Will Maurice Jones-Drew Get the Carries He Wants with the Jaguars?

For the first half of football last week, the Jacksonville Jaguars running game looked as solid as it did in mid-season last year. Maurice Jones-Drew looked completely healthy from a knee injury and the line play of the team, which had been questioned because of injuries, free agent signings and rookies having to start, looked like it had been playing together for years.

Then, in typical fashion, with the score 10-0 at the half, head coach Jack Del Rio and his coaching staff played conservative football. It stood to reason that with a new quarterback under center (Luke McCown) and an offense that was pushing the Tennessee Titans defense around, conserving a lead and trying to gain a win was more important than opening up the offense and stepping on the throat of their opponent.

The only problem with that mode of thinking was that Jones-Drew was not the one taking most of the hand offs from McCown. Backup Deji Karim got most of the carries in the second half. Jones-Drew finished with 97 yards on 24 carries for the game, respectable numbers for a man who had knee surgery, missed the final two games of the 2010 regular season and played in only one preseason game. But 65 of those yards were amassed in the first half, including a 21-yard gallop through the Titans’ defense.

But Jones-Drew, the team's second-round pick in the 2006 NFL Draft, was not happy with the way Del Rio and offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter called the game and left him on the sidelines while the team escaped with the 16-14 win.

"I feel like I could have played more. Last year, I played on one leg; now I have two," Jones-Drew told the media after the game in a story on www.bigcatcountry.com.

"I feel like [I'm] being monitored, if that seems more of precaution, that's [something] we don't need to do. That was the coach's decision. They made it and I had to abide by it. We talked about it and they know I'm very unhappy about that," he added.

Del Rio spoke with the media after game about Jones-Drew, saying the move was precautionary because of the surgery their star runner had. He went as far as to say the team was counting the times Jones-Drew carried that ball and did not want him to run the ball “35 times in the game.”

“That was my call. We had talked about a play count for him. He's so competitive and he's not happy about [a reduced work load]. But that's going to happen as we monitor and try to keep him to a certain number of reps as we go through the season," Jack Del Rio said

Will this mean that Jones-Drew will remain an unhappy camper in the Jaguars locker room or on the sidelines during games? Del Rio had said during the offseason that the running plays would be shared this season with backup Rashad Jennings, who provided steady play for the team while Jones-Drew was out of action. Jennings is now on injured reserve for the rest of the season and Karin is the primary backup.

In a story written in the Florida Times-Union, www.jacksonville.com, Del Rio said he hopes Jones-Drew will take some of the feelings he has about not getting the carries he wants and make good use of them as the team prepares for their first road game of the season against the New York Jets.

"Hopefully, he can channel that energy in a positive way. It's not about one person here. We want to utilize our best players. It's about the Jaguars winning football games," he said.

The knee is healthy, as both Del Rio and Jones-Drew said there were no issues with it during the game.

"He feels great," Del Rio said. "That's what he is frustrated about. He said, 'I'm ready to go. Let me run the rock.' I know how he feels and he knows how I feel. We communicated that and we'll leave it at that," Del Rio said.

Last season in 14 games while playing with the injured knee, Jones-Drew rushed for 1.324 yards and five touchdowns.

His presence will be needed now that the team has gone to new starter Luke McCown, after the release of popular starter David Garrard.