The Jacksonville Jaguars

[pierre]

I'm not sure why anybody thinks Lewis could have caught that pass.

[duvaldude08]

I'm not sure why anybody thinks Lewis could have caught that pass.

Right! Even analyst stated how much of a horrid pass that was. That was not on Lewis. Henne is ust garbage.

[Wacca Pilatka]

I'm not sure why anybody thinks Lewis could have caught that pass.

Agreed.  He did make an effort to lay out for it and he couldn't have caught it unless he were 10 feet tall.  How Henne managed to overthrow that big of a target on that short of a route is bizarre.  He missed Lee in the same way on a similar route in the second quarter that would have extended the drive that ended in the blocked FG.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Now that I've had a chance to watch the game, to the people pinning this on Henne:  very little was Henne's fault. 

I get the narrative that everyone wants to see Bortles play, and the only way for that to happen is if Henne's play necessitates it.  Ergo, pin everything on Henne in hopes of seeing Bortles.  Right.  Whatever. 

Here's what I saw, and feel free to correct me:

I saw lots of extremely unproductive plays on 1st and 2nd downs - blown-up screens, boots with unblocked defenders, completely UNBLOCKED defenders absolutely smashing Gerhart in the backfield, runs for negative yardage and Henne being forced to dump the ball due to almost immediate pressure. 

The blame goes around, but IMO I put most of it firstly on the O-Line.  If they can't block, then the play has no chance to succeed.  Secondly, goes to Fisch.  If you see the line can't hold the Defense then quit running boots and anything more than a 3-step drop.  Get the ball out faster.  If the O-Line can't create holes in the middle, then focus on outside sweeps.  I understand that you have to 'try' to keep them honest by banging it up the middle, but if it didn't work on 1st and 10, why are you running the same-ish play on 2nd and 13?

I don't know any team that will win a lot of games when they're 3rd and 8 80% of the time.  And Henne did make some pretty bad throws, but he also made some REALLY good ones that bounced out of the hands of the WRs and hit the ground.  One that stands out is a 3rd and long play (imagine that) where he hit Hurns right in the hands with a perfect throw in-between double coverage down the right sideline.  Instead of extending the drive and everybody being amazed at the throw, it's an incomplete pass.  Bring on Legatron.

I didn't pay nearly as much attention to the defense, but from what I saw was a coach that made the right adjustments.  We were still getting pressure with our front 4, but their play designs seemed to have more crossing routes that allowed Foles to step up and dump the ball off quickly.  For the most part, we had their run game shut down, and due to a few missed tackles, the Eagles had some big plays, but not the kind of 'march up and down the field' type playing you would expect.  We held our ground for the most part.  Their scoring plays were all 'big plays' and were the result of an absolute breakdown in coverage and assignment on our part.

That's my $.02 after watching the game with a critical eye.    Henne's play isn't the reason that we lost the game on Sunday.  It was definitely a team effort.  Our O-Line HAS to improve for us to score more points and be a balanced football team.  I think our D will be fine, it's just that for every mental lapse they had, the Eagles seemed to put points on the board.  I think we'll be fine with them playing the way they are, they just need to make a few less mistakes.

[KenFSU]

^ You're probably right. Henne probably got more blame than he deserved, but it's to be expected given the circumstances.

For several years now, we have been a truly embarrassing team, particularly at the quarterback position. Between Gabbert, Henne, and all the Tebow nonsense, the Jags have been the butt of every joke, locally and nationally, for as long as we can remember. It sucked.

Now, here we are, coming off our strongest draft in a decade, finally with a little swagger back in our step, generating a ton of local and mainstream buzz about the best quarterback in the draft and the new face of the franchise, Blake Bortles. People who aren't normally excited about the Jags are excited about them. Media pundits are picking them as a sleeper playoff team. We're making new fans left and right from Orlando to Tallahassee and everywhere in between. Bortles jersey sales are through the roof, we're making highlight reels of his preseason plays, we've got the bragging rights of a greatly upgraded stadium, we're flying high.

Then, the week before the opener, Gus pretty much tells Jags fans not to expect to see Blake Bortles play again this season. True or not, that really took the wind out of the sails. Henne gets the starting job and now, all of a sudden, here we are again, humiliated in the first game of the regular season, giving up a massive lead and putting up horrible offensive numbers in the second half, and surprise, once again we're the punch line of the league and the de facto No. 32 in all of the power rankings.

Who knows if Bortles would have changed anything, probably not with how the o-line performed, but the Jags have done such a great job building up some genuine goodwill this off season and it feels like every loss with Henne at the helm is going to blow a little bit more of it.

Anything short of a serviceable performance on Sunday, and I honestly don't see how Henne makes it to the home opener, let alone bye week.

[duvaldude08]

I think the thing about Henne is, his skill set is very limited. If things dont go exactly as designed and executed to perfection, everything falls apart. But the thing I had to remind myself is that we have an EXTREMLEY young and inexperienced offense at this point. I understand now why they dont want Bortles back there. I think we are just sick of seeing it. We have been tormented with this for years now. And now we know we have an offense with potential and it was gut renching to see them play lights out,then disappear. Things will come together eventuall so Im not to worried. But regardless, our offense cant stall like they did sunday or were in trouble AGAIN this season. They have to figure it out quick.

Sidenote- Where are we ranked #32 on power ranking? Were #27 on Nfl.com and #30 on ESPN. And what punch line exactly? Im actually shocked to see that they arent bashing and actually have said even in our lost its exciting to watch our young talent. Did I miss some punch lines somewhere? LOL

[duvaldude08]

Okay..This is getting realy stupid. SO..after saying Henne was "effecient" Sunday, now they are telling him he needs to push the ball down field more and be "explosive".. Um hello, Henne cant do that!! This is starting to get realy stupid and annoying at this point. A blind man can see that Henne cant push the ball down and be explosive. He never has been. They called him "checkdown chad"in Miami for a reason. I dont know what they are thinking they will see from him. He is who is. Henne is not going to all of sudden change after 7 years of being medicore and inconsistent. 

[KenFSU]

Okay..This is getting realy stupid. SO..after saying Henne was "effecient" Sunday, now they are telling him he needs to push the ball down field more and be "explosive".. Um hello, Henne cant do that!! This is starting to get realy stupid and annoying at this point. A blind man can see that Henne cant push the ball down and be explosive. He never has been. They called him "checkdown chad"in Miami for a reason. I dont know what they are thinking they will see from him. He is who is. Henne is not going to all of sudden change after 7 years of being medicore and inconsistent. 

I laughed at the Big Cat Country Headline.

"Jags tells Chad Henne to be more like Blake Bortles"

[I-10east]

Pretty funny stuff from BCC.

http://www.bigcatcountry.com/2014/9/12/6133863/jaguars-vs-washington-sports-team-2014-the-bcc-preview-extravaganza

[FSBA]

What a clusterf**k of a first half. Down 21-0 and the entire team looking completely lost. Might as well let Bortles have a shot.

[thelakelander]

Hmm. Anyone still believing that Bortles sits on the bench for the entire year? 

[funwithteeth]

Bortles wouldn't hurt, but he also wouldn't be able to prevent stuff like

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

And the 10th sack of the game..... 

Hmm. Anyone still believing that Bortles sits on the bench for the entire year? 

Yeah, let's put in Bortles.   

Bradfield was benched if that's any indication on what needs to be fixed first.

[JaxNative68]

Need a video clip of Brando in Apocalypse Now. The horror. The horror.

[KenFSU]

Six straight seasons without a winning record, and this is the start that we're off to.

Henne was sacked ten times, a new franchise record for both the Jags and Washington.

The Redskins are coming off nine consecutive regular season losses and lost their starting qb in the first quarter, and we made them look like the '85 Bears.

Horrifying start to the season, as bad as last year's.

With an o-line this terrible, Henne at qb, and Jedd Fisch doing whatever he's doing (not even mentioning the defense), is there a universe where there's anything to look forward to this season?

I actually agree NRW, keep Bortles out of this, at least for now.