.

Right now, Tra Thomas might be the better player, but his play in spot duty makes for the Jaguars' best line as Monroe learns the lessons he'll need to be a standout.

[Photo courtesy of Jaguars.com's gallery.]

Where's 91? Week 4: Jaguars' Derrick Harvey Must Menace Wounded Seahawks

Jack Harver — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 22:07:16 -0400

Matched up against one of the NFL's best left tackles last week, Derrick Harvey's production was understandably up-and-down.

Michael Roos, Tennessee's All-Pro blind side bookend, was able to wall Harvey off on several successful runs in the first half—while the game hadn't yet gotten out-of-hand on the scoreboard.

The Titans gained 37 of their 76 first-half rushing yards on eight carries around Harvey's end. Like the Indianapolis Colts and Arizona Cardinals before them, Tennessee looked to exploit his inconsistent ability to keep running backs from turning the corner.

This time, though, Harvey fought back with a pair of drive-smothering plays to help the Jaguars' defense preserve an early lead.

On the Titans' third drive, after Jacksonville went up 10-3 on a Maurice Jones-Drew touchdown run, Harvey separated from Roos on first down to wrap up running back Chris Johnson at the line. Needing nine yards in two plays, Tennessee abandoned their trademark ground game for two incomplete passes and had to punt.

After the Jaguars' next score put them ahead 17-3, Harvey once again stalled the Titans' attempt to answer.

Facing 3rd-and-1, Tennessee quarterback Kerry Collins attempted a dink to tight end Bo Scaife for the first down. Harvey got a hand up, the ball flopped harmlessly to the turf, and the Titans were once again forced to punt.

Against All-Pro competition, a tackle and a pass defensed were points of marked success for Harvey. Stalled at the line for much of the first half, he was still able to use his athleticism and grit to affect the game.

In tomorrow's game against the injury-plagued Seattle Seahawks, though, Harvey will be in a position to dominate like he did against Titans guard Eugene Amano in last week's second half.

Playing face-up on Amano as a defensive tackle, Harvey pressured Collins into several poor throws as Tennessee played catch-up.

With the Seahawks missing tackles Walter Jones and Sean Locklear this week due to injuries, Harvey will be lining up across from backup Brandon Frye. In Seattle's 34-17 loss to Indianapolis last week, Colts defensive end Robert Mathis whipped Frye to the tune of 2.5 sacks and two forced fumbles.

If and when Frye gets help with Harvey, it'll come from either a tight end, a back, or backup left guard Mansfield Wrotto. As much as the Seahawks might scheme to get the best out of their blocking, no one near Roos' caliber will be in Harvey's way.

Jacksonville head coach Jack Del Rio seemed pleased with Harvey's level of play against the Titans.

"I think he [Harvey] played very well last week," Del Rio told reporters Wednesday. "I'll take that effort every week."

Facing backups thrust into starting roles, and with hurting quarterback Matt Hasselbeck returning for Seattle, that same level of effort could translate into an eye-opening performance this Sunday.

As the Jaguars enter the mid-season grind, it's time for Harvey to show his class.

Jacksonville Jaguars: A Quick Look Back at the "Worsts" and "Bests" from the First Four Games

Jack Harver — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:34:46 -0400

To be sure, the Jaguars aren't stopping at 2-2 to trumpet their successes or bemoan their failures thus far. "Our expectation is for getting ready for Seattle," quarterback David Garrard said after Jacksonville's 37-17 win against the Tennessee Titans. "We can write our own story." Riding a two-game winning streak over divisional foes, the Jaguars seem determined to pen a happy ending for their 2009 season. For a team that featured four rookie starters on opening day, it might be considered a "coming-of-age" story. As the actors of this drama press on into the grinding middle of their season, though, we observers are able to pause and examine Jacksonville's early highs and lows—the rising action from the first month of Jaguars football.

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From The Seats in Jacksonville: At Jaguars' Win, 46,031 Fans Felt Like Enough

Jack Harver — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:44:23 -0400

It wasn't enough to prevent the second Jacksonville TV blackout of the season.

It isn't enough to cushion the financial blow the Jaguars are taking from more than 20,000 unsold tickets.

It won't be enough, if it continues, to keep the team from looking hard at relocation.

But during Sunday's 37-17 rout of the Tennessee Titans, the 46,031 Jaguars faithful in attendance made Jacksonville Municipal Stadium—which seats 67,164—feel like the legitimate home of an NFL team.

They didn't do it with sheer decibels. The stadium's design, unfortunately, is such that even the noise of a packed house would float away into the open air. Tennessee's only false start came when left tackle Michael Roos tried to get a head start on pass protection in the fourth quarter.

They didn't do it with nastiness. After booing the home team off the field during the Jaguars' 31-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals two weeks ago, Jacksonville fans might have been expected to turn their vitriol against the hapless, hated Titans in a game that was never close.

Aside from one late-game chant directed at Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher, who earned Jaguars fans' undying loathing by referring to Jacksonville as his team's "home away from home" during the 1999 season, the crowd was mild-mannered throughout the contest.

Instead, the fans who filled two-thirds of the stadium showed their class by ebbing and flowing with the action on the field.

Whenever the Titans' offense had the ball, the crowd rose to the best of its ability to shout them down—or, at least, to make some background sound swim around in their ear-holes.

Whenever a defender called for more noise, he got it. Linebacker Clint Ingram, cornerback Rashean Mathis, and defensive tackle John Henderson each turned the stadium's volume up as though the controls were at their fingertips.

Whenever Jacksonville's offense was at work, the place was pin-drop quiet, and after every big play the fans' adulation rained down on the players.

Running back Maurice Jones-Drew was cheered ("Dre-e-ew!") after the touchdown that highlighted his light workload for the day—a national superstar receiving his due.

But the applause was just as loud for receiver Ernest Wilford's 29-yard catch-and-run in the second quarter. Wilford, who spent the first four years of his career in Jacksonville before playing last year for the Miami Dolphins, was a clear fan favorite for his physical, high-effort playing style.

In spite of large patches of empty seats, the fans who came out to support the Jaguars lent their voices to make Sunday's win sound like anything but a lackluster showing at the ticket counter.

Unsold tickets weren't snatched up by visiting fans, either, as has been done by traveling supporters of teams such as the Pittsburgh Steelers in the past. Visually, those in attendance were a mix of teal and white, with flecks of blue from the Titans' negligible representation in the stands.

Buoyed by their current two-game winning streak, the Jaguars should welcome the potential jump in attendance for their home game against the St. Louis Rams later this month—because 46,031 wasn't, isn't, and won't be enough to support them long-term.

But Sunday, it sure felt like plenty.

To Uche His Own: Jaguars' Backup Guard Uche Nwaneri Wows in Spot Duty

Jack Harver — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:44:51 -0400

Dreadlocks flopping behind him, Jaguars guard Uche Nwaneri punched his fist through the air emphatically as running back Maurice Jones-Drew skipped into the end zone for his third touchdown Sunday at Houston.

CBS color commentator (and former Jaguars quarterback) Steve Beuerlein noted that the Texans' linebackers "seemed to lose him [Jones-Drew] for a second" on the run.

Take a look.

Sure enough, DeMeco Ryans and Zac Diles lost sight of Jones-Drew during the play.

For Diles, it happened when he dove at Nwaneri's legs to take out Jones-Drew's lead blocker—and bounced off.

For Ryans, Houston's All-Pro defensive captain, it happened when Nwaneri threw him violently out of Jones-Drew's way.

The "pop!" of Nwaneri's pads against Ryans' is audible on the highlight. On Sunday, it was the sound of Jacksonville's ground game chugging ahead against the Texans' worn-out defense.

Looking forward, it may have been the sound of Nwaneri staking his claim to a starting job.

Going into next week's game, at least, Jacksonville shouldn't be too anxious about starting right tackle Eben Britton's injury status. The Jaguars gained 140 of their 185 rushing yards last week after Britton's second-quarter knee sprain forced right guard Maurice Williams out to tackle, leaving a spot for Nwaneri to step up.

Before Nwaneri entered the game, Jacksonville had 45 yards on 10 carries, including two to the right side that were stopped in the backfield. Outside of a 30-yard bootleg by quarterback David Garrard, the Jaguars had struggled to run the ball.

With Nwaneri (6'3", 330 pounds) providing an infusion of size and strength, though, Jacksonville bulled ahead for nearly seven yards per carry from that point on.

Having played both center and guard during the preseason, Nwaneri represents excellent depth for the Jaguars behind Williams, guard Vince Manuwai, and center Brad Meester—veterans whose cohesion and experience make them a steady core for Jacksonville's line.

Prior to last week's game, the prevalent knock on Nwaneri was his footwork, both in pass protection and pulling to run block. Against the Texans, though, he did his part for a line that allowed no sacks and gave Garrard ample time to throw.

Nwaneri, a fifth-round project pick out of Purdue in the 2007 draft, took his lumps last year as a 16-game starter after Manuwai went down with a knee injury in the season opener. A hulking, tenacious run blocker, Nwaneri has as much physical talent as any of Jacksonville's linemen.

If he keeps putting it to use as he did against Houston, the Jaguars will have to think hard about moving him up the depth chart.

Where's 91? Week 3: Harvey Rattles Texans Twice Late in Jaguars' Win

Jack Harver — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:25:16 -0400

For Jacksonville's Derrick Harvey, Sunday's game at Houston was the first regular day he's had on the job in some time.

Amidst a six-man rotation on the Jaguars' defensive line, Harvey played most snaps bulling forward from left end, both in three-man fronts and goal-line situations. The Jaguars moved their defensive front around for different blitz packages, but Harvey spent most of the game containing plays on his side, whether lined up over the guard or outside the tackle.

Harvey's performance in the first three quarters was pedestrian—a marked improvement over his erratic, risk-taking containment job a week ago against Arizona.

In the game's fourth frame, though, he gave Jaguars fans two more glimpses of what defensive line coach Ted Monachino has described as his "ability to take over periods."

The first came on third down on the Texans' first drive of the quarter, after Jacksonville had taken a 31-24 lead. Houston took the field having answered each of the Jaguars' previous scores in a see-saw contest through 45 minutes of play, and an 11-yard pass from Matt Schaub to Kevin Walter on the drive's first snap suggested they were ready to fire back again.

After a sack by Montavious Stanley on first down, Harvey nearly deflected Schaub's second-down pass to Jacoby Jones in the flat.

On the next play, with the Texans needing 17 yards for a first down, Harvey lined up outside Houston tackle Eric Winston on the next play and pinned his ears back, breaking through the line with an inside move between Winston and guard Mike Brisiel.

Last week, Harvey hesitated on his only clear shot at Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner, whiffing on the sack when Warner stepped up in the pocket.

This time, he went straight at Schaub. As the Texans' quarterback checked down and attempted to unload the ball to tight end Owen Daniels, Harvey rose up and slapped the pass away.

On Houston's next drive, with a more-manageable three yards to go on third down, Jacksonville defensive coordinator Mel Tucker called for a twist. At the snap, Harvey shot out at Winston before cutting back behind nose tackle Attiyah Ellison.

Texans center Chris Myers could only chip Harvey as he charged past, rushing toward Schaub. But Brisiel, the guard who had been too slow against Harvey's inside move, reached out and slung his left arm against Harvey's midsection. Grabbing on after Myers' nudge, Brisiel made the kind of block that referees sometimes miss in the middle of the line.

The cheap combo block bought Schaub a second to scramble away before being tripped up by blitzing linebacker Clint Ingram—and robbed Harvey of his first sack of the season.

A sack might've appeased Harvey's critics among Jacksonville's fans and the media, whose judgments are so often based on the box score. But his play in the fourth quarter was close to what the Jaguars expected when they drafted him in 2008.

If Tucker continues to find ways to line Harvey up outside the tackle and use his short-area speed, the sacks will come.

'Battle'-Ready Jacksonville Jaguars Run Over Texans in Win at Houston

Jack Harver — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:42:41 -0400

Any matador worth his cape could have told the Houston Texans that when you flash your red, you'd better not be standing prone behind it.

The Jacksonville Jaguars gashed the Texans' league-worst run defense Sunday for 184 yards and three touchdowns to spoil one of Houston's annual "battle red" uniform days. Amongst their 31 carries, one stood out as the Jaguars' signature.

1-10-HOU 19 (11:32) 32-[Maurice] Jones-Drew up the middle to HST 14 for 5 yards (93-[Tim] Bulman).

NFL.com's play-by-play account of the game, short and to-the-point, does little to document the grunt work put into those five yards by Jones-Drew and the offensive line.

Having given up a touchdown less than a minute before halftime to go down 21-17, Jacksonville started the third quarter by moving 64 yards in seven plays, including a 22-yard reverse and a 28-yard deep pass.

Inside Houston's 20-yard line for only the second time in the game, the Jaguars reverted to their bread-and-butter rushing attack.

After taking the handoff from David Garrard, Jones-Drew plowed straight ahead into the gap between center Brad Meester and left guard Vince Manuwai. He was met at the line by Bulman, who hit him low, and a blitzing linebacker overloading the gap.

With his feet churning, though, Jones-Drew extended the play. Meester and Manuwai dug in, shoving forward behind their persistent running back. Guard Uche Nwaneri and one of the Texans' defensive linemen joined the pile as the play degenerated into a rugby-style scrum.

Locked in over Jones-Drew, the three big Jaguars muscled forward for five yards before the mass of players collapsed. Nwaneri emerged from the pile pumping his fist in the air, ready for second and five.

Two plays later, Jones-Drew bounced off a would-be tackler at the goal line and walked in for six. The Jaguars never trailed thereafter.

Jacksonville did significant damage through the air, passing for 214 yards and on all five of their third-down conversions. Given ample time to throw by rookie tackles Eugene Monroe and Eben Britton, Garrard hit the Texans up for chunks of yardage throughout the game.

But Sunday's game was won up front, where the Jaguars' offensive line paved over Houston's outmatched defensive front and undersized linebacking corps to lead a ground game that averaged nearly six yards per carry. They generated push on runs up the middle and sealed well on the ends for sweeps, off-tackle runs, and a pair of end-arounds by rookie receiver Mike Thomas.

Garrard got in on the action, gaining 32 yards and a touchdown on two designed bootlegs as Jacksonville used misdirection to freeze the Texans' defensive secondary.

Houston's quick-strike passing offense kept pace with Jacksonville's grinding ground game for thirty minutes, answering Jacksonville's long drives with three first-half scores.

But when the Texans lost those two crucial shoving matches on the Jaguars' first second-half scoring drive and failed to answer with a touchdown, Jacksonville gained the downhill momentum needed for a 14-3 run over the last two frames to take over the game.

Where's 91? Week 2: Jaguars Saddle Harvey With Big-Body Grunt Work

Jack Harver — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:04:19 -0400

If the Jaguars keep trying to use Derrick Harvey as a big body, they're going to waste him.

Reggie Hayward's season-ending injury in Jacksonville's loss at Indianapolis likely forced Harvey into his role this past Sunday. With new defensive coordinator Mel Tucker employing mostly three-man fronts in the first two regular season games, the Jaguars' defensive line has been pressed into service in positions with unique size requirements.

At 6'5" and 281 pounds, Harvey would seem a decent fit for what's called a "five-tech" end—a defender who lines up across from an offensive tackle and is responsible for the gaps to either side of that tackle. The position requires long, strong arms to separate from blockers and the "base" (lower-body strength) to push against them.

Hayward (6'5", 275) had both. Though signed by Jacksonville in 2005 to be a pass-rushing threat—an expectation he met with 8.5 sacks that year—a ruptured Achilles tendon in 2006 robbed Hayward of the explosiveness he used to pursue opposing quarterbacks.

Before fracturing his shin in this year's season opener, Hayward seemed to have reshaped himself into a roughneck end, ready to fight with opposing tackles from that five-tech spot. When he went down, the Jaguars were left without a comparable player on their depth chart.

Harvey has the arms. In Jacksonville's two losses thus far, he's shown the ability to strike out at blockers to keep them from latching on. But, as Sunday's 31-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals made abundantly clear, he doesn't have the base.

The Jaguars lined Harvey up in place of Hayward for over half of his snaps. He played the position the only way his tools allowed, by attacking the tackle.

On some plays, he bull-rushed to try and seal off his side of the line, but the Cardinals' tackles proved too hefty for Harvey to move without over-committing to them. Arizona's running backs broke contain to the outside, and quarterback Kurt Warner was able to make quick throws before Harvey could release from his blocker.

When Harvey attacked his gaps, the Jaguars' spread-out line gave him little help, with Tim Hightower and Beanie Wells consistently hitting the holes he left. Pass rushing from face-up on the tackle forced him to choose between getting caught in the middle or running too wide an arc.

Harvey's best and worst plays came as an end in four-man fronts. Tellingly, both came after he had dominated his blocker from that position.

His best effort of the afternoon, as depicted in the photo accompanying this article, came on a strong side run by Hightower.

Lining up on right tackle Levi Brown's outside shoulder, Harvey was ready for Brown's attempted lead block. He punched out, shoving Brown aside, and slammed into Hightower at the line of scrimmage.

The outside position gave Harvey the edge, literally, on Brown by turning what would've been a shoving match, had he lined up at five-tech, into a test of balance and upper-body strength. With space on the end to maneuver, Harvey used Brown's momentum against him and made the play.

But Harvey's worst play of the day also happened in open space. On Arizona's last drive of the first half, he beat Brown around the edge of the pocket and had a shot at Warner.

As soon as the way to the quarterback was clear, though, Harvey lumbered forward cautiously at a bad angle and whiffed as Warner hit receiver Jerheme Urban for a 12-yard gain. His swiftness in moving past his blocker was wasted with a moment's indecision.

Throughout the game, Harvey missed several opportunities to stop runs in the backfield because of similar hesitation—the mark of rookie lessons not fully learned.

In this coming Sunday's contest against the Houston Texans, Harvey matches up better physically against tackles Duane Brown and Eric Winston than he did against Arizona's grinding linemen.

If the Jaguars' scheme leaves him free to attack them—and if he attacks without hesitation—Harvey has many more aggressive plays like his tackle of Hightower in him. But that potential, as of this past Sunday, still has yet to be unleashed.

Not in The Cards: Jaguars Put Down Early in 31-17 Loss To Arizona

Jack Harver — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:00:47 -0400

NFL.com's play-by-play account of the Jacksonville Jaguars' home-opening loss to the Arizona Cardinals does little justice to the first of two second-quarter plays that broke open a back-and-forth contest.

3-12-ARI 28 (11:57) (Shotgun) 9-[David] Garrard pass incomplete short left to 81-[Torry] Holt.

On the play, which reads like a garden-variety misfire by Garrard, Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson hit Holt before the football did. This run-of-the-mill pass interference call, however, was missed by an otherwise nitpicky officiating crew in a game where 15 penalties were called—a number well above the league average.

In context, the non-call came on a drive that started with Jacksonville's first stroke of luck on Sunday.

The Jaguars forced Arizona ball-carriers into two fumbles on their first two drives—handing the Cardinals a first-and-goal on the one-yard line on one, and watching the ball roll harmlessly out-of-bounds on the other. Between those two possessions, Arizona scored a touchdown and a field goal for an early 10-3 lead.

But karma seemed to have consoled Jacksonville when Adam Podlesh's first punt glanced off Arizona's Greg Toler and was recovered by the Jaguars' Sean Considine.

Two pressure-packed plays and two lost yards later, though, the Jaguars faced third-and-12 on their bonus drive. Given time by his pass protection, Garrard found Holt open near the sideline behind Wilson and delivered the throw on the money.

Or he would've, at least, had Holt been free of Wilson's grasp.

Holt appealed to a referee for the pass interference call as he rose from the ground. Jacksonville head coach Jack Del Rio threatened to challenge the non-call before being reminded that interference calls are non-reviewable.

Begrudgingly, the Jaguars sent kicker Josh Scobee onto the field to cut the Cardinals' lead to four.

Arizona special teams coach Kevin Spencer and defensive end Calais Campbell deserve equal credit for the block that ensued. The Cardinals overloaded the gap to the right of Jacksonville left tackle Eugene Monroe, forcing him to throw himself at three surging defenders and leaving Campbell free to launch his 6'8" frame at the kick.

Scobee's foiled attempt ricocheted off Campbell's hand high into the air, landing in the outstretched arms of safety Antrel Rolle who returned it 83 yards for a touchdown.

In two plays—one illegal, one exceptional—Arizona had turned a potential close game into an early 14-point lead.

Playing with house money from that point on, the Cardinals were able to conservatively kill clock with a dink-and-dunk passing game and their grinding rushing attack.

Defensively, they committed eight and sometimes nine defenders to clamping down on running back Maurice Jones-Drew and Jacksonville's ground game, willing to risk a big play or two with a two-score cushion.

With their defense on its heels and their offense smacking into a wall, the Jaguars fell behind 31-3 before mounting a too-little, too-late rally to achieve the final tally of 31-17.

Granted, having those 10 points back wouldn't have made Monroe's day against Arizona defensive end Bertrand Berry much easier. The Cardinals' veteran pass-rusher had his way with Jacksonville's rookie tackle for most of the game, on runs as well as passes.

Had the Jaguars managed a game-tying touchdown on the drive halted by the non-call, they would still have been hard-pressed to handle quarterback Kurt Warner, whose hot hand completed 24 of 26 passes en route to 246 yards and two scores in under three quarters of action.

But Jones-Drew, who touched the ball only 17 times for 83 total yards after getting 26 touches in Week 1 against Indianapolis, might have had a chance to get on track as well had the Jaguars not been behind the eight ball from early in the second quarter.

Where's 91? Week 1: Harvey Stands in 3-4, Sits Bench in Jaguars' Loss

Jack Harver — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:45:57 -0400

Finding positives from Derrick Harvey's performance in Jacksonville's season-opening loss at Indianapolis is not an easy task—though (mercifully) not as difficult as finding photographic evidence that he did, in fact, take the field Sunday.

Amidst a slew of visuals from Getty Images and the Associated Press capturing Colts running backs Joseph Addai and Donald Brown, quarterback Peyton Manning, and some of Indianapolis' offensive linemen in action, Harvey seems to have been lost in the shuffle.

Which is fitting, considering his play when targeted by the Colts on outside runs.

Indianapolis discovered that Harvey's side was ripe for the picking in the second quarter, running at him on three plays—including a third down conversion inside the Jaguars' 10-yard line and the drive-capping touchdown.

As Harvey busied himself with winning individual battles against left tackle Charlie Johnson, the Colts hit Jacksonville for key gains time and again through his vacated gap.

For all the rushing yards allowed on his side, though, Harvey did flash improved pass rush technique and strength against Johnson.

He used rip moves effectively on several plays to turn the corner after getting a step on his blocker and collapsed Manning's pocket with occasional bull rushes.

With the exception of one first quarter run where Colts fullback Gijon Robinson bulldozed him out of the play, Harvey did a good job of keeping his blockers at arm's length.

Defensive coordinator Mel Tucker moved Harvey around in the game's first half, lining him up in standing and down stances and dropping him back into coverage frequently. Harvey provided another obstacle in Manning's line of vision as Tucker tried to exploit the All-Pro quarterback's history of struggles against disciplined zone schemes, but he played his shallow zone assignments conservatively.

Quentin Groves, who seemed more comfortable with the diverse responsibilities of the standing end in Tucker's defense, took over the lion's share of playing time in the second half as Harvey was benched for all but four plays over the final 30 minutes.

Harvey's best role model in Sunday's game, though, was Indianapolis defensive end Dwight Freeney, whose renowned spin move gave rookie tackle Eugene Monroe fits.

Granted, Harvey doesn't have the requisite combination of leverage, balance, and foot speed to dominate with that move. Few do.

But the biggest lesson from Freeney's clinic against the Jaguars was the usefulness of an inside move, both in rushing the passer and stopping the run. The threat of the move kept Monroe from kicking too far out, leaving the possibility of an edge rush open.

Using the spin, Freeney hit his assigned gap on runs even when starting out on Monroe's outside shoulder.

While Harvey consistently rounded the corner against Johnson with his speed and strong hands, he ran too wide to anchor against the run and lost precious seconds getting to Manning by taking a long outside path.

This coming Sunday, Jacksonville's home opener features a matchup against the Arizona Cardinals and their power running scheme. With end Reggie Hayward lost for the season to injury, the Jaguars will likely use more four-man fronts with Harvey at right end.

To help stall Arizona's ground game like the San Francisco 49ers did last week, Harvey has to do a better job of moving inside against blocks. An effective inside move would also give him multiple routes to Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner.

And if Warner goes down, Getty Images will have to get a picture of it.

Jaguars' Punishing Ground Game Eclipsed By Colts' Pass Pressure in Loss

Jack Harver — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:11:01 -0400

As Sunday's hard-fought contest between the Indianapolis Colts and the Jacksonville Jaguars was digested by major news outlets for casual public consumption, several prominent members of the sports media reached a curious conclusion.

"The revamped Colts' defense showed that it was up to the challenge of playing in a slugfest against the Jaguars," NFL.com analyst Bucky Brooks wrote.

"The Colts surrendered 114 yards rushing," he noted, "but were stout at the point of attack as they committed eight men to the box on early downs."

"[Indianapolis'] bulkier defensive line also held up better against an old nemesis, Maurice Jones-Drew," ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky added.

True, the Colts didn't give up nearly 400 yards at almost nine yards a carry this time. In starting the 2009 season 1-0, Indianapolis' defense pressured Jaguars quarterback David Garrard into making hurried decisions at key moments in a 14-12 nail-biter.

But neither the game tape nor the numbers back up the widely-disseminated Monday morning assertion that the Colts' defensive front controlled the line of scrimmage between the tackles.

All praise for Indianapolis' performance has been rightly tempered with the footnote that the Jaguars gained over 100 yards on the ground. In fact, none of Jacksonville's 26 runs against the Colts went for negative yardage, and only two were for no gain.

Antonio Johnson and Eric Foster, Indianapolis' starting defensive tackles, combined for an impressive 10 total tackles, but the Colts wisely shied away from pitting their quick, undersized front four directly against Jacksonville's beefy offensive line.

Instead, they attempted to contain the Jaguars' ground game by peppering their man-gap rush defense with zone blitzes and packing eight in the box. With ends Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis taking precious seconds off Garrard's internal clock on passing plays, committing an eighth defender to the run carried little risk.

Still, their creativity amounted to little on a signature late-game drive by Jacksonville.

Down 14-6, the Jaguars asserted themselves against Indianapolis' defense on an 11-play, 58-yard series that bridged the third and fourth quarters, culminating in a seven-yard sweep by Jones-Drew for six.

Eight of Jacksonville's 11 plays on that drive were runs, and one of the three passes was a 19-yard completion set up by a play-action fake.

Available video of the Jaguars' runs—from the touchdown to the failed two-point conversion, and especially the 26-yarder in the second quarter—helps tell the real story from the trenches in Sunday's game.

On the touchdown, Freeney beat tight end Marcedes Lewis and had a shot at Jones-Drew. Meanwhile, tackle Eugene Monroe sealed the edge upfield as guard Maurice Williams pancaked a Colts defender in backside pursuit.

Jacksonville's failed attempt at a Wildcat run underscored the struggles of the Jaguars' rookie tackles against Freeney and Mathis. With a big-enough hole open up the middle, Jones-Drew was stopped short as the Colts' ends made inside rush moves and met on either side of him.

Jones-Drew's 26-yard run exposed Indianapolis' size disadvantage. Even with six down linemen and two linebackers in short zones, the Colts were overwhelmed at the point of attack by the Jaguars' strength and execution.

Guard Vince Manuwai bullied the two defenders in his path, knocking them both to the ground to make way for Jones-Drew.

With varying degrees of success from play to play, the Jaguars' linemen maintained that physical upper hand on runs throughout the game. But when offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter attempted to capitalize through the air against a defense that had sold out against the run, Freeney and Mathis punished Jacksonville's rookie pass protectors and Garrard.

Credit is due to Indianapolis' veteran pass rushers for taking over Sunday's game. Monroe and Eben Britton won't see the like of them until the Colts come to Jacksonville for a rematch in December. By then, they'll have more experience under their belts.

But the Colts' so-called "stout" defensive front has received undue acclaim for a pedestrian showing against the Jaguars' interior linemen. Time and again, second-level defenders were called on to corral Jones-Drew, and pressure from the edges collapsed several pockets that were sealed in front of Garrard.

Manuwai, Williams, and center Brad Meester gelled impressively for Jacksonville in their first game together since the 2008 opener at Tennessee, resuming their role as the engine of a formidable ground game.

Maybe in the December rematch, instead of switching gears to try passes, Koetter might just keep his foot on the gas.

Watching Jacksonville's Derrick Harvey in '09: Introducing "Where's 91?"

Jack Harver — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:54:46 -0400

Legendary pass rusher Lawrence Taylor's greatest contribution to the New York Giants' championship defenses in the '80s and '90s wasn't any of the 142 times he sacked an opposing quarterback. That number represents production—the law of averages over 13 seasons of dominance as an attacking linebacker.

L.T. was great because his opponents feared him on every play.

In his NFL-Lawrence/dp/1590710827" target="_blank">autobiography, one of Taylor's anecdotes shows the effect he could have on an offense.

"After a few years of me knocking him on his tush, [Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Ron] Jaworski was getting spooked," L.T. recalls.

"One play, he looked out at the defense and yelled, 'Where's 56?!'"

That state of panic, more than any one successful play, is the calling card of an impact defensive player. He's the offense's focus and the defense's spearhead, and he must be accounted for.

In April of 2008, the Jacksonville Jaguars traded up aggressively in the draft for the chance to pick Florida defensive end Derrick Harvey, a long-armed, explosive athlete with the quickest first step of any end in that rookie class. They expected Harvey to complete a defense that seemed to have every piece except an ace pass rusher.

One year later—after a 33-day holdout cost Harvey his first-year training camp and most of the 2008 preseason, leading to an underwhelming 3.5-sack rookie campaign—the Jaguars have yet to unleash the full potential of their first-round prospect.

This season, with contract distractions a distant memory, both team and player are certainly trying.

Early in the offseason, Harvey committed to pack 10 pounds onto his playing weight from last year. At 6'5" and 281 pounds, he should hold up better against runs instead of being a pass-rush specialist—and, athlete that he is, Harvey hasn't looked a step slower at that weight this preseason.

Coming off a training camp where head coach Jack Del Rio considered him one of the team's top performers, the Jaguars are using Harvey in a variety of roles. In this year's exhibition games he lined up at both ends of Jacksonville's four-man front, as an end in three-man fronts, and standing up as an outside linebacker.

The idea, clearly, is to let Harvey loose from multiple positions—to have opponents searching pre-snap for Jacksonville's most talented pass-rushing threat: "Where's 91?!"

Derrick Harvey, more than any other Jaguar, is crucial to the franchise's present and future success. He represents, in a real sense, the four draft picks traded to acquire him. Beyond that, though, Harvey is Jacksonville's commitment to attacking the NFL's top quarterbacks and a perfect example of the Jaguars' affinity for natural athletes.

As much as there exists such a thing as "Jaguar football," Harvey has the aggressive mindset and physical potential to play it.

Little is expected of Jacksonville entering the 2009 regular season, but the Jaguars have a star in the making who could help their eventual return to prominence with a breakout campaign. To track that progress on any given play, one has only to ask: "Where's 91?"

Week by week, this column will watch and answer.

Rookies Reign in Jacksonville: Costly Veterans Among Jaguars' Final Cuts

Jack Harver — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:40:33 -0400

The Jaguars released 21 players Saturday, trimming their roster to the NFL's 53-man maximum and wrapping up an offseason dedicated to retooling last year's 5-11 team.

Among the players cut, few were long-tenured members of the team, but three former Jaguars starters stood out: offensive lineman Tony Pashos, cornerback Brian Williams, and long snapper Joe Zelenka. None of the three—all of whom started all 16 games in 2008—were considered at-risk for release entering training camp.

In each case, a younger, less-expensive player won the starting job and made the veteran expendable.

Judging from the roster after this last round of cuts, Jacksonville's latest crop of rookies has shown well. Eight of the Jaguars' nine picks in the 2009 draft earned roster spots, with seventh-round receiver Tiquan Underwood the only cut. Two undrafted rookie free agents, defensive end Julius Williams and linebacker Russell Allen, also made the team.

Of those eight drafted rookies on the final roster, four will start or see significant playing time early on.

Second-round offensive lineman Eben Britton is Jacksonville's likely Week One right tackle, and third-round cornerback Derek Cox will step up to replace Brian Williams. Defensive tackle Terrance Knighton, the Jaguars' other third-round pick, will play in a rotation at his position, and first-round offensive tackle Eugene Monroe is expected to take over at left tackle sooner rather than later.

The rookies highlight a young squad, with only eight players 30 years or older.

In the process of getting younger and releasing underperforming players, Jacksonville effected a significant roster overhaul: 24 of the current 53 weren't on the team last season. The Jaguars have eight new starters in 2009—nine, if third-year offensive lineman Uche Nwaneri beats Maurice Williams for the right guard job.

Nwaneri, who has taken reps at center this preseason, is representative of Jacksonville's depth on the offensive line. Five of the Jaguars' nine linemen have experience at multiple positions, which should prevent a repeat of last year's disastrous revolving door situation behind the starters.

The Jaguars tried Pashos, their 2008 starter at right tackle, as a guard in their last preseason game this year. He performed well, but not well enough to justify his $4 million starter's salary; with Britton, Monroe, and veteran Tra Thomas crowding the depth chart at tackle, cutting Pashos was a feasible money-saving measure.

Similarly, the release of Brian Williams cuts costs for Jacksonville, though his salary will still count against the cap.

Such bottom-line decisions continue to distinguish new general manager Gene Smith from his predecessor, James "Shack" Harris, who was fired after the 2008 season. Harris awarded big contracts to free agents like Pashos and Williams—and, more recently, Jerry Porter and Drayton Florence—to fill starting roles, an expensive (and often ineffective) strategy for the small-market Jaguars.

Smith hasn't been shy in free agency, bringing in Thomas, receiver Torry Holt, and safety Sean Considine to provide experience and compete for starting jobs. But the contracts they've signed—front-loaded deals with low guaranteed money—won't linger should Jacksonville decide to cut ties with them.

To call the Jaguars "cheap," though, would be an overstatement. One of their biggest moves this offseason was signing star running back Maurice Jones-Drew to a five-year, $30 million extension, despite Jones-Drew having yet to carry the full rushing workload in his three seasons with the team.

The picture that has emerged, rather, over an offseason of change in Jacksonville is that of a franchise committed to a sensible salary structure.

Last year's team wrote the biggest game checks to free-agent signings and high draft picks (ex. Matt Jones and Reggie Williams) whose on-field performance didn't merit the pay. The 53 players remaining after Saturday's cuts, by contrast, are largely paid in line with their expected contributions.

Bargain backups abound, from high-potential rookies like running back Rashad Jennings to utility types such as special-teams ace Brian Iwuh. Several low-cost starters, including all three of the team's starting linebackers, will need to be evaluated for contract extensions soon.

But the team's fortunes will rest on the shoulders of players well-paid to carry that load.

With overpaid average starters gone, the highest-paid Jaguars—Jones-Drew, quarterback David Garrard, fullback Greg Jones, cornerback Rashean Mathis, and defensive end Derrick Harvey—are now those most crucial to the team's success. If they don't play up to their contracts, a clear precedent was set Saturday for handling such situations.

After eight months of work, those final cuts seem to have stripped away the last vestiges of last year's underperforming team. The 45 who dress for next Sunday's season opener at Indianapolis will be starting something new.

Let Them Eat Cake: The NFL Is Right to Starve Jacksonville TVs of Jaguars Games

Jack Harver — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:57:24 -0400

With the NFL regular season less than two weeks away and anticipation building to fever pitch among fan bases across the country, the national media's spotlight was squarely on the Jacksonville Jaguars' supporters this past weekend.

Or, more precisely, the lack thereof.

Having endured a sharp drop-off in season ticket sales—from 42,000 in 2008 to around 25,000 this year, according to team senior vice president Tim Connolly—the Jaguars don't anticipate sellout crowds at any of their eight home games in 2009.

The league's blackout policy mandates that all tickets for a game be sold no later than 72 hours before kickoff in order for it to be televised locally. Barring a miraculous uptick in sales, games in Jacksonville this year will likely be off-limits to televisions in the Jaguars' local markets.

Corporate partners aren't coming to the rescue, as Winn-Dixie did in 2002. In the face of sagging ticket sales, the Jacksonville-based supermarket chain guaranteed that no Jaguars home game would be blacked out by agreeing to buy up unsold tickets each week.

But even a program of giving away tickets to grocery shoppers couldn't fill Jacksonville Municipal Stadium (then Alltel Stadium) to capacity for any home game that season.

Owner Wayne Weaver isn't coming to the rescue, as he's done in recent years.

Asking for extensions on the league's 72-hour blackout deadline, covering seats in 2005 to lower the bar for sellouts at the cost of potential revenue, and even buying unsold tickets himself when necessary, Weaver has done his best to keep Jaguars games on local TV.

In the current economic climate, though, he isn't the only owner struggling to sell tickets. Last month, the San Diego Chargers' chief operating officer admitted that the Chargers, who haven't had a game blacked out since the 2006 preseason, might not sell enough tickets to televise some home games in 2009.

Still, with 10 to 12 teams worried about ticket sales according to NFL and team sources, over half of the league continues to enjoy sellout revenues and locally televised home games in a down economy.

That's how NFL football, as a product, is supposed to work. According to Forbes magazine, 24 teams have season ticket waiting lists over 1,000 names long. In those cities, watching the game at home or a bar is a consolation prize—and sellouts aren't an exception, they're the rule.

Despite the recent drought of box-office support, Jacksonville hasn't always been so ho-hum about its Jaguars.

Crowds of more than 70,000 fans—some of whom would be sitting on the upper deck tarps in the stadium's present state—flocked to cheer on the city's new team in 1995, the Jaguars' first season. During the team's improbable playoff run a year later, 45,000 revelers gathered in Jacksonville Municipal after midnight for the Jaguars' triumphant return from their upset win in Denver.

After the charm of a new team and quick success wore off, though, fan enthusiasm began to wither. Two preseason games were blacked out in 1999, when the Jaguars were embarking on a dominant 14-2 campaign powered by a high-flying offense featuring stars like Mark Brunell and Jimmy Smith.

The tarps came in 2005, covering almost 10,000 seats that the team no longer expected to fill and reducing the stadium's game-day capacity to just over 67,000. Over the five seasons that followed, the Jaguars were the NFL's third-winningest team, but they struggled to sell out their shrunken stadium.

This year, defensive end Reggie Hayward asserts that the team's lagging ticket sales can be chalked up to fans being hit hard by the economic downturn.

"It's difficult for people to get out and spend that extra money on football and things of leisure," he noted in an interview before Jacksonville's second preseason game.

But Jacksonville's failure to fill its stadium for the Jaguars extends all the way back to the dot-com bubble and through years of better economic times. Though fans may be pinching pennies these days, they aren't pinching them any harder than fans in New Orleans or Nashville.

In fact, the Jaguars represent a great value for NFL-caliber entertainment when compared to the rest of the league. Their ticket prices are among the lowest, and the team is competently retooling with the goal of playing playoff-caliber football.

For too long, the Jaguars have made one-sided sacrifices to provide their community with free broadcasts of home games. While owning the rights to the game and footing the bill for the manifold costs incurred by an NFL franchise—and, just maybe, being affected by the same recession as his team's fans—Wayne Weaver has practically given the Jaguars experience away locally despite having the leverage to demand sellout attendance.

No more. The bread line's cut off, and there's a perfectly good product being offered at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium on eight Sundays this fall:

Tens of thousands, decked in teal and united behind the Jaguars. A hard-nosed, back-to-basics team, purged of hard-to-cheer-for characters and steered by football horse sense. The feeling of being a witness in person and outdoors with the players instead of remotely on some screen.

If the Jacksonville locals have any real appetite for their professional football team, let them eat that cake.

"Well, let them eat cake." [Marie Antoinette, allegedly, when told that French peasants were starving for want of bread.]

A Bleacher Report: My First-Hand Look at the Jaguars in Philadelphia

Jack Harver — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:45:22 -0400

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of driving seven hours through two beltways (Washington and Baltimore) to watch the Jaguars lose to the Philadelphia Eagles.

"Pleasure?" you ask.

Absolutely. For one, the fans at Lincoln Financial Field weren't nearly as hostile as I'd been led to believe—for this exhibition game, at least. One fellow in a nearby section drew cheers as he was dragged out by stadium security, but the Eagles fans near me were downright friendly.

More importantly, though, I had the chance to see the 2009 Jaguars up close. From seat four in Section 119, Row 16—on the 45-yard line, behind Jacksonville's bench—a few things stood out.

My most-prominent (and favorite) memory from last night's game is of how effectively Derrick Harvey contained Philadelphia quarterback Michael Vick.

On one first-quarter play, Harvey rushed into the Eagles' backfield unblocked. He read Vick's fake handoff and squared up to make the tackle, cornering Vick in pursuit and lunging out to trip him up.

Soon after, Harvey beat tackle Jason Peters with a rip move and confronted Vick on a shovel pass play. Vick could have ran or passed, but Harvey had both options covered, taking LeSean McCoy down as soon as he got the pitch.

After an offseason spent bulking up to anchor better against the run, those two plays in particular show that Harvey has still retained the first-step quickness to be an effective pass rusher and the agility to pursue backs in open space.

Jacksonville also attempted to make use of Harvey and Quentin Groves' athleticism by lining them up as down linemen in a few 3-4 defensive looks.

The Jaguars tried to execute twists in those three-man fronts, with both Terrance Knighton and Derek Landri taking reps at nose tackle and slanting into the "B" gap between the offensive guard and tackle. But neither penetrated enough to give Harvey or Groves clean lanes into the "A" gap between the center and guard.

On offense, Jacksonville's linemen also had trouble imposing their will in the trenches.

Much of the credit goes to the Eagles' defensive line—particularly tackle Brodrick Bunkley, who played with an impressive combination of intelligence, aggression, and strength.

Bunkley crashed through the Jaguars' line to pressure Garrard, fought against double teams to stop runs between the tackles, and jolted Jacksonville guard Vince Manuwai back on multiple occasions. Even bowling-ball back Maurice Jones-Drew couldn't fight for many yards against Philadelphia's starting defensive front last night.

The Jaguars' only substantial offensive success came on a few screen plays that took advantage of the Eagles' aggressiveness.

On their longest play of the night, David Garrard passed to Jones-Drew in the face of an all-out blitz up the middle. With an escort of blockers, Jones-Drew weaved around blocks and broke a tackle before plowing into a safety for a few extra yards to end the play.

Tackles Tra Thomas and Eugene Monroe did a good job against the Eagles' edge rushers, and the whole line performed well on plays where they were able to block in open space. With the notable exception of Monroe, who missed almost two weeks of training camp, they looked leaner and played quicker than last year's linemen.

New strength coach Luke Richesson's offseason training regimen seems to have improved the conditioning of those players who participated. Considering the Jaguars' troubles getting push on runs up the middle, though, they might should have left more of the sand in their pants.

With Manuwai still shaking off the rust from missing last season, though, and some shuffling of personnel on the right side of the line, their struggles may simply be a lack of chemistry.

Uche Nwaneri took most of the first-team reps at right guard, while Maurice Williams—last year's opening-day starter who was lost for the season after tearing his biceps against Tennessee—played with the second team, hinting at a possible upset in that position battle.

But Nwaneri also lined up at center for one third-quarter series. Williams has also spent time snapping the ball in practice; with rookie Eben Britton able to play tackle and guard, and Thomas being considered for either tackle spot, the Jaguars clearly want to get as much utility as possible out of their depth up front.

On special teams, Josh Scobee had a good night. Most of his kickoffs had touchback distance, and his two 49-yard field goals sailed through high above the crossbar.

Really, Scobee's kicking was symbolic of Jacksonville's offseason thus far. The Jaguars have reshaped themselves to get leaner and meaner, and now they need to translate that physical capability into consistent execution.

From where I was sitting, I think they have the right pieces. They need only to find the right places for them to make it happen.

Jaguars' Troy Williamson Shines Early, But Stars Aren't Made Pre-Season

Jack Harver — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:52:30 -0400

Amidst a ho-hum start to the preseason for Jacksonville, with two uninformative losses under the rebuilding Jaguars' belts, receiver Troy Williamson has provided fodder for the grasping sports media.

Williamson's 221 yards on seven receptions, including a 74-yard go-route score Saturday night that showcased his trademark deep speed, lead all NFL receivers after two weeks of exhibition football.

Without raw data to report from Jacksonville's position battles on the offensive and defensive lines, media attention has gravitated toward Williamson's statistical production. Several sources have described him as an "emerging star" and a key ingredient for the team's offense this season.

The Jaguars would certainly appreciate a clear-cut starter opposite free agent signee Torry Holt. Since trading for Williamson after the 2007 season, Jacksonville's receiving corps has undergone a youth overhaul; Mike Sims-Walker, who has nine starts in two seasons, is the team's only other receiver with regular season experience.

Three rookies—Mike Thomas, Jarett Dillard, and Tiquan Underwood—were drafted to compete for playing time. Thomas has missed both preseason games with a hamstring injury, and neither Dillard nor Underwood has played particularly well.

But Williamson's performance, though a positive sign for a team still working out offensive and defensive kinks, should hardly be considered a revelation.

Minnesota thought the sky was the limit for Williamson in 2005. As a rookie, he made three catches for 103 yards in his first preseason, including big gainers of 54 and 36 yards.

Three seasons, several key regular season drops, and countless failed technical and medical fixes later, the Vikings were content to unload their perpetual project on the Jaguars in exchange for a sixth-round pick.

More recently, in Jacksonville's 2008 preseason finale at Washington, Williamson caught four passes for 84 yards. In eight appearances, including one start, during the ensuing regular season, he managed only 30 yards on five catches.

In that game against the Redskins, as in his four-catch effort at Miami last Monday, Williamson's production came on passes from backup quarterbacks caught against backup defenders. Only one of his four receptions against the Dolphins, a seven-yard slant that he fumbled, was from David Garrard.

Considering Williamson's history of regular season struggles, his lack of success against first-team competition is cause for suspicion—and, aside from the play-action bomb on the first play against Tampa Bay, that catch-and-fumble is his only reception this preseason against opposing starters.

Even Williamson's big catches this preseason aren't free of red flags. On both long gains Saturday night, he allowed the ball into his pads before cradling it for the catch—the same passive, haphazard receiving style that wrecked big plays for the Vikings in his first three years in the NFL.

Solid NFL receivers attack the ball in the air with reliable hands. Judging from his play thus far, Williamson hasn't yet morphed into that kind of dependable option. Rather, he seems to have made the most of a few low-pressure situations and the absence of two other receivers.

If Williamson can continue his unexpected hot streak into September, he'll be a big help for an offense that has lacked a true deep threat. In any case, he has likely earned a roster spot by flashing big potential yet again in the preseason.

At this point, though, expectations should be tempered for Williamson, who has disappointed before. He'll be under the microscope against corners Asante Samuel and Sheldon Brown as the Jaguars face Philadelphia on Thursday night.

Should he break out against one of them, though, the "emerging star" talk could get serious.

Jaguars' Fresh Look Shows Well Against Rain, Dirt Infield, Dolphins

Jack Harver — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:00:30 -0400

As they gritted out an ugly 12-9 loss at Miami Monday night, the Jaguars had their first chance to evaluate several offseason additions in a game situation.

Torry Holt caught his first pass from David Garrard, a 10-yard first down in the first quarter. Tra Thomas helped keep Dolphins linebackers Jason Taylor and Joey Porter sackless.

And their new uniforms looked great.

Back in April, the Jaguars' redesigned look was criticized harshly by ESPN.com contributor Paul Lukas, whose "Uni Watch" blog claims to "[deconstruct] the finer points of sports uniforms in obsessive and excruciating detail."

Dubbing Jacksonville's updated kit "the emperor's new clothes," Lukas mocked the uniforms piece by piece.

"The old [jersey felt] rich and organic," he wrote, "while the new one feels mechanistic and plain."

Against the Dolphins, though, the new shirts looked far from strange on the football field. They took well to dirt, bearing the players' sweat and the mud of Land Shark Stadium dutifully, and gave the Jaguars a sharp team look.

Lukas also poked fun, in April, at what he called "the upright tildes" on Jacksonville's new pants.

"I get that it's supposed to look all sleek and streamlined," he wrote, "but the effect is lost on the big linemen."

Rookie tackle Eugene Monroe, sporting the new uniform in his first professional game, and the Jaguars' other linemen contested that remark on Monday.

Up close, the stripe made a vibrant slash of white and teal against the black pants. From the TV angle, it drew visually on the white jerseys—unlike last year's separated, matte black bottoms—for a more integrated look.

In his critique, Lukas also warned that the Jaguars' sock design would create "major leotard-age [sic] on the road." The black from the pants, he argued, would blend undesirably with the black tops of the socks.

Call it "leotard-age." Argue, as Lukas did, that it doesn't perform "the primary visual function of football hosiery."

(Alternately, mistrust the football credentials of anyone who critiques "hosiery.")

But Jacksonville's black-and-black blend across the kneecap looked like something that's worn for football—which, ultimately, is what a uniform is.

Criticism of the Jaguars' fresh look back in April missed the mark, focusing on how the jersey looked on merchandise racks and football players modeling their new duds while wearing sneakers.

Yes, Brad Meester looked awkward on stage at the unveiling. Then August rolled around; he put on his pads and helmet and went to work, and now his shirt seems to fit just fine.

Simply put, a football uniform needs a football context. Jacksonville's redesign was panned by some as a concept, but credit goes to the professionals at Reebok for understanding that it would work just fine in the arena.

Tonight, the Jaguars will show off their home teals as they play host to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Their play from this past Monday could be improved, but their new uniforms have done an admirable job thus far.

Eugene Monroe Signs Deal, Dominates in First Drills at Jaguars' Practice

Jack Harver — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 23:10:51 -0400

After 13 days spent waiting on contract negotiations with the Jaguars, Eugene Monroe was ready to shake off the rust and play football.

"I got off the plane, signed, and went to practice," he told CBS Sports contributor Jim Nasella.

The contract Jacksonville offered Monroe, their first-round pick in April's draft, amounts to $35.4 million (including $19 million guaranteed) over five years, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

No sooner was Monroe under contract than he began preparing for Jacksonville's evening training camp session, showing up less than an hour after the start of practice.

The Jaguars wasted no time in welcoming their newest teammate.

Monroe was pitted against camp standout Julius Williams, a promising rookie pass-rusher, man-to-man in his first Oklahoma drill. Thrown into his first action of the preseason, Monroe beat Williams in two of three tries.

After the second try, Monroe took some ribbing about his contract situation.

"Hey Eugene," veteran Reggie Hayward yelled, "I heard they washed your pants with money."

Having dealt with Williams, Monroe's second Oklahoma opponent was defensive end Derrick Harvey, Jacksonville's first-round pick from a year ago and, like Williams, one of the stars of camp thus far.

In this confrontation between the 2009 draft's consensus best pass-protector and the 2008 draft's consensus best pass-rusher, Monroe stonewalled Harvey twice.

Two tough matchups, two decisive wins. Not a bad showing for his first practice.

For Monroe, considered one of the best athletes among the offensive linemen in this year's draft, the Oklahoma drill was an ideal way to get his feet wet in Jacksonville's training camp.

One-on-one between the pads, he showcased his individual technique and talent—not an extensive grasp of the Jaguars' offense, or the chemistry he has yet to develop with the other linemen. That raw potential is all that's kept veteran Tra Thomas from running away with the left tackle job in Monroe's absence.

Going forward, Monroe faces an uphill battle to challenge Thomas for that starting role after missing nearly half a month of practice.

He has youth on his side, and the right skill set to face NFL defensive ends right away. But he'll need to take to Jacksonville's line calls and playbook like a fish to water over the next month to be a better option than Thomas for protecting David Garrard's blind side.

According to general manager Gene Smith, Monroe could play in the Jaguars' preseason opener at Miami. How he works with the rest of the offense, more than any one-on-one practice victories, will determine his place on the depth chart.

For Jaguars' Defense, 3-4 Look Means Aggression, Not Mere Scheme Change

Jack Harver — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:08:31 -0400

When Jacksonville hired defensive coordinator Mel Tucker in January after he was fired by Cleveland, observers whispered that the Jaguars might be looking to adopt his 3-4 defense.

That two-gap scheme, predicated on behemoths like the Browns' Shaun Rogers (6'4", 350 pounds) and Corey Williams (6'5", 320) taking on multiple blockers up front—and undermined, in part, by Rogers' tendency to shoot gaps instead of clogging them—would be an awkward task for Jacksonville's defensive personnel.

Of the 10 down linemen on the Jaguars' current roster, only tackles John Henderson (6'7", 335), Rob Meier (6'5", 315), and Terrance Knighton (6'3", 325) have the requisite length and lower-body bulk to two-gap. Henderson and Meier, veterans with 18 years of experience between them, would need to redefine their playing styles to fit the scheme.

A two-gap scheme would also have no place for promising third-year DT Derek Landri. At 6'2" and just under 300 pounds, Landri is built to one-gap, attacking the spaces between blockers with his quickness and leverage. He'd be ineffective playing face-up on a center or tackle.

Knighton, though only a rookie, is the key to understanding the Jaguars' experiments with 3-4 looks.

Physically, he has the wide hips and barrel chest necessary to hold up amidst the trash in the middle of a three-man front. But Knighton, a former high school receiver who racked up tackles for loss in college and ran the 40-yard dash in under five seconds at Temple's pro day, also has the athleticism and quickness to one-gap.

That combination of size and mobility has distinguished nose tackles like Dallas' Jay Ratliff and Pittsburgh's Casey Hampton, who man the middle for attacking 3-4 defenses that shoot gaps instead of holding the line like Tucker's Browns.

Between Knighton, Henderson, Meier, and aggressive tackles like Landri and Attiyah Ellison, the Jaguars' three-man fronts figure to look more like "heavy" personnel packages for their one-gap scheme.

Head coach Jack Del Rio's comments in a press conference yesterday suggested as much.

"There's no secret that we're going to experiment with some different fronts," Del Rio told reporters, "just looking to utilize the people we have."

"The bottom line is what we want to be on defense is attacking."

Last year, Jacksonville hired defensive coordinator Gregg Williams—now with the Saints—with that same goal in mind. Williams' predecessor, current Falcons head coach Mike Smith, had installed a conservative scheme that relied on the front four to generate pressure.

The Jaguars hoped that Williams' blitz-happy defense would confuse opposing offenses by bringing pressure from all sides. Instead, players struggled to learn their responsibilities in the complex new defense and were often caught out of position.

This year's shift in philosophy relies less on particular schemes than on the individual talents of Jacksonville's defensive personnel, especially in the group of players who'd be considered 3-4 linebackers.

Justin Durant, Daryl Smith, and Clint Ingram, the team's three projected starters at linebacker in their base 4-3, are versatile-enough athletes to handle the diverse tasks given to linebackers in a 3-4 defense. The Jaguars don't have much proven depth beyond those three, though, making their stable of potential outside linebackers all the more important.

Draft experts pegged Quentin Groves as a hot prospect for teams with 3-4 defenses last year. His speed upfield and lack of every-down size seemed to pigeonhole him into a rushing linebacker role.

Groves has since committed to gaining weight to play better as a down lineman, bulking up to 264 pounds this offseason from 251 in December, but would still be a good fit as a 3-4 pass rusher.

In a 3-4 look, undrafted free agent Julius Williams from Connecticut might be a diamond in the rough.

"He finishes strong," general manager Gene Smith said of Williams. Smith told Jaguars.com's Vic Ketchman that, despite having been primarily a down lineman in college, "[Williams] certainly shows that he has linebacker history."

Weighing a rock-solid 260 pounds, Williams has the athleticism and strength to be a force in an "elephant" role—the strong-side outside linebacker in a 3-4 defense, who usually has more blockers to fight through on his way to the quarterback.

The Jaguars' best rush linebacker, though, would likely be Derrick Harvey.

Coming off a lackluster rookie year, where his biggest impact was made by holding out until Jacksonville's last preseason game, Harvey might be underrated as he enters his second season.

A consensus first-round talent in 2008, Harvey boasted the quickest first step of any end in his draft class. Though New York's Vernon Gholston was acknowledged as stronger, Harvey was considered the draft's most-natural pass rusher.

Even having added 10 pounds to anchor better against the run, Harvey has the skill set to excel in an attacking role as a weak-side linebacker in the 3-4.

The common thread in all of Jacksonville's potential 3-4 fits is that the players are put in position to attack gaps differently than they would in the Jaguars' base defense. If and when they give opponents a 3-4 look, the change should be regarded not as a commitment to the 3-4 as such, but to a new philosophy of aggressive defense.

Jaguars Coach Del Rio on Monroe's Holdout: "The Team's Moving On"

Jack Harver — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:34:01 -0400

When asked about Eugene Monroe at a press conference yesterday, Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio seemed ready and willing to talk.

"I'm glad you should ask," he began.

What followed was a concise and confident appraisal of the holdout situation from the team's point of view—and, maybe, an indirect message to Monroe and his representation.

"We don't have anything to report other than he's not here," Del Rio said, "and the team's moving on. We're working the guys that are here."

Asked to compare Monroe's contract situation to Derrick Harvey's 33-day holdout last year, Del Rio acknowledged some similarities.

"Obviously, the slot [they were] taken in [and] the fact that it's a whole lot of money...and then seeing last year what the absence did to the player."

"The biggest thing," he stressed, "is that the best thing for the player to do is be here, because this team's moving on and there's a lot of good work being put in."

Del Rio emphasized the agent's role in prolonging contract negotiations generally.

"It's a lot of money—one way or another, it's going to be a lot of money—but I think the player may suffer the most in the whole deal," he said. "Quite often [for] the agents, there's a different motivating force for them."

"Hopefully [a deal] will get done, both sides will be happy, and we'll get to work. But, meanwhile, we're just going to carry on without him."

The optimism that has characterized Jacksonville's offseason thus far showed through when Del Rio was asked about two pivotal players on defense.

"I think Derrick [Harvey] is off to a good start in camp," he said. "He's been committed throughout the spring in terms of conditioning his body, and he's out here working with a purpose right now."

After a disappointing first season in the NFL, in which Harvey managed a team-high 29 hurries but only 3.5 sacks, the Jaguars' 2008 first-round pick has bulked up in order to anchor better against run blocks. Harvey's development as an every-down defensive end will be crucial to Jacksonville's defensive success in 2009 and beyond.

"We're going to need our [defensive] front to come on," Del Rio said. "We've got a lot of questions. We're going to need them to work, but they're approaching the work in the right way."

Del Rio's enthusiasm was evident when discussing rookie cornerback Derek Cox.

"The encouraging thing about him is he's long and he's quick," he said. "Even when he's not doing things, technique-wise, the way we're going to get him to do it, he's still able to [deflect] balls and show that he is going to be a physical player."

"He is intelligent," Del Rio continued. "The refinement of technique is going to take some time, but a long, athletic guy that can run is something we love having."

Cox, a third-rounder for whom Jacksonville dealt next year's second-round pick, has hit the ground running in the Jaguars' offseason activities. As a rookie expected to contribute this season and assume a starting role in the near future, he's emblematic of the youth movement taking place on Jacksonville's roster.

Monroe, of course, has an important role in that movement. But, judging from Del Rio's tone and message, the Jaguars are still making progress without him.