Leonard Fournette: Jaguars' Lack of Success in Running Game 'Very Frustrating'

Count the running game among the growing number of problems in Jacksonville.

Running back Leonard Fournette expressed his frustration with the 1-2 Jaguars' ghastly presence on the ground through Week 3 of the 2019 NFL season, per ESPN's Mike DiRocco. 

"It's very frustrating. I want to ... help the team as much as you can," Fournette said. "I'm a running back first. I don't mind pass blocking and those things but I'm a running back first, so it's very frustrating at times."

The Jags rank 23rd in the league with 90.7 rushing yards per game, and Fournette has not run for more than 66 yards so far this season. Prior to a 69-yard run on Jacksonville's final drive in their 20-7 win over Tennessee last Thursday, he had negative yardage in the game. 

In a 13-12 Week 2 loss to the Houston Texans, quarterback Gardner Minshew II led Jacksonville rushers with 56 yards on six carries, while Fournette had 47 yards on 15 attempts. The Jaguars have yet to score a rushing touchdown. 

When quarterback Nick Foles went out with a broken collarbone in the regular-season opener, it made sense to assume head coach Doug Marrone would lean on Fournette and the running game with Minshew, a rookie sixth-rounder, taking over under center. In fact, even with Foles, Jacksonville figured to be a run-first offense.

Instead, Fournette is tied for most targets on the team, alongside Dede Westbrook, with 20 entering Week 4. 

"I'd be the first one to say Leonard has to do a better job, but we're not giving him a chance," Marrone told DiRocco. "Until we give him a chance to see what he can do, that's fine, but he's doing everything he can. Each week, we're telling him to do this, and there's little things that people wouldn't see that he's been able to do to help us, yet we have to come up bigger and help him by doing a better job blocking."

Fournette played just eight games last season due to a persistent hamstring injury. It was a letdown campaign after posting 1,040 yards and nine touchdowns on 268 rushes as a rookie.

This summer, Fournette told Bleacher Report's Tyler Dunne that he was "in a happy place right now" and "way, way, way, 100 percent better" than last year. But the LSU product also talked about the toll the Jaguars' 5-11 2018 campaign took on him.

"F--king losing," Fournette said. "That's tough. It was just...it was just...excuse my language. It was just s--tty. The most s--tty feeling ever."

The same bad vibes have followed Jacksonville into the beginnings of this season. Things have also gotten more complicated after All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey got into it with Marrone on the sideline and subsequently requested a trade.

The Jags will face the Denver Broncos, whose defense has allowed 109.3 rushing yards per game, on Sunday.