After the Jacksonville Jaguars’ embarrassing start to the season, Urban Meyer and Co. were criticized early on. And despite the early timing, this doesn’t even seem to be exaggerated.
The start was brutal.
The Jacksonville Jaguars certainly didn’t go into Houston’s first game of the season as underdogs. In the end, however, the Houston Texans “kicked their ass,” as head coach Urban Meyer (57) clearly put it at his post-game press conference. In the end it was 21:37 once morest the supposedly worst squad in the NFL.
While the Jaguars’ first touchdown in the second quarter by Chris Manhertz to 7:14 gave hope once more, the other two came at a time when the game was already decided. It was result cosmetics, garbage time points that only made fantasy managers happy. The bottom line is that the new version of the Jaguars under Meyer and with number 1 pick Trevor Lawrence (28/51, 332 YDS, 3 TD, 3 INT) was completely overwhelmed at the first appearance.
In addition, the troops seemed unprepared and undisciplined. Overall, the Jaguars conceded 10 penalties for 82 yards on Sunday, mostly on offense for holding, illegal formations or – notably – coming out of the huddle with 12 players. It sometimes seemed as if these players had met for the first time that Sunday.
Meyer called this situation a “lack of discipline, lack of focus” and indicated that he would “evaluate everything”.
Jacksonville Jaguars: Tension caused by frustrated Urban Meyer
However, this should not necessarily worsen the general mood among his players and especially his coaching staff. Because as was heard, the same has been in a critical condition for weeks anyway. Jason LaCanfora from CBS Sports for example, reported major discrepancies in Duval before the start of the season.
It’s not just regarding players being annoyed because Meyer brought his excessive micromanagement to the NFL and thinks it’s necessary to make players aware of it in training, but please have something to drink. In addition, he should take out any frustration regarding the overall situation on his employees in the coaching team and that already over the summer up to the training camp and the preseason.
“Everyone already has to look over their shoulder,” a source is quoted as saying. “He freaks out way too easily and doesn’t know how to deal with losing, even in the preseason. He freaks out and wants to take over training sessions himself. It’s not good.”
The main concern is that the coach was not able to spend as much time with his players as he did in college, partly due to Covid protocols, but also partly because of the guidelines and limitations of offseason training in the NFL. The rather small squad size of only 53 players compared to college doesn’t suit him any more than the fact that Meyer no longer has the best player material available in Jacksonville, unlike at his successful college stations Florida and Ohio State Winning is also noticeably more difficult.
If you look once more at what the Jaguars have shown on the pitch so far – you should simply ignore the preseason, especially since the playbook is not opened too far there anyway, so as not to reveal anything regarding the regular season – there is very well Reason to worry.
Jacksonville Jaguar: Offense seems unimaginative
A look at the routes run by the Jags’ two top receivers, DJ Chark and Marvin Jones, reveals that the plays by passing game coordinator Brian Schottenheimer were one thing above all: unimaginative!
Chark (3 REC, 86 YDS, TD) ran a couple of out routes, two more or less precise slants, a couple of crossers, a flat and a curl route, and a go route that led to a long touchdown. Jones (5 REC, 77 YDS, TD), on the other hand, mainly ran slants and a few crossers as well as a curl and a comeback route. The only variation on both was that they were positioned both in the slot and outside.
Otherwise everything seemed very static, there was hardly any pre-snap motion. Anyone who thought the Jaguars would try to make it as easy as possible for their new franchise face Lawrence to enter the NFL has been disappointed so far. All the advanced elements he knows from Clemson don’t seem to be here.
Why is that? It’s hard to say, but Schottenheimer and his boss, offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, aren’t exactly known for their innovative ideas and play designs. It can also be heard that there should also be certain differences of opinion in the coaching staff between coaches with NFL experience and those with a strong college background.
However, it is not a good look per se when Meyer blames his staff for any problems so early in the collaboration, following all he had full control over the selection of these employees.
Anything to worry regarding in Jacksonville?
In the end only one game has passed and the atmosphere is not the best, but is there still reason for concern? From a purely sporting point of view, certainly, because the upcoming opponents are not going to get any easier. In Week 2, the Denver Broncos await with their terrific defense, followed by Kyler Murray and the Cardinals, who just tore through Tennessee. So a 0-3 start seems quite realistic.
And if there are no victories, a close look is taken at a team in transition to see how the team is doing, how the coaches are presenting themselves and whether a certain progress can be seen on the pitch.
In any case, it’s too early to judge at the moment, following all everyone starts from scratch in week 1 and surprises are absolutely possible as seen recently. All the more so when a completely new coach-quarterback construct is launched. But Meyer and the Jaguars are treading on thin ice very early on, should what we’ve seen repeat itself and not noticeably improve in the near future. In the external perception, but possibly also in terms of the internal atmosphere.
Jacksonville Jaguars: Urban Meyer was an ambitious choice
Meyer was brought in to lead the Jaguars into a more successful future. And Meyer was an ambitious but also risky choice by team owner Shahid Khan from the start. For one thing, the transition from college to NFL coaching isn’t always easy. Think of the Miami Dolphins’ ultimately wasted two years under perhaps the greatest college coach ever, Nick Saban. He didn’t get along in the NFL any more than Chip Kelly did during his rather turbulent years in Philadelphia and San Francisco.
So why should Meyer do better, especially since well-deserving coordinators are still waiting for head coach positions and more are joining them every year? In the case of Meyer, of course, there is also the fact that he left his last posts in college quite abruptly and not necessarily in peace. He left both Florida and Ohio State several times, partly for medical reasons, only to either take over once more a short time later or show up on TV as an expert. That’s not to say the medical reasons weren’t legitimate, but his follow-up gigs always felt a bit odd regarding the timing.
Meyer himself would certainly like to leave these and other stories in the past. When the prestigious coaching position at USC recently became vacant, the flippant comments regarding Meyer and an imminent return to college football were not long in coming. Absurd, following a single game of the season as a Jaguars coach – and yet Jacksonville felt it was necessary to respond to an official statement.
He also emphasized that the stories regarding how he deals with defeat are also completely exaggerated. “I would prefer if people didn’t worry regarding me,” Meyer said on Sunday: “I’m an old guy who’s been in the business for a long time. I’ve got a lot of players in the dressing room who deserve it to win who worked very hard.”
Meyer also emphasized: “It’s not like we have to make a secret pass or protection call” and came to the conclusion: “It’s just work. That’s the great thing regarding the game of football. Go out and work. And exactly we will do that.”
A strategy that would certainly work in college when you’re peppered with 4- and 5-star recruits. But does this alone help with an NFL squad that is one of the worse in the entire league? And without innovative coaching on top of that?
With this stands and falls the Urban Meyer era that has just begun in Jacksonville.
