The Jacksonville Jaguars suck. Can we all agree on that? My reason for saying they suck might not be the same as yours. They irritate the hell out of me because I can see they have a lot of talent on both sides of the ball, but they just refuse to get out of their own damn way so they can win. Play after play, week after week, they piss away opportunities to improve their record with dumb mistakes. If they could ever get to where they played smart as a team, nobody would really want to face the Jaguars, especially near the end of the season. Sadly, that day has not come to Jacksonville just yet.
Let me tell you about the one play that made me want to shotput my iPad for Jags fans' sake when I saw it. OK, we've all seen the Dez Bryant highlight where he runs a simple shallow crossing pattern, and after he catches the pass he runs over, around and through Jags defenders on the way to a 35-yard touchdown. That score put the Cowboys up 17-7 with around seven minutes to go in the first half. That's not exactly an insurmountable.
The Jaguars offense proceeded to turn the ball over in Cowboys territory on one drive. Later, after their defense forced a Cowboys turnover in Jags territory to keep the score at 17-7 with 1:07 left in the half, the offense went three-and-out after gaining only 7 yards. Inept might not be a strong enough word for this offense.
You know what though? It's no harm no foul at that point. They were still down 10 points with 31 seconds left to go in the half. They were also going to get the ball to start the third quarter, so they were still within striking distance.
Then Jags cornerback Dwayne Gratz decided to go all Jags and press Bryant at the line of scrimmage. I mean, it takes some kind of gumption to try that shit after the man already threw gasoline all over the secondary and took a blow torch to it. When you see it on the all-22, it's clear that the Jaguars were playing cover 3 on that play. The corner opposite Gratz, Demetrius McCray, also lined up in press at the line of scrimmage against receiver Terrance Williams, but there were two things that differed from Gratz's technique.
1. McCray bailed out after the snap so he could stay over the top of Williams. Gratz really tried to jam Bryant at the line of scrimmage, knowing he probably wouldn't have any help over the top.
2. McCray wound up in good position over the top of Williams' route. Gratz wound up rolling around on the ground like a tumbleweed in an old Western movie after Bryant swatted away his jam and shook off his tackle attempt after catching the ball.
If I were Jags safety Jonathan Cyprien, I'd have been pissed at Gratz. All because Gratz wanted to try to be a damn hero, leaving Cyprien to try to clean up his mess, that meant Bryant carrying him piggy back into the end zone for the 68-yard touchdown. That put the halftime score at 24-7, taking away whatever little chance the Jaguars had of winning the game.
That is just some dumb football right there, folks.
If the Jags played cover 3 properly on that play, maybe they give up a field goal at worst. The question is: What is it going to take for those guys to finally smarten up, Nas?