JaguarsTalk: Jaguars Fans, Welcome to the NFL Dead Zone

JT: What do Tom Cruise and the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp have in common with your Jacksonville Jaguars? More than you know, people. More than you know.

Remember when that British guy from Love Actually, the one who wanted his best friend's wife, played by the amazingly beautiful Bend it Like Beckham girl (also British, and sometimes a pirate), woke up one day and started walking aimlessly around his empty town until he crossed paths with that freaky little zombie child? It looked, to Rick Grimes, like some sort of horrific event took place while he was napping and now he alone is left to pick up the pieces. It’s like that time in high school when your parents went out of town and you invited a few friends over, but word spread leading to you hosting the biggest rager of the year. When the cops came and everyone went running you were left with a trashed house and fifteen minutes to clean up before your folks got home. Essentially what I am asking you to do is imagine you are Joel. You just turned your parent’s house into a brothel for the night in an attempt to make enough money to fix Daddy’s Porsche which, incidentally, went for an impromptu swim in Lake Michigan. Come morning you think you’ve somehow pulled it off only to realize that Guido the Pimp stole all your parents belongings while your back was turned. This feeling of desperation that you, Joel, feel right here in this moment, THAT is how the dead zone of sports feels. Life is a mess. It seems that everything else, work, family, stress, expenses, literally everything that has been happily masked by the oh so wonderful power of sports, is now front and center with no athletic buffer. It’s the cold reality of Guido the pimp after Joel’s night of debauchery. It’s the dead zone of sports and it is upon us, completely enveloping the masses of good hearted competitive men and women around the country in a cloud of utter despair. Do I embellish? Do I exaggerate? If you have to ask then you know not of what I speak. Let us all just hope that when the dust settles and August 4th finally rolls around, Rutherford has an acceptance letter to Princeton with our names on it. And now for your reading pleasure an attempt to dredge up a column that resembles something even remotely adjacent to sports.

Last night on the fourth of July, the celebration of our great nation's birth, I and a few others attended our first Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp baseball game. First let me say that my attempts to tie this to the Jaguars may be futile, but the effort is there, so please be gentle in the comment section. It was a great time. The name alone is fantastic, the Jumbo Shrimp. It makes me giggle every time. Several things about this particular game stood out to me from which I drew parallels to our beloved Jacksonville Jaguars (I literally read and reread this sentence umpteen times because it just doesn’t sound quite right. I decided however that I like it, thus it stays unchanged. Update: I changed it to how it currently reads during editing. Whaddaya gonna do?). We will cover these Shrimp/Jags parallels in order of importance, least to most important. 

First of all, I want to explain to you how painful it was to sit in the Jumbo Shrimp stadium, on a beautiful first coast Florida evening, enjoying a cool refreshment as I watched America's pastime, while not sweating through every article of clothing on my body. That doesn’t sound painful at all, you say. Well you would be one hundo P correct (and if I ever, EVER type “one hundo P” again, god help me). It wasn’t painful, in fact it was downright enjoyable, until I glanced over the right field bleacher seats to see TIAA Bank Field towering over me like a menacing reminder that I have to wait another two months for the opening game. It took the wind right out of my sails. I was left luffing.

The second parallel involves me sitting by the wall along the first base line. We had a great view of the game. We were close enough to hear the players talking and they were close enough to hear us. This became extremely evident when the two gentlemen to my right began talking to every batter on both teams. Sometimes they said nice things and sometimes there were some not so nice things. It was obvious that these guys were season ticket holders or at least regulars to 121 Financial Ballpark, as they knew every player's name, verbally jabbing at them like long lost brothers. Our two new friends were not offensive, but in actuality, often pretty funny. What they did though, was get me thinking about the fan situation in the Bank. Being new Jaguars season ticket holders I can’t help but wonder if we’ll have a couple fans like these two gentlemen sitting near us during football games. It also got me thinking if we’ll have fans around us that maybe we wouldn’t want. I’ve been to many a football game, hockey game, baseball game etc… and we all know that if one has a propensity to be an annoying fan, they tend to be more annoying at football games. Baseball games or even hockey games (at least in my experience), not so much. The good news is that even if we have a few bad apples in the Bank, Baalke and Pederson have set the Jaguars up in such a way as to silence the negativity. Happy rowdy fans are much more welcome. Winning changes a lot and the Jaguars will be winning a little bit this year. From my mouth to God’s ears, JAX is going to compete for the last playoff spot in 2022. Book it.

Lastly, the July fourth Jumbo Shrimp baseball game against the Norfolk Tide was a defensive battle. If I remember correctly only one runner even made it to second base the entire game (I may be slightly off but it wasn’t very many). Pitchers were throwing cheese all night. Strikes were handed out like hot dogs off the grill. Infield and outfield defenses were red hot like charcoal briquettes in a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker Smoker. The picture I’m painting here is that of a good old fourth of July cookout shutout. Because of the strong defensive play it was looking like extra innings were an inevitability. Until they weren’t. Bottom of the ninth, Jumbo Shrimp had a pinch runner on first, with Lewin Diaz at the plate. Damned if my man didn’t stroke a walk-off double for the 1-0 Jumbo Shrimp Independence Day victory. This Shrimp game illustrated exactly what JaguarsTalk has been preaching about the current state of the Jacksonville Jaguars. One does not require a great offense if it has a great defense. The offense doesn’t need to be exceptional, only efficient. The offense doesn’t need to win the game, just not lose the game. The Jaguars are built upon a defensive foundation now. That is their modus operandi. Not only do the Jags have a formidable, young, impressive, dynamic, athletic and punishing front seven which is to be the motor of this team. But as a bonus, while only needing efficiency from their offense, they are blessed with a once in a generation franchise quarterback, a speedy first round running back, and most importantly a strong, revamped, solid wall of an offensive line. That’s what the kids call extra. Defense won for the Shrimp while the offense was efficient. That is the recipe for success with the Jacksonville Jaguars 2022 NFL season. Also, if the name Jumbo Shrimp weren’t great enough, their mascot is a shrimp named Scampi. I. Just. Can’t. 

Feel free to leave your rowdy positivity in the comment section below.