November 2014 - Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris SamSportsline.com

Jaguars Giants Preview: It’s About Bortles

November 30, 2014/in Jacksonville Jaguars/by Sam Kouvaris

In the NFL, it all comes down to the quarterback. Bad teams with good quarterbacks have a chance. Good teams with bad quarterbacks usually don’t. Great running backs don’t take you to the Super Bowl. Walter Payton needed an historic defense to carry his bears to the championship game. Barry Sanders never got there. Quarterbacks make the difference at the highest level.

So for the Jaguars, it’s all about Blake Bortles. The first round, third overall pick looks and acts the part. He’s tall, he’s fast enough. His arm is getting stronger and he has that ‘it’ factor that’s not easily defined, or found when it comes to professional athletes. He likes playing the game but more importantly, he likes playing the position with all the responsibility and criticism that goes with it. Win and the QB usually gets too much credit. Lose, and he usually takes too much of the blame.

When Bortles entered the game against Indianapolis in the second half down 30-0 at home, he threw two touchdowns and two interceptions but gave fans hope. It’s rumored that Shad Khan after the game in the elevator when asked how he felt said, “A lot better now. I’ve seen the future.” And that pretty much summed up what everybody associated with the franchise was thinking. “It’s going to be OK.”

But in the subsequent 8 games, Bortles production has regressed. He’s still capable of playing at a high level, but his production has gone backwards. How does that happen? On one hand, defensive coordinators have a bit of a sample group to look at what Bortles can do and they devise a game plan to attack that. Simple enough, and usually talented players at QB eventually overcome those changes. Sometimes.

Bortles has moved from that free and easy initial feeling when he took over into a fog of whirling defenders and a cacophony voices in his head. He wants to be aggressive, that’s his nature, but he doesn’t want to turn the ball over. He admitted as much this week saying he wanted to “think less” when he’s out there. All quarterbacks get into this fog as their career progresses. They have the ability, they see what’s happening but they have just the slightest bit of doubt creeping around in their thought process that keeps them from making the best decision at that moment.

But the good ones come out of it. And that’s what we should look for with Bortles over the last five games of the year. In that span, he should peek his head out of the fog a few times and see things pretty clearly. He’s not fragile either physically or mentally, so he won’t melt down like some other QB’s have done in this stage of their career. He won’t lose confidence. Head Coach Gus Bradley and Offensive Coordinator Jedd Fisch have tempered their criticism of Bortles a bit this week, perhaps hoping he’ll start to move out of that fog on his own.

I’m pretty confident Bortles is the right guy for the job. He has the tools and the psyche, as well as the moxie to be a QB in the NFL. He’ll need some help, especially at wide receiver sometime soon. If teams are going to play eight defenders at the line of scrimmage, like both Dallas and Indy did in successive games, and play press man coverage on the WR’s, it’s up to the wideouts to beat that coverage and get open. But they’re not and that leads to tough decisions being made by Bortles.

Look for the Giants to do much of the same today against the Jaguars. They’ll try to bottle up the running game and make Bortles and wide receivers try and beat them. The Jaguars will counter with trying to run the football and rolling Bortles out of the pocket a bit, putting guys in motion and using Marcedes Lewis as a target to give receivers some space and create matchup problems for the NY secondary.

That’s the chess game today. Giants coach Tom Coughlin believes that if his team can control field position and force the Jaguars into long drives, eventually his defense will do something to turn the game. Or the Jaguars will make a mistake and turn it over.

Run the football, move Bortles out of the pocket and don’t turn it over, pretty simple keys for the Jaguars today.

Jagaurs vs. Colts Preview

November 23, 2014/in Jacksonville Jaguars/by Sam Kouvaris

It hasn’t been a good history against with the Colts for the Jaguars. With only 8 wins in 27 games, the Jaguars haven’t figured out what the Colts are all about. Two reasons are obvious though: Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck. The Colts have had success in just about every phase of the game against the Jaguars, and their 30-0 lead at halftime in Jacksonville in game three put Blake Bortles in the lineup. There is one stat that goes in the Jaguars favor: They’ve won 2 of the last 3 in Indianapolis.

This week the Jaguars will get Marcedes Lewis back in the lineup and Aaron Colvin will see his first action of the year after suffering an ACL injury at the Senior Bowl. The Colts have injuries of their own with Ahmad Bradshaw out of the backfield.

But they still have Andrew Luck.

“You want to be tested,” Colvin told me at the team hotel on Saturday. “He’s (Luck) a great player, he’ll test what we have, no question.”

Indy is 6-4 this year, so they’re not world-beaters. Last week they were thrashed on the ground, losing to the Patriots, 42-20. That’s what the Jaguars will try to do today, take advantage of the Colts inability to stop the run. With Denard Robinson starting and a healthy Toby Gerhart, look for Bortles to get some help on the ground.

Bortles in just shy of 2,000 yards passing this year with 8 TD’s and 14 interceptions. His passer rating is 72.3. In other words, being judged as anything but a rookie quarterback, he’s been average. But as a rookie QB, Bortles has shown improvement, a tremendous upside and an aggressiveness that can be fun to watch, or get him in trouble.

“It’s those turnovers on the plus side of the 50 that hurt,” he told us this week. “Those take points off the board.”

And his recognition of that is why there’s still optimism for his development this year. “He sees that and knows he can fix it,” Gus Bradley said during the taping of his weekly show. “Limiting turnovers, particularly on our side of the field is one of the things we challenged the players with this week.”

Bradley’s mantra has been all about “getting better” to the point where he’s redefined victory for the Jaguars. For his tenure in Jacksonville so far, fans have been satisfied with his rebuilding of the team. But after the bye week and the loss to Dallas, there’s a sense that they want more.

“We’re trying to give the ownership to the players as the final step,” Bradley said this week, “and we’re getting there.” While that’s a laudable goal, these last six weeks the Jaguars have to show more than just improvement. They have to show the ability to win. They don’t necessarily have to win, but rather look like they are in games and have a chance to grab victory.

If history is a marker, today’s not the day for that, so we should look to be surprised The Jaguars veteran defensive front seven should be able to stop the run and put pressure on Andrew Luck. How they “fit” behind the front seven will determine the Jaguars fate today.

And it could be an indicator for the rest of the year as well.

Jaguars Sputter vs Indy

November 23, 2014/in Jacksonville Jaguars/by Sam Kouvaris

Going in to the game against the Colts the Jaguars, coming off their bye week, had some goals they were trying to achieve in the last six weeks of the season. One big one was to stop turning the ball over, particularly on the plus side of the 50 when it looked like they were going to get some points.

As a defense, the Jaguars were shredded by Andrew Luck the last time they met but in the first two series, they shut him down, sacked him twice (by Chris Clemons) and forced a fumble. Sounds good right?

Problem was, Blake Bortles first pass was a bad read and a worse throw, trying to hit Marcedes Lewis on an out pattern. Vontae Davis saw it coming the whole time, jumped the route and picked it off, returning it 46 yards deep into Jaguars territory. Adam Vinatieri kicked a 46 yarder to give Indy a 3-0 lead. By the way, Vinatieri will be 42 years old this December and hasn’t missed this year.

It was pretty clear that the Jaguars defensive line was pumped up in this game. Chris Smith created a fumble with their third sack of the game. Sen’Derrick Marks recovered the fumble and put the Jaguars in business inside the Colts 20. But the offense couldn’t do much, settling for a tipped Josh Scobee field goal to tie the game 3-3.

Another good defensive stand was wasted when Denard Robinson fumbled the ball in the middle of a pile near midfield, giving the Colts the ball back. For a team that was focusing on not turning the ball over, the Jaguars had two in the first quarter.

But neither team had much rhythm. The Jaguars had a sustained drive stall at midfield but the Colts gave up 5 sacks in the first half. Between the two teams there were 5 turnovers and 5 fumbles in the first 26 minutes of play.

The first half was a very solid effort by the Jaguars defense. They harassed Luck, sacked him, forced fumbles and really gave up only one big explosive play toward the end of the half. They held the Colts to just two field goals, six points in the first 30 minutes of the game. The last time these two teams met, the Colts scored 30 in the first half.

When the Jaguars won the toss at the beginning of the game, they deferred, hoping to make something happen in the second half. But in their first series the Jaguars went backwards, Bortles dropping the ball and Jordan Todman dropping a pass. There’s been spotty execution by the offense all season long, but outside of the one drive in the first half, they did nothing to scare the Colts.

Meanwhile you know the Colts are going to score some points. Since the Jaguars offense couldn’t come up with anything, the Colts had a very short field and scored on a 1 yard Trent Richardson run to make it 13-6. Without any offense on the next drive, the Colts had it deep in their own territory. But not for long. Luck hit T.Y. Hilton on a 73-yard go route for a TD that gave Indy a 20-6 lead. It looked a lot like the play Dez Bryant scored on in London against Dewayne Gratz but perhaps he was looking for safety help from Jonathan Cyprien. Either way, Hilton was wide open (Gus “Blown Coverage”) and the game started to get out of hand. It really would have gone south after the ensuing punt by the Jaguars (after another three and out) was returned for a TD but it was called back for an illegal block.

It’s mystifying why the Jaguars couldn’t get anything done on offense. Indianapolis couldn’t stop anybody in the last three weeks and the Jaguars are a legitimate running football team. But Bortles looked a bit gun-shy all day, looking for that blend between being aggressive and not trying to turn the ball over. He had a lot of swing passes in the game plan, nice and safe, and he took advantage of those. But eventually the Colts caught on and shut most of those down. Marqis Lee was getting his chance with Allen Robinson out of the lineup and he had a few catches. One of 37 yards in the 4th quarter got the ball to the one. It might be the first time Lee had ever been caught from behind. And for some reason, Jeff Fisch tried everything but running Toby Gerhart at the line and they turned the ball over on downs. I hated every call in that sequence.

While the Jaguars are not a good football team, occasionally they play well enough to make it interesting. But on this day, they’re a bad football team playing poorly. Gus Bradley will need to reassess what he’s telling the players and what his expectations are and he’ll have to do the same with the fans and probably Shad Khan.

If at this point it’s about the players taking ownership, they can have this one.

Jaguars Top 20 Teams

November 22, 2014/in Jacksonville Jaguars/by Sam Kouvaris

With one win, the Jaguars of 2014 sit near the bottom of the 20 teams who have worn the teal and black of the franchise since it’s inception in 1995. This week’s Top 20 is the best Jaguars teams, top to bottom in their 20 years of existence.

At the top is the 1999 team that went 14-2 in the regular season, demolished Miami in their first playoff game and lost to Tennessee at home if the AFC Title game despite leading 14-10 at halftime. That team had single digit rankings across the board including being the top ranked team in defensive points given up. They’re a clear cut #1.

From there it actually gets a little tricky. It would be easy to put the 1996 team here because they played in the Conference championship game but there are a few other contenders for that spot as well. The ’97 and ’98 teams were playoff teams while the 2005 club went 12-4 during the regular season. We’ll put the ’96 team second because they got hot in the playoffs and had two historic wins on the road in Denver and Buffalo.

We’ll follow that with the ’97 team with all of those Pro Bowlers on it and the ’98 squad that went 11-5 with the 2005 and 2007 playoff teams in the top six.

There are a lot of very average teams after that but the 2004 team had a winning record at 9-7 so they’ll go in at seven. Eight and eight teams of 2010 and 2006 would be 8 and nine. Both teams were huge disappointments under head coach Jack Del Rio, losing their last three games (needing only one win) to be eliminated from playoff contention.

The 7-9 team in 2000 is 10th because they were actually a decent football team that couldn’t get out of their own way. They suffered through a 5 game losing streak in the middle of the year and lost their last two games to finish under .500 for the first time in 5 years.

Historically, the Jaguars have had a losing record in 10 of their 20 years, including this year and 6 of the last eight. The last time the Jaguars had a winning record was 2007. So the 6-10 teams of 2001 and 2002 are in the 11th and 12th spots. It was the end of the Tom Coughlin era and when the Jaguars were going to have to pay for some salary cap issues. Even Del Rio lauded Coughlin’s coaching job with a thin roster for those two squads.

The first year team finished 4-12 but got the most out of the talent on the roster and is in at the 13th spot. Probably should have won only a couple of games in the expansion year. Behind that squad is the7-9 team under Del Rio in 2009 despite being 6-4 after 10 games, they lost 5 of their last six including their last 4 straight to start the end of Del Rio’s coaching career here.

In 2003, 2008 and 20011, all under Del Rio, the Jaguars went 5-11 and were never considered a contender.

Which brings us to the bottom 3. Hard to say if this year’s team will get any better but we’ll list them at 17 because at least they have a better roster than the past two. Last year’s team probably was good enough to get four wins so they’re in at 19. And at the bottom of the list is the 2012 team. Mike Mularkey took the head coaching job knowing that it was a massive rebuild and said frequently, “We’ll take our lumps” noting privately the lack of talent on the roster. But he never got a chance to put his plan in place, being dismissed after just one year along with General Manager Gene Smith. That roster probably had about two wins in it, and earned both.

Disagree? Send your ideas to sports@wjxt.com or tweet them with the #JagsTop20 and we’ll talk about it this week on Jaguars Friday Night.

1. 1999
2. 1996
3. 1997
4. 1998
5. 2005
6. 2007
7. 2004
8. 2010
9. 2006
10. 2000
11. 2001
12. 2002
13. 1995
14. 2009
15. 2003
16. 2008
17. 2001
18. 2014
19. 2013
20. 2012

Muschamp Era Over: Where Now?

November 16, 2014/in College Football/by Sam Kouvaris

It’s a tough job, Head Football Coach at the University of Florida.

Winning is important, but HOW you win is a factor in what the Gators fan base thinks about the job you’re doing. From the outset, Will Muschamp seemed like a paradoxical choice to lead the Florida program.

He is from Gainesville. But he went to Georgia.

He played defense for the Bulldogs and made his mark as a defensive coach. Gator fans had become used to high-flying offenses under Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer.

From his opening press conference (where we joked that he spoke for 19 minutes straight without taking a breath) Muschamp made it clear things were going to be done his way, and don’t question him about it. He threw down the gauntlet to the media, reminding them that he was in charge no matter how much they wanted to ask about what he was doing.

“We’re going to play power football at the University of Florida,” Muschamp declared as he set out to gather his first recruiting class. “Power Football” can be a loosely defined term, but it seemed strange that Muschamp was going to use players recruited under Meyer’s “Spread” offense to try and dominate teams up front.

Sort of like Alabama.

But without the kind of linemen Alabama reloads with every year, the Gators could never become that kind of team. Early on it was apparent they were trying to put round pegs in square holes.

Perhaps things would change as Muschamp attempted to load the Florida roster with players capable of doing the things he wanted, both on offense and defense.

Muschamp’s offenses ranked 71st, 78th, 113th and currently 62nd among the top tier NCAA schools. Gators fans don’t like that. Muschamp grew up in a culture at Georgia and other places where winning 10-9 was just fine. He was happy to win games 17-14. Florida fans had become accustomed to high scoring games, mostly one-sided. In their favor.

Although the 23-20 overtime loss to South Carolina on Saturday might have been the last straw, eliminating them from SEC contention, it was also indicative of where the Gators are throughout their program. The Gamecocks were giving up an average of over 460 yards per game. Florida could muster only 278. Quarterback Treon Harris seemed to barely throw the football. The Florida defense was adept in holding South Carolina to only 17 points in regulation, but couldn’t get it done in crucial situations. And two special teams blunders, a blocked field goal and a blocked punt, kept Spurrier’s troops in the game.

At the very least, considering his defensive background, I expected Florida to have one of the most dominating defenses in the country. That didn’t happen either.

Will Muschamp’s intensity, his football knowledge, his relationship with the players and his consideration of everybody involved with the Florida football program should be lauded. He seems like a genuine, good and nice guy. But he remained a coordinator or a position coach at heart. When it’s your job to coach football, you can be very narrow focused and thrive occasionally on the emotion of the game. As the head coach, you’re not only the face of the program but you’re the CEO as well. Muschamp never was able to embrace that CEO role, displayed both times when Florida beat Texas A&M and Tennessee on the road. Instead of applauding his team for their tenacity and competitive spirit, all Muschamp could say on both occasions when interviewed on the field after the game was, “Isn’t it great to come in here and disappoint all these people.” The first time I heard it, I chalked it up to the learning curve of being a head coach and the emotion of beating the Aggies, a big rival for his previous employer, the University of Texas. But the second time it was obvious he hadn’t ever adapted to the role. By contrast, Steve Spurrier, a noted smart aleck in his early coaching days, was complimentary of his team and expressed some sympathy for Muschamp and the Gators after South Carolina’s overtime win in the Swamp. Regardless of his true feelings, although Spurrier seemed genuine in his remarks about Muschamp and the Gators, Spurrier was complimentary of his own team without a reference to the atmosphere in Gainesville.

Spurrier and Meyer, by the way, lost a combined 10 games at home in 18 seasons. Muschamp has 8 home losses, six of those coming in his last eight games at Florida Field.

Muschamp technically “resigned” from his position, possibly saving the Florida program some money. His assistants are owed about $2 million for the remainder of their contracts. The statements released by both Muschamp and Athletic Director Jeremy Foley both contained high praise for each other. Foley pointed out how popular Muschamp was among the staff and the workers in Gainesville, saying he’ll be missed. He simply didn’t win enough games.

So where now?

Foley always has a short list, and Muschamp’s hiring was somewhat of a surprise since he had been listed as the ‘coach in waiting” at Texas. A similar situation occurred at Maryland when James Franklin, the next Terps head coach, was hired to take over Vanderbilt.

This time around, Foley will look for somebody with head coaching experience and whose specialty is offense. While that list is large, David Cutcliffe at Duke, Rich Rodriguez at Arizona and Hugh Freeze at Ole Miss should be considered. Art Briles at Baylor, Gary Patterson at TCU or Dana Holgorsen at West Virginia also merit a phone call. Despite his success at Mississippi State and his connection to Florida, Dan Mullen doesn’t seem to be a candidate.

Foley will hold a press conference on Monday.

Jaguars Close to the Tipping Point

November 10, 2014/in Jacksonville Jaguars/by Sam Kouvaris

I’m not sure what to make of the Jaguars 1-9 record here at the bye week. While I didn’t think they’d be a playoff contender this year, I also didn’t think they’d be this bad. You knew with a young team they’d struggle at times but to look completely out classed in so many situations is pretty unnatural.

What it takes to win in the NFL is a good organization, a coach who knows how to get the best out of his players, talent on the roster, the will to win, and just the occasional bit of luck.

With Shad Khan at the helm, the Jaguars organization seems to be healthy and vibrant. This past week in London when I asked him about winning in the near future he said, “It’s important that everybody knows what Gus and my expectations are.” Which is the kind of culture and leadership they’re building: Here’s what we expect, do your job and we expect results.

In Gus Bradley’s first head coaching job in the NFL, he appears to have the job reined in enough to get his message across to the players and coaches. Some guys ascend to the top of the coaching ladder and aren’t suited for it at all. The job’s not too big for Bradley. His philosophy has worked as a coordinator and it follows what they’re doing in Seattle. It’s a bit cutting edge and experimental but you can see by talking to the players that if it takes root, it’ll flourish. He doesn’t seem to be getting the players best these days but it’s hard to figure out if it’s a lack of talent, youth, or his coaching philosophy isn’t working. It’s probably still too early to definitively find the answer.

The players are frustrated and angry, mostly with themselves. “I think that’s a testament to the character of the guys we have in this locker room” Zane Beadles said after the 31-17 loss to Dallas in London. “Each guy knows they can play better. I know I can play better. We need to put that into action and see hat e can do individually to play better and help the guy next to us. Get away during the bye week and come back ready to go these next six weeks.’

That’s the thing about the Jaguars roster in 2014. With a few exceptions, this group of guys says the right thing and tries to do the right thing, sometimes to their detriment. Instead of just doing their job, they try to do to much. Maybe that’s the hallmark of a young team, or perhaps they still have a few pieces that need to be found and inserted into the lineup. The players believe the answer is among the guys currently on the roster, that they’re going to get it together.

“I really do like this group of guys,” Gus Bradley said at his post game press conference. I”I don’t worry about their effort, their courage, they’re willingness to do the right thing. It’s just the self inflicted things that are giving us problems.”

But at what point do those “self-inflicted” things either stop happening or you move on to somebody else? That’s the question coaches get paid to answer and if the don’t get it right, they’re out of a job. Bradley doesn’t have to worry about that for now, but if the decisions he makes this year about guys being able to grow into solid players from talent rookies don’t pan out as he expects, 2015 could be another year of change for the franchise.

Players like Jonathan Cyprien and Denard Robinson are the new faces of the Jaguars, but they’re still in the learning process when it comes to professional football. I asked Cyprien if he took a bad angle on Dez Bryant that allowed the TD. He was forthright with his answer: “Took a bad angle, made a bad decision to try and tackle and him instead of shove him out of bounds. It’s the kind of play that I’m better than but I need to show it. This isn’t the kind of player I am.”

Robinson echoed those feelings, admitting that the team believes they’re better than what they’re showing. “Oh, yeah, we’re better than this, ” he said after the London game. “It’s those things were doing in games that hurt us. Mistakes, turnovers, we need to clean those up. We’ll get this thing turned around and when we do, it’s going to be something.”

And that’s what we’re all waiting for, the development of young players like Cyprien and Robinson to the point where they don’t take a bad angle and they don’t fumble the ball on extra effort to keep themselves from succeeding. It’s possible they’re right; it’s going to be something. But an equal number of teams have gotten to this point and just never made it to the top. Hard lessons are taught in the league. Whether those lessons are learned or not will play out over the next year.

Shad Khan: Making Jacksonville and the Jaguars a Winner

November 9, 2014/in Jacksonville Jaguars/by Sam Kouvaris

When you spend anytime with Shad Khan, it’s easy to see why he’s been so successful in just about everything he’s done. He’s passionate about the things he’s involved in. His eyes light up when you talk about car parts. He has a vision for his football team and a vision for what role he can play in helping the city of Jacksonville. The trip to London is a big part of that economic stimulus Khan is looking for. When I spoke to him on Saturday morning in the library of 45 Park Lane, one of his favorite places in London, Khan was relaxed but focused on making this year’s trip a success for Jacksonville and the Jaguars.

“Last year we laid some of the ground work, and I think this year we’re harvesting some of those things,” he said referring to sponsorships that are being developed for the team and the economic ‘trade mission’ this trip has turned into for the City of Jacksonville. Meetings with a variety of potential international partners from Liverpool to South Africa all could be lucrative contacts for the future.

Khan is interesting in development in Jacksonville for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the positive impact it can have on his franchise. “We want to help. Pretty much from day one I felt and have shown it with action, the community has to grow so the team can grow, sort of a rising tide raising all boats kind of a concept,” he commented when I asked about his commitment to economic growth in the city.

“I’ve played a very active role in what do we have to do to attract jobs here. The Shipyards is just one of those projects to try and do that.” Khan is getting ready to make a proposal to develop the Shipyards with a Jaguars theme, rumored to include a practice field, some retail and possibly even an aquarium.

Recently, Khan was quoted as saying “A homeless guy in Detroit has more mojo than the millionaires in Jacksonville.” He knows he’ll have some opposition to his development ideas but sees incredible potential in the city. When I asked him about civic leadership doing it’s job in bringing business to town, he just laughed. But added, “There’s a lot there, but somehow it just doesn’t translate. I think we can play a role in helping with that.”

And while the city as a whole is in Khan’s vision, his focus is on revitalizing downtown.

“If you look at any urban planning, you cannot have a vibrant city without a vibrant downtown. That is absolutely something we’re lacking. We want to rejuvenate the downtown area. It’s right next to the stadium and there’s a lot of synergy. It’s going to help us.”

This year’s opponent seems to have given this game, and Khan’s and the Jaguars’ role in it a bigger stage. He even brought up Dallas’ image on a national scale. “We’re playing Dallas, they’re America’s Team,” Shad said. “We want to be the face of the league NFL International.”

Part of Khan’ excitement regarding this year’s game is the fact that Dallas is the opponent. Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones has been one of his mentors in the NFL ownership circle. “Jerry Jones couldn’t be kinder to me. Took me though the idiots guide to owning an NFL team. He’s an Iconic guy, I love him.”

Jones mentioned this week in a press conference that he expected Khan to have a bigger commitment to London. Khan said he’ll assess that shortly. “For us, we want to do the right thing for the franchise and the right thing for the city. We don’t have the growth in the Jacksonville, We know that. How do we stabilize the team. This is the second year of our 4 year commitment, so next year maybe we’ll say that’s the time to say ‘Hey, what do we do.'”

If you watch Khan operate, you see that he has a plan with whatever he’s doing. That certainly applies to his NFL team where the “rebirth and rebuilding” is in it’s second year. “We’ve gone through a process, we’ve got the youngest team in the league. What’s encouraging to me is that the last three or four games have come down to the last few plays. The players have to mature; we can’t lose all those games. It’s up to Gus and myself to get our expectations out clearly.” Which means the players, and coaches, will know exactly what Shad thinks when it comes to wins and losses starting next year.

Recently, Khan was named the most “popular NFL owner” by one publication. Certainly interesting for a guy who’s only been in the public eye for two years. He clearly has embraced that part of ownership but admitted the celebrity aspect of being an NFL owner kind of surprised him.

“I had no experience. The business I had is not a public business. Part of sports is you have to have a public profile. (You) were not interviewing me when we were doing auto parts. Some of the craziest things. Look at the boat on the Thames, who would have thought, I mean this is London, but it’s become a major curiosity. ”

Khan did bring his new boat “Kismet” to London and anchored just east of Tower Bridge. It has caused a stir with tourists constantly stopping to take pictures and make comments.

Khan has a plan for the boat and executed it. It’s Jaguars themed throughout, including a silver Jaguar on the bow with a teal light in its eye. He has the same kind of plan for the city and his football team. The boat was a six-year project. He’s hoping the plan for the team and the city takes less than that.

Jaguars Don’t Get Better

November 9, 2014/in Jacksonville Jaguars/by Sam Kouvaris

It’s a big deal whenever the NFL gets involved in any kind of production and this week in London is no exception. Jeff Beck and Joss Stone in the pregame show, fireworks, a minute of silence for Remembrance Day, the US National Anthem, and a rousing rendition of “God Save The Queen.” In fact, it sounded like all 85,000 at Wembley were singing.

Plenty of Cowboys fans at Wembley for the game, but also lots of Cowboys haters, or Jaguars fans, you really couldn’t tell the difference.

When DeMarco Murray broke off a 23-yard run on the first play from scrimmage, it brought back memories of last year’s blowout at the hands of the 49ers. And a following screen pass put Dallas in Jaguars territory. But the defense stiffened, kind of. Tony Romo missed a wide open Jason Witten on third down, obviously a blown coverage, and the Cowboys settled for a field goal, 3-0.

The Jaguars came right back, with a couple of good throws by Blake Bortles to Allen Robinson and a nice post patter to Cecil Shorts to get into Dallas territory. That’s when Denard Robinson got through a whole at the line of scrimmage, broke a tackle and went 33 yards for a TD to give the Jaguars a 7-3 lead. The stadium erupted.

With a veteran defensive front, the Jaguars settled into a solid game plan against Romo and company, forcing a punt. It’s a shame that Ace Sanders muffed it because it stole the momentum from the home team. Make that kind of mistake in the NFL and you pay for it, TD Dallas, 10-7. Same thing with defensive assignments. Jonathan Cyprien took a bad angle on Dez Bryant and missed him after a five-yard gain. Bryant did the rest, running for a TD, 17-7 Dallas. And after gaining some momentum on a 51-yard catch and run from Bortles to Cecil Shorts, Denard Robinson fumbled the ball at the 2-minute warning, keeping the Jaguars from putting any points up.

While Dallas was driving in for another score, Cole Beasley fumbled and Josh Evans recovered it. Good solid hit by the Jaguars and the first break of the day that went their way. But they couldn’t convert and punted it away to the Cowboys. Fair enough, go into the locker room down by 10 and regroup. But instead, Dwayne Gratz does the inexcusable, allowing Bryant to get behind him for a 68-yard TD catch from Romo and instead the Jaguars were down 24-7.

So to recap, the Jaguars had a muffed punt, a fumble, missed assignments, bad tackling, bad angles and inexcusable coverage at the end of the half to trail 24-7. For how they played, that’s about the correct score. Watching the Jaguars can drive you crazy with all the mistakes they make to keep themselves from succeeding.

Earlier in the week, General Manager Dave Caldwell said they’d be less forgiving of mistakes made by young players next year. It can’t get here fast enough. If they’re going to make those mistakes over and over though, maybe they shouldn’t be as forgiving right now.

A couple more miss “fits” on defense against the Dallas run allowed the Cowboys to take a 31-7 lead with 7 minutes left in the third. How is it that a team can appear to have the talent and the will but be so outclassed when the bell rings? At the beginning of the game the Jaguars believed they could play with the Cowboys and showed it early. But after the Ace Sanders fumble, their confidence disappeared and it went downhill from there.

Both teams noodled around in the third quarter with the Jaguars getting stoned on 4th down and converting another. But no more scoring. The 4th quarter had weird stuff happening as both teams got a little chippy. The Cowboys had holding called in the end zone for a safety and as the Jaguars were driving, Bortles threw an interception at the 10. Dallas leveled Shorts on the play, but after the INT and kept the ball at the 5.

While you can call it a productive week when you look at how these guys are a team in the truest sense, I don’t think they got better today.

Jaguars Prep Cowboys on Saturday

November 8, 2014/in Jacksonville Jaguars/by Sam Kouvaris

This is the second of four years the Jaguars are the “home” team in London as part of the NFL’s International Series. And as the home team, they get first pick of hotels, practice facilities and everything else that goes with the game.

But it’s still a lot of work.

The Jaguars left for London directly after their trip to Cincinnati, arriving mid-morning in the UK. For there they boarded busses to the outskirts of the city to the bedroom town of Watford and “London’s Country Estate” The Grove, their home for the next five days. And on Friday they packed up again and headed in town to the Wembley Hilton, across the street from the stadium.

“We’ll take this show anywhere, anytime,” Sen’Derricks said as the players settled into their newest “home” for a couple of nights. “Gus (Bradley) has done a good job with that message to the team, especially the young guys.”

Marks said he’s enjoyed the trip, his time in London and the practices in the UK. “There was a little sluggishness at the beginning of practice on Wednesday but we got over that real quick. Wednesday was a good practice and Thursday was even better. We’re on ‘go.'”

Things were set up so meticulously in London that the Jaguars had a bus to take them to the stadium for Saturday’s practice. Despite that it was just over 100 yards to the field. “They want to emulate just about everything that’s going on for Sunday,” one staffer told me. “They’ll ride to the stadium on Sunday so they’ll miss the crowd. So they’re riding over there today.”

This year’s trip had a familiar feel for many of the Jaguars and their fans. But it seemed there were fewer fans in black and teal to be found. A trip to Trafalgar turned up nary a Jaguars fan among the street performers, monuments and poppy memorial. We did see two young girls, perhaps 4th graders, in Jaguars print coats but that was it. So it was off to Westminster and the crowded corner overlooking the Cathedral, Parliament, and the London Eye.

We weren’t there long when Michael and Tammy Heath walked by, proudly sporting Jaguars gear. “We were here last year and it was great,” Michael said without prompting. “There aren’t as many Jaguars fans here and Cowboys fans aren’t representing. We’ll be walking by and they’ll say ‘Boo, Hiss, Go Cowboys’ and we’ll look around and they won’t be wearing any stuff. Maybe the cold has everybody bundling up,”

“Last year we did a bunch of stuff but we haven’t seen so we’re doing that today,” Tammy told us. “We did go down and see Shad’s boat,” she told us. When asked if it would fit under the Parliament Bridge she said, “I bloody well don’t think so.” Khan’s yacht “Kismet” drew a crowd on both banks of the Thames, with thousands of photos taken each hour.

Khan hosted dinners at Parliament and Kensington Palace, cocktails on his boat two nights, had sponsors at Craven Cottage for the Fulham match (they won 3-1) and guests at Wembley on Sunday. He’s been busy.

Sure would be a good weekend for Shad if the Jaguars could come up with a victory but not many people think that’s possible against Dallas. The Jaguars are a decided underdog in the game, especially with Tony Romo saying he’s playing.

Jaguars Focusing on Cowboys

November 6, 2014/in Jacksonville Jaguars/by Sam Kouvaris

“It should be an old school 15-round fight,” is how Jaguars running back Toby Gerhart described the upcoming game against the Dallas Cowboys.

The Jaguars settled into their regular game week routine on Wednesday and clearly by Thursday their focus was on the upcoming game.

“They play hard,” Ryan Davis told us outside the hotel before practice. “They don’t take plays off, they keep coming. But in the end it’s about us. The one on one matchups and beating the man in front of you.” Davis echoed Gus Bradley’s overriding mantra for the team since he arrived in Jacksonville. Bradley wants the team, individually and as a whole to concentrate on getting better, take care of themselves, win the individual battles and the rest will take care of itself.

“But that’s not the goal,” General Manager Dave Caldwell said when asked if he had seen the team make progress. “We’re getting better. I can see us winning those games in the future. But the goal is to win.”

Caldwell laughed when I asked him if part of his planning during the rebuild of the team included starting eight rookies on offense. “We knew last year that some of the offensive line was getting older and often injured. So we knew we’d have to rebuild. And we wanted to take advantage of free agency and the draft. It was a deep draft. We thought we’d have a few guys coming back, Marcedes, Cecil, but part of the plan didn’t include starting eight rookies.”

Gus Bradley was Caldwell’s first choice as the Jaguars leader in this rebuild project and noted that today. “It’s one of the reasons we’ hired Gus as our head coach. His ability to develop young players. I give credit to the coaching staff. They’ve been patient, they’ve worked with our players and I can see them getting better.”

But when asked about when he expects the team to be more competitive on the scoreboard, Caldwell was pretty straightforward. “I think we’ll be less forgiving of the mistakes being made by young players next year. They haven’t used being young as an excuse. But I don’t expect we’ll be having this conversation next season.”

Bradley sees improvement across the board, and especially likes the attitude the players bring every day. “That’s something that we stressed from the beginning. Be relentless. Play hard every play. Our offensive line has really taken to that and it’s one of the reasons we’ve been more successful running the ball.”

Dallas has lost two straight but is still considered one of the elite teams in the league. Quarterback Tony Romo practiced today and Cowboys Owner/GM Jerry Jones said he expected him to play Sunday.

Jones came over on the Cowboys charter and has participated in the daily press conferences (Shad Khan will be available on Saturday morning). Jones was very complimentary toward Khan today, noting how he conducted his business, his business acumen and overall success story. He also said he expected Khan to have a bigger commitment to London.

After today’s announcement, the Jaguars will play the Bills next season on October 25th, the second of three games scheduled for London next year. There was talk that the Jaguars would play a home and away game in London, possibly back to back weeks. But six teams will be involved in the NFL International series next year with a game the following week of the Jaguars/Bills game. It’s the first time the league has tried back-to-back games in consecutive weeks.

Based on what Jones said, there are several possibilities. The simple answer would be the Jaguars extending their commitment to London past their current agreement that ends in 2016. Conspiracy theorists have the Jaguars moving to London as soon as 2017, permanently. Khan’s commitment to Jacksonville from an economic standpoint would make that unlikely, particularly if he continues on his path of development of the Jacksonville Shipyards and potentially putting a cover on the stadium. If the NFL puts a team in London permanently, and that’s a big overall if, a more likely scenario, but still remote, would be Khan becoming the owner in London and selling the Jaguars. All speculation, especially since the attendance is up at the games and sponsorship dollars have also increased, in and out of London. Notice the talk about franchise relocation to Los Angeles recently hasn’t included the Jaguars as one of the teams as a potential tenant.

Notes: Brandon Linder and Cecil Shorts didn’t practice today for the Jaguars. Gus Bradley said he expected Shorts to play on Sunday and they were looking at Shatley potentially at right tackle and moving Austin Pasztor into the right guard spot if Linder can’t play. It didn’t rain at practice today, but it was a bit chillier. After practice tomorrow, the Jaguars will leave their practice facility in the northwest suburbs and move into London near Wembley Stadium.

Jaguars Arrive in London

November 6, 2014/in Jacksonville Jaguars/by Sam Kouvaris

Two road games in two weeks without coming home is a difficult task for any NFL team. The Jaguars have made this kind of trip two years in a row. In 2013 they traveled to Oakland and Seattle, staying on the West Coast in between the games and practicing in San Jose. Last year, they lost both games.

This year, the trip over two weeks has been bumpy from the start. In Cincinnati, the Jaguars had a couple of chances with momentum against a pretty good team but squandered them with mistakes and a turnover. Turbulence over the Atlantic Ocean at 39,000 feet ensured not much sleep for anybody onboard the team charter although some of the players might have gotten some rest. In an unusual and very well received team building move, Gus Bradley and the coaching staff, normally first class occupants on team charters, gave up their seats and allowed veteran players and starters (allocated by seniority and a sort of “lottery’) to fly ‘up front’ in the 47 transcontinental “lie-flat” cubicles available on the Virgin Atlantic Airbus 340-600. The coaches and senior staff sat in what Virgin Atlantic calls “Upper Class” sort of like a domestic first class seat in the US. While there were plenty of bumps going over and regular reminders to keep your seatbelt on (it was bumpy enough that if you weren’t wearing it you might get bounced out of your seat) one senior Jaguars staffer looked in on the players up front only to find them asleep. “Every one of them, sacked out,” he told me with a laugh.

If you’ve ever gone through London’s Gatwick airport, you know it’s a long slog to get to immigration, then off to baggage and customs. Of course, on arrival, it started to rain. While sponsors were whisked off to a luxury hotel in downtown London for the week, the team and the football staff boarded buses for the 1 ½ ride to their home for most of the week, The Grove Hotel. Outside of the city but accessable by “motorway” and the train, the Grove is a resort not unlike but smaller than the Greenbriar or the Homestead in the US. The NFL has used it as a base for one of the teams playing, building a football field for practice and erecting a temporary locker room right next to it. They also have a world class golf course that hosted a World Golf Championship event in 2006. Tiger Woods won it at 23 under par.

Of course when the team pulled up to the Grove, it rained a little harder.

Not to worry, the team grabbed their room keys and reported to the locker room for a quick workout and a ‘meet and greet.’ About 100 members of the Union Jax, the UK’s Jaguars fan club, were invited to the practice to watch, shake hands and have their picture taken with the players and coaches. And it actually stopped raining for a while.

UK Jaguars fans are rabid, coming from all over the country to see ‘their team” practice. Most were in jerseys. There were about a half dozen members of the British military there as well as athletes from the Invictus Games, a competition for wounded veterans.

When the formalities were concluded, the Jaguars UK coordinator introduced Head Coach Gus Bradley to the group and said, “So Coach, if you’ll do the honors?” Bradley stepped up and addressed the group, then led them in an impromptu version of the “We Believe In Victory” chant we saw him do in the locker room after the Browns victory.

“Did you know you were going to do that,” I asked Gus afterwards.

“NO,” he quickly responded and laughed. “Absolutely not. But we talk about engaging the fans at home and here as well. What better way to do that? Our fans are great and they’re growing. At home and here. They’re great!”

The players met with the coaching staff, went over the Cincinnati game and had the rest of the day off. Most took advantage of the bus provided to take them into Central London. The coaches worked on the game plan.

On Tuesday the players split into groups and went into the surrounding community to meet with local fans as well as students and military veterans. More than a dozen went to the NFL’s “Play 60” event in the nearest town and worked with 8 and 9 year olds on “American Football.”

“These are real American football players and they’re teaching us,” one young girl told us with wide eyes and real astonishment.

“You have to tackle and sometimes ‘budge’ somebody,’ one boy explained. “Yes, budge’ he emphasized apparently incredulous that you’d actually take somebody to the ground and it would be OK under the rules.

The rest of the day was the players day off, with most going into town and the rest playing ping pong, PlayStation in the players lounge, or just resting on the grounds of the Grove. A couple played the golf course and reported it was “spectacular.”

The team will start practice with “Competition Wednesday” and stay at the Grove through Friday afternoon. They’ll then transfer into London for their Saturday walk-thru and the game Sunday against the Cowboys.

Jaguars Road Trip: Play Anywhere, Anytime

November 5, 2014/in Jacksonville Jaguars/by Sam Kouvaris