Jacksonville Jaguars: Work it out Wednesday

JT: How to right the ship

Alright folks it’s Wednesday and the boys are heading to London for a back to back against the Atlanta Falcons and the Buffalo Bills. The first three games of this Jaguars season have given us, frankly, not much to write home about. We’ve gone over everything wrong with Jacksonville this season and since nobody on our offense is dating Taylor Swift, the only thing we have to talk about is what we can do to make JAX better. Though I wouldn’t mind if Dewey started dating him some Shakira. Wingard would be hip dropping, hula style, as he loafed his way down the field pretending to catch a full-back running a kick-off back for a touchdown. Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I said I’d let the Texans game go and then I wrote this. My regression is inexcusable. I’m like Robert Downey Jr. the early years. I’ve yet to have my Iron Man moment. Though I do have a great RDJ story that I will share with the first reader who asks in the comment section. I’m pulling out all the stops for readers and comments. I have no shame. Dewey can still date Shakira though. I’d buy a #42 jersey with her name on the back. Did you know that Kelce jersey sales went up 400% after Tay Tay went to watch him play play. Ridiculous. Back to the Jags. I know how to fix our issues, I just don’t think that the Jaguars brass is quite ready to admit they were wrong.

Let’s call out the elephant in the room first. Babar needs to move to the interior of the defensive line. That’s right, Baalke and Pederson screwed the pooch by not taking Aidan Hutchinson in the draft. They then screwed the pooch again, by not recognizing their first screwing of the pooch, by not moving Travon Walker inside during the offseason and retaining Arden Key, the creator of literally everything in Jacksonville, to rush opposing QBs as outside linebacker. Okay, so either of the above pooch screwings would have righted the Jags ship and frankly made them a dominant defense but we can’t go back in time and unscrew already screwed pooches. Here is where it takes a big man to admit his mistakes. In this case, several big men. The Travon Walker experiment, Jacksonville’s Oppenheimer if you will, should end today. It won’t, because we believe the hubris of the brass will prevent them from doing what we all know is the correct thing to do. Mike Caldwell needs to buck the trend and move Travon Walker to the interior. If you have to use Foley Fatukasi as a swing man, fine. Better yet, while Smoot is injured play Walker instead of Gotsis. I would then move Devin Lloyd to the outside backer position and have him play “end.” Unfortunately, he will now be having surgery on his hand and is unusable for the next two weeks. I don’t even think he’s making the jaunt to the King’s kingdom. So, I would use a combo of Chaisson and Abdullah instead. In the next two weeks I would run Walker, Fatukasi, and RRH on the line backed up by Abdullah/Chaisson, Oluokun, Muma, and Allen in the LB positions. If we’re being frank with each other, we’re running a 3-4 with talent built for a 4-3. Travon Walker is an interior lineman, not an edge rusher. Those aren’t just words, he’s proven that over the past season plus. The question now is how long will it take Baalke, Pederson, and Caldwell to admit their mistake and move the man where he plays best?

The next change that needs to be made for the Jaguars to come home from across the pond with at least one victory, if not two, is the play calling. Running the ball is working. Really. Really. Well. Travis Etienne Jr. is Marshawn Lynching his way down the field (facts). Tangentially, if you’ve not seen the episode, starring Marshawn Lynch, of the ad-lib comedy show Murderville, then you need to. Not necessarily right now, but I wouldn’t be mad if you did. I realize that the league is all about the passing game now. We’ve exited the era of the ground and pound. Running backs make pennies on the dollar now that everyone plays the west coast offense. But that doesn’t mean that we should force a passing game when our running game is dominating. Just because you bought a square peg doesn’t mean you need to pound it into the round hole until you are blue in the face, and you lose all your games, and miss the playoffs, and don’t get a new stadium, and have to move to London because Jacksonville is tired of your stupidity. Let’s not go down that path. How ‘bout we start using a round peg. I’m just saying, ETN run plays may be boring and super not flashy, and may not utilize your generational QB, your newly acquired number zero, and your newly re-signed TE, but it will gain you yards and win you games. Isn’t that the point? To be fair, I will throw the Jags offense a bone. When you need to throw the ball, throw it to Evan Engram. The man just balls out. He wasn’t used in the first half of the Texans game but when he was used in the second half, the Jags started moving the ball and started scoring. The entire offensive game plan should be ETN and Eazy E. Done. Bottom line is that our offensive line is full of holes and it’s easier to run block than it is to pass block. So play to your strengths.

That brings us to the last thing we should change right now in order to win against Atlanta. We need to move some bodies around on the O-Line. Bartch needs to sit and Shatley needs to come on in and save the day. Bartch has been a swinging door and Shatley can play guard without issue. I know Cole Van Lanen was brought into the game to spell Anton Harrison when Anton was shaken up, but maybe that needs to happen more often. Harrison is a rookie and he hasn’t played very well. I understand that he’ll only get better if he’s out on the field, but if giving him a few more breaks keeps Harrison fresh, than I’d sub in Van Lanen more often than not. Look, I don’t see them taking Harrison out of the game, but if they don’t put Shatley in for Bartch then I fear pride is getting in the way. The Baalke masterclass might be renamed the Baalke Icarus moment if he can’t admit and fix his mistakes before his wings melt away revealing a, dare I say it, clown face.

Really that’s it. I think that the way the DBs played against Houston was an anomaly, just as the drops the receivers had last week were unusual. Trevor’s only mistake, in my opinion, was forcing that INT last week and getting some happy feet against Kansas City (he had Kirk for the 4th and 5, with time to make the throw, and chose to tuck and run ‘cause CJ was on his heels). Oh, and how could I forget the most positive reason the Jags will greatly improve against Atlanta. The biggest Babar, of all Babars, in the room might be the special teams play. Horrible. There is no possible way that Jacksonville’s special teams could play that horrifically bad ever again. That was like the fifty year storm. I swear I saw Bodhi and Special Agent Johnny Utah paddling out into the Everbank ether. It will never happen again in our lifetime. I mean, a missed field goal, a blocked field goal, a 6 point, full back, kick-off return. What a mess. The exact opposite of Beamer Ball (if you know you know, and Curtis Dvorak and I know very well).

So you see, this season is reparable. I’d say salvageable but I don’t think we are sinking quite yet. We’re just barely listing. If we bail a few buckets we’ll be better than fine. The biggest issue preventing the Jaguars from setting a beam reach, filling their spinnaker, and leaving teams in their wake is the ability of Captain Baalke and Skipper Pederson to admit their Walker mistake and move the man where he can do the most damage to opposing QBs. Otherwise, we will keep Gilligan-ing (a great new verb) the game away. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.