Official Game Thread - Week 1 - Jaguars @ Commanders

[burgold]

We took it away plain and simple.

We won it! Gave it away. Took it back!

 

[Canadian Hog]

I am with you, John.

The ability to hit on big plays and have all three guys in our receiving trio have great days is really exciting. I thought Antonio Gibson looked really explosive at times as well. There are multiple legitimate weapons here that can keep us in any game, provided Wentz can avoid the brain freezes.

At the end of the day, there is no cupcake game in the NFL. The Bengals, Colts, and 49ers could easily tell you that after today's results.

You have to find a way and simply move onto the next week.

Our inability to take over the game when we had our hand on their throats was indicative of the fact that we likely aren't an upper echelon team in the NFL. We have a ways to go in that regard, but there were several positives on the first week of a long season.

 

[Neophyte]

A win is a win is a win. The 3rd quarter collapse was classic Washington. But coming back and making all the critical plays in the 4th - was decidedly NOT Washington. We can critique but it was our guys that seized the day and won it.

Lipstick on a pig, brother. A blue ribbon pig, perhaps, but a pig nonetheless.

If Jax players hang on to a couple of balls that either of us could probably catch or Lawrance is a smidge more accurate on a play or two, we lose this game. To a team that was legitimately bottom of their division last year.

We lost every statistical category except for score and TOP. We do that against nearly any other team in the league and we lose this. We play like this next week and we lose to the Lions. I watched a good bit of their game against the Eagles today and they are playing hardnosed ball without an ounce of quit.

 

[Boone]

You can play the ‘if’ game on every other play of any NFL game. Both teams had near misses and I’ll also say the officials were way too active in this game.

And TOP and score are two pretty good categories to lead

Before this game, all I heard is how improved the Jags are. Now that we’ve won, it’ll be how weak an opponent they are

It was definitely a flawed win, with things to feel great about and things that were really concerning. But a win is never ever a pig, lipstick or unadorned.

 

[SkinsOrlando]

Jax is going to better than everyone thinks. We have a qb who can throw a 30 yard dart when it counts, I'll enjoy the win.

 

[Lovin Cousins]

When we were driving down for that last TD that I wasn't expecting, what I was expecting is that we would settle for a FG attempt, and Slye would miss, and I would have to post again how we should have kept Brian Johnson.
Along with Brian Robinson.

 

[Boone]

 

[SkinsOrlando]

Oh and Duck Fallas

 

[Theismann To HOF]

A win is a win is a win. The 3rd quarter collapse was classic Washington. But coming back and making all the critical plays in the 4th - was decidedly NOT Washington. We can critique but it was our guys that seized the day and won it.

I have to say that Wentz has given me zero confidence going forward. Wentz was lucky to be playing against Jacksonville, who will be lucky to win 5 games this year.

Those two INTs in the 4th quarter were extremely bad, especially the one where he stared down the receiver on the sideline. That's a rookie mistake. He was also late on the throw. Arm strength doesn't matter when you make those types of mistakes.

I just don't think Wentz has the required fundamentals to be a successful NFL QB anymore. He had several very inaccurate throws today. Any throw that is 20 - 30 yards he struggles with. I fully understand now why the Colts let him go.

 

[Theismann To HOF]

Well, Jacksonville is a year removed from Urban Meyer wasting a year with them.

So Lawrence is still basically a rookie and the rest of the team are still in "development". They threatened but screwed up as inexperienced teams are wont to do.

Overall, I thought Lawrence outplayed Wentz. Lawrence was under pressure the entire game and only threw one INT. Wentz had much better pass protection and still had 2 INTs and 5 or 6 really bad throws today.

 

[SirClintonPortis]

Overall, I thought Lawrence outplayed Wentz. Lawrence was under pressure the entire game and only threw one INT. Wentz had much better pass protection and still had 2 INTs and 5 or 6 really bad throws today.

Pretty much, Wentz hasn't changed an iota from the past. He'll pepper in plenty of great throws but the mistakes or near-mistakes really have a way of standing out.

 

[burgold]

Overall, I thought Lawrence outplayed Wentz. Lawrence was under pressure the entire game and only threw one INT. Wentz had much better pass protection and still had 2 INTs and 5 or 6 really bad throws today.

Nah, Lawrence missed so many receivers and left so many points on the board. How many times in the modern NFL do you see a QB called for intentional grounding multiple times in one game? Wentz did go pretty cold in the third quarter and the play calling got way to conservative. Almost every pass play was a screen or within two yards of the line of scrimmage. This allowed the D to compress and really play tightly on our receivers. In any case, I left the game quite unimpressed with Lawrence.

Wentz I thought was up and down which wasn't really all that bad for his first game with this coordinator and with these receivers many of whom (like Thomas) he didn't get even a whole off season to play with. Heck even Samuels and McLauren, he didn't get to play with. McLaurin because of the contract deal and Samuel because they were being very careful with his injury in practices and during the preseason games.

 

[Theismann To HOF]

Nah, Lawrence missed so many receivers and left so many points on the board. How many times in the modern NFL do you see a QB called for intentional grounding multiple times in one game? Wentz did go pretty cold in the third quarter and the play calling got way to conservative. Almost every pass play was a screen or within two yards of the line of scrimmage. This allowed the D to compress and really play tightly on our receivers. In any case, I left the game quite unimpressed with Lawrence.

Wentz I thought was up and down which wasn't really all that bad for his first game with this coordinator and with these receivers many of whom (like Thomas) he didn't get even a whole off season to play with. Heck even Samuels and McLauren, he didn't get to play with. McLaurin because of the contract deal and Samuel because they were being very careful with his injury in practices and during the preseason games.

Like I said, Lawrence had terrible protection today. That explains the intentional grounding calls. That's why the Jaguars will be lucky to win 5 games this year. If Lawrence had Wentz's protection, he would have done much better today than Wentz.

Wentz's INTs had nothing to do with Washington's coordinator. Both of those INTs were just horrible. The book on Wentz is that he has bad fundamentals and he is not an accurate passer on intermediate throws between 20 - 30 yards. That was obvious today.

I'll give him credit for bouncing back in the 4th quarter and being mentally tough, but he is not the answer at QB. We won because we played a bad team and that's the only reason.

 

[Neophyte]

Jax is better than a 5 win team. They are young and will only get stronger as the season goes on. Honestly, I'm glad we got them for the opener instead of week 12 or later.

I'm not particularly unhappy with Wentz either. He did enough to win this one big.

It's that defense that has me calling this lipstick on a pig. Jax has a second-year QB and lacks a receiver in the upper tier of the NFL but you couldn't tell that watching them work against our D. Jax beat themselves as much as we stopped them.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

I wasn't able to watch much of the game because of work. I had the red zone channel on and was following as much as I could. First off, when was the last time this team has back to back TD drives to open the game? Wasn't there a streak of not scoring a TD on the opening drive that spanned multiple seasons. They got 2 in the 1st quarter? That's what we all wanted. What we didn't want was the swoon to give up the lead in the 3rd and 4th quarters. That needs to stop. They need to learn to put their foot on the throat and not let up. I was fairly confident they could drive back down and take the lead late, but I was not confident they could hold that lead. I texted someone after they took the lead and said that I've seen this movie way too many times. They get a late lead then watch a team drive down and win the game. I was really happy the defense made a play when they had to. Good pressure forcing Lawrence into a bad pass at the end and the DB making the pick. I'll take it. A win is a win. It's not easy to win in the NFL and there was a lot of crazy things that went on in the NFL today.

Also, sign me up for a QB that can throw for 4 TDs in a game. From what I was able to tell, the first time that happened since December 26, 2015 when they beat the Eagles. I know the QB play has been pretty putrid in DC and at it's best was just mediocre, but 6 full seasons and a couple of games between 4 TD games from a QB? I didn't realize it had been that bad. What I'd like to see next week is another 4 TDs from Wentz and 2 TDs from Gibson.

 

[Boone]

Wentz has not been an INT machine - ever. In fact, he is among the best at NOT throwing INTs. Whatever the historic gaps in his game - that ain't his issue. No - he was not perfect yesterday, but for 2 quarters, he nearly was. It's fine to criticize the INTs, but we also have to realize all QBs are going to have them. And let's spend as much time talking about those TD passes. It's kind of like ripping Curtis Samuel for fumbling and almost costing us the game, without referencing his awesome performance overall.

I don't know what will happen with Wentz - and neither do any of you all. We all know the history (good and bad) and the 'rep'. But only time will tell. I have to say, after the 2nd pick I was pretty well amazed that Wentz brought them back. That had to earn him some cred from his teammates.

And we are missing the biggest difference Wentz made yesterday, beyond the obvious TD passes. 70% 3rd down conversion rate (and it should have been 80% but Bates flat out dropped a pass on 3rd down). That was huge, and Wentz made it happen.

 

[Boone]

Jax is better than a 5 win team. They are young and will only get stronger as the season goes on. Honestly, I'm glad we got them for the opener instead of week 12 or later.

I'm not particularly unhappy with Wentz either. He did enough to win this one big.

It's that defense that has me calling this lipstick on a pig. Jax has a second-year QB and lacks a receiver in the upper tier of the NFL but you couldn't tell that watching them work against our D. Jax beat themselves as much as we stopped them.

Like Wentz, the D was far from perfect. The obvious beef is we let them back into it. But we made Trevor Lawrence look like a 6th round pick, not the first guy taken in the draft. He was under pressure all day, to the point he was panicking at times. We held them to 3/10 on 3rd down. And they committed a ton of penalties, a number of which were due to pressure or mismatches. Etienne is a helluva player, and we struggled a little to contain him, but we didn't let him beat us. Could've been a lot worse on the defensive side of the ball.

 

[Primus Porcus]

I intentionally did not get on here and post last night because i was afraid it was going to come a cross negative, despite the win.

1. WE WON. At the end of the day, when I'm judging the game, that's goal number 1. They achieved that goal, so instantly any 'floor' for a grade they receive has to be a passing one.

2. Wentz showed what it's like to have a QB with a certain level of physical tools that we haven't seen in a while. There were a handful of throws you saw that previous QBs simply could not have made. I think 1 of his INts was his fault, I think the Walker INT on the screen was a great play by the defense and was created by someone who wasn't wearing no. 11.

3. The defense created pressure EXACTLY how we've been asking them to do so. We saw blitzes, D-lineman were winning their individual matchups, CBs and Safeties were getting in unblocked, and Lawrence was getting hit.

I wanted to point those things out because those 3 things are 'more' important than what I'm about to say. I'm not going to call these things 'issues,' instead i'll refer them to 'opportunities for improvement.'


1. We're dominating 25 minutes of the game running a defensive scheme and we decide to change to some zone shell, prevent type defense to close out the half. Why do we do this? When something works, we change... We got back to it in the second half but it almost cost us.

2. Similar to the defense, offensively we're dominating with intermediate passing to multiple recievers and we change. Half way through the 2nd quarter, its like they decided to turn Gibson back into a bell cow running him between the tackles time after time. At time's he would break through, but why? Why change what's working until they prove they can stop it? The INT on the screen, IMHO, was a direct result of the change in offensive philosophy. We had them stretched out from sideline to sideline, with their backs against the wall and we changed. Walker was in position to intercept that because we overall shifted our offense into a compact area between the hashmarks...



Overall we won, and we were clearly the better football team on the field for that game. I think we beat Jacksonville 8 times if we play them 10. I will also say that had we played a 'better' team... like top half of the league team, I don't think we win yesterday.... but we did. We're 1 - 0 and I'm happy as hell about it.

 

[Boone]

Yeah, the defensive switch obviously was a disaster. Not sure what the logic is?

No one has mentioned it - but I thought Daron Payne was our best defender yesterday. He was all over the place - great to see!

Pretty much everything Gibson did yesterday worked He didn't have any break out plays, but averaged over 4 yds per rush and 10 yds per reception. 21 touches and he was a big factor in the offense. I actually thought they used him a lot more creatively than they usually do, but just what I saw.

 

[Boone]

Worried about the Phidarian Mathis knee injury (looked like an ACL) and Jon Allen as well. Losing those guys would be a pretty devastating loss in Week 1.