The Jacksonville Jaguars

[duvaldude08]

Ebert and Taylor were trash. Really exposed how thin we are at wide receiver. Even with shorts, blackmon and sanders, we still need atleast 2-3 more solid receivers. Henne seemed unsettled all day and seemed to be pressing. That poise he demonstrated the past few weeks was not present sunday. Robinson needs super glue on his gloves because he can not hold to the football, which is odd given he was a former QB. Overall, we did a lot better than I thought we were given the circumstances. At the beginning of the season, a game like that would have got out of hand, early. Still like what Im seeing overall and it was a good test of our depth. BTW, as of this morning, we hold the #3 spot in the draft 

[Wacca Pilatka]

I'm really more encouraged than discouraged.  Despite being so shorthanded on offense, we moved the ball pretty well and didn't fall apart after all the turnovers.

[duvaldude08]

I'm really more encouraged than discouraged.  Despite being so shorthanded on offense, we moved the ball pretty well and didn't fall apart after all the turnovers.

Yup. It kept the fans there to the very end. Good things are on the horizon. Its showing they are competing and learning how to overcome adversity and stay in the game depsite of whats going on. Thats defiantely a good thing. You see a lot of teams lose theirs starters and team stars to injuries and the entire team tanks. (the falcons are a prime example). A team has to learn how to manage through that stuff, and I think thats being enstilled in them.

[I-10east]

I really hope that the NFL adopts that NHL-style replay system, in which replays will be automatically sent to the New York HQ. These officials are very awful. When under-the-radar teams like Jacksonville and Cleveland gets screwed by the refs, everyone is silent, but when a bandwagon team like the New England gets screwed, the entire world stops.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/12/15/centralized-replay-could-be-coming-as-soon-as-2014/

[duvaldude08]

I really hope that the NFL adopts that NHL-style replay system, in which replays will be automatically sent to the New York HQ. These officials are very awful. When under-the-radar teams like Jacksonville and Cleveland gets screwed by the refs, everyone is silent, but when a bandwagon team like the New England gets screwed, the entire world stops.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/12/15/centralized-replay-could-be-coming-as-soon-as-2014/

You know I'll give it to them this time, they realize there is a problem and they are going to address. Its nice to see there arent any bais. We got screwed bad Sunday, and during tha Cardinals game. Something has to be done. Even during the Texans game, they interferred with shorts the entire game, but only called pass interference once.

[mtraininjax]

didn't fall apart after all the turnovers.

Shows the Bills were a bad 4-9 team, but on this day, they had enough to get the win.

After the Henne throw with 3 minutes left to go to the Bills DB, the stadium pretty much started emptying. Tough way to lose, after battling all day!

Hicken on ActionNews said we have the number 4 pick, and Cecil Shorts is probably DONE for the season with a groin injury doing him in.

[duvaldude08]

This is for you I-10  You know if this was the Jags, they would be dragging us in the mud. The Steelers attedance has dropped dramatically. Our attendance is better than theirs this season. Of course the media will never bring it up because they are the Steelers. Its just sad the media beats up on us because people thinks its funny, yet other teams go under the radar. To make it even worse, were beating them out in attedance and our team has been worse than theirs the past few years.

On the Steelers: How low can attendance go?
December 14, 2013 9:05 PM
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Polamalu goes where he's needed for Steelers By Ed Bouchette / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
It's legendary around the NFL how Steelers fans take over many opposing stadiums when their team plays around the country. What might it be like tonight if Bengals fans take over Heinz Field?

With the two teams headed in opposite directions, the path their fans take could be headed that way too. For many years, Steelers fans hopped on Interstates 70/71 for the weekend trip to Cincinnati.

Brace for the influx the other way today, and if Bengals fans do not come, tonight's game could be smallest audience to watch the Steelers play a game that counts in Heinz Field's 12-plus-year history.

Last Sunday, they experienced their second-smallest crowd at Heinz -- 52,489 with 13,000 no-shows. That dragged down the average attendance this season to 59,376, which would be the lowest since moving to Heinz in 2001. And that game meant more to them than tonight's because a victory would have kept the Steelers in the race for a playoff spot.

Tonight's game means little to the Steelers, but possibly plenty to Cincinnati's attempt to earn the second AFC playoff seed and the bye week and home playoff games that go with it.

Steelers fans might even remember what that was like. For Bengals fans, plenty of good tickets should easily be available, even if every game there has been sold out.

"I guess they don't feel the need to come right now, that we don't deserve their support," Steelers defensive captain Ryan Clark said.

The previous low average attendance at Heinz occurred during their 6-10 season of 2003 (59,698). With two rather meaningless games left as the Steelers try to avoid their first losing record since that lowly-attended 2003 season, they could have crowds dip lower than 50,000. The last time that happened came during their 6-10 season at lower-capacity Three Rivers Stadium in 1999, when they had three games below 50,000, including one of 39,428.

Heinz Field hosted its smallest Steelers crowd just last season when they played the Browns Dec. 30 to an audience of 51,831.

"That's a product of not winning games or games not necessarily being extremely important because you aren't winning," Clark said. "What can you do? You just play, try to put the best product on the field you can."

In the meantime, fans have flocked to Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, where capacity is the same as Heinz Field and the 9-4 Bengals have averaged 64,000 through five games. A.J. Green, Cincinnati's Pro Bowl wide receiver, said there's a good chance to see more orange and black at Heinz Field tonight.

"I hope so. We have great fans," Green said. " ... I'm pretty sure they're going to travel over there."

Every Steelers game has been sold out since 1972, but unlike Major League Baseball, the NFL uses turnstile counts and not tickets sold for the attendance figure. The Steelers lose no revenue from unused tickets but there are lost concession sales, clothing sales, etc.

Clark said the players don't pay much attention to all the no-shows.

"What we're more worried about is the people who do come out, the people who brave the weather, the people who brave the traffic to come out and support us. You don't focus on the empty seats, you focus on the seats that are filled."



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2013/12/15/On-the-Steelers-How-low-can-attendance-go/stories/201312150100#ixzz2nq4YnVjG

[KenFSU]

^ Would love to see this trend continue league-wide. Average ticket price for a Steelers game is $220, which doesn't include parking or concessions. League-wide, average ticket prices have crept up every single year. It's pure hubris and greed at a time when NFL owners should be bending over backwards to keep fans coming to the stadium. In the home theater era, NFL teams are eventually going to have to pick between high ticket prices and unfilled stadiums, or reasonable ticket prices and sold out stadiums. Especially when it comes to shitty or small market teams. I actually think the Jags are doing a really great job in this respect, but if you look at the game day Stub Hub prices for 75% of NFL teams, it's obvious that there's a pretty huge discrepancy between face value and true market value for these tickets.

The no-show phenomenon should be particularly alarming to NFL owners as well.

[JayBird]

I'm not so sure about its only the Jaguars getting picked on. I believe it is mostly perception. During the Pittsburgh game they mentioned lack of attendance a few times and the local Pittsburgh media has beat them over the head with it. Some fellow alumni are die hard steelers fans and it's been a constant rib since middle of last season.

I think Jaguars appear to get the brunt of it because of our own local media. In a majority of NFL cities you will not get a 12 minute weather report and 8 minute high school sports report during 30 minutes of news. Jacksonville tends to lack news worthy events, after all we kind of are still a small city, and many of our news outlets piggyback off of each other more so than in other markets. Heck, four of our national network stations are actually just two production (CBS47/FOX30 and NBC12/ABC25) companies which is extremely rare. With the age of computers aggregating information, this means that when NBC picks up an attendance story, automatically ABC has same story. Social media passes it around and the other station picks it up, not to be left out and then of course Times Union runs it right from their First Coast News partner.

Now, when Joe Schmoe sports writer extraordinaire is sitting in his office in New York and types in NFL, the Jaguars will appear to the computer to be a hot issue. Not necessarily because it is, but because the same story was almost instantly reproduced and distributed so many more times. So he writes the column, ESPN prints it, and the snowball continues rolling.

So it isn't necessarily that the national media picks on us more, I believe it is that our small media bubble makes our stories seem more newsworthy to those computers looking for news than it really is. Of course, it is all just my $.02 theory, not scientifically based and certainly not gospel!

[duvaldude08]

I'm not so sure about its only the Jaguars getting picked on. I believe it is mostly perception. During the Pittsburgh game they mentioned lack of attendance a few times and the local Pittsburgh media has beat them over the head with it. Some fellow alumni are die hard steelers fans and it's been a constant rib since middle of last season.

I think Jaguars appear to get the brunt of it because of our own local media. In a majority of NFL cities you will not get a 12 minute weather report and 8 minute high school sports report during 30 minutes of news. Jacksonville tends to lack news worthy events, after all we kind of are still a small city, and many of our news outlets piggyback off of each other more so than in other markets. Heck, four of our national network stations are actually just two production (CBS47/FOX30 and NBC12/ABC25) companies which is extremely rare. With the age of computers aggregating information, this means that when NBC picks up an attendance story, automatically ABC has same story. Social media passes it around and the other station picks it up, not to be left out and then of course Times Union runs it right from their First Coast News partner.

Now, when Joe Schmoe sports writer extraordinaire is sitting in his office in New York and types in NFL, the Jaguars will appear to the computer to be a hot issue. Not necessarily because it is, but because the same story was almost instantly reproduced and distributed so many more times. So he writes the column, ESPN prints it, and the snowball continues rolling.

So it isn't necessarily that the national media picks on us more, I believe it is that our small media bubble makes our stories seem more newsworthy to those computers looking for news than it really is. Of course, it is all just my $.02 theory, not scientifically based and certainly not gospel!

I can agree and disagree. Even now with the team not giving out ticket sale information the past two years, our local media doesnt talk about it anymore, but the national media STILL uses us as the poster child for attendance issues, and take unecessary ( and some of it not even funny) jabs at us whenever they get a chance. Other teams such as the Raiders, Bucs, and Steelers for example, they just glaze over the subject. But with us, we get POUNDED. I wonder what will ever change the perception, because that is where the issue lays. We could completely packed the stadium for three years straight and they will say " Jacksonville has a history of ticket woes and blackouts." Anyways, dont wanna stay on the ticket subject too long, just wanted to share a bit of information I had literally stumble across to even find.

[I-10east]

Brad Meester just announced that he's gonna retire after this season according to actionnews.

[JayBird]

Jaguars social media took to Facebook to ask what 3 positions they think should be addressed in the 2014 draft, obviously QB was mentioned almost 100% of comments but they seem pretty split on whether offensive or defensive positions need help more.

Here is the Facebook link, they made it public so even those without a Facebook should be able to read the comments.
https://www.facebook.com/JaguarsFever/posts/605270916207147:0

EDIT: my mistake, it was not the actual Jaguars team page but a fan page that has asked this question.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Brad Meester just announced that he's gonna retire after this season according to actionnews.

Thanks Meester for all the years of service and hard work!!! Go Jags!!!!!

[duvaldude08]

Jaguars social media took to Facebook to ask what 3 positions they think should be addressed in the 2014 draft, obviously QB was mentioned almost 100% of comments but they seem pretty split on whether offensive or defensive positions need help more.

Here is the Facebook link, they made it public so even those without a Facebook should be able to read the comments.
https://www.facebook.com/JaguarsFever/posts/605270916207147:0

EDIT: my mistake, it was not the actual Jaguars team page but a fan page that has asked this question.

Ive been thinking about this all day, and with the first pick Ive concluded that I dont care what we do. We have so many needs, why even stress about it. If there is a QB avaiable that we want, great. If not, just wait until the second round and grab one. Same for defensive end. There are NO slam dunk QB's in this draft. I say if we dont go QB or DE in the first round, go for WR (if best avaiable). There are a slew of WR's coming out that we do us some good. WIth Blackmon, Shorts and Sanders, it would be nice to grab another receiver to round out our core.

[JayBird]

^ I agree with that, and true even though it is well known a franchise QB is needed, not one stands out. And to be honest, though I still do not feel he is the answer, Henne has proven himself to me in the last 6 weeks as someone that may not take us to a championship, but he will certainly keep us in contention range while some new blood gets their pads muddy.

Usually I don't like the blowhards that commen on Facebook or TU articles, but I have to credit the fan base and community as a whole that everyone pretty much believes we shouldn't repeat another Gabbert by signing a QB and then throwing them into the fire. I would also like to say that I was even more impressed how I didn't see one "Sign Tebow" post.

All in all, I have high hopes for this draft and not because of what's out there but because of coming up on the one year anniversary of Gene Smith going (that will get a toast from me this NYE for sure) and that these coaches have shown what they can do with time and practice since coming from 0-8.