Game plan
In the 1998 comedy movie Buffalo 66, the lead character believes that the missed field goal In Super Bowl XXV has ruined his life and so he is in search of Scott Norwood to exact revenge. His first order of business is to hijack Christina Ricci's car and then this happens :
Is this a shifter car? I cannot drive a shifter car, alright, so we got a little situation here. I can't drive these kinda cars! ... You think that's funny? Would you like to know, smartass? Would you like to know why I can't drive this kinda car? I'll tell you why, I'm used to luxury cars. Have you ever heard of a luxury car? You know what luxury means? Ever heard of Cadillac, Cadillac Eldorado? That's what I drive. I drive cars that shift themselves.
Similarly, the Raiders' Coaching Staff going into this game must have thought "This opponent beats themselves". Just play solid, mistake-free football and the Jaguars offense will make mistakes and lose the game. Easiest way to lose this game is to be over-aggressive and give the Jaguars easy scoring opportunities like defensive TDs, turnovers, or good field position.
For long-suffering Raiders' fans, this should sound familiar. In the mid-to-late 2000s, when the Raiders were fielding QBs like Andrew Walter, Aaron Brooks, and Marques Tuiasosopo, this was the general gameplan for any team playing the Raiders.
One of the best examples of this is from the miserable 2006 season when the Raiders went 2-14. The Raiders had only 98 yards of total offense, but beat the Steelers 20-13 courtesy of 2 Pick 6s. Boxscore link.
The struggling Jaguars made many mistakes en route to giving up the game :
- interception in the endzone
- Malik Jackson getting 45 yards of penalties in one drive
- Muffing a punt
- Returning a punt from the 1 yardline
- etc
Here's a look at some things the Raiders did to encourage, enhance, and exploit those mistakes.
Defense
Jaguars Offensive Line
- Kelvin Beachum, LT, 1st year with Jax, 5th in NFL
- Patrick Omameh, LG, 1st year with Jax, 4th in NFL
- Brandon Linder, C, 3rd year with Jax, 3rd in NFL
- A.J. Cann, RG, 2nd year with Jax, 2nd in NFL
- Jermey Parnell, RT, 2nd year with Jax, 8th in NFL
Doug Marrone is their OL Coach, 2nd year with Jax
Jacksonville's OL has 2 new starters this year and the right side has only been together 1 year previously. Ken Norton attacked this line with lots of line games (stunts and twists) and with some new blitzes.
Mack's Sack was a scheme-sack by Ken Norton. He blitzes Reggie Nelson to take away the RB chip and creates a 1-on-1 for Mack. Khalil does the rest.
Norton may be figuring out some ways to free Mack up.
Bruce Irvin was doing some work.
Was getting to the QB multiple times, forced a holding, taking on blockers, made some big hits, and forced a fumble.
Unfortunately, two of the bigger run plays were right at Bruce.
Bortles v Coverage
Blake Bortles struggled much of the day.
His long throwing motion allowed defenders to break on underneath routes and for linemen to get their arms up into passing lanes. Zone defense and Off coverage was effective against Bortles. Very few timing/anticipation throws that were successful.
His accuracy and timing was also very inconsistent, often throwing a little late and behind receivers.
When he was on target, Allen Robinson was dropping balls perhaps because he felt the tight coverage or the closing defender.
Julius Thomas beats Malcolm Smith, but the underthrow allows Malcolm to make up ground.
But overall Malcolm and Karl did a good job of covering the TEs. Several pass breakups and Malcolm should have had the interception in the endzone if not for Julius Thomas reaching over the top and pulling the ball out of Malcolm's hands.
Here's Karl on Teal Julius.
His man coverage seems to be improving. He made a play on Marcedes Lewis, also.
Bortles seems much more comfortable on the move (either scrambling or on designed rollouts) and throwing deep. He seems better at throwing 20+ yard passes than 10 yard ones.
In the 2nd half, it seemed like the pass rush tried to contain the edges on him and force him to either throw from the pocket or scramble up the middle. Also saw some spying on him.
Seems like a Game Plan on making Bortles play like Alex Smith was effective.
Shilique's growth is interesting
- He's still learning to be a linebacker, but each game, he seems to be understanding the game better.
- He's not as stiff in coverage as before.
- Instead of simple Spot-Dropping, he's scanning for receivers and routes and trying to get into passing lanes. Shows intelligence and understanding.
- May be more of a general purpose athlete than he was given credit for.
- One a couple of occassions, he was used as a Spy on Bortles.
- Still has a long way to go, but he's a much improved player from what showed in Preseason
Jihad may be turning the corner
- Playing faster
- Hands are quicker and he's playing with more power
- Still has no real technique or pass rushing moves, but he's getting near the QB
- Was awful running stunts early on; now he's starting to come free
- Starting to look comfortable
Defensive cohesion
The defense is showing signs that they are starting to come together.
At least two RB screens that were read well by defense was nice to see.
Run defense looked much improved, but still had 3 problem plays that needed clean up. Aside from the big 42 yard run, the defense held Jaguars to 40 yards or 11 attempts, 3.6 avg. This run defense is getting close to being a very good one. A little more cleaning up and it could get there.
Jacksonville went away from the run and only ran the ball 12 times.
Defending 3 TE running plays remains a problem that needs addressing. In this game, the 2 biggest rushes (42, 15) were out of 13 personnel. For the game, 13 Personnel accounted for 3 rushes, 59 yards, 19.7 avg. Until this gets fixed, it will continue to show up.
Offense
I think Austin Howard is a little more healed up. Looked better and reinforces my thought that last week he was hurt and playing by necessity. Hat Tip to the man for gutting it out for the team last week.
Gabe Jackson looks more and more comfortable at RG. This offensive line unit is still coming together. Super Saiyan OL is still yet to come.
Several near misses
- Walford near catch in the endzone
- Slight underthrow to Seth
- Just out of Seth's reach in the endzone
- Seth can't get his 2nd foot down in the endzone
Derek's throw is into a very small window. I bet he could Bullseye Womprats with a T-16 back home.
In the future as the Carr/Clive chemistry grows, Walford slides towards the small hole before the throw and comes down with the catch.
The running game welcomed back Latavius.
And Lats responded by running hard.
He also dropped that shoulder a couple of times, including the game sealing TD :
Pulling plays were less effective than the more straightforward Inside Zone.
Jaguars defense was doing good job of disrupting pulling linemen, often doing things like blatantly grabbing the lineman :
On the Inside Zone play, many times the Jaguars run defense swarmed the point of attack and left the backside lane open.
Receivers
Michael Crabtree is Michael ClutchTree.
- Last year, Derek's timing with both Amari and Crabtree was a work in progress
- This year, we can see the payoff from all that offseason work
- "It's a matter of Trust" and Derek trusts his receivers
Since Week 1, Musgrave has called the Fade to Crabtree in the endzone. That's on film multiple times so opposing CBs have seen it. Same situation. This time, Coach calls the slant and it's executed to perfection.
Here's a look at the timing :
To quote Vince McMahon's theme song : "You've got No Chance!"
The 3rd play of the game was from 4 WR set that including Johnny Holton. It was a pass play; this may have been to set up the Johnny Holton end around play later in the game.
On that Holton end around, Mychal makes this fake block to clear the backside :
That 4th quarter 3rd-and-2 Fade to Amari was a sight-adjust from a Running play. The offensive line was run blocking as DC makes the throw. Derek's taking another step to making this offense his own.
When was the last time Amari dropped a pass?
In the 2nd half, Musgrave called the perfect RB screen to DeAndre Washington.
Jax was blitzing and the screen was called INTO the blitz, leaving DeAndre all alone with KO and Gabe as lead blockers. Was a potential huge gain but Washington drops the ball (possible over-excited?)
3rd Quarter Offense
Lots of little things caused offense to sputter in 3rd quarter again.
13 plays, 22 yards of offense in the 3rd quarter, 2 first downs, 3 points
Misc
Comparing Derek Carr's throwing motion to Blake Bortles' :
I like our guy.
Marquette's punt run was the highlight moment of hte game. Seeing him just pulling away from those chasing linebackers was amazing; he looks like a 4.4s guy. I imagine Al Davis smiling.
Extra shocking was that Jon Condo had a bad snap.
That run overshadowed another excellent Marquette punting day : 5 punts, 273 yards, 54.6 avg. 4 inside the 20.
Terrible OVER-Officiating made mediocre game nearly unwatchable
- Terrible and unpleasant for both sides
- It took about 10 minutes to do a kick off at one point
- Bortles' grounding was ridiculous. Called according to the letter of the rule, but not the spirit of the rule
- What does "There is no defensive holding, the ball was already in the air" mean? Doesn't that just mean it's Pass Interference?
- Malik Jackson's roughing penalty was borderline. And the "touching an official" was BS
- Bad officiating was causing tempers to start to flare.
Here's to you Jeff Triplette :
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