The San Francisco Wake-up Call

JT: Well that certainly wasn’t pretty

So, we let this one marinate just a bit. We wanted to “get out of our feels,” as the cool kids who aren’t very literate say, so as not to overreact. We listened to some of the post game pressers, as well as to the pundits who get paid the big bucks to spit opinions on the radio and television. We here at JagsTalk have reached one single, important, and irrefutable conclusion… 1) San Francisco’s defense is damn good. 2) San Fran got unbelievably lucky with Brock Purdy turning out to be a diamond in the rough. 3) It would appear that adding another great pass rusher to an already stout pass rushing defense isn’t a bad idea. Okay, so we came to three conclusions, but the fourth is the conclusion that is irrefutable. 4) JaguarsTalk was right all along. If we were to take a trip in the wayback machine to this past Sunday morning before the beginning of the Jaguars/Niners debacle for Jacksonville, we would see that the column posted on this website titled, Bye Bye, Bye Week had this sentence hidden in the closing paragraph, “I feel that the winner of this game comes down to whomever has the strongest offensive line.” Now, we are not ones to tout our own horn, or is it toot? Either way, we like to leave our own horn alone to let others toot it for us. This horn toot, however, was just too good to pass up. Our offensive line was, well, to be blunt, non-existent. They looked like boys among men. In fact I felt as though after every play when Trevor ended up on the ground Nick Bosa, or newly acquired DE Chase Young, or any of the 49ers interior linemen or linebackers could have helped Trevor up while reciting the breakdown portion of the Boyz II Men song Please Don’t go - “Baby I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you.” My apologies, that was a bit of a stretch for a Boyz II Men joke.

Have you watched the All 22? Our offensive line was that of a high school team that loses in the Regional finals, not even making it all the way to States. Hall of Famer, Tony Boselli, said he can’t say for sure whether or not Walker Little is a decent left guard because he has only this game, against the vaunted Niners D, and all of a few seconds during the Buffalo game in London before Little was injured. Listen, I give all the credit in the world to Boselli and will defer to him when it comes to anything football, especially when critiquing linemen, but Little looked lost. There was a play when Little, Fortner, and Scherff all blocked ONE defensive interior lineman and left Cam Robinson and rookie Anton Harrison one-on-one with Nick Bosa and Chase Young. Yes, you read that correctly. Of course Lawrence was sacked, by both Young and Bosa, but to be fair, the rest of the JAX offensive line did a bang up job making sure that one single interior guy did nothing. They certainly showed him. This wasn’t the only issue however.

Even in looking at the times Trevor was hurried, sacked, chased etc… it seemed, from the naked eye in the stadium, as well as from film, that he had open receivers, he just wasn’t throwing the ball to them. So then the question becomes, why is that? Well, this is where things get a little cloudy. Could it be because Trevor wasn’t going through his progressions? Was he locking onto the first guy and if that wasn’t there was Trevor getting happy feet and tucking the ball and running (though not very far), rather than quickly switching to the #2 receiver? Well, yes Trevor was doing this. But why was he doing this? Well, could it be because Trevor didn’t have enough time to get through his progressions before being trampled by a bunch of exuberant miners heading west to seek their fortune in “them thar hills?” Well, yes that is also true. It would seem that Trevor was skittish due to a lack of time in the pocket and thus an inability to smoothly go through his progressions. He rightfully panicked a bit if the first guy was covered. Now, I am aware of the stat that has been floating around the NFL that shows the Jags as being a horizontal offense. They take very few if any vertical shots downfield (Calvin Ridley was supposed to be our savior in that department, but that has yet to materialize). Couple that with the fact that Trevor Lawrence has one of the quickest releases in the NFL this year and you being to understand our offensive woes. Why do you think all of this is true? Because, I’d argue, our offensive line just doesn’t get the job done. I don’t know what the solution is for this HUGE problem except that we traded for a left guard in Ezra Cleveland (from Minnesota) but didn’t play him. Evidently he has a knee injury. All I know, and admittedly I know very little, is that Walker Little is a tackle not a guard. If we are not putting him on the field in the starting tackle position (and we shouldn’t be, with steroid Cam and Anton Harrison healthy) then he should be a swing tackle. Get Cleveland healthy and in the guard position and make Walker Little the most talented non starting O-lineman in the league. Hell, San Fran has first round defensive draft picks riding the bench. That is why they are so good. Jacksonville’s O-line couldn’t stop a sloth in reverse. The lack of good offensive line play by the Jaguars is the reason that JAX lost that game to San Francisco.

Yes, there were four turnovers. Let’s address them quickly. The interception off Tank Bigsby’s hands was caused by Lawrence being flushed from the pocket and throwing the ball too hard to Bigsby (Or was it too hard? He is a professional football player. If you get both hands on the ball you should catch it). But let’s take a deeper dive into that cornucopia of pitiful playcalling, shall we? That was 3rd and 1 play, in four down territory, well on their side of the 50 yard line. So, of course, what do we call? We call a passing play from the shotgun formation, turning a third and one immediately into a third and six, before the ball is even snapped. Nothing like handicapping ourselves from the very beginning. Who is calling these horrible plays? Offensive Coordinator, Press Taylor would you mind fielding this question for us please? Then Trevor fumbled the ball on a strip sack, and then he threw another interception, but the worst turnover was by Christian Kirk. Kirk fumbled the ball at the five yard line, after a long pass play put us in the red zone and ready to score a TD, which would have put JAX right back in the game. To make matters worse, after the fumble the entire team stood there feeling bad for themselves and let San Fran run it back for what should have been a TD, if not for the Niners’ sideline running onto the field in celebration. It pains me so to revisit this game. I’m having heart palpitations as I type.

I will say this folks, winning the coin toss at the beginning of the game has so much importance attached to it. The middle eight minutes of every game is crucial. If you can score going into halftime and you get the ball first in the second half and can score again, you can put the game on ice. That is exactly what San Francisco did to Jacksonville when they marched down the field for 3 points going into the locker room, and then threw a TD bomb to Kittle coming out of the locker room. Boom. That was game. Dagger. Well, that is about all I can write about this past Sunday without getting sick to my stomach. Suffice it to say, we are not who we thought we were. I thought this game would be a measuring stick for our comeuppance but instead it was a measuring stick displaying how far we still need to go. Mr. Irrelevant trounced Mr. #1 overall. The most important thing now for the Jaguars is that the Tennessee Titans are coming to town this week, followed by a trip to Houston to take on the newest NFL sensation, CJ Stroud. As Dougie P. is fond of saying, “there is still a lot of football to be played.” This is not “the end of the road (I needed to bring it back to Motownphilly). That’s how we do. In the bad news department, we need Zay Jones back on the field, but it appears an apparent jewelry heist has Big Play Zay in the proverbial pokey. So, I say this tongue in cheek but with a tiny bit of real life hope attached to it…Hey Marvin Jones Jr. how’s about throwing on some teal for us here in JAX, please. Or, and this seems like something out of left field, can we see what Elijah Cooks can do in the regs? I mean the kid lit up the pre-season, so why not? Press Taylor, I would again appreciate your professional input on this one, please. Or would I really want to hear the opinion of newly fired, and very available for hire, ex-Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator, Ken Dorsey? Now there’s a C+C Music Factory take for you. Things That Make You Go Hmmmm. Let us know what you think in the comment section below.