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Jaguars Pulse
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Mile High Matchup |
 Welcome to the Jungle – "Mile High Matchup"
Familar Foe New Team
The Jacksonville Jaguars started the 2006 campaign 0-2 and both games would go poorly for different reasons. Week 1 against the Tennessee Titans saw a team that could not stop the run at all and would end up giving up 4 rushing touchdowns in the game and would get routed 44-17 and in week 2 the Atlanta Falcons came in and won a close game 17-10 but it would see the Jaguars offense turn the ball over 4 times and really hinder their chances of holding onto a lead. This week would not be any easier as the Jaguars will finish up the hardest run that any team in the PTF will probably face QB wise in Daunte Culpepper, Michael Vick, and now will be facing who many think is the best QB in the whole league that moved teams in the offseason and the Peyton Manning lead Denver Broncos. Denver who was already a playoff team last year and was one of the best teams in the west made the BIG move to bring a 30 year old Manning in to finish his career and help the Broncos get over the hump and try and get themselves a Super Bowl.
The Denver Broncos would be heading into this Week 3 matchup at 2-0 and would be the team that would send their offense onto the field first. KR Aveion Cason would catch the kickoff at the goal line and take it out and would get brought down at the 23 yard line and QB Peyton Manning would trot out onto the field to face off against a team that he knows a ton about but also really frustrated him the last time he went up against them in Week 10 of the 2005 season, Manning threw for 2 TDs and over 400 yards but would still come away with a loss. He would be expecting a much different result in today's matchup with a brand new offense he is in control of. Manning would drop back on first down and have a good pocket to sit in surveying the field and would dump the ball off to his underneath option WR Marty Booker for a gain of five yards. HB Ron Dayne would take the 2nd down toss to the right and would narrowly miss being brought down by SS Roman Harper and would end up picking up a gain of 12 yards on his first touch and would get a 1st down for the Broncos. Another Daye run up the middle would pick up 8 yards as he spun off an attempted tackle at the line of scrimmage from MLB Keyaron Fox and would make the most of it. Peyton Manning would use one of his signatures in a hurry up offense and get Denver back to the line quickly keeping the Jaguars from being able to sub on the play and would make the most of the call with speedy HB Ronnie Brown lining up to the outside and would find a hole in the backside of the secondary zone. Manning would throw up a lob way down field hitting him for an easy 51 yard pitch and catch putting the Denver Broncos up 7-0 before all the fans were even in their seats taking only 1:20 seconds off the clock in doing so. QB Jay Cutler would now come out for his first drive and be already down by a score and would need to be much more careful then he was last week against the Falcons throwing four interceptions. This game will turn into a blowout quickly if that happens again. HB Adrian Peterson would get the first touch on offense for the Jaguars with a halfback dive up the middle for only a gain of about three yards on the play. The next play would be a big mis communication as Jay Cutler dropped back to hand the ball off but the HB of Adrian Peterson was not there and Cutler would try and run with it but be dropped well behind the line of scrimmage after getting hit hard by DT Chris Hoval who forced a fumble and it would be recovered by Denver thanks to RE Victor Adeyanju jumping on it instantly securing the turnover at the Jaguars 20 yard line. Peyton Manning would come back out already starting out the 2nd drive of the day for Denver in the Red Zone and was in prime position to make this a two score game just minutes into the contest. HB Ron Dayne would get the rock on first down and would not be able to find much space, only gaining two yards. They would call a play action rollout pass on 2nd down and the wide receivers would be covered well down field as Manning would roll out and he would not be able to find a quick option before the LE of Kenny King would get to him and drag him down for a sack. Manning again would call a hurry up and get the team back to the line for 3rd and 15. Manning again would have some issues finding a good option down field and would feel the pressure getting to him and threw the ball out of bounds just as RE DeLawrence Grant was about to hit him and would have an intentional grounding flag thrown on the play. That would force the Broncos back and they would have to attempt a 52 yard Field Goal but that would not be an issue for Kicker Jeff Reed who was well good on distance and hit it right down the middle giving Denver a 10-0 lead just three minutes into the game. Cutler and the Jaguars offense would come back out after turning the ball over on a miscommunication that cost them and would need to be much more careful if they wanted any chance at beating this Denver Broncos Squad. Peterson would take the first down carry again and not get a ton on the attempt. The Jaguars would pass the ball on 2nd down and Cutler would make a good read finding TE Bennie Joppru cutting outside towards the sidelines and would get his first completion of the day of about 14 yards. They would try a toss play to the left to start this new set of downs but Denver was ready for it and Peterson would go down for a loss of a yard on the play. Antonio Chapman would find some success on his first touch of the day getting 5 yards on his dive up the middle setting the Jaguars up with a 3rd and 6 to go. The Jaguars would line up in a 4 Wide Receiver set and Cutler would drop back off a play action and hit TE Bennie Joppru for a gain of 20 yards keeping the drive going. Another Peterson handoff was only able to gain 2 and they would give it right back to him again on 2nd down finding no open space at all and it would force another quick 3rd down for Jacksonville. Cutler would drop back after another play action and look to roll out to the right but RE Victor Adeyanju would be there and would bring him down for a sack at the 45 yard line pulling them out of field goal range and Punter Chris Hanson would come out and kick it out of bounds at the 17 yard line. Manning would come back out looking to put another scoring drive together in the 1st quarter for the Broncos and they would give it up the middle again to HB Ron Dayne who again was able to find some open space and get a gain of 8 yards on 1st down. Backup HB Ronnie Brown would get the 2 yards to go plus more on his next carry stiff arming off a defender and would get a nice pickup of 10 yards. You were starting to tell that Denver watched a lot of film on this defense and picked up on the lack of run defense that they had shown so far this season again. Another handoff to Brown would gain 14 yards on the next play and Denver was set up midfield already after 3 runs. A pass on first down nearly was a turnover as Rookie SS Roman Harper had himself in great position but just was not able to hang onto the pass and would deflect it away to bring up 2nd down. Dayne would get stopped at the line with a run up the middle and make it 3rd and 9. Manning would not have much issues though on the next play dropping back and would find WR Jabar Gaffney open just past the sticks and would sling it to him for a gain of 11 yards and would reset the downs. An offsides on 1st down by OLB Raheem Orr gave Denver a 1st and 5 instead of 2nd and 10 after an incomplete pass and 2 players alter Peyton Manning would make a very risky pass throwing it to FB Rock Cartwright who had FS Chris Hope lurking and when for an interception but just barely missed and would pick up 20 yards on the play putting the Broncos inside the Red Zone at the 10 yard line. An incomplete pass and a Ronnie Brown run for no gain would be how the 1st quarter ended and Denver would be up 10-0 and would start the 2nd quarter in great position to go up 2 scores quickly. Another incomplete pass in the endzone would force a 4th down field goal try from Jeff Reed and he would easily make the 27 yarder for his 2nd make of the day and the Denver Broncos would go up 13-0 seconds into the 2nd quarter. The Jacksonville Jaguars offense would have their first drive of the 2nd quarter and would love to come out and show some life and get a scoring drive put together before this game started to get out of hand on them. A 2 yard loss on 1st down would not be how they wanted to start the drive. A 2nd down handoff again to HB Adrian Peterson this time would break for a gain of 9 yards leaving them with a 3rd down with 3 to go, HB Antonio Chatman would do a great job of being patient behind the line and would be able to grab the 1st down on a handoff and move the chains after gaining 10 yards. A couple runs that didn't go anywhere had the Jaguars at 3rd down again and Cutler would drop back to take a deep shot and just would not be able to find WR Marcus Knight and Jacksonville would stall out again and Punter Chris Hanson would again be called on to force the Broncos Back as far as he could. He did achieve just that having the ball land at the 5 yard line and would bounce back to the 8 when it was downed. Being that deep in their own territory would not faze Manning though as they have had a lot of success through the air and on the ground moving the ball so they would come out pretty confident on the drive. A quick strike to WR Jabar Gaffney on a curl route would get the Broncos a quick first down and a bit more breathing room. A false start before 1st down made it 1st and 15 and the Broncos would drop back to pass again. A Cornerback Blitz from the slot would nearly take down Peyton Manning but he saw it coming at the last second and would throw the ball away for an incomplete pass. WR Marty Booker would run a great dig route and pick up 12 yards and helped make 3rd down a lot more manageable as Manning went back to a hurry up offense and got them to the line quickly. A heavy blitz nearly got to Peyton Manning as he just needed a second longer to get something on the pass he was trying to get to a wide open FB Rock Cartwright who had a ton of open field around him. It would be a great stop by the Jacksonville defense and they would take over at the 22 yard line for the next possession. HB Adrian Peterson would have runs of 3 and 5 yards on the first two plays and Jacksonville would be at 3rd down again but to this point were 2 for 4 on conversions. They would drop back to pass and Jay Cutler would look to fellow rookie WR Greg Jennings and would rocket one to him on a quick streak and fit it in between 2 defenders and would be tackled instantly but would pick up the first down doing so. Cutler would find Jennings again on the very next play and would make a connection on a short pass over the middle gaining 9 yards. A short run for not much of a gain made it 3rd and inches and they continued to pound the ball even though they have not had much luck and Peterson was able to get a couple yards and move the chains and get the ball past midfield. Another back to back runs on the next set of downs really were never able to get anything on them and for the 3rd time on the drive the Jaguars would have a 3rd down they would have to complete. It would be another successful one as WR Chris Henry did a great job stopping just past the sticks on a short curl route and Jay Cutler would hit him perfectly as he turned to move the chains again. The offense was really starting to hit its stride, especially after WR Maurice Mann would pick up 10 yards on an outside dig route getting Jacksonville well into scoring territory. After a short run by Peterson the two minute warning would stop the clock. A great run to the outside finally broke for a long gain for the Jaguars picking up 12 yards and getting them inside the Red Zone for the 1st time setting up at the 10 yard line. Cutler would do all but get a passing touchdown to TE Bennie Joppru who got drug down just inches from the endzone and would set up 2nd and very very short. A bit of questionable play calling from the Jaguars offensive coordinator as passing plays would be called on 2nd and 3rd and goal with both of them going for incomplete passes and the Jaguars would have to settle for a field goal with 1:20 left in the 2nd quarter putting the game at 13-3 . Manning would come out and set up in a 4 wide receiver set on the first play of the drive and find WR Jabar Gaffney on another quick strike that gained 18 yards. The following play he would find WR Jabar Gaffney again on the other side of the field getting another 10 yards and the Broncos looked like they could do some damage on the drive. A dumpoff pass to FB Rock Cartwright gained 8 yards on 2nd down and it would be 3rd and 2 with 49 seconds left in the half. TE David Martin would get his first catch of the day on a quick outside drag to the sidelines making sure he got the 1st down. A quick pass to HB Ronnie Brown for a gain of a handful and a run up the middle from HB Ron Dayne got the clock ran down enough that they would take a timeout and send out Jeff Reed to kick his 3rd field goal in the 1st half this one being 32 yards and would give the Broncos a 16-3 lead heading into the half.
Jacksonville would receive the kickoff in the 2nd half and would hope the adjustments made during the half would be enough to give the offense a boost and help get themselves into the endzone. The Jags continued to try and get a struggling run game going, handing it off to HB Adrian Peterson for a gain of 2 yards on 1st down. They looked right back to him again on 2nd down and was able to get some good blocking on the left side and bounced out and would pick up a nice gain of 10 yards moving the chains. Backup HB Antionio Chatman would get another nice pickup for himself taking his 1st down handoff up the middle for a gain of 10. Cutler would drop back to pass on the next play and would find TE Bennie Joppru for the 4th time in the game on a quick hitch a couple yards short of the sticks. An incomplete pass on 2nd down brought up 3rd and 2. To this point the Jaguars were 5 for 8 on conversions and would need another one to keep this drive going, they would try and pick it up on the ground but Antonio Chatman would get brought down just short and the Jaguars would have to punt from around midfield. WR Jabar Gaffney wouldn't take long to pick up another reception getting a good pickup off a quick slant on 1st down. Manning would drop back to pass again and would find HB Ronnie Brown out of the slot over the middle for a gain of 15 yards. IT was not taking long for Denver to move the ball quickly up field almost at the 50 yard line already. HB Ron Dayne would get his first carry of the half to the outside and would only be able to pick up a couple yards but Peyton Manning would call into a hurry up offense and get them back to the line quickly and would drop back to pass finding WR Marty Booker on a dig to the left hand side of the field for a gain of 14 yards. They would run back to the line quickly but the play would end in an incomplete pass with Manning looking to the edge to hit HB Ron Dayne but LOLB Akin Ayodele would be there to deflect it away. A Dayne run up the middle picked up 4 yards and Denver would be faced with their 1st 3rd down conversion of the half in 3rd and 6. TE Daniel Graham would help pick up the conversion with a quick drag off the line of scrimmage to the sidelines just getting enough space to be open and Manning dump the ball off to him getting 9 yards on his only catch of the day. Manning would nearly get picked off by SS Michael Green who was lurking a pass over the middle and was able to jump it and deflect the ball away but couldn't quite hang on to the interception. Dayne would get another 2nd down handoff picking up only 2 yards and it again was 3rd down and again Manning would make the smart read hitting an open WR Jabar Gaffney who ran a perfectly timed curl route just past the sticks getting the Broncos into the Red Zone with the ball sitting at the 10 yard line. The Denver Broncos luck would run out on the drive as QB Peyton Manning would not see FS Chris Hope cutting in on what looked to be a wide open HB Ronnie Brown in the endzone picking up his first interception of the year since being traded in the offseason from Pittsburgh to Jacksonville. Jacksonville would take over but would be starting from their own 7 yard line. Peterson again would get the 1st down carry and would get a bit of breathing room getting 3 yards on the dive. Another outside handoff gained a few yards and it would be 3rd and 4. Cutler would drop back looking to hit WR Chris Henry on a real deep throw but just would not get enough air under it to clear the defensive back and CB Ken Hamlin would get a hand on it to knock it away and quickly force the Jaguars to punt the ball right back to them. The Denver Broncos took over again at the 41 yard line feeling good about their 1st drive of the half even though it did result in a turnover. The momentum would continue with Manning quickly finding WR Marty Booker just past the 1st down marker on a quick throw and would hit him again on a very similar looking route a couple plays later, setting themselves up with a 3rd and short from the Jaguars 37 yard line. HB Ron Dayne would power up the middle gaining what would be needed to reset the downs. Surprisingly enough Manning would make another major mistake on 1st down dropping back and rolling to his right a bit after not finding anything open right away and would fire to the opposite side of the field trying to hit TE Daniel Graham who was cutting across but would over thrown him hitting LOLB Akin Ayodele right in the numbers for an interception. Back to back drives the Jaguars defense would come away with a turnover instead of Denver points and they would really need the offense to give them a hand and keep them off the field and make this game closer. Unfortunately that would not be the case as they looked to QB Jay Cutler on 3 straight passes to try and move the ball up field and 3 straight times it would fall for an incompletion. It just seemed like this Denver Broncos defense was giving Cutler fits and making it hard for him to have any time to find any open space or have enough time to make good reads. Some of this would be growing pains learning the ropes as a rookie in the PTF. Again the Denver Broncos would take the ball over and have it at the 45 yard line thanks to a holding penalty on the Jaguars on the return. HB Ron Dayne got another 1st down handoff up the middle and would take it for a gain of 2 yards. TE David Martin would run a great outside post and Manning would find up for a gain of 13 yards on the play and quickly Denver was back into Jacksonville territory as the 3rd quarter ended. Disaster almost struck for the 3rd drive in a row with Manning nearly throwing an interception to FS Chris Hope but he just was not able to hold onto this one and the Broncos would make them pay for that on the next play with HB Ron Dayne breaking a couple tackles and busting a run of 23 yards off getting them into the Red Zone again with the ball at the 15 yard line. A Ronnie Brown rush up the middle gained another 10 yards and it would be a goal to go for Denver. HB PJ Pope would walk into the endzone on the next play on the HB draw and the 7th round rookie would score his first career PTF Touchdown putting the Broncos up 23-3 just a few minutes into the 4th quarter. The Jaguars would come out and feel like this was a must score on this drive and every other chance they had the ball from here on out. They would call a play action pass on 1st down and Jay Cutler would find a big bodied Chris Henry at the sticks for his 2nd reception of the day getting a quick 1st down. HB Adrian Peterson would get a dive up the middle and pick up 4 yards on 1st down and the 2nd down pass would fall incomplete. Cutler would drop back again on 3rd down trying to keep the drive alive but would not be able to find anyone open downfield before rookie DT Tamba Hali was able to get to Cutler and bring him down for a sack ended the drive. The Broncos drive would start at the 20 yard line and they would hand the ball off to Dayne on 1st down and start to do what they could to eat up a bit of this clock and start getting the game wound down. A gain of 6 yards on 2nd down helped negate the 3 yards lost on the first carry of the drive and Denver who was 5 for 7 to this point would see a 3rd and 7 pass completed over the middle to WR Marty Booker but he would be brought down just short of the 1st down marker and Denver would have to punt the ball away. A 15 yard return from KR Marcus Knight get the ball to the 35 yard line and that would be where Cutler and the Jaguars offense would take over. Cutler would drop back on 1st down and throw a quick pass to his left to WR Greg Jennings who made a great catch in traffic on a slant route. The Jaguars would line up in shotgun on 2nd and 2 and WR Chris Henry would find a soft spot in the zone and plant himself and would pick up the 1st down on a short 5 yard catch moving the chains and just getting the Jaguars past midfield. HB Adrian Peterson would get a carry on the next 1st down and would take the handoff up the middle for 5 yards. An incomplete deep pass on 2nd down made it 3rd and 6 until an encroachment penalty on the Broncos made it a 3rd and inches. The Jaguars would try and catch the Broncos off guard dropping back to pass in a pretty obvious running down and Rookie WR Greg Jennigns would do a great job getting open on a quick slant and would pick up the 1st down. Antonio Chatman would get a handoff to the left and would get stopped at the line of scrimmage. LE Matt Walters would blow up 2nd down getting to Jay Cutler and bringing him down for a sack and would force the Jaguars back to a 3rd and 15 to go. An incomplete pass would bring up 4th and 15 and would go for it and WR Maurice Mann would break open and pick up his 2nd catch of the day and the longest one getting 34 yards getting drug down at the 4 yard line. A couple plays later Jay Cutler would throw a pretty risky pass in heavy coverage but Chris Henry would come up with it and score the late Touchdown with under 2 minutes left to go in the game and would bring the game just a bit closer to 23-10. Kicker Hayden Epstein would line up for an onside kick but the Denver Broncos would fall on it and would take over at the 40 yard line. 3 straight runs would not quite be enough to move the chains and end the game so for the 4th time in the game Kicker Jeff Reed would come out for a 49 yard field goal and would nail it putting the Broncos up 26-10 with just under a minute left to go in the 4th quarter. The Jaguars would still try to get the ball downfield quick with WR Chris Henry getting open on a streak and Cutler would drop a perfect pass that went for 41 yards. Three straight incompletions would end the Jaguars drive and the game for them as Denver would take over after the failed 4th down conversion and would take a knee to end the game and win 26-10 and move to 3 and 0 on the season while Jacksonville would start 0-3 in the 2006 campaign. This would not be what the team and fans really wanted but there were some positives holding their own against some tough teams with a really young roster and a Quarterback with not many starts under his belt. It would be an early bye week for the Jaguars so they would have an extra week to prepare for their Week 5 matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs. |
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(by E_Terry-Haag on 06/01/2026)
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Dirty Birds Come To Town |
Welcome to the Jungle – "Dirty Birds Come To Town"
Shaking Off The Opening Game Rust?
Week 1 of the 2006 PTF season was the first chance for all the teams to see a glimpse of what could be in store for them in the new season, a first real look at how things played out with draft picks, trades, and free agent signings. Week 2 really is about getting into your stride after shaking off a bit of rust and getting back into the swing of things now that the competition is real and the games truly matter week to week. The Jacksonville Jaguars were host to the Division Rival Tennessee Titans in their opening season matchup and it was a game that they would like to forget about offensively and defensively. The Titans were able to come into the Jungle and really do whatever they wanted when they were on the field. HB Fred Taylor had 143 yards on the ground on only 18 carries and it felt like any time he had the ball he had open space and was taking large chunks out of the Jacksonville Defense. Backup Johnathan Wells had a career day not gaining a ton of yards but made his touches count especially as they got close to the goal line racking up 3 rushing touchdowns on top of Fred Taylor having one of his own. That didn't mean the passing game didn't do much for the Titans as QB Daunte Culpepper had a really efficient day going 21 for 33 and picking up a passing touchdown on a long 73 yard bomb to WR David Boston. He also would have over 300 passing yards himself in a really impressive Week 1 Game. Things weren't all doom and gloom for Jacksonville as the Jay Cutler era started and he made some impressive throws during the game to show why Jacksonville may have reached for him at the 7th pick in the 1st round of the 2006 Draft. He was 18-39 passing with 229 yards but did pick up his 1st passing touchdown in the game finding his 1st Round Rookie teammate WR Greg Jennings late in the game and the crowd loved it, they knew this would be an elite combo that the league would be talking about as the years went on and the chemistry built. The week 2 matchup would not get any easier as they would also host the Atlanta Falcons who with the ever dangerous Michael Vick would really be another test to the defense.
The Falcons would kick off the opening kick and put their defense up against a rookie QB to see what he would be able to do against them now that teams would start to get a bit of game tape on the inexperienced Jay Cutler. Kicker Mike Barth would line up and send the ball downfield into the endzone where KR Marcus Knight would kneel it down for a touchback and a 20 yard line spotting for the offense to come out and start the drive on. The Jaguars would come out on a 3 Wide Receiver set with a single back and hand it off to HB Adrian Peterson to the left. Peterson would be able to shake off the MLB Keith Brooking who got into the backfield early but would be swallowed up by DT Jonathan Babineaux who got off his block and was able to cut him off as he got slowed up at the line for only a gain of 2 yards. They would give it right back to Adrian Peterson on a toss play to the right getting a couple more yards but would leave them with a 3rd down and 6 to convert for the first down. A shotgun formation was called into QB Jay Cutler’s headset and he would need to read the field well to make the right call. He was able to find a bit of a matchup he liked and fired a quick pass to his right hitting WR Chris Henry who with his big frame was able to get a bit of inside leverage even though he was pretty tightly covered and would be able to move the chains on the gain of about 18 yards. The Jaguars would line up in a 2 TE set and try and pass again on 1st down with QB Jay Cutler nearly making a fatal mistake throwing into a zone coverage trying to hit seemingly open TE Terry Jones and never saw FS Stuart Schweigert cutting down to undercut the ball and nearly came up with an interception that would of went for a pick 6 had he caught it. They would be lucky to have it stay at just 2nd and 10 and Cutler would have to shake that near miss off. They went back to being a bit more conservative giving FB Moran Norris a dive up the middle but he would be tripped up at the line and would only pick up a yard bringing up 3rd and 9 from their own 45 yard line. For the 2nd time in the drive the Jaguars would have to convert on 3rd down to keep the drive alive and again they went into a shotgun formation and Cutler was luckily able to handle the high snap and get a quick look through his progressions and again fired a pass off to his right perfectly hitting WR Chris Henry in the numbers just past the sticks after a perfectly executed curl route. They again would look to the ground on 1st down and HB Adrian Peterson would have to stiff arm a defender who got to him at the line and fight his way for a 5 yard gain. Jacksonville was just getting into field goal territory on the opening drive with the ball sitting at the Falcons 38 yard line, they would just need a handful more yards for kicker Hayden Epstein to have a chance. 2nd down saw them line up with a tight 3 WR formation and again Cutler would drop back and get through his reads but a mis communication with WR Maurice Mann had Cutler throwing to the wrong area as Mann went towards the sidelines with his route and he floated it up perfectly for FS Stuart Schweigert to get a 2nd chance at an interception and he took full advantage of it. He was able to return it back to the 30 yard line and as they walked off the field you could see QB Jay Cutler and WR Maurice Mann talking about what happened and what they both saw that led to the mis read and first turnover of the game for the Jaguars after they had put on a pretty good drive to open it up. Atlanta Falcons QB Michael Vick would come out onto the field and get his first chance at a defense that really struggled to stop anything last week and would need to make some major changes to be able to handle this offense. HB TJ Duckett would have his name called on the 1st play call and would get the dive up the middle for a nice gain of 5 yards. QB Mike Vick would drop back to pass on 2nd down and would find a great mis match as WR Brian Finneran would end up being covered by OLB Raheem Orr and was able to get himself open on a great outside post 15 yards downfield and was almost able to get the catch but Orr was just able to recover after getting burnt on the cut and would be able to get to him just as the ball touched his hands and undercut him knocking the ball out on a drop. Raheem Orr would limp to the sidelines favoring his leg on the play but at least was able to make it a 3rd and 5 for the Falcons to have to convert instead of the 1st down plus they were thinking they were about to get. Vick again would try and pick up the 3rd down through the air and would drop back and dump a pass off to HB Kevin Jones who managed to haul the pass in even with heavy coverage from LOLB Akin Ayodele who had just got onto the field to fill in for the injured Orr and break out for a 15 yard gain and put the ball at midfield for the Falcons. The Falcons would hand the ball off again to HB TJ Duckett up the middle who would get a hard fought 3 yards on the play. They would come out in a 4 WR set on 2nd down and would try and catch the Jaguars off guard again buy handing the ball off right up the middle with their being a bit more open space with the called formation and Duckett would find a nice hole up the middle and pick up the 7 yards needed to get Atlanta another 1st down. HB Travis Minor would get his first carry of the game on the next 1st down going up the middle and picking up 5 yards himself and it started to look like Jacksonville would again struggle to stop much right up the middle and it could be a long day for them. Atlanta would test to see how much Jacksonville would be paying attention in the backfield to Michael Vick as they called a QB draw on 2nd down to try and get Vick some open space to use his speed and get some yardage himself rushing. DT Rocky Bernard would pick up on Vick moving and would be able to get off his block and cut him off right at the line of scrimmage and would get his 1st sack on the year on the tackle. For the 2nd time on the drive the Falcons would have a 3rd and 5 to convert and this one would be from the Jaguars 35 yard line. Again the Falcons would look to the ground to pick up the 1st down and HB Kevin Jones would find a hole and pick up 13 yards on the play, setting up the Atlanta Falcons very close to the Red Zone. HB TJ Duckett would get the following carry and pick up 6 yards, and would get the rock again right afterwards on a handoff to the left and continue the dominance they have shown in the rushing game early with a pickup of 11 yards making it 48 yards on the ground already on the first drive of the game. 1st and goal from the 5 would end up being pretty easy for the Falcons as they would only need 1 play to get themselves into the endzone with Duckett finishing off an impressive drive walking into the endzone on a toss play and the Atlanta Falcons would put themselves onto the board 1st 7-0 with just a couple minutes left to go in the 1st quarter. The 11 Play 68 yard drive ate up almost half the quarter and really was a dominating running performance by the trio of Falcons Running Backs. Another Mike Barth kickoff went into the endzone, this time not quite deep enough to keep KR Marcus Knight from trying to return it. He would get some decent blocking but would get smacked at the 21 yard line just before he broke it for a long game. QB Jay Cutler would come back out and look to shake off the poor interception he threw on the opening drive that potentially took points off the board and would try and redeem himself on this one. Adrian Peterson would get a handoff up the middle again on 1st down and would find a nice hole sneaking through for a gain of 8 yards. Cutler would drop back to pass on 2nd down and would get a ton of pressure from his left hand side but would ultimately get brought down by DT Ryan Sims for a sack before he could see the wide open FB Moran Norris over the middle of the field just past the sticks. After the sack it would be 3rd and 7 for the Jaguars and they would try a screen pass to the left to pick up the 1st down and get Adrian Peterson out into open space but Cutler would not get rid of the ball quick enough with the LT of David Stewart letting go of RE Erasmus James to help go out in front for the screen line he was supposed to and Jay Cutler would get sacked for the 2nd play in a row and would end the drive for Jacksonville. For the first time in the game Punter Chris Hanson would come out to punt the ball away and try and try and force them back as fast as he can punting from his own goal line. Falcons KR Travis Minor would field the punt and take it 10 yards before being brought down and giving the team the ball at the Jaguars 46 yard line. Michael Vick would come back out onto the field and Atlanta would line up in a split back formation and again they would go to the ground game for yardage handing it off to Duckett for a gain of 5 yards and that would be the last play of the 1st quarter. They would go straight back to Duckett again on 2nd down but he only managed to get 2 yards on the attempt and it would be 3rd and 3 from the 40 yard line. Vick would drop back to pass and after getting some pressure from the left hand side saw a big hole in the middle of the field and took off and would dive for a gain of 10 yards keeping the drive going. A loss of 1 yard on a HB toss would be how the next set of down started and a holding penalty on 2nd down by the LT of Jacob Rodgers negated a few yard gain and shoved them back to 2nd and 20 from the 41 yard line. Vick would drop back to pass on the reset 2nd down and would have an issue finding a man open as he bounced around in the pocket and was eventually tripped up by DT Rocky Bernard on what would go down as his 2nd sack of the day and it would put the Falcons in a 3rd and 25 to go. It would be another passing down and would nearly turn the ball over not noticing a Rookie SS Roman Harper breaking on a throw and almost came away with his first career interception but at least was able to stop the catch and would force the Falcons to punt to end the drive. The punt would get sent for a touchback and the 20 yard line would be where QB Jay Cuter would come out to start the first drive of the 2nd quarter for the Jaguars. HB Adrian Peterson would get the 1st down handoff and find a really nice hole up the middle and go for a gain of 13 yards and would reset the chains. Another carry for Peterson on the next play would net 6 yards and it seemed like maybe the running game may finally be coming to life for Jacksonville. Unfortunately a toss play to the right got sniffed out and Peterson was stopped at the line of scrimmage and it would be 3rd down and 3 for the Jaguars. They would line up in a 5 Wide Receiver set and the Falcons would time a perfect cornerback blitz from the slot and Cutler did not sense the pressure coming and would go down for a sack from CB Allen Rossum and it would be Jacksonville punting once again after a stalled drive. A great punt from Chris Hanson got the ball down to the 19 yard line and a short return had the Falcons starting their next drive from the 23 yard line. Atlanta would shake things up on first down, dropping back to pass and would try to find HB TJ Duckett on a long wheel route out of the backfield but the pass would drift just a bit too far wide and would be caught out of bounds for an incompletion. The next pass for Vick would be better as he found TE Marcedes Lewis over the middle of the field on an inside post and would pick up 16 yards on the play. They would go back to the ground game on the next play and HB TJ Duckett would have a hard time finding any open room for once and would get brought down at the line of scrimmage for no gain. A passing play would be what was called down for this 2nd and 9 play and QB Michael Vick would look to his left and fire a pass off to WR Larry Brackins but would have it knocked out of his hands by CB Terrance Newman who laid a nice hit on him as soon as the ball got to him and it would fall incomplete. The Falcons have had quite a bit of success up to this point converting on most of their 3rd down attempts and this one would be a bit of a success as well as Vick really trusted his arm and receiver and fired one to a well defended WR Derrick Hamilton who used his height to make a great catch but would get stripped on the tackle by CB Pacman Jones causing him to fumble and FS Chris Hope would do a great job jumping on the loose ball and securing the turnover but would limp to the sidelines with a bit of a hurt ankle. The Jaguars would take over at the 32 yard line and nearly turn the ball back over to them on the first play as Jay Cutler forced a pass into coverage and put it in a really dangerous spot and came away very lucky to not have been intercepted. HB Adrian Peterson would get the handoff on 2nd down to try and gain a few and would end up getting 8 yards on the play making it a 3rd and a lot more manageable 2 yards. A missed block by 2nd year LT David Stewart left RE Erasmus James a clear pass straight to Cutler on the play action pass and he never had a chance to get the ball away before he was getting drug down from behind ending the drive on a sack for the 2nd time in a row. The Falcons got away with the fumble on the last drive but would really wanna get some more points soon to add onto this 7 point lead they have had. Disaster almost struck a 2nd time in a row as Vick dropped back to pass on 1st down and rookie LOLB Keith Ellison would get into the backfield and strip Michael Vick and the ball would be loose on the ground and was somehow picked up by a Falcons offensive linemen saving the drive but the loss would put them back to a 2nd and 17 to go. Atlanta would drop back to pass again this time dumping the ball off towards the sidelines to HB TJ Duckett who snuck out of the backfield and would get a gain of only 4 yards, leaving them with a 3rd and 13. A pass to WR Brian Finneran over the middle was not able to be hauled in and Atlanta would punt the ball and the clock would hit the 2 minute warning just as Jacksonville came back out onto the field. It really felt like this needed to be a scoring drive for Jacksonville as they would not wanna end the first half without any points on the board. Adrian Peterson again got the ball on a HB dive but would get stopped just past the line of scrimmage for only a gain of a yard and Cutler would get them back out on 2nd down in shotgun formation. For the 1st time since early in the 1st quarter Cutler was able to find WR Chris Henry on a slant route and would move the chains to the Falcons 45 yard line. Jay Cutler would take another shot towards WR Chris Henry on the next play, just not quite getting enough air under the pass to get it over the defender and it would be tipped away. Another shotgun play would be called but this time Cutler would have a hard time finding any open receivers and DT Jonathan Babineaux would finally get to him and drag Cutler down for a sack and force Jacksonville to try and convert on a 3rd and 16. They would not be able to as a pass was just a bit wide and went out of bounds as it was caught by Henry and the Jaguars would punt with just over a minute left in the half. A holding penalty would have the Falcons starting from their own 10 yard line and they would hand it off to TJ Duckett again and he would power up the middle for a gain of 5 yards. Another 4 yard gain made it 3rd and really short made it the perfect opportunity to try and pull off a play action pass and it almost worked outside of TE John Gilmore not getting turned around quick enough to catch the pass from Michael Vick and would end the drive quickly for the Atlanta Falcons. Jacksonville would have :52 seconds and 2 timeouts to try and get into scoring range before the half. A great outside slant from WR Chris Henry grabbed almost 20 yards on the 1st play and TE Bennie Joppru being left untouched over the middle gained another big chunk of yardage for Jacksonville setting them up in field goal range with the ball on the 18 yard line. Cutler would try to find the same magic he hit on last week against the Titans throwing up a jump ball to Rookie WR Greg Jennings but Veteran Ty Law was not about to let that happen and jumped it at the alts second and would pick the ball off in the endzone for Cutlers 2nd Interception of the day. Vick would nearly go down with heavy pressure from LE Kenny King just barely getting the ball away before getting hit hard forcing 2nd and 10. Trouble would strike Atlanta on 2nd down though as a tipped pass ended up in CB Terrance Newman's hands and he came away with his first interception of the year getting the ball right back for Jacksonville on a great heads up play. QB Jay Cutler would only need one play on the drive and he would make a great read finding WR Marcus Knight on an outside post wide open and he would pick up his first receiving touchdown of the year tying the game up at 7-7 just before the half. A short completion and a couple of incompletions would be how the half ended and surprisingly it was a tied game. The Jaguars would need to step up on both sides of the ball to really help out an offense that has really struggled to do much.
The Atlanta Falcons would receive the ball in the 2nd half and KR Travis Minor would take the kickoff all the way to the 38 yard line for a great return. HB TJ Duckett would again be looked towards on first down with a run up the middle that got stuffed at the line and the following dive up the middle would find a bit more of a hole taking it for 5 yards and it would be a 3rd and 5. So far the Falcons were 3 of 9 on 3rd downs on the day and a quick toss to HB Kevin Jones would make that 4 for 10 as he went for 12 yards on the play getting into Jacksonville territory with the ball on the 45 yard line. A short run for no gain and a rushed pass due to heavy pressure that was not able to be held onto by WR Larry Brackins would bring up 3rd down again for Atlanta. QB Michael Vick would again look to WR Larry Brackins this time connecting with him but he would get brought down just short of the 1st down marker and Falcons Kicker Mike Barth would come out to try and hit a long 53 yard field goal. The kick would go just inches wide and miss, leaving 3 points on the board that could have been for Atlanta in a game that so far has been very, very close. The Jaguars would hope to capitalize on the good field position and would hand the ball off on first down to HB Adrian Peterson and he would nearly get the 1st down on the attempt just leaving inches to go. An all out blitz on 2nd down left Peterson getting taken down in the backfield losing 4 yards and making 3rd down a lot more difficult. A pass over the middle into heavy coverage would end in a conversion thanks to WR Chris Henry. HB Jesse Chatman would not find any open room on 1st down with his rushing attempt and at the same time the Jaguars would learn around then that OLB Raheem Orr would not return to the game after dislocating his shoulder just before the half. Cutler again would drop back to pass on 2nd down and would find WR Maurice Mann to his right hand side on an outside post and would hit him for a gain of 15 yards getting Jacksonville close to the Red Zone. WR Greg Jennings again would be the target in the endzone just barely underthrowing a pass to him as he had a step on his matchup and almost would have another pass intercepted but would luck out that they could not hang onto it. A run up the middle for a few yards on 2nd down and a screen pass on 3rd down that did not gain anything would make it 4th down and kicker Hayden Epstein would come out to attempt the 39 yard field goal to give Jacksonville its first lead of the day. For the first time in the game Atlanta was losing in the game and they had to be thinking this needed to be a scoring drive. You could start to see a bit of frustration on QB Michael Vick's face with another incompletion on 1st down, it just seemed like nobody was on the same page today at times in the passing game. HB TJ Duckett though would keep putting the team on his back as he shed a defender at the line of scrimmage and managed to take the 2nd down carry for a gain of 10 and he thought he reset the chains. He so far had 64 yards on 15 carries and looked like he was about to take over the game again. A bit of a questionable spot on the ball left Atlanta with a 3rd and inches instead of a 1st down and Atlanta would try and pick up the 1st down through the air instead of the ground game and it would not be a wise choice as LE Kenny King beat the RT of Rob Pettiti and was able to get a clean hit on Michael Vick as he was looking downfield after the play action motion and would go down for a sack ending the drive. Punter John Henderson and punt the ball to an awaiting KR Marcus Knight who gained a couple of yards on the return and the Jaguars would start their drive at the 29 yard line. QB Jay Cutler would drop back and look to get some momentum going in the pass game but he would make another bad rookie mistake on the play staring down his target in WR Chris Henry on a curl route and CB Derrick Strait would read it perfectly and jump the pass intercepting Cutler and would be brought down a the Jaguars 40 yard line. This would be Cutler’s 3rd Interception of the game and it would be very hard for Jacksonville to hold on to the lead while giving Atlanta extra possessions. HB TJ Duckett would pick up a few yards on the ground on 1st down and Michael Vick would make a great throw on 2nd down to move the chains, firing a pass to his right and hitting WR Derrick Hamilton for a gain of 12 yards and setting them up at the 25 yard line. Back to back handoffs to TJ Duckett and Travis Minor would get them another 1st down getting them ever so closer to the endzone. The next play would be the 1st play in the 4th quarter and again TJ Duckett would get the rock on 1st down and make the most of it, chunking the Jags for another 7 yard gain and moving them to the 6 yard line with 3 to go. Backup HB Travis Minor would get the next carry and nearly take it into the endzone but would get stopped inches short by Rookie SS Roman Harper. He would finish the job on the next carry and walk it into the endzone putting Atlanta back up 14-10 just a minute into the 4th quarter. Jay Cutler would have to come back out again and shake off the last throw and the shaky performance he has had in his 2nd game as a starter and hopefully be the spark this team needs to put together another scoring drive. A short pass on 1st down to WR Chris Henry would pick up 7 and set them up for a 2nd and 3 to go. The HB Counter to Adrian Peterson on the next play would be enough to get them a 1st down and move the chains. Cutler would force pass to get the ball away to keep from getting sacked on 1st down would bring up 2nd down and unfortunately he would make another small mistake just barely throwing a ball just out of reach of WR Maurice Mann when he had some space to really gain some yards after the catch would bring up 3rd and 10 for Jacksonville. This would not go their way either as a missed open receiver was the difference between 1st down and punting the ball away after throwing at the feet of the receiver who he was wanting to hit while heavily covered ended the drive. For the 4th time in the game Punter Chris Hanson would come out and do what he could to force Atlanta back as far as he could. A punt out of bounds had Atlanta starting from about the 20 yard line with just under 9 minutes remaining in the game and they would look to make this drive another scoring one and give themselves some breathing room. DT John Henderson would do a great job on 1st down recognizing when Vick was about to throw the ball and would get himself in perfect position to deflect it at the line and force the incomplete pass. On 2nd and 10 they would go back to what has been so successful for them and get the ground game going again handing it off to HB TJ Duckett who had a massive hole to hit and would take the carry for a gain of 15 yards and would be closing in on 100 yards for the game with just another 4 yards. Another handoff on the next play went for 2 yards and on 2nd and 8 Michael Vick would drop back to pass again and would make a big mistake when LOLB Akin Ayodele would read his eyes and jump the curl route to the left perfectly for an interception. Akin was in for the Injured OLB Raheem Orr and would come up with the huge turnover. The drive would start at the 36 yard line and with just a yard or so would be in field goal range but it would take more than that to tie up this one. The Jaguars would call a play action pass on 1st down and for the 3rd time in the day RE Erasmus James would find himself in the backfield and would bring down Jay Cutler for a sack. A pass deflected at the line on 2nd down would bring up 3rd and 13 and it started to feel like Cutler would need to make something happen on this pass to keep the drive alive and unfortunately he would try a bit too hard to hit WR Marcus Knight on an outside post from the slot and would get picked off by the crafty veteran CB Ty Law who saw it coming the whole time. This was the 4th interception for the 7th overall pick in the 2006 draft for Jacksonville and it was really a “Welcome To The PTF” moment for him. There were going to be some bumps in the road and there will be things he will learn along the way and most people felt like this season could be a real struggle as he got thrown into the action a bit earlier then he was probably ready for. Atlanta would come back out again this time a bit more cautiously then they did on the previous drive. Vick would almost get sacked on 1st down just getting the ball away into the dirt before he got hit hard. TJ Duckett would again get the rock on 2nd down but would only be able to get himself 2 yards on the play. This would bring up the 12th 3rd down in the game for Atlanta and to this point they had been 4 for 11 and QB Michael Vick would take things into his own hands on this one dropping back to pass and seeing a big hole on the right hand side of the field and would take off and use his legs to pick up the first down and get the ball just past midfield. This is really where you could start to see the Falcons offense start to eat away at the clock running again on 1st and 2nd down picking up 6 yards total but really getting the clock ran down before snapping. Vick would drop back on 3rd down and dump a pass off to a wide open HB Kevin Jones at the sidelines who picked up 10 yards and would stay in bounds keeping the clock going. Runs of 7 yards by TJ Duckett and 4 yards from Kevin Jones reset the chains again and the clock went down to the 2 minute warning. Another handoff to Kevin Jones on 3rd down got stopped at the line but it would eat up the Jags 2nd timeout and give them a shot at an easy field goal and they would go up by 7 with 1:53 left in the game. 1 timeout and down by 7 would be all the Jaguars would have getting the ball back with 1:47 left. A tipped ball on 1st down would fall incomplete and Cutler would drop back again and just barely fit the ball into a quickly closing window to rookie WR Greg Jennings who finally had his 1st catch of the day and picked up 20 yards and Jacksonville would be on their own 45 yard line now and time ticking away. A near sack on 1st down forced an incompletion and it would not get any easier as RE Erasmus James got to Cutler for the 4th time in the game losing 7 yards on the play and made it 3rd and 17. A quick pass over the middle to WR Reggie Brown would make it a more manageable 4th and 9. TE Bennie Joppru would make another catch against his former team but would get brought down short of the 1st down marker and it would be a turnover for the Jaguars and the Atlanta Falcons would come away with the win in Jacksonville making the Jaguars 0-2 to start the season off. Things would need to change going into next week as Jacksonville faces off against the Denver Broncos and a familiar face in a new location with QB Peyton Manning at the helm now. |
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A New Face Of The Jaguars |
Welcome to the Jungle – "A New Face Of The Jaguars"
The Jay Cutler Era Starts Now
The 2006 season opener is here and the Jacksonville Jaguars are hoping the moves they have made in the offseason will be the moves that help them have a better season then they did in 2005. 7-9 may not seem like a terrible record but the team very well could have been a playoff contender if they played just a bit better throughout the season. There are multiple starters on offense that are new for 2006 and a few on defense as well. Safety Chris Hope was brought in from the Steelers to replace Mike Doss who has moved to a second string role, Hope is signed long term and is a move the Jaguars are really excited about. Opposite of him at S is 3rd round draft pick Roman Harper out of Alabama who showed a lot of skill in training camp in and in preseason and played well enough to be named a starter for opening day. Harper has great size and athleticism and with the pairing of Hope they look to be a combo to help a secondary that tended to struggle a bit last year and ranked 29th last year against the pass. Another 3rd round draft pick that got the nod as a starter this season is OLB Keith Ellison who showed a lot of promise during rookie camp and pre season games as well and the coaches made the decision to give him the start over Akin Ayodele who most people around the league figured would take over the starting role with the departing starting OLB from last season Anthony Simmons who was traded to the San Francisco 49ers in the offseason in a move to free up some cap space. Two other new starters for the Jaguars defense happened with the departure of MLB Dan Morgan and DT Marcus Stroud who also in an earlier separate deal went to the San Francisco 49ers for multiple draft picks, this move was also one that was made mainly for cap reasons both players were really respected in the locker room and produced on the field but with the cap hit the Jaguars were entering 2006 with the cap was looking very right to begin with and some tough decisions had to be made. Stepping in their places were MLB Keyaron Fox who is moving up from a backup role into a starting role and DT Rocky Bernard who was picked up in a Day 2 Draft Day deal with the San Diego Chargers for a 2nd round pick. Fox played well last season in the times he started over the injured Dan Morgan and the team wanted to see how he did with a full season this year before figuring out if they would look for a new starter next season or not. Rocky Bernard recorded 8 sacks last year and the team hopes he can step in and fill some big shoes that DT Marcus Stroud left after he was traded. The offense itself looks quite a bit different as well as Rookie 2nd Round Draft Pick Eddie Keele surprisingly got the starting job over 2 well seasoned veterans, Keele is just 21 years old and has all you want athletically but just needs some time to really figure out the game at a professional level, he is going to be the guard of the future but it may just take a couple seasons before he really comes into his own. The Tight End position got a bit of an upgrade as TE Bennie Joppru came over in a trade from the Falcons and will start for the team. Some of the biggest changes came at the Wide Receiver position. Maurice Mann is back from injury and hoping to have a big bounce back season if he can stay healthy, the speedy WR is always a threat when he is on the field and should really benefit from having another guy beside him starting that is just as quick and is someone the Jacksonville Jaguars were truly excited fell to them at pick 13 in the first round in Greg Jennings. They really focused on helping with offensive explosiveness when they took him at that spot and think he can add something that this team was missing last year when Mann went down with his injury during week 3 against the Colts. He isn't the tallest WR at 5’11” but he is a guy that if he gets a step on you, he is gone and could take any pass to the endzone. Leading this team with the most important position on offense is a rookie that was taken with the 7th pick in the draft and that is Jay Cutler from Vanderbilt. He was the 2nd best QB on almost every draft board teams had and when Vince Young got drafted at #5 by the Vikings Cutler knew that he was going to be going to Jacksonville that really needed to get that future Franchise Quarterback. Cuter has one of the strongest arms the league has ever seen but will need to work on his accuracy at the pro level and it's also going to take him quite a bit to learn how to read defenses and make quick accurate decision but in time he looks like he will be a top Quarterback in this league in the near future.
The Jacksonville Jaguars start their season at home and are hosting the Tennessee Titans who are looking for a bounce back season after missing the playoffs and are really looking to be the AFC South favorites coming into the season with the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans both changing Quarterbacks and starting a bit of a rebuild. Tennessee is sitting with one of the best rosters that is ready to win now and they will look to take full advantage of it. Tennessee would choose to kick off first and Jacksonville would send their offense out onto the field to see what changes they would make coming into the new season. Kicker Mark Jenson would line up to kickoff the season and new KR Marcus Knight would be waiting looking to make a big splash on the first return chance he got. The kick would land just inside the goal line and Knight would take it out and would make it out all the way to the 29 yard line and Jay Cutler would trot out on the field as the new face of the franchise and would have all eyes on him as the only QB from the 2006 class to be starting on opening weekend in the PTF. HB Adrian Peterson would get the first touch on offense with a handoff to the left that he took for a 5 yard gain. They would try again on the ground with a toss to the right but Cornerback Carlos Rodgers sniffed it out and got past the blocks to drag him down in the backfield giving up most of the yardage they had just gained on 1st down and it would now be 3rd and 8 on the opening drive. QB Jay Cutler would line up in the shotgun and look to attempt his first pass in his career and it would be a screen pass to the right to WR Maurice Mann who would fight his way through a tackle at the first down marker and just get enough to get a first down. Cutler would drop back to pass again out of the “I” formation and look to his left and would riffle a pass splitting two defenders finding Greg Jennings for his first catch of his career and would pick up 9 yards doing so. 2nd down would not go as smoothly for Cuter as his first two passes did as pressure forced him to throw a pass a bit early and he was not on the same page with TE Bennie Joppru and the pass would fall incomplete bringing up 3rd and 1 at the Jaguars 48 yard line. Again they would look to gain the yard through the air and again the Titans would bring quite a bit of pressure up the middle making Cuter get through his reads quicker then he would like and he would end up forcing a throw that would get batted down and fall incomplete ending the Jaguars first drive and Punter Chris Hanson would come out for the first time in the season and try and pin the Titans deep in their own zone. The punt went out of bounds and got marked at the 17 yard line and that would be where Tennessee Titans veteran QB Daunte Culpepper would come out and get his first drive of the season underway. Former Jaguars star running back Fred Taylor would get his number called on the first play call and take it up the middle on a handoff for a gain of almost 10 yards and they would need just an inch or two, to get the first down. WR Michael Jenkins would get that an more with an outside slant towards the sidelines that Culpepper found him on and gained 15 yards on it. Fred Taylor would get another massive hole up the middle on his next carry that gained another 10 yards and the Titans were in Jacksonville territory already after just 3 plays. An encroachment call against LE Kenny King set the Titans up with a 1st and 5 on the 38 yard line and they would drop back to pass again, WR Michael Jenkins grabbed his 2nd catch of the drive for a gain of a yard or so on a drag route over the middle of the field that made for an easy dump off. Things really were looking pretty easy as Daunte Culpepper found another open man in TE Richard Angulo over the middle for a gain of 15 yards and the Titans were in the Red Zone for the first time. A short pass over the middle to FB Joel Dreessen gained 7 yards and on 2nd and 3 Tennessee went back to the ground game and handed it off again to HB Fred Taylor who had another nice gain of 5 yards on the play. It was 1st and Goal from the 6 yard line and HB Jonathan Wells made his first carry of a game a great one spinning off a tackle and breaking another one powering his way into the endzone and the Titans would put themselves up 7-0 still in the 1st quarter. Tennessee looked to be able to do whatever they wanted during that first drive going 79 yards on 9 plays and only used up just over 4 minutes on the clock. QB Jay Cutler would get his 2nd chance to come out and gain some experience. He would make a great read on 1st down, dropping back and firing a ball to the sidelines to HB Adrian Peterson who got past the marker and instantly had a 1st down on the first play of the drive. He would get the ball again on 1st down with a handoff to the left and would manage to get 3 yards on the play. Another toss play would get blown up by CB Carlos Rodgers who again got past a blocker and got him down in the backfield forcing a 3rd and 9. Cutler would drop back to pass again and find Greg Jennings on a quick slant pass but he would fall just short of the first down marker and just like that Jacksonville would have to punt again after only a handful of plays on this 2nd drive. QB Daunte Culpepper came out to lead the Titans on their 2nd drive and would look to continue on what they did the last time they had the ball and they were able to do whatever they wanted. Culpepper would drop back on 1st down and continue just that WR Michael Jenkins got his 3rd reception of the game off a deep post to the left sidelines for a 20 yard gain. Just like that the Titans were already in Jacksonville territory having the ball at the 45 yard line and would need just one more first down to be in scoring range again. Rookie LOLB Keith Ellison would nearly come up with his first career sack on the next play as he got in off the edge untouched and forced Culpepper to throw it away just as he got to him to bring up 2nd down. The Titans would again drop back to pass and one again WR Michael Jenkins would find himself open over the middle on a shallow drag across the middle and would haul in his 4th catch in the 1st quarter for a gain of 6 yards and that would have the Titans facing 3rd and 4 from the 38 yard line. Fred Taylor would make easy work for that breaking a tackle at the line of scrimmage and would be brought down at the 21 yard line after another massive gain on the ground for him. He was really getting the revenge game going that he wanted to have last season when he got traded from Jacksonville the week before they would face the Titans. Another handoff to Fred Taylor would gain 6 yards and it would give him 46 yards on the ground after 5 carries to end the 1st quarter. The Titans would hand the ball off again but OLB Raheem Orr would break a block and get into the backfield and would drag down Taylor for a short loss on the play but would head to the sidelines afterwards looking to be a bit banged up. For the 2nd time on the drive they would be looking at 3rd and 4 and the would drop back and Daunte Culpepper would hit WR Tyrone Calico on a short pass over the middle but would get tacked just short of the 1st down marker and the Tennessee Titans would have to settle for a 30 yard field goal and they would go up 10-0 on the Jaguars just into the 2nd quarter but were looking very impressive so far in the game. QB Jay Cutler would come back out and the Jaguars would line up in the “I” formation again and they would hand the ball off right up the middle to HB Adrian Peterson who would get a nice gain of 7 yards on first down. 2nd down would see them come out in the shotgun and bring out 5 Wide Receivers and Cutler would do a great job picking up the blitz coming from the left hand side and firing it to his right to WR Maurice Mann who ran a short curl route and stopped right inside the zone and would break a tackle and get a few extra yards on a pickup of 14, putting them close to midfield. First down would see them try and get the run game going again but it would not work out as the counter run to the right got sniffed out instantly and HB Adrian Peterson would get drug down behind the line of scrimmage for a loss of a yard. Another toss play resulted in a loss of yardage and it would be 3rd and 13. Cutler would drop back and make a bad read throwing it into pretty heavy coverage and would be extremely lucky to not have this pass picked off. Punter Chris Hanson would come out for the 3rd time in the game and would have his punt bounce into the endzone for a touchback. Jacksonville’s define would really need to start stepping up in this drive to stop the bleeding and a stop here would be huge for them. Tennessee Titans HB Fred Taylor would once again show he was on a mission to stick it to the former team that traded him away mid season last year and would go straight up the middle on a handoff and make it 20 yards before getting a defender on him and dragging him a few more yards resulting in a 25 yard gain on 1st down and they looked like they could not be stopped. That long run would set them up perfectly for a play action pass and QB Daunte Culpepper sold it perfectly opening up just a bit of space for WR David Boston to get just a fraction of a step on CB Terrance Newman and with his size advantage hauled in the deep pass for a 45 yard gain and in just 2 plays the Titans went 65 yards have already found themselves in the Red Zone for the 2nd time in the game and had the ball at the 11 yard line looking to make it a two score game closing in on midway through the 2nd quarter. Fred Taylor again would punch it right up the middle for 6 yards and now the Tennessee Titans were just 5 yards away from another Touchdown. DT John Henderson would blow up the following handoff to backup HB Johnathan Wells for a 4 yard loss and it would be 3rd and 8 from the 9 yard line. Culpepper would drop back to try and get the first down and probable touchdown through the air and would nearly get picked off throwing it into a tight window and CB Terrance Newman nearly got his first interception of the year. A 26 yard Field Goal by Mark Jenson gave the Titans a 13-0 lead halfway through the 2nd. Jacksonville was lucky to only be down 13 at this point and Jay Cutler and this Jaguars offense would really wanna start to chip away at this lead and show they can put a full drive together. Unfortunately things would not start great for them with another loss on 1st down with a run by Adrian Peterson. Cutler would drop back to pass on 2nd down and would find Maurice Mann on a short curl on the right hand side and he would pick up close to 8 yards on the play. This would be the Jaguars 5th 3rd down attempt of the half and they were 1-4 so far and they would turn that into 2-5 with TE Bennie Joppru catching a 5 yard pass heading straight for the sidelines and would reset the chains. Cutler again would drop back and come close to hitting HB Adrian Peterson out of the backfield on a wheel route but would have it just tipped before he got it by CB Samari Rolle who made a great read on the play. Tennessee would send a heavy blitz on 2nd down and nearly got the sack on the play but Cutler narrowly avoided the pressure and was able to get the ball away for an incompletion. Jacksonville would need to convert on their 2nd 3rd down to try and keep this drive alive. They would not be able to as Jay Cutler would not be able to find WR Chris Henry over the middle and they would be forced to punt again for the 4th time in the game. With just over 3 minutes left to go in the half the Titans would be looking to come out and try and make this a 3 score game before halftime. Fred Taylor would split motion out to the right on 1st down emptying out the backfield and Culpepper would drop back to pass on the first play of the drive and look over the middle to Taylor but it would fall incomplete when MLB Keyaron Fox batted it away but would get called on a questionable Pass Interference call giving the Titans a new set of downs and the ball on their own 44 yard line now. They would look to the air again and CB Terrance Newman would make another great play jumping the route and knocking the pass incomplete that was interned for WR David Boston. SS Roman Harper would almost come away with his first career interception, jumping a route over the middle but would not be able to hang onto it and the Tennessee Titans would have 3rd and 10 from their own 39 yard line. They would call a play action pass but downfield everyone would be well covered and Culpepper would be forced to throw it to the checkdown in WR David Boston heading towards the sidelines and he would be well covered and only pick up 3 yards on the catch. Jacksonville would get the ball back with just over 2 minutes left in the half and it would probably be their last chance to put points on the board in the 1st half. A well placed punt by Kevin Stemke was downed at the 5 yard line but a holding penalty on Jacksonville moved them back to their own 2 yard line to start the drive. Cutler, almost standing on his own goal line, would come out and try and keep the team from giving up 2 points on a safety but also would need to move the ball a long ways just to get themselves into field goal range with not a lot of time to do it. HB Adrian Peterson hit the hole up the middle and was able to pick up 10 yards on the ground gaining them some breathing room as the clock hit the two minute warning. They would try and get something going on the ground again but would not be successful, only getting 2 yards on the play as the clock was running. A false start by WR Chris Henry pushed them back 5 yards on 2nd down and the Jags would try to run the ball again getting nothing and would need to pick up the 1st down through the air on 3rd down. They shockingly were still far too conservative and would just run the ball for a 4th straight play getting nothing and would settle for Punting the ball away after wasting 2 of the Titans timeouts. Culpepper again would come out with the ball at their own 44 yard line and 1:24 left on the clock to get some more points on the board before halftime. WR Michael Jenkins would pick up his 5th catch of the first half with a quick in and out route towards the sidelines for a gain of 5 yards, he would be tackled in bounds and the clock would continue to run. WR Tyrone Calico would get another grab on an inside post that QB Daunte Culpepper threw beautifully right before taking a shot getting the Titans a 1st down and would be in Jacksonville territory. They would look to WR Michael Jenkins again on 1st down but the ball would just be out of his reach and with 46 seconds left to go in the half would come out in a shotgun formation and WR Tyrone Calico’s size would prove to be an issue against Pacman Jones who had him well covered but just could not cover how high he can get with his wingspan. The Titans were in field goal territory now and they would give the ball to HB Fred Taylor on a toss play and he juked defender behind the line and broke free for a 28 yard rushing touchdown giving him over 100 yards rushing in the 1st half and a 20-0 lead with 23 seconds left in the half. The Titans would squib kick the ball on the ensuing kickoff trying to force the Jags to return it and take some time off the clock but KR Marcus Knight took that opportunity and had a great kick return taking it for 41 yards and getting close to field goal range just off the kick return. Cutler would come out looking to just get them a bit closer to get into Hayden Epstein's range and would throw a quick short pass to 2nd year WR Reggie Brown but it would only pick up a yard and they would use a timeout. Cutler would hold onto the ball too long on 2nd down waiting on someone to get open and would take a sack giving them only 9 seconds left in the half and they had themselves out of field goal range. On 3rd and 15 they would need to gain about 10 yards to give themselves a good chance at 3 points and they would get that and a bit more with Cutler slinging a missile to his rookie counterpart WR Greg Jennings who would get tackled and Kicker Hayden Epstein would come out to attempt a 45 yard field goal to end the half and would put the Jaguars finally on the board as time expired and they would be down 20-3 at halftime. This was not how the Jacksonville Jaguars wanted to start their season but maybe with some halftime adjustments they would be able to start to make a comeback in the 2nd half.
Tennessee would receive the ball first and would take a touchback on the kickoff and start the 3rd quarter from the 20 yard line. They would start out just like the did in the 1st half handing the ball of to HB Fred Taylor on a handoff to the left and he would work his way through some traffic for a gain of 8 yards and start Jags CB Terrance Newman would head to the sidelines injured and would not return to the game with a strained forearm. An incomplete pass on 2nd down for the Titans had them facing a 3rd and 2 to go and Fred Taylor would have one of his shortest runs of the day at 3 yards but that would be enough to reset the chains and get the first down. They would line up with trips to the right on first down and dropped back to pass, Culpepper quickly look through his options and checked it to the safe route who was TE Garrett Mills who just was on a short 5 yard curl route and would make rookie OLB Keith Ellison miss on a tackle and get an extra 7-8 yards getting a first down. HB Johnathan Wells would get his first carry in the 2nd half and would get stuffed right around the line of scrimmage for a short gain. They would look his way again right up the middle and he would not find much open space again just gaining 2 yards and it would be 3rd down with 6 to go at their own 41 yard line. Daunte Culpepper would drop back to pass and look through his reads and decide on trying a one on one matchup he has had success with so far in this game and try and hit WR Tyrone Calico on a streak route down the right sidelines but 2nd year CB Pacman Jones was on him and was able to get his hands on the ball and deflect it away and the Titans for only the 2nd time in the game would have to brink out David Stemke to punt the ball away. Stemke would do a great job on the punt getting it pretty high in the air with a great backspin on it, having it land at the 10 yard line and bounce back with a Titans defender downing it at the 14 yard line. The Jags would come out looking to be more productive offensively then they were in the first half and get some momentum going to start fueling a comeback before the game got out of hand. They were not ready to give up on the run and handed it off up the middle to HB Adrian Peterson and he got a good gain on 1st down getting 6 yards. They would need blocking like that the rest of the game to be able to start a comeback. A false start by veteran C Andre Gourde shoved them back 5 yards and pretty well negated a great run on 1st down and they now would be at 2nd with 9 to go. Cutler would drop back and look to hit on a matchup that he found late in the 1st half by going to Rookie WR Greg Jennings on a quick seam route but just threw it out of reach and they would quickly be facing their 9th 3rd down of the game and to this point were only able to convert on 3 of them. This would not be a 4th conversion though on this play, Cutler made a good read but just mis timed the curl route with WR Chris Henry and threw it a bit too quickly before Henry was in a spot to catch it and it would fall incomplete. The Jaguars defense would again have to come out and be asked to stop this Tennessee Titans offense which has really been able to move the ball at will most drives. A false start helped Jacksonville out on 1st down and pushed the Titans back 5 yards and the Jaguars would get aggressive. The Titans dropped back to pass on 1st down and the Jaguars sent a perfectly timed Cornerback Blitz and CB Demarcus Faggins was able to get in and nearly get the sack on Daunte Culpepper but he was able to just get the ball off and would bring up 2nd down. A 5 Wide Receiver set would be the play call on 2nd down and Culpepper ripped a quick pass to his right and hit WR Tyrone Calico for a gain of 10 to get them into a 3rd and 5 to go. Tennessee lined up in just a 2 WR set and went with HB Fred Taylor on the ground to try and gain the 5 yards and OLB Raheem Orr came up but getting into the backfield and wrapping up Taylor for one of the very few negative runs the Titans have had all game but it was just what they needed to hold this offense where they were and force them to punt for only the 3rd time in the game. KR Marcus Knight would set up to return the punt and would not have much space on the return, only getting about 5 yards before being swarmed but Titans Special Team Players and Jacksonville would start the drive from the 27 yard line. HB Adrian Peterson would get a decent gain up the middle for 5 yards and seemed to be finding a bit of rhythm after really struggling in the 1st half to find any sort of open space at all. An empty backfield 4 WR set would be the 2nd formation called on the drive and QB Jay Cutler would try and hit WR Maurice Mann on a short drag route but just not see the LB sitting zone coverage close by who managed to deflect the pass away and the Jaguars would need 5 yards on this 3rd down to keep this drive going. Another self-inflicted wound by taking another False Start pushed the Jags back once again to a 3rd and long for the 2nd drive in a row. Cutler would drop back with a screen pass but instead of looking to the running back the play was designed for he would try and hit the outside Wide Receiver in Chris Henry who looked to have a step on his mad but the slight underthrow from Jay Cutler who just got the ball off while being hit just had the pass not quite get to where Henry needed it to be able to make a play on it and Jacksonville would have to punt the ball away again. Chris Hanson again came out to do what he could to pin the Titans deep and he would hit a great ball, forcing KR Peter Warrick to drop back a bit to return it and he would try and make something of it. CB Terry Fair would come up huge hitting Warrick as he took his first couple steps right on the ball causing him to fumble and 3rd round draft pick OLB Keith Ellison would snag the fumble recovery and take it 25 yards for a scoop and score in his first ever game. This would mark the 2nd year in a row that the Jacksonville Jaguars special teams would score a touchdown off a fumble with newly acquired players. Ellison really impressed the team with his work ethic and how hard he plays every single snap and they were always looking for ways to get him on the field for stuff just like this. That special teams touchdown helped the Jaguars cut the lead down to 10 now and you could feel a bit of energy coming back into the building that had gotten pretty quiet recently. An empty backfield is what formation got sent to Daunte Culpepper through his headset to start the drive and they would continue to look to test a Jags secondary that was without its best Cornerback in Terrance Newman and it was 3rd string Demarcus Faggins who would make a great play on the one on one coverage he was on against WR David Boston and nearly came up with his 1st interception of the year but just was not able to hang onto the ball. That would not face Culpepper much as they wanted to go that direction again this time off a play action pass and it worked perfectly with Faggins biting HARD on the fake handoff leaving WR David Boston downfield all by himself for the easiest pass in Culpepper's career and leading to a 73 yard pitch and catch for a touchdown really quieting the crowd that had started to come back to life and it really felt like this could be the dagger that made it not impossible but really improbable that Jacksonville could come back from with the way they had looked on both sides of the ball so far. WIther way the Offense would come out with the ball at the 23 yard line and a now 17 point deficit they would need to try and overcome. A counter play on first down again left Adrian Peterson with no room to run and would get drug down from behind for a loss of 1 on the play. Cuter would like a matchup he saw on 2nd down looking Maurice Mann’s way on an inside post and would rifle it off but SS Gary Baxter would just be able to read it in time and barely get himself in position in time to get a hand on the ball and deflect it away on what would of been a nice gain on the play for Jacksonville. Again the Jaguars were facing a 3rd and long and they so far and really have not done anything in the 3rd quarter. Tennessee had made some great adjustments and seemed to be swarming everywhere and not leaving much open space for any passes to be completed. The struggles of a rookie in his very first start were really starting to show. Jay Cutler would drop back again to try and pick up the first down and would to WR Greg Jennings on a curl route just past the stick and get it exactly where he needed it to only to have it hit Henry right in the hands and have it dropped. It would be a frustrating play for both rookies who are still getting used to the professional game and talent they would be facing week to week. Punter Chris Hanson again would come out to punt and would hope for another special teams miracle to give them hope of turning this game around. KR Peter Warrick would return the ball again but pick up a few yards and give the Titans the ball at the 38 yard line to start the drive with. HB Fred Taylor would again get the call on first down and would pound it up the middle for another huge chunk of yards getting 8 on the play. HB Johnathan Wells would pick up the rest of the yardage needed to reset the chains with a gain of 3 with a dive up the middle and would pick up another 2 yards on 1st down with another handoff. Wells did not seem to be able to have the success on the ground that Taylor was getting the rock for the 3rd straight time and would not gain anything on the play. Tennessee would look to the air on 3rd and 7 and Culpepper would find WR Tyrone Calico on a slant and would fire a missile his way narrowly getting it past CB Pacman Jones who was in good coverage but just couldn't get a hand on the ball and would get a gain of 15 yards on the play and the Titans would be in field goal range. Fred Taylor would again get the ball on 1st down going up the middle for a gain of 6 yards. The Titans would take a shot to the endzone trying to use WR Michael Jenkins 6’4” frame on a jump ball but was just not able to hang onto it and it would be 3rd down and 4 to go on the Jags 28 yard line. HB Johnathan Wells would get motioned out of the backfield to empty it out and Daunte Culpepper would drop back to pass and would try and look to a matchup that worked well earlier hitting TE Garrett Mills on a quick drag to the sidelines but OLB Keith Ellison was ready for it this time and wrapped him up instantly just short of the 1st down marker and the Tennessee Titans would have to settle for a field goal attempt on the 1st play in the 4th quarter. Mark Jensen would hit the 43 yard attempt for his 3rd make of the game and it would be 30-10 Tennessee seconds into the 4th quarter. A touchback on the kickoff had the Jaguars starting the drive from the 20 yard line and it was getting to the time they would have to really start putting some drives together to even have a shot at coming back in this game. HB Adrian Peterson again would pick up a couple yards on first down and give them a 2nd and 6 to work with. 2nd down would see a pass play and Greg Jennings would snag another reception but it would not be for any gain as he got tackled instantly as he caught it. For the 12th time in the game Jacksonville would be facing a 3rd down and they had not converted on one in awhile, it would not happen on this one either as you could see Jay Cutler feeling like he needed to force something to happen and would make his first of what will be probably many bad decisions this season trying to use his arm strength to throw into a window that isn't there and for the 2nd season in a row CB Lenny Walls would come up with an Interception against the Jaguars and Tennessee would have the ball at the Jaguars 22 yard line already in scoring range. A near interception on 1st down nearly flipped the script on this drive but OLB Raheem Orr was not able to hang on as he lurked perfectly on his deep coverage route and almost undercut the pass perfectly Daunte Culpepper was trying to throw to WR David Boston. Culpepper was able to find an open man on 2nd down throwing a lob to FB Joel Dreessen who made a great over the shoulder catch to move the chains and give the Titans the ball at the 11 yard line. A holding call negated a great run by Fred Taylor and made it 1st and 17. They would look right back to Taylor again but he would not be able to get much on one of the few carries for no gain. Johnathan Wells had a nice gain on 2nd down gaining 8 yards but with the penalty was still left with 9 to go on 3rd down. Wells would get the call again and would make the most of it, trucking his way into the endzone for his 2nd touchdown of the day and putting Tennessee up 37-10 a couple minutes into the 4th quarter. It would be interesting to see how rookie QB Jay Cutler responded after throwing a bad pass and how he would adjust. The first play of the drive would once again be a handoff to HB Adrian Peterson and would get a nice gain of 7 yards. Cutler again would drop back to pass on 2nd down and would be faced with a HUGE amount of pressure but would do a great job making a quick read and would find newly acquired TE Bennie Joppru for a gain of 11 yards. They would go with a play action pass on 1st down but nearly get sacked on the play, Cutler was just able to get the ball away in time. A slight overthrow on 2nd down led to another 3rd and long attempt from their own 43 yard line. Another pass into traffic ended the drive for Jacksonville and with 6:35 left in the 4th quarter they would be sending out Chris Hanson for the 9th time in the game to punt the ball away. The 12 yard line would be where the Titans would start the drive and would look to start eating up some clock and get this game wound down. Anticipating a run on first down the Jags went with a bit of a blitz and the Titans perfectly called a play action pass and had WR Tyrone Calico open downfield and would get a catch of 32 yards on 1st down and get Tennessee in Jags territory already after one play, Calico’s 6th catch so far in the game and had 85 receiving yards. They again would try a play action pass and nearly get a good pass to WR Michael Jenkins but FS Chris Hope did a great job laying a good hit to knock the ball loose and force the incompletion. HB Fred Taylor would go to the sidelines holding his shoulder from getting hit off the play action and Tennessee would be hoping it was not too serious. They would still continue to look to gain yards through the air and WR David Boston would get another target getting 9 yards on a curl route at the sticks but fell just short of a 1st down and it would be 3rd and 1 to go. Backup HB Johnathan Wells would get that plus a lot more, stiff arming a defender and falling forward for a gain of 10 yards but as they got up they realized a flag had been thrown and it would be coming back due to a clipping call on RT Willie Anderson and it would get pushed back to a 3rd and 7 now. Culpepper threw another quick dump off pass over the middle to FB Joel Dreessen who fell just short of the first down and the Jaguars would force them to punt. Cutler would come out starting at the 20 yard line after a touchback on the punt and the first play call of the drive would be a run for no gain from HB Adrian Peterson, they would need to start getting pretty aggressive soon with the clock just ticking under 4 minutes to go in the game. On 2nd and 10 Cutler would drop back and make a very veteran looking throw hitting WR Chris Henry on at outside post but putting the ball only where Henry could get it with CB Samari Rolle draped all over him. That 27 yard catch would be the first one of the day for him. A 6 yard run set the Jaguars up with a 2nd and 4 just past midfield with the clock running. Jay Cutler would not be able to find many open guys on the next play and would end up throwing it into the dirt by WR Marcus Knight's feet to keep from taking a sack and making it worse. It was 3rd and 4 and it felt like we were in 4 down territory, but he wouldn't need it hitting Chris Henry again on the drive with a ROCKET to him for the conversion. 1st and 10 from the 27 would see another passing play and this one would end up being the best pass of the day for the rookie Cutler as he threw a deep ball into the endzone looking for the other rookie the Jags took in the 1st round in WR Greg Jennings and he would highpoint the ball and bring it in for the first career touchdown for both of them and it felt like a moment we were about to see a lot of in the upcoming years. These guys coming in and learning the offense at the same time just feel like it is going to bring an exciting duo that will be finding the endzone a lot of times for this team. It cut the lead to 20 and defeat was still probably going to be the outcome but seeing some rookies make big plays today in their first game really did give the fans something to be happy about for the future. The Jaguars did pull out an onside kick to try and give them another chance to close the gap but the Tennessee Titans special teams squad was ready and jumped on the ball to secure it and they would take over at the Jaguars 37 yard line. A penalty by the Jaguars on 1st down reset the play and the Titans would have an odd 1st and inches. HB Davis Wells would gain just inches and reset the downs and Tennessee would start to run out the clock. A couple short runs followed by Wells and the FB Dressen and Fred Taylor would rip another 14 yard gain giving him a really impressive 143 yards on the ground with 84 of those being after contact and he showed today why he was still one of the best running backs in the league if not THE best. Two plays later the Titans would enter the endzone for the 4th time in the game on the ground with another Johnathan Wells touchdown, his 3rd of the day and already 1 more than he had all of last season. It was truly a dominating performance by the Titans ground game and Jacksonville had no answer for. 46 seconds would be all that was left in the game and a chance for Cutler to get a few more live reps in before the game would end. He would make the first one count throwing a bomb deep to WR Chris Henry for a gain of 39 yards. All 3 of his catches on the day came late in the 4th quarter and it just feels like if he was able to get things earlier the game may have turned out a bit different but this offense is very young and it's going to take some time and a lot of patience to develop. HB Adrian Peterson would pick up 12 yards on a catch and get another quick first down and the Jaguars would use their 2nd timeout. Another quick strike over the middle to WR Greg Jennings off a slant nearly got their 3rd straight 1st down. Two plays later he would find Greg Jennings again for a gain of 10 as the defense was playing a bit soft just making sure they didn't score another touchdown and was willing to let him pass over the middle to keep the clock going. The last two plays of the game would be incomplete passes and the Jacksonville Jaguars would start the season 0-1 in disappointing fashion losing 44-17 to a Tennessee Titans squad that looked poised to take last year's disappointment and flip it into a playoff run this season. The Jaguars had A LOT of work to do after this game to improve but there were some positives and they will work on that as they work in a lot of new players into an offense lead by a Rookie QB. The 1-0 Atlanta Falcons would be the week 2 matchup for Jacksonville. |
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(by E_Terry-Haag on 05/23/2026)
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2005 Season Recap |
Welcome to the Jungle – "2005 Season Recap"
A Season Of Ups And Downs
2005 was a very up and down season for the Jacksonville Jaguars and new GM Erik Terry-Haag. The team started with a 30-10 win against the Carolina Panthers and the team looked great overall with QB Steve McNair throwing for 263 yards and getting 2 touchdown passes, both of which went to WR Marcus Knight and the Jaguars rushing game really came through totaling 120 yards between Fred Taylor and Adrian Peterson. The bigger story of the game though was rookie 1st round draft pick Adam “Pacman” Jones coming in HUGE forcing 2 fumbles in the rain, one of which went for a TD when Terry Fair grabbed it for a scoop and score. The home opener came in week 2 with the Buffalo Bills coming to town and the game would end up being a shootout that really had one of the most exciting last minutes of the whole league with a 51 yard field goal to put the Bills up by 2, McNair finding WR Maurice Mann on the 2nd play of the drive on a 53 yard TD pass to put the Jaguars back up by 4 with 32 seconds left and then Az-Zahir Hakim taking the ensuing kickoff back for a touchdown and sealing a Bills victory and putting the Jags at 1-1 after 2 weeks. One of the biggest highlights of the game for Jacksonville was QB Steve McNair looking like he was turning back the clock and throwing for 3 TDs and 265 yards on 21 of 37 passing and Fred Taylor having another good game on the ground getting 89 yards and his first TD of the season. Week 3 and the first divisional game would really be where the season would start to unravel for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Heading to the RCA Dome to face the Indianapolis Colts, the Peyton Manning lead Colts offense would go off and score 6 TD’s in a 48-7 beatdown. Colts QB Peyton Manning would throw for 399 yards through the air and 3 Touchdowns with all of them going to WR Reggie Wayne who also had 239 yards receiving. The rushing game also had a field day with Edgerrin James going for 139 rushing yards and having 3 rushing TDs of his own. This would be the start of a trend of poor offensive performances that would plague this team throughout the rest of the season. Another thing that would pop up is injuries. WR Maurice Mann would suffer a season ending injury with MLB Dan Morgan would go down for a few weeks as well after this game. If Week 3 was not bad enough, Week 4 would be one of the worst games any team has ever had in the history of PTF. The only way of describing it is a team that seemed to not be ready to play and was stuck on the week prior. 27 Points most weeks would usually be enough to be in the game if not giving you a good chance of winning it. This week would not be that week as the Houston Texans went off in a historic way and was up 28-3 after the first quarter and would end up winning 72-27. QB Chad Pennington was so close to having a record breaking game throwing 497 yards and 7 Touchdowns with WR Ernest Wilford securing 4 of them with 261 receiving yards and Larry Johnson getting 163 yards on the ground with a couple scores on the ground and a 79 yard reception through the air as well. One of the biggest issues in the game was turnovers for Jacksonville. QB Steve McNair would really struggle on the day going 8-20 with 3 Interceptions and also going down with an injury that would not see him return in the game and backup QB Tim Rattay would end up getting the only passing touchdown hitting RB Adrain Peterson out of the backfield and him going for 82 yards. Fred Taylor would get his 2nd rushing TD and FB Moran Norris would also find the endzone on the ground. 1-3 is not how the Jaguars expected to be and especially after the last two EMBARRASING performances things would need to turn around quickly to keep this season from snowballing. The next week they would host the defending Super Bowl Champion San Diego Chargers. The Chargers were coming into this game sitting at a 2-2 record with them losing their last 2 games to the Ravens and Raiders. They would be looking to come in and start to turn their season around. The game itself turned into a real defensive showdown with the game going into OT and the Chargers pulling out the win with Kicker Joe Nedney hitting his 3rd Field Goal of the game at 39 yards after hitting a 33 and 51 yarder earlier. The game ended up being a battle of the kickers with the Jaguars getting their only points on the board with 2 field goals from Hayden Epstein and the Jags would lose 9-6 and fall to 1-4 to start the season. Week 6 would be a “Battle Of The Sunshine State” with the Miami Dolphins coming to town. Steve McNair would finally have a bounce back game throwing for almost 300 yards and getting 3 Touchdowns helping propel an offense that really struggled on the ground on the day. WR Darrell Jackson had one of his best games of the year having 4 catches for 108 yards and 2 Touchdown Receptions. The defense did its job as well, getting to the quarterback for 5 sacks and Kenny King picking up 2 of them in a 21-16 Jaguars win pushing them to 2-4 heading into the bye week. Talks started circulating about potential roster movement during the bye week and it came to fruition heading into week 8 with the Jaguars and Bills coming to an agreement with CB Fernando Bryant heading to Buffalo and the Jaguars receiving CB Demarcus Faggins and a 2nd Round Draft Pick. It was a bit surprising to see the #2 Cornerback on the team get moved but it also was an indication that the Jags felt very good about what they saw in the 1st round draft pick in Pacman Jones in stepping into the starting role. The next game up for Jacksonville was the last divisional rival they had not seen yet in the Tennessee Titans who were looking good at this point of the season entering the game 5-2. QB Daunte Culpepper lead the Titans to 2 long scoring drives in the 1st and 2nd Quarter and they would not look back as the game went on and were leading 24-7 at the half and tacked on 13 more unanswered points in the 2nd half in route to a 37-7 win and putting Jacksonville at 0-3 in the division to start the season and 2-5. Titans QB Daunte Culpepper had a great day throwing for 249 yards and 3 Touchdowns and Najeh Davenport went for 105 yards on 21 carries to keep the clock moving through the game and continually kept drives alive. Jacksonville looked once again very inept on offense, throwing for 165 yards and only rushing for 54 yards as Fred Taylor’s struggles on the season continued. After the game rumors were really starting to make their rounds that there was a “Players Only” meeting with some of the leaders of the team reportedly called out some effort and performances of the group as a whole. The meeting got heated but seemingly went over pretty well with the team by the end of it and the team seemed to all be on the same page if they were going to turn this season around. Week 9 saw another surprising move with starting C Brad Meester and Young stud TE Dallas Clark were sent to the Denver Broncos in exchange for C Andre Gurode who signed an extension with the team on arrival and a 2nd Round Draft Pick. This seemingly was a move the Jaguars made to try and help boost an offensive line that to this point had struggled quite a bit getting consistent blocking in the run and pass game. Seeing TE Dallas Clark go was hard to watch but the TE production the last couple seasons were just not there and the offense is geared a lot more towards Wide Receiver production over Tight End. Things would not be any easier as well heading into the next matchup for Jacksonville as they went into Baltimore to face a Ravens squad who was 4-3 but were a much tougher team then their record would show. It would be a game that would go back and forth quite a bit and stay close all the way till the end but a 47 yard field goal by Kicker Hayden Epstein would give the Jaguars a 23-20 win against a really good team. Steve McNair broke 300 yards passing and a touchdown pass and 2nd string running back Adrian Peterson scored the lone rushing touchdown. Interceptions from Terrance Newman and Pacman Jones and a couple sacks from Kenny King really help put a lot of pressure on the Baltimore Defense who was on the field a lot more than they would have hoped even though the time of possession ended up being pretty even by the end of the game. Week 10 saw a rematch against the Indianapolis Colts and this game would go quite a bit different then it did in Week 3. Another game that was very close the whole way through with no team having a clear advantage and 2 veteran Quarterbacks were going back and forth with Peyton Manning ending the game with 428 yards passing and 2 Touchdowns and Steve McNair having 322 yards passing and 2 touchdown passes of his own, Jags Wide Receiver Darrell Jackson had a personal best day hauling in 11 catches for 121 yards and a touchdown helping lift the Jags over the Colts and securing them back to back wins. CB Terry Fair also returned his 2nd fumble recovery for a touchdown on the season in this game as well. Another surprising trade was made heading into Week 11 as the Jaguars and Titans agreed on a trade during the week they were facing each other in an odd turn of events. Fan favorite HB Fred Taylor was heading to Tennessee along with 2 6th round draft picks and the Titans would send a 1st round draft pick, CB Anthony Henry and WR Terry Glenn to help keep the Titans under the salary cap. This move really did not go down well with the fans of the team and they really let GM Erik Terry-Haag know it, Taylor was the active league leading rusher and was having a bit of a down year this season that may not have been entirely his fault. Erik did have a response to that and explained his decision a bit
“One of the hardest parts of being a General Manager is when you have to make really tough decisions like this that can have a HUGE impact on your team and the fans both. You always hate having to let anyone go let along someone who has done everything that has been asked of him in the past and arguably has been the face of the franchise since he got here but unfortunately we always have to be looking at the current time as well as the future and now that we have seen this roster play 9 games you get a lot more of a feel of what you have and what you don't have and need to address while also looking at things from a financial aspect of having to stay within the salary cap. You never wanna trade someone like Fred Taylor who we absolutely love but at times you have to really think about your future and what is best for everyone involved, we thought about it and came to the decision that maybe moving him could be what's best for both sides. We are probably going to be overhauling this roster the next couple seasons and rebuilding it in a completely different way and will need some financial freedom to do that and also feel like we owe it to Taylor to move him to a team that is a contender now and in the future even if it means we have to now face him this week and many times in the future as he finishes up his resume for the Hall Of Fame career.”
Onto the game against the Titans, the 2nd time the teams faced each other in 4 weeks and Jacksonville was hoping to use the momentum from the Colts win and start to turn around their season. It would not be an offensive battle but would end up being a great defensive matchup with scoring being hard to come by, The Jaguars would score the first 10 points and take a 10-0 lead into the half. Neither team would look very good throughout the 2nd half either but the Titans would scratch and claw for 10 unanswered points of their own and they would go into OT to settle who won or lost, in the end the Jaguars would pull out the win with 3 minutes left in OT with a 38 yard field goal to get their revenge on the Titans. One of the big storylines coming out of the game was both Quarterbacks looking rather bad. Titans QB Daunte Culpepper went 15-34 for 153 yards and a TD and INT, Jags QB Steve McNair went 14-31 with a TD and 2 INT but also was injured as well late in the game but was going to be ok heading into the next game. Fred Taylor had a pretty decent day with 96 yards on the ground on 20 carries against his old team. Jacksonville had clawed their way back to a 4-5 record and was showing some life finally and it seemed like things could be turning around for the team. Week 12 saw the biggest moves the Jaguars would make in their whole season and fans were really left shocked when the fallout settled The 49ers and Jaguars came to an agreement that saw WR Darrell Jackson head to San Francisco in exchange for HB Dominic Rhodes. Another move was the REAL talk of the league came from a trade that happened with the Minnesota Vikings. QB Jay Fielder, 2nd Round Draft Pick WR Chris Henry and a 1st Round draft pick came Jacksonville's way in exchange for a 3rd Round Draft Pick and QB Steve McNair. This move was shocking to the teams and fans as well and in the matter of a few weeks 4 offensive starters and a defensive starter all leave the team and it really was a massive signal that a rebuild was coming. Steve McNair for the 4th time in less than 2 seasons is heading to a new team to learn a completely new offense. In 2004 he started with the Titans and then mid season went on to get traded to the San Diego Chargers and would go won to win the Super Bowl as a temporary starter and then would get his chance to keep starting in the 2004 offseason when he would get traded to the Jaguars. And now it has happened again where McNair would get moved to get the call to save the season of another playoff contender as he is now going to be stepping in for the injured Brooks Bollinger and the Super Bowl hopeful Vikings. The trade really surprised everyone including McNair himself who signed a 7 year extension after landing in Jacksonville and figured he would retire a Jaguar after talking to former GM of the team Garth Pearce. Some of that changed when the new GM was brought in and had a different idea of the roster make up needed to be and some of it was the play of on the field and what the front office thought they needed to compete in the division long term and this is signaling that a full rebuild is coming and there will be a new franchise Quarterback at the helm heading into 2006 or at latest 2007. The Jets thought they would be the beneficiary of facing a Jags squad that just traded away 2 of the best starting offensive players on the team and would be facing a newly starting QB in Tim Rattay. It would be an amazing offensive day for Jacksonville but it would be enough to hold off the Jets with Rattay throwing for 274 yards and 2 Touchdowns but would also have 3 Interceptions as well. Rookie WR Chris Henry would start off the scoring in the 1st quarter hauling in his 1st TD Reception with his new team and was hoping to show what he can do with a larger role than he had in Minnesota. Jacksonville was back to .500 for the first time since week 2 and would look to have a winning record if they could pull off an upset in the Week 13 matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and bring their winning streak to 5 games. This game would also go back and forth and be very close till the end of the game with the Jaguars leading 21-10 at the half after 2 Touchdown passes from Tim Rattay to Terry Jones and Terry Glenn and newly acquired HB Dominic Rhodes had a 4 yard score to open the game. It got closer towards the end after Terry Glenn hauled in an 80 yard TD for his 2nd of the game to put it to 31-17 and the Buccaneers went on a long drive that ended in a Chris Perry Touchdown run to bring it back to a 7 point game with a few minutes left but they were not able to tie it up at the end of it and Jacksonville would pull off another unlikely upset and were really seeming like they could continue this hot streak and maybe be able to play their way into a Wild Card if they kept it up. Week 14 saw the last of the Divisional rematches as the Houston Texans came to Jacksonville with former starting Jaguars QB Mark Brunell at the helm. He would not have the most impressive passing day going 13-27 and only having 132 yards but his 2 Touchdown passes get more then enough points on the board and HB Larry Johnson had another field day against a defense that historically has had issues stopping him going for 162 yards on the ground on 28 attempts. This game would unknowingly be the start of a bad trend to end the season as Tim Rattay threw 2 INTs and the Jaguars offense would fail to reach the endzone only getting 2 FGs as their only points in the game losing 20-6 and falling to 7-6 on the season with 3 games left. A trip to Foxboro to face off against the Patriots at home who are without starting QB Tom Brady. That would not matter as QB David Garrard would get the only touchdown either team scored in the game in an 80 yard pass to WR David Givens before Garrard would get knocked out with a hurt shoulder. CB Adam “Pacman” Jones would also have a big impact on the game grabbing 2 Interceptions on the day trying to help his team stay in it but 88 yards passing on 10-32 attempts from Jags QB Tim Rattay would really be the reason Jacksonville had struggled so much the last couple games and 4 Bill Gramatica Field Goals would propel the Patriots over the Jaguars 19-3. New Orleans would come into town for the last home game of the season and Jacksonville would be on their last leg trying to keep playoff hopes alive, it would be a real long stretch but there was a very very small chance things could line up in a way they could sneak it but they HAD to win the last 2 games of the season. You could see the fight coming out of the Jaguars as the game went on but sloppy mistakes on defense and just a lot of struggles in the passing game really hurt their chances of taking advantage of a team that was not very good on the year. Rattay did have a season high 354 yards passing and 2 touchdowns but also was 17-40 through the air. Rookie WR Chris Henry would have a fantastic game hauling in 5 catches for 211 yards and a Touchdown. In the end though Ben Rothlisberger would just be a bit too much for them with Mike Williams and Deuce McAllister both having 70+ yard receptions for Touchdowns and the Saints would march their way to a 30-24 win over the Jaguars and it would fully eliminate them from playoff contention and push them to a 7-8 record on the year. Atlanta would be where Jacksonville was off to in this Week 17 matchup that really had no meaning on anything outside of draft position. Guys still wanted to end the season strong and they knew that they were playing for their jobs and wanted the last time they were on the field to be a good one. The game ended up being very close through the whole time with only one touchdown being scored in the 1st quarter by the Falcons when Mike Vick hit Derrick Hamilton for a 71 yard bomb and then the game turned into a real defensive battle with the teams trading field goals back to back for the rest of it. In the end the Atlanta Falcons would wind up being victorious taking a 13-9 win at home in the season finale and for the 3rd time in 4 games the Jaguars would fail to score a Touchdown. Tim Rattay again looked really shaky and would only throw for 63 passing yards in the whole game and would get sacked 4 times in the process. The running game would be good with Dominic Rhodes getting up over the 100 yard mark on 22 carries and was the lone bright spot they had. 7-9 would be where Jacksonville would end the season and it would be interesting to see what GM Erik Terry-Haag would do in the offseason to start to turn the roster around and who they would bring in to be the new face of the franchise now that Fred Taylor and Steve McNair were gone.
Overall the season was quite a bit of a disappointment for everyone involved. The fans were expecting more coming off back to back 10-6 records and they would see this and the moves that were made as a massive step backwards and hopefully not a sign of the team falling out of relevance. Big moves would need to be made to keep up with the arms race the AFC South has become.
A few team records were broken during the season and we would like to highlight the players that contributed a lot in this campaign.
Offense:
QB Tim Rattay – Single Game: Most Passing Yards 354
WR Marcus Knight – Single Season: Most Receiving Yards 902
WR Chris Henry – Single Game: Most Receiving Yards 211
WR D’Wayne Bates – Single Game: Most Catches 11
Defense:
DE Kenny King – Single Season: Sacks 14
OLB Jamie Winborn / CB Pacman Jones – Single Game: Forced Fumbles 2
CB Terry Fair – Single Season – Fumbles Recovered 2
CB Terry Fair – Single Season – Defensive Touchdowns 2 |
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Forum Discussion
(by E_Terry-Haag on 05/17/2026)
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Last Chance For The Jaguars |
Welcome to the Jungle – "Last Chance For The Jaguars"
Falcons Flying High?
Week 17 is here and the Jacksonville Jaguars are heading to Atlanta to face the Falcons in the last game of the season for a chance to finish the season at .600 at 8-8. It has been a very up and down year for the team going on losing streaks to winning streaks back to losing streaks and they are hoping to end the year on a high note when recent play has been sub-par to be honest. The magic that they had found from weeks 6 through 13 has all but run out and they have been out classed in the last 3 games against the Houston Texans, New England Patriots and New Orleans Saints. The offense has fallen flat and the defense has been left to try and carry the load put on them to keep scores low and see far more field time then they should be getting. The least time out the Jaguars fell to a Saints team that was able to strike with long plays and keep the Jaguars offense at bay for most of the game until late but were still able to hold them off for a 30-24 win in Jacksonville. The Michael Vick lead Falcons squad are coming into this game RED HOT winning 7 straight and 8 out of the last 9 matchups. They are looking to be in prime position to make a run in the playoffs and just need to get through this week unscathed to try and make it happen.
The Jaguars would be kicking off to start the game and KR Travis Minor would be standing at the goalline to receive the opening kick and would look to get a good return to get QB Michael Vick great starting position for their opening drive. Minor would field the ball at the one yard line and straight line it up the field and get brought down at the 30 yard line. Vick would come out and the first playcall would be out of a three wide receiver single back set and would drop back and hand the ball off to HB TJ Duckett right up the middle and would put a quick juke move on FS Mike Doss and gain a few extra yards taking the first down run for a pickup of nine yards. Mike Vick would drop back on 2nd down and look to his left on a curl route to the Falcons 8th overall selection in the draft WR Larry Brackins but CB Terrance Newman would jump it and almost come away with an Interception but would not quite be able to hang onto it leaving the Atlanta Falcons with a 3rd and 1 on the first drive of the game. The Falcons would come out in a single back four wide receiver formation and look to have open space up the middle for a run but instead would drop back and try and get it through the air with a play action hoping to get someone to bite in the secondary for a big play but FS J.R. Reed would come in off the edge and end up picking up his first career sack dragging down Michael Vick for a loss of five yards and killing their drive and Punter John Henderson would come in and try to pin the Jaguars back in their zone. A great punt got the ball to the 23 yard line but a bit of open space let PR Jesse Chatman get a handful of yards on the return and get to the 30 yard line where Jacksonville Jaguars QB Tim Rattay would look to try and have the game that would give the front office something to think about when it comes to the offseason on what to do a the Quarterback position with Steve McNair being traded earlier in the year to the Minnesota Vikings. HB Dominic Rhodes would get the call on first down with a halfback dive to the right and only be able to snag a less than a yard off it. They would give it right back to him with a handoff to the left and a great stiff arm shook off ROLB Demorrio Williams and he powered his way for a first down plus dragging a few defenders with him for an extra yard or so. With the first down Jacksonville would try their first pass attempt of the game and it would INSTANTLY get blown up with LE Patrick Kerney coming off the edge untouched and wrapping up QB Tim Rattay for a sack and making it 2nd and 15. HB Dominic Rhodes got another handoff to the left and managed to gain three yards and make the 3rd down a bit more manageable at 12 yards to go. The Jags would come out with 3 Wide Receivers and a Tight end and Rattay would drop back and start feeling some pressure pretty quickly up the middle and shuffle to the right a bit and launch a ball down field looking to hit TE Terry Jones on a deep ball but he was heavily covered and CB Derek Combs would be able to get his hands on it and deflect the ball away and Jaguars Punter Chris Hanson would come out for the first time today. A fair catch at the 20 would be where Atlanta’s 2nd drive of the game would start. A Handoff up the middle for TJ Duckett went for a nice gain of five yards but a holding call on the Fullback of Charles Stackhouse would negate the gain and instead shove them back 10 yards for a 1st and 20. That wouldn't be much of an issue though as Michael Vick would gain most of that back and then some on 1st down when WR Brian Finneran ran a great inside fake out with a mismatch of being lined up against a linebacker and used his great agility to get open and give Vick an easy throw for his first completion of the day. The 2nd and 2 playcall for the Falcons would be a great one coming out in an I formation looking like they would just try and pound it up the middle and try and gain the two yards and reset the down but instead when with a playaction and caught Rookie CB Adam “Pacman” Jones biting on the fake and let WR Derrick Hamilton slip behind with nobody around him and would make that small mistake really hurt taking it 71 yards for the touchdown and giving Atlanta an early 7-0 lead five minutes into the first quarter. The following kickoff would go for a touchback and the Jaguars would start the drive on the 20 yard line in an all too familiar position being down early. The Jaguars looked to HB Dominic Rhodes again on first down with a toss to the left and he would get clutch blocks from FB Moran Norris and Rookie LT David Stewart getting all the way almost to the 50 yard line for a gain of 28 yards. The next play was another great run, this time just going straight up the middle and Rhodes would just take the hole given to him and chunk the Falcons defense for another 10 yards on the ground and had quickly racked up over 50 rushing yards in the 1st quarter already. The next run would bring him back down to earth only gaining two yards after breaking a tackle in the backfield. HB Adrian Peterson would finally get his first touch of the day getting a counter to the left and finding some open room with it gaining 7 and being just inches short of a first down. A toss to the right with Peterson fell just one block short of going for another big gain but CB Derrick Strait came up big and made another great play getting to him in the backfield and Jacksonville would have to send out Hayden Epstein for a 50 yard field goal attempt and he would get the Jaguars on the board and making it a 7-3 game. The Falcons would have their third time with the ball and came out feeling pretty confident after only needing two plays on the last drive to go 89 yards for a touchdown. TJ Duckett would again get the first down handoff and would find a small gap up the middle and would get tackled hard by MLB Dan Morgan after gaining four yards. Vick again would look to make a play action pass on 2nd down out of a single WR formation and would hit TE Jeff Dugan on a dig route and would gain 15 yards on the play. Another first down run by Duckett would get 5 yards after some patience in the backfield letting the blocking develop ahead of him. HB Travis Minor would fire out of the backfield quickly on his first touch of the day getting 8 yards of a counter to the right and the Falcons would slowly be closing in on field goal range having a first down at Jacksonville’s 40 yard line. Michael Vick would get another great good gain through the air firing a rocket to WR Larry Brackins and letting him go up and get it with his 6’5” frame over the shorter CB of Terrance Newman who was covering him. Another TJ Duckett run for a gain of four yards is how the first quarter would end and the Atlanta Falcons were poised to start the second quarter with another scoring drive. The second quarter would start with Michael Vick dropping back and would hit WR Larry Brackins on a real short curl route after not much was developing down field and would take the couple yard gain and make it a 3rd and short. The Falcons would look to the play action again but this one would be with Vick rolling out on a designed QB run and would just get past the line of scrimmage and pick up the first down. RE DeLawrence Grant would get a bit too antsy on the line of scrimmage and would jump early for an Encroachment call costing them 5 yards and giving the Falcons a 1st and 5 from the 7 yard line. Duckett again would get the first down handoff and would shake off a tackle from LE Kenny King and pick up 5 yards with RE DeLawrence Grant dragging him down from behind keeping him from walking into the endzone. Michael Vick would drop back on 2nd down and would face some heavy pressure from the right side of the defensive line and would have to throw the ball away right before he got hit to keep from getting sacked when LE Kenny King broke off his blocker and had a free rush at him. Two yards would be all Atlanta needed to get a first down and it would not take much more than that to get into the endzone as well, they would try a fake toss to the Halfback and Fullback to get the defensive backs eye looking that way and not at WR Larry Brackins who was in the endzone but the Jaguars defense held their ground and Vick was forced to throw it out of the back of the endzone and Kicker Mike Barth would come out for the chip shot 21 yard field goal to put the Falcons up 10-3 just a couple minutes into the 2nd quarter. It may not have ended with as many points on the board as they were hoping for but Atlanta would be happy with a 13 play 63 yard drive that lasted almost 5 minutes and did make it a 7 point lead for them again. Barth would send another kick deep into the endzone for a Touchback and Jacksonville would take over at the 20 yard line hoping to answer the points Atlanta just put up on the board. Dominic Rhodes took the first down handoff for a few yards but the big part of the play was Veteran RG Chris Naeole going down with an arm injury and RG Alcender Jackson would step in for his first game action of the year and the first time he would see regular season action since week 17 last season against the Indianapolis Colts. This would not be something the Jaguars would need as protecting the Quarterback has been an issue all year and losing a veteran offensive lineman would be a big blow to their spirits. Another Rhodes handoff up the middle did not gain anything and the Jaguars were looking at a quick three and out if they were not able to pick up this 3rd down and give the ball back to a Falcons offense that had scored on back to back drives and were really started to hit their rhythm. QB Tim Rattay would make the quick read as he dropped back and would dump the ball off to FB Moran Norris who got stopped just short of making the first down and Punter Chris Hanson would come back out onto the field for the 2nd time in the game. A punt that took a great Falcons bounce ended up in the endzone and would result in a touchback. Falcons HB TJ Duckett would not be able to find much room up the middle with MLB Dan Morgan reading the run quickly and filling the game Duckett was trying to go for but would fall forward as he was getting tackled and still be able to get three yards on the carry. The commitment to the run would pay off though as they went right back to him and he would get some great blocking on the edge from his Tight Ends and would break out to the left side for a big gain of 15 yards on the 2nd down attempt. FB Charles Stackhouse would not quite be prepped for how quick the ball got out of Vicks hands after more great pressure by LE Kenny King and would fall incomplete on first down. A 2nd down toss play to TJ Duckett again went for a good gain as he got 7 yards and made the 3rd down much more manageable. Atlanta would again try something they have had quite a bit of success with early in a play action pass on 3rd and 3 but as Vick rolled out to the right ROLB Raheem Orr came in off the edge on the Blitz and read it perfectly not letting the super elusive Quarterback get away from him and would bring him down for a sack ending the Falcons drive. Punter John Henderson would come out for his 2nd punt of the day and sent it out of bounds at the 19 yard line. HB Dominic Rhodes continued to find success on the ground snagging 8 yards on the first play of the drive but would get stuffed behind the line of scrimmage after a missed block on 2nd down and Jacksonville would be faced with their 4th 3rd down and they to this point had yet to convert on any. The trend would continue as Atlanta sent a heavy blitz on the left and managed to get through the line and wrap up Rhodes for no gain and the drive would be over after a great gain on first down. Chris Hanson would get a pretty good punt off but PR Travis Minor would catch it with a bit of space and would return it, breaking a tackle after 10 yards and would end up getting 15 yards on the return, setting the Falcons up at their own 43 yard line to start the drive. A 2 yard gain by TJ Duckett would make it 2nd and 8 and Michael Vick would drop back for a pass and would find a wide open TJ Duckett who had come out of the backfield on a wheel route and had some space but Duckett dropped a pass that fell right into where it needed to be but he was just not able to bring it in cleanly really saving the Jags defense from another real big gain given up. You could tell he was not happy with himself dropping a great pass from Vick that would have been a great gain and would put them in a 3rd and 8. Vick would look to pick up the first down in the air again on 3rd down and would try and hit FB Johnnie Mack who was open in the flat but CB Pacman Jones tried to make up for his earlier mistake that lead to a Touchdown and read the route and jumped it and deflected the pass away ending the Falcons drive and Henderson would make his 3rd punt of the day and it would end up in the endzone for a touchback. Jacksonville would take over again with 2:31 left on the clock. It wouldn't start too well with a false start pushing them back 5 yards and making it 1st and 15. QB Tim Rattay would drop back on 1st down looking to get some of those yards back and he would not find anything before CB Karl Paymah would get through the line untouched after delaying his blitz and shooting the gap and dragging him down for a sack and a 3 yard loss. Rattay would again drop back on 2nd down and would manage to get Terry Glenn over the middle in a real tight window but he would not be able to complete the catch and it would end up falling incomplete and bring up the two minute warning. Jacksonville would concede the drive with a simple HB Andrain Peterson handoff up the middle gaining six yards and would be content with using up a bit of clock and punting it away. KR Travis Minor would fair catch the punt and Atlanta would start the drive at the 32 yard line with just under two minutes left in the 1st half. The Falcons with 2 timeouts remaining would look to end the half getting more points on the board and trying to be up by two scores. Vick would drop back on first down and make a quick throw to his left finding WR Derrick Hamilton open over the middle and would pick up a quick first down with his gain of 15 yards. They would drop back to pass again but pressure over the middle forced Michal Vick to try and get out of the pocket but was wrapped up by DT Marcus Stroud just past the line of scrimmage. As soon as he would get up he and the other players would see a flag on the field and it would be against the Falcons against the RT of Rob Petitti and would shove the Falcons back 10 yards. Michael Vick would again find himself under pressure on 1st and 20 with RE DeLawrence Grant nearly getting a sack and forcing Vick to throw it away and bringing up 2nd down. FOr the 3rd straight time Vick would drop back and have a bit of time to throw and would find WR Brian Finneran on an outside post for a gain of 24 yards and would stop the clock with him getting out of bounds with 1:18 let on the clock and the ball at the Jaguars 41 yard line. WR Derrick Hamilton would make a great in and outside fake and make some space between him and Pacman Jones and Vick would hit him over the top almost getting himself into the endzone for a Touchdown but would get tackled out of bounds at the 5 yard line. TJ Duckett would try and power into the endzone but only manage to pick up a couple yards on first down. A false start on the offense pushed the Falcons back to the 9 yard line and Duckett again would pick up a few yards on 2nd down and it would make it 3rd and short on the 4 yard line. A designed QB run by Michael Vick did not go as planned as he got dragged down in the backfield for a 5 yard loss and Mike Barth would come out and attempt a 26 yard field goal easily nailing it and the Atlanta Falcons would be up 13-3 with about 40 seconds left on the clock. A 25 yard return by KR Antonio Chatman gave the Jaguars a long way to try and score with not a ton of time on the clock. QB Tim Rattay would drop back and have some time in the pocket and would try to hit WR Chris Henry over the middle but he would have the ball knocked loose getting hit as he caught it. LE Patrick Kerney would make his presence known again blowing up a 2nd down passing and getting to Rattay for a sack bringing up 3rd and 15 with time running down the Jaguars would just let the clock run out and accept a 10 point deficit at the half
The Jags would receive the kick in the 2nd half and they would need to have a drastic change in their offense if they had any shot at coming back in it. -8 passing yards in the first half would be one of the most embarrassing performances Tim Rattay has had at the helm of this offense and he was looking really shaken by the pressure the Atlanta Falcons were able to get on him. If they were going to win it would be because of the running game. The 24 yard line would be where Jacksonville would start the first drive of the 2nd half, Rattay would drop back to pass on first down and just as he was about to try and wind up and launch it deep to an open Dominic Rhodes but LE Patrick Kerney again got to Rattay and brought him down for his 3rd sack already just barely into the 2nd half. HB Dominic Rhodes was able to get a few of the yards back on a 2nd down run but the Jaguars would be faced with their 6th 3rd down of the game and to this point they have been 0-5 and are itching to try and get their 1st conversion and not start the 2nd half out with a punt. Rattay would try and get the 1st down through the air and would look to TE Terry Jones on a deep ball but would have it batted away by FS Stuart Schweigert who made a great read to jump the pass and force a 4th down. For the 5th time in the game Chris Hanson came out to do his part and force the Falcons as far back as he can and has done a good job so far at it averaging 55.5 yards a punt. The Atlanta Falcons would make their first down play a pass and Mike Vick would make a quick read to his right and hit TE Bennie Joppru on a short route and would pick up 3 yards on the play but the bigger story of the play was Mike Vick coming up injured with Kenny King bringing him down right after the pass. QB Tee Martin would have to step in and try and preserve the lead they had built earlier in the game. This would be the time of the game where they really try and learn on the run game and HB TJ Duckett who to this point hasn't had a great game but answered the call on this run on 2nd and 7 cutting back on the handoff to hit a great hole the offensive line made and would break a would be tackle from FS Mike Doss and pick up 16 yards on the play giving his offense a big jolt of energy they needed after seeing Vick go down. QB Tee Martin would make his first down play call and have the Falcons in a split back formation and would drop back to pass but have no time to make any reads as DT John Henderson would break through the line and get to him for a sack. After a loss of two yards on the last play they would try and get back to running the ball giving HB Travis Minor his first touch of the 2nd half but it would not get anywhere as FS Mike Doss quickly filled the hole Minor was trying to hit just right of the Center and would get stuffed three yards behind the line of scrimmage and it would be 3rd down and 15 to go. The Falcons would come out in a 5 wide set and QB Tee Martin would try and pick up the first down through the air and again would feel quick pressure with LE Kenny King getting to him for a sack ending the Falcons drive and sending out Falcons Punter John Henderson for the 4th time in the game. A Fair Catch by the Jaguars on the Punt Return would see their next drive start at the 17 yard line. Again the Jags looked to get the drive going with a run and Rhodes would take the handoff to the right and hit a nice hole the blockers set for him and would get 5 yards on 1st down. They again would look his way on 2nd down trying a toss play to the left and Rookie RT David Stewart would do a great job of getting out in front and making a great lane for Dominic Rhodes to get a good chunk of yardage and pick up the first down. Another handoff up the middle gained three yards and he would run off to get a quick break as the Jaguars brought out 4 wide receivers in an empty back formation. Rattay would drop back and find WR Chris Henry on the quick slant picking up their 2nd 1st down of the drive. Another 1st down handoff up the middle with HB Adrain Peterson would gain 8 yards and the Jacksonville Jaguars would get themselves past mid field for what felt like the first time in an eternity, there was a lot of time left on the clock but this was starting to feel like a drive that they would HAVE to score on to try and stay in this game. Dominic Rhodes would again find open space on the ground and pick up 7 more yards getting themselves in field goal position with just a few more yards. QB Tim Rattay would drop back on first down and try to catch the defense over pressuring expecting a run but a miscommunication with WR Terry Glenn on route choice ended with a ball being thrown with not many people in the area for an incompletion. They would however made the connection on the next play with a play action pass and Glenn would find himself over the middle of the field wide open and would pick up close to 20 yards and Jacksonville would be in the Red Zone for the first time in the game. HB Dominic Rhodes did find himself trying to do a bit too much though on his next first down carry as a toss to the right did not have the blocking he was expecting and tried to turn back to the other side of the field but was drug down well behind the line of scrimmage losing 7 yards in the process and making things much harder than they needed to be on themselves. SS Erik Coleman came up with one of the biggest plays of the game as the 2nd down pass looked to be going to the endzone for a touchdown with Rookie WR Reggie Brown getting open on an outside post in the slot and had space but had the ball deflected away at the last moment when Coleman made a great effort to try and chase him down and would just barely get his hand on the ball enough to deflect it away. It seemed like that was their chance to get back into it and really put pressure on Atlanta to make QB Tee Martin put the ball in the air more than they would like. An offline throw on 3rd down forced Jacksonville to have to settle for a 42 yard Field Goal and Hayden Epstein would hit his 23rd Field Goal of the season and it would be a 13-6 Falcons lead. Jacksonville did feel good about the running game and did have some positives to take away from the 12 play 56 yard drive. They did eat up over five minutes during that time and the 3rd quarter was quickly starting to wind down. Backup QB Tee Martin would come back out with now just a seven point lead and would lean on TJ Duckett on first down with a handoff to the right and he would find a nice gap his offensive line created and get a quick seven yards on first down. He would get it again on 2nd down and would fight his way for a gain of five yards and would reset the chains and had quickly had himself 79 yards rushing so far through almost three quarters. Tee Martin would drop back to pass on first down and WR Derrick Hamilton would get jammed at the line by Pacman Jones and would have his route timing thrown off and Martin would have to get rid of the ball earlier than he really wanted to and ended up underthrowing it just a bit giving Pacman a great opportunity to deflect it away. MLB Dan Morgan would be in the area as well and benefit catching Pacman’s deflection that went right to him and would get his 2nd career interception and also his 2nd of the season. This kind of play is just what the Jaguars needed, the defense stepping up and forcing a turnover at the best time and giving the offense a real short field to work with to try and tie the game up. Morgan would get chased down by the ensuing Derrick Hamilton who saved a Pick 6 with his effort. The Jaguars offense would come back with the ball on the 25 yard line and having quite a bit of success on the last drive and almost getting a Touchdown Pass out of it. WR Chris Henry would really use his massive frame to his advantage on first down getting great inside leverage on CB Ty Law for a quick catch and gain of 13 yards and the Jaguars would be almost at the 10 yard line. That last completion would be the final play of the 3rd quarter and there would be just 11 minutes left to decide who was going to win this game and momentum was starting to swing Jacksonville's way. A toss play on first down to Rhodes was easily read by the Falcons defense and he was only able to gain a yard out of it. Another short gain on 2nd down made it 3rd and 5 and to this point the Jaguars had yet to convert on one and were 0-7 to this point. Rattay would drop back on 3rd down and look again to WR Chris Henry who has received the bulk of the targets so far and this time would be very lucky to not have thrown an interception with Henry being very heavily covered and never had a shot of coming up with the catch. Kicker Hayden Epstein would come out for the third time in the game and would hit the chip shot 24 yard field goal and make it a 13-9 game. QB Martin would come back out and look to redeem himself a bit for the costly interception he had thrown on the last drive and would hope his run game set the tone to start eating away at the clock that was just under 10 minutes remaining. They tried to catch Jacksonville off guard with a rare pass play on first down and he would look to dump it off to FB Johnnie Mack in the flat but nearly threw another interception as MLB Dan Morgan got his hands on it but was not able to bring in the turnover but did make it 2nd and 10 at least. TJ Duckett would all but get the first down on his 2nd down carry, falling fractions of an inch for moving the chains and the Falcons would not need much to convert on thor 8th 3rd down attempt of the game. HB Travis Minor made easy work on the 2nd down handoff gaining 5 yards and would keep the clock moving. He would get the next handoff again and try to sneak up the middle but would be stopped for a real short gain by Dan Morgan who read the play well. Pacman Jones nearly had an interception of his own reading QB Tee Martins eyes on the 2nd and 8 pass attempt and would jump the pass and the Falcons would have to try and convert on 3rd and 8. Another handoff to HB Minor would only net then 4 yards and Punter John Henderson would come out for the 5th time today to punt it away. Jacksonville would come back out scoring on the last 2 times they had possession but both of those being field goals and it would take more than that to win this game and the clock was running on them. Dominic Rhodes again would get the 1st down carry and go right up the middle for a gain of 5 yards and he would pick up the first down on his next touch making a nice move on the counter to cut back and get 7 more yards pushing him up over 100 yards on the game. Back to back runs on first and second down both got stopped at the line of scrimmage and it would be 3rd and long for Jacksonville. If there was ever a time in the game they really needed a 3rd down conversion, it was now. QB Rattay would drop back to pass and get no time to make any reads as DT Jonathan Babineaux got great pressure nearly bringing down Rattay for a sack but he was able to throw the ball into the ground for an incompletion just in time. Jacksonville would have to punt once again and would have to hope their defense can get the ball back with a decent amount of time left on the clock. Atlanta would go right into trying to eat the clock giving HB TJ Duckett a run on first down that got stopped for only a one yard gain. They would try a pass on 2nd down and QB Tee Martin would make the quick and easy read, hitting TE Bennie Joppru on a quick curl route for a 5 yard gain and it would make it a much more manageable 3rd and 3 and more importantly would keep the clock moving. Travis Minor would pick up the first down on the next play taking the handoff to the left for a gain of 5 and the crowd could feel this game was getting to the point it looked like Atlanta had a great chance of holding on if they could just get a couple more first downs. Just like Mike Vick, Tee Martin has quite a bit of speed and tried to use it when the Jags weren't expecting with a designed Play Action QB run but again ROLB Raheem Orr was there and ready to make a play with his excellent athleticism he has. Duckett started to put the nail in the coffin for the Jaguars gaining 7 yards the next play and getting the Falcons close to midfield and running the clock down to the two minute warning after the next play. Jacksonville would have to use their first timeout after the next run play, Atlanta had 3rd and 8 and would be happy with handing the ball off and making the Jaguars waste another timeout and trying to pin them deep in their own zone off the punt. A touchback gave the Jaguars the ball at the 20 yard line and 1:42 to do something they have struggled to do all season, get the ball into the endzone. TE Terry Jones got a 1st down reception just barely falling short of the first down and Rattay had the offense in hurry up getting back to the line quickly. He would find Moran Norris for a gain of four but the clock would continue to run and they were not getting many yards of their completions. Too much time was being wasted. Tim Rattay would make his 3rd straight completion finding TE Terry Jones towards the sidelines for a gain of 7 but again he would get tackled in bounds keeping the clock going. He would have a pass batted away on 2nd down thankfully stopping the clock and giving them time to make some personnel chances as well bringing out some more wide receivers for the 3rd and possible 4th down tries. Rattay would drop back and get hit as he threw causing him to just barely float it over WR Chris Henry’s head who had positioning to pick up a big gain if he had a chance to catch it and it would be 4th down and the Jaguars last chance. Jacksonville tried to rely on what kept them in the game and on 4th and 3 they handed the ball off to HB Adrian Peterson to try and keep the chance alive but was brought down by LE Kerney behind the first down marker and the Jaguars would turn it over on downs and give the Atlanta Falcons their 8th win in a row and a ton of confidence going into the playoffs. It would be determined after the game that QB Michael Vick’s elbow injury would not be that serious and he would be available for whoever their round 1 playoff matchup would be. Jacksonville however would end the season at 7-9 and really end the season in truly disappointing fashion losing the last four games and not scoring an offensive touchdown in 3 of the last 4. Some big changes would be needed this offseason and some Jaguars fans were already putting new GM Erik Terry-Haag on the hot seat to try and turn this around quickly and they would not accept losing as a normality. The loss would make Jacksonville the 11th pick in the first round and the1st round pick they received from the Titans in the Fred Taylor trade would be pick #19 and the Cowboys 1st round pick they owned would be determined with how the playoffs shook out. The Jaguars are facing some cap issues going into next season starting at close to 8 million over the cap and its going to be interesting to see how GM Erik Terry-Haag navigates trying to cut costs but not have the roster take a step back talent wise. |
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Forum Discussion
(by E_Terry-Haag on 05/01/2026)
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Replies - 0 :: Views - 18 |
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At A Glance
| TEAM CAPTAINS |
Off. Captain
QB Jay Cutler |
Def. Captain
CB Terence Newman |
ST Captain
K Hayden Epstein |
| INJURY REPORT |
| PLAYER |
POS |
OVR |
LENGTH |
| AFC South |
| RNK |
TEAM |
W-L-T |
PCT |
DIV |
| #6 |
 Titans |
3-1-0 |
0.750 |
2-0 |
| #14 |
 Texans |
3-2-0 |
0.600 |
0-1 |
| #26 |
 Colts |
2-3-0 |
0.400 |
1-1 |
| #27 |
 Jaguars |
1-3-0 |
0.250 |
0-1 |
| JAGUARS SCHEDULE |
| Preseason |
| WK |
DATE |
OPPONENT |
SCOUT/RESULT |
| P1 |
Sat |
at  Dolphins #23 |
|
| P2 |
Sat |
vs  Buccaneers #15 |
|
| P3 |
Thu |
at  Packers #31 |
|
| P4 |
Thu |
vs  Redskins #5 |
|
| Regular Season |
| 1 |
Sun |
vs Titans #6 |
|
| 2 |
Sun |
vs  Falcons #1 |
|
| 3 |
Sun |
at  Broncos #3 |
|
| 5 |
Sun |
at  Chiefs #16 |
|
| 6 |
Sun |
vs Texans #14 |
Match-up |
| 7 |
Mon |
vs Colts #26 |
Match-up |
| 8 |
Sun |
at Buccaneers #15 |
Match-up |
| 9 |
Sun |
at  Saints #25 |
Match-up |
| 10 |
Sun |
at Titans #6 |
Match-up |
| 11 |
Sun |
vs  Chargers #10 |
Match-up |
| 12 |
Sun |
vs  Bills #29 |
Match-up |
| 13 |
Sun |
at Colts #26 |
Match-up |
| 14 |
Sun |
vs  Panthers #17 |
Match-up |
| 15 |
Sun |
at  Steelers #11 |
Match-up |
| 16 |
Sun |
vs  Raiders #32 |
Match-up |
| 17 |
Sun |
at Texans #14 |
Match-up |
|
