Several issues held the Jacksonville Jaguars back in their last game against the Houston Texans, but the biggest one fans have pointed to was the offensive play-calling. While offensive coordinator Jay Gruden has been one of the brighter spots of what could be a fired coaching staff, he didn’t call his best game Sunday.
One thing many in particular were puzzled by is the lack of commitment to the run as the Texans came into the game dead last in rush defense, allowing an average of over 170 yards a game. The issue is something that has also been a problem aside from Week 5 (the defense hasn’t helped), and as a result, the Jags have the lowest run percentage in the league (33.44%). With a stud tailback like James Robinson, that’s a figure many feel is unacceptable and something Gruden was asked about in his most recent media session.
“Yeah, for sure. Every week our design is to go in there and run the football, pound the football. Unfortunately I’ve done a poor job of sticking with it, so it’s something we have to, obviously, get better at and be aware of the game, the situation, and all that,” Gruden said.
“Obviously, sometimes late in the third quarter, fourth quarter, if you take out that part of the game in the last two or three weeks, it’s hard to run the ball, but we do have to do a better job early in games to try to maintain the run and keep our linemen pounding the rock a little bit and keeping the pressure off Gardner [Minshew II].”
Keeping the pressure off of Gardner Minshew II is something that could help the young signal-caller, who is already having trouble playing from the pocket as it is. Despite that, he’s registered 40 passing attempts or more in all but one of his games with the only exemption being the Jags’ only win of the season against the Indianapolis Colts (20 attempts). For this reason, fans will be watching the Jags’ play-calling closer than ever in hopes that they pound the ball a little more.
Of course, when looking at Sunday’s game in particular there was one play that garnered a lot of conversation — and not in a good way. That was the fourth-and-one gadget play in the third quarter where the team tried to roll James Robinson out right for a pass. The play resulted in a fumble (recovered by Houston), and after having some days to think about it, Gruden discussed wanting that play back Wednesday.
“That’s a play I’ll lose sleep over for many, many nights and I regret calling, obviously. It was a gadget play. We worked on it, really practiced with James [Robinson] trying to sell it and get James O’Shaughnessy to the corner. We were hoping with the wildcat formation that they would trigger the corner. They brought the safety out of the box, which we knew they would do,” Gruden added.
“We felt like we had a pretty good look. Ideally, that’s a third-and-1 call where you can go for it on fourth down or maybe four-minute where you’re trying to seal the game, not a fourth-and-1 call. I should’ve left that in the hands of our offensive linemen and James Robinson, in my opinion, and I regret that dearly, just so you guys know.”
If this coaching staff is going to have any chance to stick around, it’s going to hinge on Gruden’s abilities because he has the better unit. He’ll have an opportunity to turn things around against another poor rushing defense in the Detroit Lions this week who rank 30th. Time will tell if he’s learned from the mistakes of Week 5 and the first quarter of the season as the Jags’ schedule is slated to get tougher.