Jacksonville Jaguars: A Quick Look Back at the “Worsts” and “Bests” from the First Four Games

To be sure, the Jaguars aren’t stopping at 2-2 to trumpet their successes or bemoan their failures thus far.

“Our expectation is for getting ready for Seattle,” quarterback David Garrard said after Jacksonville’s 37-17 win against the Tennessee Titans.

“We can write our own story.”

Riding a two-game winning streak over divisional foes, the Jaguars seem determined to pen a happy ending for their 2009 season. For a team that featured four rookie starters on opening day, it might be considered a “coming-of-age” story.

As the actors of this drama press on into the grinding middle of their season, though, we observers are able to pause and examine Jacksonville’s early highs and lows—the rising action from the first month of Jaguars football.

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From The Seats in Jacksonville: At Jaguars’ Win, 46,031 Fans Felt Like Enough

It wasn’t enough to prevent the second Jacksonville TV blackout of the season.

It isn’t enough to cushion the financial blow the Jaguars are taking from more than 20,000 unsold tickets.

It won’t be enough, if it continues, to keep the team from looking hard at relocation.

But during Sunday’s 37-17 rout of the Tennessee Titans, the 46,031 Jacksonville faithful in attendance made Jacksonville Municipal Stadium—which seats 67,164—feel like the legitimate home of an NFL team.

They didn’t do it with sheer decibels. The stadium’s design, unfortunately, is such that even the noise of a packed house would float away into the open air. Tennessee’s only false start came when left tackle Michael Roos tried to get a head start on pass protection in the fourth quarter.

They didn’t do it with nastiness. After booing the home team off the field during the Jaguars’ 31-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals two weeks ago, Jacksonville fans might have been expected to turn their vitriol against the hapless, hated Titans in a game that was never close.

Aside from one late-game chant directed at Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher, who earned Jaguars fans’ undying loathing by referring to Jacksonville as his team’s “home away from home” during the 1999 season, the crowd was mild-mannered throughout the contest.

Instead, the fans who filled two-thirds of the stadium showed their class by ebbing and flowing with the action on the field.

Whenever the Titans’ offense was on the field, the crowd rose to the best of its ability to shout them down—or, at least, to make some background sound swim around in their ear-holes.

Whenever a defender called for more noise, he got it. Linebacker Clint Ingram, cornerback Rashean Mathis, and defensive tackle John Henderson each turned the stadium’s volume up as though the controls were at their fingertips.

Whenever Jacksonville’s offense was at work, the place was pin-drop quiet, and after every big play the fans’ adulation rained down on the players.

Running back Maurice Jones-Drew was cheered (“Dre-e-ew!”) after the touchdown that highlighted his light workload for the day—a national superstar receiving his due.

But the applause was just as loud for receiver Ernest Wilford’s 29-yard catch-and-run in the second quarter. Wilford, who spent the first four years of his career in Jacksonville before playing last year for the Miami Dolphins, was a clear fan favorite for his physical, high-effort playing style.

In spite of large patches of empty seats, the fans who came out to support the Jaguars lent their voices to make Sunday’s win sound like anything but a lackluster showing at the ticket counter.

Buoyed by their current two-game winning streak, the Jaguars should welcome the potential jump in attendance for their home game against the St. Louis Rams later this month—because 46,031 wasn’t, isn’t, and won’t be enough to support them long-term.

But Sunday, it sure felt like plenty.

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To Uche His Own: Jaguars’ Backup Guard Uche Nwaneri Wows in Spot Duty

Dreadlocks flopping behind him, Jaguars guard Uche Nwaneri punched his fist through the air emphatically as running back Maurice Jones-Drew skipped into the end zone for his third touchdown Sunday at Houston.

CBS color commentator (and former Jaguars quarterback) Steve Beuerlein noted that the Texans’ linebackers “seemed to lose him [Jones-Drew] for a second” on the run.

Take a look.

Sure enough, DeMeco Ryans and Zac Diles lost sight of Jones-Drew during the play.

For Diles, it happened when he dove at Nwaneri’s legs to take out Jones-Drew’s lead blocker—and bounced off.

For Ryans, Houston’s All-Pro defensive captain, it happened when Nwaneri threw him violently out of Jones-Drew’s way.

The “pop!” of Nwaneri’s pads against Ryans’ is audible on the highlight. On Sunday, it was the sound of Jacksonville’s ground game chugging ahead against the Texans’ worn-out defense.

Looking forward, it may have been the sound of Nwaneri staking his claim to a starting job.

Going into next week’s game, at least, Jacksonville shouldn’t be too anxious about starting right tackle Eben Britton’s injury status. The Jaguars gained 140 of their 185 rushing yards last week after Britton’s second-quarter knee sprain forced right guard Maurice Williams out to tackle, leaving a spot for Nwaneri to step up.

Before Nwaneri entered the game, Jacksonville had 45 yards on 10 carries, including two to the right side that were stopped in the backfield. Outside of a 30-yard bootleg by quarterback David Garrard, the Jaguars had struggled to run the ball.

With Nwaneri (6’3″, 330 pounds) providing an infusion of size and strength, though, Jacksonville bulled ahead for nearly seven yards per carry from that point on.

Having played both center and guard during the preseason, Nwaneri represents excellent depth for the Jaguars behind Williams, guard Vince Manuwai, and center Brad Meester—veterans whose cohesion and experience make them a steady core for Jacksonville’s line.

Prior to last week’s game, the prevalent knock on Nwaneri was his footwork, both in pass protection and pulling to run block. Against the Texans, though, he did his part for a line that allowed no sacks and gave Garrard ample time to throw.

Nwaneri, a fifth-round project pick out of Purdue in the 2007 draft, took his lumps last year as a 16-game starter after Manuwai went down with a knee injury in the season opener. A hulking, tenacious run blocker, Nwaneri has as much physical talent as any of Jacksonville’s linemen.

If he keeps putting it to use as he did against Houston, the Jaguars will have to think hard about moving him up the depth chart.

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‘Battle’-Ready Jacksonville Jaguars Run Over Texans in Win at Houston

In the midst of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ game-long gashing of the Houston Texans’ league-worst run defense Sunday, one play stood out as the Jaguars’ signature.

1-10-HOU 19 (11:32) 32-[Maurice] Jones-Drew up the middle to HST 14 for 5 yards (93-[Tim] Bulman).

NFL.com’s play-by-play account of the game, short and to-the-point, does little to document the grunt work put into those five yards by Jones-Drew and the offensive line.

Having given up a touchdown less than a minute before halftime to go down 21-17, Jacksonville started the third quarter by moving 64 yards in seven plays, including a 22-yard reverse and a 28-yard deep pass.

Inside Houston’s 20-yard line for only the second time in the game—and having settled for a field goal the first time—the Jaguars reverted to their bread-and-butter rushing attack.

After taking the handoff from David Garrard, Jones-Drew plowed straight ahead into the gap between center Brad Meester and left guard Vince Manuwai. He was met at the line by Bulman, who hit him low, and a blitzing linebacker overloading the gap.

With his feet churning, though, Jones-Drew extended the play. Meester and Manuwai dug in, shoving forward behind their persistent running back. Guard Uche Nwaneri and one of the Texans’ defensive linemen joined the pile as the play degenerated into a rugby-style scrum.

Locked in over Jones-Drew, the three big Jaguars muscled forward for five yards before the mass of players collapsed. Nwaneri emerged from the pile pumping his fist in the air, ready for second and five.

Two plays later, Jones-Drew bounced off a would-be tackler at the goal line and walked in for six.

Jacksonville did significant damage through the air, passing for 214 yards and on all five of their third-down conversions. Given ample time to throw by rookie tackles Eugene Monroe and Eben Britton, Garrard hit the Texans up for chunks of yardage throughout the game.

Against Houston’s outmatched defensive front and undersized linebacking corps, the Jaguars’ offensive line spearheaded a ground game that averaged nearly six yards per carry. They generated push on runs up the middle and blocked well in space when pulling for sweeps, off-tackle runs, and a pair of end-arounds by rookie receiver Mike Thomas.

Garrard got in on the action, gaining 32 yards and a touchdown on two designed bootlegs as Jacksonville used misdirection to freeze the Texans’ defensive secondary. All in all, the Jaguars rushed for 184 yards and three scores on 31 carries to spoil one of the Texans’ annual “battle red” uniform days.

Houston’s quick-strike passing offense kept pace with Jacksonville’s grinding ground game for thirty minutes, answering Jacksonville’s long drives with three first-half scores.

But when the Texans lost those two crucial shoving matches on the Jaguars’ first second-half scoring drive and failed to answer with a touchdown, Jacksonville gained the downhill momentum needed for a 14-3 run to take over the game.

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Where’s 91? Week 2: Jaguars Saddle Harvey With Big-Body Grunt Work

If the Jaguars keep trying to use Derrick Harvey as a big body, they’re going to waste him.

Reggie Hayward’s season-ending injury in Jacksonville’s loss at Indianapolis likely forced Harvey into his role this past Sunday. With new defensive coordinator Mel Tucker employing mostly three-man fronts in the first two regular season games, the Jaguars’ defensive line has been pressed into service in positions with unique size requirements.

At 6’5″ and 281 pounds, Harvey would seem a decent fit for what’s called a “five-tech” end—a defender who lines up across from an offensive tackle and is responsible for the gaps to either side of that tackle. The position requires long, strong arms to separate from blockers and the “base” (lower-body strength) to push against them.

Hayward (6’5″, 275) had both. Though signed by Jacksonville in 2005 to be a pass-rushing threat—an expectation he met with 8.5 sacks that year—a ruptured Achilles tendon in 2006 robbed Hayward of the explosiveness he used to pursue opposing quarterbacks.

Before fracturing his shin in this year’s season opener, Hayward seemed to have reshaped himself into a roughneck end, ready to fight with opposing tackles from that five-tech spot. When he went down, the Jaguars were left without a comparable player on their depth chart.

Harvey has the arms. In Jacksonville’s two losses thus far, he’s shown the ability to strike out at blockers to keep them from latching on. But, as Sunday’s 31-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals made abundantly clear, he doesn’t have the base.

The Jaguars lined Harvey up in place of Hayward for over half of his snaps. He played the position the only way his tools allowed, by attacking the tackle.

On some plays, he bull-rushed to try and seal off his side of the line, but the Cardinals’ tackles proved too hefty for Harvey to move without over-committing to them. Arizona’s running backs broke contain to the outside, and quarterback Kurt Warner was able to make quick throws before Harvey could release from his blocker.

When Harvey attacked his gaps, the Jaguars’ spread-out line gave him little help, with Tim Hightower and Beanie Wells consistently hitting the holes he left. Pass rushing from face-up on the tackle forced him to choose between getting caught in the middle or running too wide an arc.

Harvey’s best and worst plays came as an end in four-man fronts. Tellingly, both came after he had dominated his blocker from that position.

His best effort of the afternoon, as depicted in the photo accompanying this article, came on a strong side run by Hightower.

Lining up on right tackle Levi Brown’s outside shoulder, Harvey was ready for Brown’s attempted lead block. He punched out, shoving Brown aside, and slammed into Hightower at the line of scrimmage.

The outside position gave Harvey the edge, literally, on Brown by turning what would’ve been a shoving match, had he lined up at five-tech, into a test of balance and upper-body strength. With space on the end to maneuver, Harvey used Brown’s momentum against him and made the play.

But Harvey’s worst play of the day also happened in open space. On Arizona’s last drive of the first half, he beat Brown around the edge of the pocket and had a shot at Warner.

As soon as the way to the quarterback was clear, though, Harvey lumbered forward cautiously at a bad angle and whiffed as Warner hit receiver Jerheme Urban for a 12-yard gain. His swiftness in moving past his blocker was wasted with a moment’s indecision.

Throughout the game, Harvey missed several opportunities to stop runs in the backfield because of similar hesitation—the mark of rookie lessons not fully learned.

In this coming Sunday’s contest against the Houston Texans, Harvey matches up better physically against tackles Duane Brown and Eric Winston than he did against Arizona’s grinding linemen.

If the Jaguars’ scheme leaves him free to attack them—and if he attacks without hesitation—Harvey has many more aggressive plays like his tackle of Hightower in him. But that potential, as of this past Sunday, still has yet to be unleashed.

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Not in The Cards: Jaguars Put Down Early in 31-17 Loss To Arizona

NFL.com’s play-by-play account of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ home-opening loss to the Arizona Cardinals does little justice to the first of two second-quarter plays that broke open a back-and-forth contest.

3-12-ARI 28 (11:57) (Shotgun) 9-[David] Garrard pass incomplete short left to 81-[Torry] Holt.

On the play, which reads like a garden-variety misfire by Garrard, Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson hit Holt before the football did. This run-of-the-mill pass interference call, however, was missed by an otherwise nitpicky officiating crew in a game where 15 penalties were called—a number well above the league average.

In context, the non-call came on a drive that started with Jacksonville’s first stroke of luck on Sunday.

The Jaguars forced Arizona ball-carriers into two fumbles on their first two drives—handing the Cardinals a first-and-goal on the one-yard line on one, and watching the ball roll harmlessly out-of-bounds on the other. Between those two possessions, Arizona scored a touchdown and a field goal for an early 10-3 lead.

But karma seemed to have consoled Jacksonville when Adam Podlesh’s first punt glanced off Arizona’s Greg Toler and was recovered by the Jaguars’ Sean Considine.

Two pressure-packed plays and two lost yards later, though, the Jaguars faced third-and-12 on their bonus drive. Given time by his pass protection, Garrard found Holt open near the sideline behind Wilson and delivered the throw on the money.

Or he would’ve, at least, had Holt been free of Wilson’s grasp.

Holt appealed to a referee for the pass interference call as he rose from the ground. Jacksonville head coach Jack Del Rio threatened to challenge the non-call before being reminded that interference calls are non-reviewable.

Begrudgingly, the Jaguars sent kicker Josh Scobee onto the field to cut the Cardinals’ lead to four.

Arizona special teams coach Kevin Spencer and defensive end Calais Campbell deserve equal credit for the block that ensued. The Cardinals overloaded the gap to the right of Jacksonville left tackle Eugene Monroe, forcing him to throw himself at three surging defenders and leaving Campbell free to launch his 6’8″ frame at the kick.

Scobee’s foiled attempt ricocheted off Campbell’s hand high into the air, landing in the outstretched arms of safety Antrel Rolle who returned it 83 yards for a touchdown.

In two plays—one illegal, one exceptional—Arizona had turned a potential close game into an early 14-point lead.

Playing with house money from that point on, the Cardinals were able to conservatively kill clock with a dink-and-dunk passing game and their grinding rushing attack.

Defensively, they committed eight and sometimes nine defenders to clamping down on running back Maurice Jones-Drew and Jacksonville’s ground game, willing to risk a big play or two with a two-score cushion.

With their defense on its heels and their offense smacking into a wall, the Jaguars fell behind 31-3 before mounting a too-little, too-late rally to achieve the final tally of 31-17.

Granted, having those 10 points back wouldn’t have made Monroe’s day against Arizona defensive end Bertrand Berry much easier. The Cardinals’ veteran pass-rusher had his way with Jacksonville’s rookie tackle for most of the game, on runs as well as passes.

Had the Jaguars managed a game-tying touchdown on the drive halted by the non-call, they would still have been hard-pressed to handle quarterback Kurt Warner, whose hot hand completed 24 of 26 passes en route to 246 yards and two scores in under three quarters of action.

But Jones-Drew, who touched the ball only 17 times for 83 total yards after getting 26 touches in Week 1 against Indianapolis, might have had a chance to get on track as well had the Jaguars not been behind the eight ball from early in the second quarter.

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Jaguars’ Punishing Ground Game Eclipsed By Colts’ Pass Pressure in Loss

As Sunday’s hard-fought contest between the Indianapolis Colts and the Jacksonville Jaguars was digested by major news outlets for casual public consumption, several prominent members of the sports media reached a curious conclusion.

“The revamped Colts’ defense showed that it was up to the challenge of playing in a slugfest against the Jaguars,” NFL.com analyst Bucky Brooks wrote.

“The Colts surrendered 114 yards rushing,” he noted, “but were stout at the point of attack as they committed eight men to the box on early downs.”

“[Indianapolis’] bulkier defensive line also held up better against an old nemesis, Maurice Jones-Drew,” ESPN.com’s Paul Kuharsky added.

True, the Colts didn’t give up nearly 400 yards at almost nine yards a carry this time. In starting the 2009 season 1-0, Indianapolis’ defense pressured Jaguars quarterback David Garrard into making hurried decisions at key moments in a 14-12 nail-biter.

But neither the game tape nor the numbers back up the widely-disseminated Monday morning assertion that the Colts’ defensive front controlled the line of scrimmage between the tackles.

All praise for Indianapolis’ performance has been rightly tempered with the footnote that the Jaguars gained over 100 yards on the ground. In fact, none of Jacksonville’s 26 runs against the Colts went for negative yardage, and only two were for no gain.

Antonio Johnson and Eric Foster, Indianapolis’ starting defensive tackles, combined for an impressive 10 total tackles, but the Colts wisely shied away from pitting their quick, undersized front four directly against Jacksonville’s beefy offensive line.

Instead, they attempted to contain the Jaguars’ ground game by peppering their man-gap rush defense with zone blitzes and packing eight in the box. With ends Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis taking precious seconds off Garrard’s internal clock on passing plays, committing an eighth defender to the run carried little risk.

Still, their creativity amounted to little on a signature late-game drive by Jacksonville.

Down 14-6, the Jaguars asserted themselves against Indianapolis’ defense on an 11-play, 58-yard series that bridged the third and fourth quarters, culminating in a seven-yard sweep by Jones-Drew for six.

Eight of Jacksonville’s 11 plays on that drive were runs, and one of the three passes was a 19-yard completion set up by a play-action fake.

Available video of the Jaguars’ runs—from the touchdown to the failed two-point conversion, and especially the 26-yarder in the second quarter—helps tell the real story from the trenches in Sunday’s game.

On the touchdown, Freeney beat tight end Marcedes Lewis and had a shot at Jones-Drew. Meanwhile, tackle Eugene Monroe sealed the edge upfield as guard Maurice Williams pancaked a Colts defender in backside pursuit.

Jacksonville’s failed attempt at a Wildcat run underscored the struggles of the Jaguars’ rookie tackles against Freeney and Mathis. With a big-enough hole open up the middle, Jones-Drew was stopped short as the Colts’ ends made inside rush moves and met on either side of him.

Jones-Drew’s 26-yard run exposed Indianapolis’ size disadvantage. Even with six down linemen and two linebackers in short zones, the Colts were overwhelmed at the point of attack by the Jaguars’ strength and execution.

Guard Vince Manuwai bullied the two defenders in his path, knocking them both to the ground to make way for Jones-Drew.

With varying degrees of success from play to play, the Jaguars’ linemen maintained that physical upper hand on runs throughout the game. But when offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter attempted to capitalize through the air against a defense that had sold out against the run, Freeney and Mathis punished Jacksonville’s rookie pass protectors and Garrard.

Credit is due to Indianapolis’ veteran pass rushers for taking over Sunday’s game. Monroe and Eben Britton won’t see the like of them until the Colts come to Jacksonville for a rematch in December. By then, they’ll have more experience under their belts.

But the Colts’ so-called “stout” defensive front has received undue acclaim for a pedestrian showing against the Jaguars’ interior linemen. Time and again, second-level defenders were called on to corral Jones-Drew, and pressure from the edges collapsed several pockets that were sealed in front of Garrard.

Manuwai, Williams, and center Brad Meester gelled impressively for Jacksonville in their first game together since the 2008 opener at Tennessee, resuming their role as the engine of a formidable ground game.

Maybe in the December rematch, instead of switching gears to try passes, Koetter might just keep his foot on the gas.

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Rookies Reign in Jacksonville: Costly Veterans Among Jaguars’ Final Cuts

The Jaguars released 21 players Saturday, trimming their roster to the NFL’s 53-man maximum and wrapping up an offseason dedicated to retooling last year’s 5-11 team.

Among the players cut, few were long-tenured members of the team, but three former Jaguars starters stood out: offensive lineman Tony Pashos, cornerback Brian Williams, and long snapper Joe Zelenka. None of the three—all of whom started all 16 games in 2008—were considered at-risk for release entering training camp.

In each case, a younger, less-expensive player won the starting job and made the veteran expendable.

Judging from the roster after this last round of cuts, Jacksonville’s latest crop of rookies has shown well. Eight of the Jaguars’ nine picks in the 2009 draft earned roster spots, with seventh-round receiver Tiquan Underwood the only cut. Two undrafted rookie free agents, defensive end Julius Williams and linebacker Russell Allen, also made the team.

Of those eight drafted rookies on the final roster, four will start or see significant playing time early on.

Second-round offensive lineman Eben Britton is Jacksonville’s likely Week One right tackle, and third-round cornerback Derek Cox will step up to replace Brian Williams. Defensive tackle Terrance Knighton, the Jaguars’ other third-round pick, will play in a rotation at his position, and first-round offensive tackle Eugene Monroe is expected to take over at left tackle sooner rather than later.

The rookies highlight a young squad, with only eight players 30 years or older.

In the process of getting younger and releasing underperforming players, Jacksonville effected a significant roster overhaul: 24 of the current 53 weren’t on the team last season. The Jaguars have eight new starters in 2009—nine, if third-year offensive lineman Uche Nwaneri beats Maurice Williams for the right guard job.

Nwaneri, who has taken reps at center this preseason, is representative of Jacksonville’s depth on the offensive line. Five of the Jaguars’ nine linemen have experience at multiple positions, which should prevent a repeat of last year’s disastrous revolving door situation behind the starters.

The Jaguars tried Pashos, their 2008 starter at right tackle, as a guard in their last preseason game this year. He performed well, but not well enough to justify his $4 million starter’s salary; with Britton, Monroe, and veteran Tra Thomas crowding the depth chart at tackle, cutting Pashos was a feasible money-saving measure.

Similarly, the release of Brian Williams cuts costs for Jacksonville, though his salary will still count against the cap.

Such bottom-line decisions continue to distinguish new general manager Gene Smith from his predecessor, James “Shack” Harris, who was fired after the 2008 season. Harris awarded big contracts to free agents like Pashos and Williams—and, more recently, Jerry Porter and Drayton Florence—to fill starting roles, an expensive (and often ineffective) strategy for the small-market Jaguars.

Smith hasn’t been shy in free agency, bringing in Thomas, receiver Torry Holt, and safety Sean Considine to provide experience and compete for starting jobs. But the contracts they’ve signed—front-loaded deals with low guaranteed money—won’t linger should Jacksonville decide to cut ties with them.

To call the Jaguars “cheap,” though, would be an overstatement. One of their biggest moves this offseason was signing star running back Maurice Jones-Drew to a five-year, $30 million extension, despite Jones-Drew having yet to carry the full rushing workload in his three seasons with the team.

The picture that has emerged, rather, over an offseason of change in Jacksonville is that of a franchise committed to a sensible salary structure.

Last year’s team wrote the biggest game checks to free-agent signings and high draft picks (ex. Matt Jones and Reggie Williams) whose on-field performance didn’t merit the pay. The 53 players remaining after Saturday’s cuts, by contrast, are largely paid in line with their expected contributions.

Bargain backups abound, from high-potential rookies like running back Rashad Jennings to utility types such as special-teams ace Brian Iwuh. Several low-cost starters, including all three of the team’s starting linebackers, will need to be evaluated for contract extensions soon.

But the team’s fortunes will rest on the shoulders of players well-paid to carry that load.

With overpaid average starters gone, the highest-paid Jaguars—Jones-Drew, quarterback David Garrard, fullback Greg Jones, cornerback Rashean Mathis, and defensive end Derrick Harvey—are now those most crucial to the team’s success. If they don’t play up to their contracts, a clear precedent was set Saturday for handling such situations.

After eight months of work, those final cuts seem to have stripped away the last vestiges of last year’s underperforming team. The 45 who dress for next Sunday’s season opener at Indianapolis will be starting something new.

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Let Them Eat Cake: The NFL Is Right to Starve Jacksonville TVs of Jaguars Games

With the NFL regular season less than two weeks away and anticipation building to fever pitch among fanbases across the country, the national media’s spotlight was squarely on the Jacksonville Jaguars’ supporters this past weekend.

Or, more precisely, the lack thereof.

Having endured a sharp drop-off in season ticket sales—from 42,000 in 2008 to around 25,000 this year, according to team senior vice president Tim Connolly—the Jaguars don’t anticipate sellout crowds at any of their eight home games in 2009.

The league’s blackout policy mandates that all tickets for a game be sold no later than 72 hours before kickoff in order for it to be televised locally. Barring a miraculous uptick in sales, games in Jacksonville this year will likely be off-limits to televisions in the Jaguars’ local markets.

Corporate partners aren’t coming to the rescue, as Winn-Dixie did in 2002. In the face of sagging ticket sales, the Jacksonville-based supermarket chain guaranteed that no Jaguars home game would be blacked out by agreeing to buy up unsold tickets each week.

But even a program of giving away tickets to grocery shoppers couldn’t fill Jacksonville Municipal Stadium (then Alltel Stadium) to capacity for any home game that season.

Owner Wayne Weaver isn’t coming to the rescue, as he’s done in recent years.

Asking for extensions on the league’s 72-hour blackout deadline, covering seats in 2005 to lower the bar for sellouts at the cost of potential revenue, and even buying unsold tickets himself when necessary, Weaver has done his best to keep Jaguars games on local TV.

In the current economic climate, though, he isn’t the only owner struggling to sell tickets. Last month, the San Diego Chargers’ chief operating officer admitted that the Chargers, who haven’t had a game blacked out since the 2006 preseason, might not sell enough tickets to televise some home games in 2009.

Still, with 10 to 12 teams worried about ticket sales according to NFL and team sources, over half of the league continues to enjoy sellout revenues and locally televised home games in a down economy.

That’s how NFL football, as a product, is supposed to work. According to Forbes magazine, 24 teams have season ticket waiting lists over 1,000 names long. In those cities, watching the game at home or a bar is a consolation prize—and sellouts aren’t an exception, they’re the rule.

Despite the recent drought of box-office support, Jacksonville hasn’t always been so ho-hum about its Jaguars.

Crowds of more than 70,000 fans—some of whom would be sitting on the upper deck tarps in the stadium’s present state—flocked to cheer on the city’s new team in 1995, the Jaguars’ first season. During the team’s improbable playoff run a year later, 45,000 revelers gathered in Jacksonville Municipal after midnight for the Jaguars’ triumphant return from their upset win in Denver.

After the charm of a new team and quick success wore off, though, fan enthusiasm began to wither. Two preseason games were blacked out in 1999, when the Jaguars were embarking on a dominant 14-2 campaign powered by a high-flying offense featuring stars like Mark Brunell and Jimmy Smith.

The tarps came in 2005, covering almost 10,000 seats that the team no longer expected to fill and reducing the stadium’s game-day capacity to just over 67,000. Over the five seasons that followed, the Jaguars were the NFL’s third-winningest team, but they struggled to sell out their shrunken stadium.

This year, defensive end Reggie Hayward asserts that the team’s lagging ticket sales can be chalked up to fans being hit hard by the economic downturn.

“It’s difficult for people to get out and spend that extra money on football and things of leisure,” he noted in an interview before Jacksonville’s second preseason game.

But Jacksonville’s failure to fill its stadium for the Jaguars extends all the way back to the dot-com bubble and through years of better economic times, and though fans may be pinching pennies these days, they aren’t pinching them any harder than fans in New Orleans or Nashville.

In fact, the Jaguars represent a great value for NFL-caliber entertainment when compared to the rest of the league. Their ticket prices are among the lowest, and the team is competently retooling with the goal of playing playoff-caliber football.

For too long, the Jaguars have made one-sided sacrifices to provide their community with free broadcasts of home games. While owning the rights to the game and footing the bill for the manifold costs incurred by an NFL franchise—and, just maybe, being affected by the same recession as his team’s fans—Wayne Weaver has practically given the Jaguars experience away locally despite having the leverage to demand sellout attendance.

No more. The bread line’s cut off, and there’s a perfectly good product being offered at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium on eight Sundays this fall:

Tens of thousands, decked in teal and united behind the Jaguars. A hard-nosed, back-to-basics team, purged of hard-to-cheer-for characters and steered by football horse sense. The feeling of being a witness in person and outdoors with the players instead of remotely on some screen.

If the Jacksonville locals have any real appetite for their professional football team, let them eat that cake.

“Well, let them eat cake.” [Marie Antoinette, allegedly, when told that French peasants were starving for want of bread.]

A Bleacher Report: My First-Hand Look at the Jaguars in Philadelphia

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of driving seven hours through two beltways (Washington and Baltimore) to watch the Jaguars lose to the Philadelphia Eagles.

“Pleasure?” you ask.

Absolutely. For one, the fans at Lincoln Financial Field weren’t nearly as hostile as I’d been led to believe—for this exhibition game, at least. One fellow in a nearby section drew cheers as he was dragged out by stadium security, but the Eagles fans near me were downright friendly.

More importantly, though, I had the chance to see the 2009 Jaguars up close. From seat four in Section 119, Row 16—on the 45-yard line, behind Jacksonville’s bench—a few things stood out.

My most-prominent (and favorite) memory from last night’s game is of how effectively Derrick Harvey contained Philadelphia quarterback Michael Vick.

On one first-quarter play, Harvey rushed into the Eagles’ backfield unblocked. He read Vick’s fake handoff and squared up to make the tackle, cornering Vick in pursuit and lunging out to trip him up.

Soon after, Harvey beat tackle Jason Peters with a rip move and confronted Vick on a shovel pass play. Vick could have ran or passed, but Harvey had both options covered, taking LeSean McCoy down as soon as he got the pitch.

After an offseason spent bulking up to anchor better against the run, those two plays in particular show that Harvey has still retained the first-step quickness to be an effective pass rusher and the agility to pursue backs in open space.

Jacksonville also attempted to make use of Harvey and Quentin Groves’ athleticism by lining them up as down linemen in a few 3-4 defensive looks.

The Jaguars tried to execute twists in those three-man fronts, with both Terrance Knighton and Derek Landri taking reps at nose tackle and slanting into the “B” gap between the offensive guard and tackle. But neither penetrated enough to give Harvey or Groves clean lanes into the “A” gap between the center and guard.

On offense, Jacksonville’s linemen also had trouble imposing their will in the trenches.

Much of the credit goes to the Eagles’ defensive line—particularly tackle Brodrick Bunkley, who played with an impressive combination of intelligence, aggression, and strength.

Bunkley crashed through the Jaguars’ line to pressure Garrard, fought against double teams to stop runs between the tackles, and jolted Jacksonville guard Vince Manuwai back on multiple occasions. Even bowling-ball back Maurice Jones-Drew couldn’t fight for many yards against Philadelphia’s starting defensive front last night.

The Jaguars’ only substantial offensive success came on a few screen plays that took advantage of the Eagles’ aggressiveness.

On their longest play of the night, David Garrard passed to Jones-Drew in the face of an all-out blitz up the middle. With an escort of blockers, Jones-Drew weaved around blocks and broke a tackle before plowing into a safety for a few extra yards to end the play.

Tackles Tra Thomas and Eugene Monroe did a good job against the Eagles’ edge rushers, and the whole line performed well on plays where they were able to block in open space. With the notable exception of Monroe, who missed almost two weeks of training camp, they looked leaner and played quicker than last year’s linemen.

New strength coach Luke Richesson’s offseason training regimen seems to have improved the conditioning of those players who participated. Considering the Jaguars’ troubles getting push on runs up the middle, though, they might should have left more of the sand in their pants.

With Manuwai still shaking off the rust from missing last season, though, and some shuffling of personnel on the right side of the line, their struggles may simply be a lack of chemistry.

Uche Nwaneri took most of the first-team reps at right guard, while Maurice Williams—last year’s opening-day starter who was lost for the season after tearing his biceps against Tennessee—played with the second team, hinting at a possible upset in that position battle.

But Nwaneri also lined up at center for one third-quarter series. Williams has also spent time snapping the ball in practice; with rookie Eben Britton able to play tackle and guard, and Thomas being considered for either tackle spot, the Jaguars clearly want to get as much utility as possible out of their depth up front.

On special teams, Josh Scobee had a good night. Most of his kickoffs had touchback distance, and his two 49-yard field goals sailed through high above the crossbar.

Really, Scobee’s kicking was symbolic of Jacksonville’s offseason thus far. The Jaguars have reshaped themselves to get leaner and meaner, and now they need to translate that physical capability into consistent execution.

From where I was sitting, I think they have the right pieces. They need only to find the right places for them to make it happen.

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