Jacksonville Bests Indianapolis 31-21

JT: I had to take the weekend to let it sink in

I blame it on the Duchess of Sussex. That’s right, the reason I’ve been so delinquent in writing my next column has everything to do with Mrs. Rachel Meghan Markle (don’t feel bad, I didn’t know her first name was Rachel either). It would seem that for the last few weeks when Howie asked me if we had a Deal or No Deal, I selected Meghan’s suitcase, and inside was the law firm of Pearson Specter Litt. Well, Pearson Hardman, then Pearson Specter, then Pearson Specter Litt, then an attempt to make it Pearson Specter Litt and Gus from Psych. Unfortunately Gus was driving the blueberry deep in the streets with Shawn and never made it on the wall by the elevators. If you understood any of the above, then we should do karate in the garage, because we just became best friends. My point being, I’ve gotten so caught up in the TV show SUITS (on Netflix), starring Meghan Markle among others, that I’ve forgotten about you fine people. I’m all in. I’ve been binge watching Mike Ross fake lawyer his way through the city that never sleeps, so much so, that I have yet to put pen to paper (fingers to keyboard) to address the goings on of our fine Jacksonville Jaguars. Well that ends now.

Now that I have had time to digest the entirety of the NFL opening weekend, I can say without impunity that Louis Litt has the best facial expressions in all of Hollywood. And, Jacksonville has a long way to go if they want to win the Super Bowl. Though off to a great start, there exist a few tweaks that need to be addressed and we are just the people to address them. First, let me say that last year I thought out loud the biggest problems on Jacksonville’s team was the defensive coordinator, Mike Caldwell. I never shied away from the fact that I thought DC MC was a little too green to be in charge of Pug Dederson’s defense last year. Toward the end of 2022 Caldwell showed sparks of getting it. He was switching up his 3-4 scheme to more of a hybrid that often saw Travon Walker with his hands in the dirt. It made a difference toward the later half of the season and I believe that with a full year under his belt with Walker, Oluokun, Lloyd, Muma etc…Caldwell will come into his own. What I saw the other day in Indianapolis proves that Mike Caldwell has become the defensive coordinator Jacksonville needs. #41 Josh Allen, who has received more than his fair share of ire from those on the First Coast, leads the entire league in sacks with three, in week one. Travon Walker has his first recorded sack of the season as well. Both of these guys played a tremendously fierce defensive game against the Colts. I believe it was Mia O’Brien of XL Primetime who tweeted on X (are we still “tweeting” on “X” now that it is no longer “Twitter”?) that Allen has 3, Walker has 1, and Hutchinson has none. Now while that may have been a premature tweet, one can’t argue the factual numbers. Yes, Aiden Hutchinson played the KC Chiefs and the Jags played the lowly Colts, but Anthony Richardson has been compared in his scrambling ability to the likes of Mike Vick, plus he is a 250lb freight train.

Tyson Campbell had himslef a day at the cornerback spot for the Jags, especially with that interception we later learned he garnered by baiting a throw from the Colts rookie QB. Everyone else is playing checkers while #32 has us in check mate. Devin Lloyd’s game was solid, as well as the defensive line play. Tre Herndon came up to make several good plays as well. I guess when Gregory Junior comes a knocking’ for your spot, Herndon doesn’t want to answer that door. Also, I want to take this moment to point out that hard hitting/tackling is called football. Just because you can hear the hit up in the nosebleeds doesn’t constitute a yellow hanky for unnecessary roughness (cough cough: I got your back Cisco). Number five is alive and his name isn’t Johnny, it’s Andre. If you can’t take the heat then don’t play in his sandbox (or something like that). All of this convoluted mess to say, the Jaguars defense was impressive against the Colts. They held them on fourth and one down at the goal line. They, in fact, held them on third and fourth and short countless times throughout the game (I say countless because the actual number, which can be counted, escapes me, but I know Indy only got one of those first down attempts). Against a dink and dunk passing attack employed by the Colts (an attempt to break in their very green rookie QB) the Jaguars held up nicely. I wish I could say the same for their offense.

The pride and joy of the Jacksonville Jaguars this year is supposed to be their offense. They can outscore anyone. Who in the NFL could stop them in a shoot out? Even against the Kansas City Chiefs, Jacksonville has the best shot of winning. While the final score of the JAX/Indy game proves this idea correct, it doesn’t tell the entire story. There was no way Jacksonville runs away with this game or even wins it, if not for the Jaguars defense, namely Tyson Campbell. Without a great defense, no offense in the league scores two touchdowns in 1:06 time. Yes, the offense was all over the place at times. They weren’t seamless or flawless but there were many times when they clicked. If that “clickiness” can stretch an entire four quarters, than we will see domination this coming Sunday against KC.

Now for some bright and not so bright spots. Calvin Ridley had the best half of football in his entire career against the Colts. He had 90+ yards and a touchdown in the first half alone. Then #0 went silent for the last half of play. Fortunately for Trevor and the boys, Zay Jones and Travis Etienne went off with some amazing acrobatic catches and hard pounding runs. Speaking of the runs, rookie running back Tank Bigsby, out of Auburn, had them in his first professional game. Bigsby was a detriment more than a help last Sunday. He cost Trevor Lawrence an interception by letting the ball go right through his hands and then picked up a fumble, stood there like he has never played football, or any sport in his life, by not playing ‘til the whistle. The entire Colts defense kept playing and took the ball out of Bigsby’s hands, running it in for a touchdown. This is inexcusable. Literally every sport from peewee to the big leagues preaches that you play ‘til your hear the whistle. Tank tried his best to tank that game for JAX (pun extremely intended). As for his touchdown run, it was set up by newly acquired rookie tight end, Brenton Strange who picked him up and carried him several yards to the one foot line. I know that Tank Bigsby will be a really good player for Jacksonville, he was not that against the Colts, however. Let’s hope that week two brings a more consistent offense.

Now we can get to the possible point of the Jaguars offensive woes. Who is calling the plays? They seemed a little reserved last weekend. Many have complained about the play calling. Doug Pederson said that he handed over play calling to offensive coordinator, Press Taylor, this season. Doug says he allowed Taylor to call all of the plays in the second half of games last year and that he completely trusts Taylor to call entire games this year. It was a slow start for Press so let’s hope he’s a quick study as the Chiefs are coming to town in week two and they just resigned one of the fiercest and best defensive tackles in the entire league, Chris Jones. Jones ended his hold out and signed a one year deal with KC that will put him on the field at Everbank against a patch work of a Jacksonville offensive line. Yeah that’s another Jacksonville issue. Bartch wasn’t great. Scherff got injured. Anton Harrison is a rookie that has a bum shoulder and a lot to learn, and Cam Robinson is still walking the sidelines filled with PEDs. Injuries are the only thing that will slow this offense down and injuries along the O-line hurts the most. Thank god for Tyler Shatley, but he is only one man. Remember, Chris Jones is lurking.

That about wraps up the offensive and defensive play. We’ve also covered some of the coaching issues. What it doesn’t cover and what always seems to be overlooked is the play of our special teams. Agnew had a return that rivaled any in the past, and Logan Cooke remains the very best player on the team. What we didn’t know, until week one, was how good our placekicker was going to be. He’s good. He didn’t miss and he kicks the ball really really far. So there’s that. A lot of fans are not happy with how the Jaguars played in Indianapolis and frankly neither was I, at first. Thus, I let it marinate. That, and Rachel Zane, are the reasons I wrote this article today and not right after Jacksonville’s first win at Lucas Oil stadium in a long time. Make no mistake, JaguarsTalk believes Anthony Richardson is going to be very good in the coming years, let’s hope Jacksonville starts hitting on all cylinders and maintains that level over the entirety of Trevor Lawrence’s career. Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.