Five Steps to Lose the Game – Week 3 – Jaguars at Broncos

Maurice Jones-Drew hopes to lead the Jaguars back to its running ways against the Broncos.

Playing the devil’s advocate… here are 5 steps the Broncos need to take if they were to lose the game on Sunday against Jacksonville.

1. Let the Jaguars ground game find its groove.

Last year, the Jaguars running game was among the best in the league. The two headed monster of Maurice Jones-Drew and Fred Taylor burned a lot of teams for a lot of yards last year (most especially the Indianapolis Colts, against whom the duo put up 297 yards and three touchdowns last December).

But this year, against not-particularly-renowned defenses in the Titans and Falcons, the Jaguars have struggled to find their running rhythm. They’ve rushed for an average of 98 yards per game, well below the Jack Del Rio standard, and hope to find their traction against Denver’s 27th ranked rush defense this week. This is the only one of these five steps that has me *really really* worried this week – like, the kind of worried that can keep you up at night. Last week, LaMont Jordan ran for a career high 159 yards! Simply unacceptable. While we may have completely shut down Taylor and the rushing game of the Jaguars last time the teams faced in 2005 (12 yards over 11 carries), our rush defense is not what it was then and could really get burned.

2. Fail to find the end zone.

Our red zone woes were somewhat cooled last week, but it could still do better. If the Jaguars get the ball running, they’ll be eating up the clock and it could be a long day for our defense. The Broncos need to finish their drives and take advantage of turnovers to lock a win.

This means the Broncos need to put up a solid ground game of their own, which isn’t always easy against these Jaguars. They’re very stout at the point of attack and will throw everything and the kitchen sink at the Broncos to shut Travis Henry down.

3. Keep them Sloppy Joes coming.

I posted earlier that the Broncos were a few sloppy mistakes from being absolutely dominant. I still stand by this – but as our competition gets better in the coming weeks (first Jacksonville, then Indianapolis, San Diego, Pittsburgh…), we need to get these mistakes out of our system.

The center quarterback exchange needs to become flawless – it’s nearly there, but we had another one of those fumbles last week (out of the shotgun) and need to fix it. Illegal formation penalties… 12 men on the field penalties… for much of the game, we had as many penalties as the Raiders! I already mentioned to onside kick failure, but we also had breakdown on offensive line protections and need to shore that up (more on that in a minute). If we play sloppy football like that for the third straight week, the Jaguars are good enough and have a good enough coach to make us pay.

4. Special teams, special teams, special teams.

In week 1, it was a 74-yard punt return by Roscoe Parrish. Week 2, it was a surprise onside kick in the third quarter that gave the Raiders back the ball after their first touchdown. Teams are figuring out they can attack Denver’s special teams a lot more easily than they can attack our defense. If anything, we need to play smart – stay focused on kickoffs, stay focused on coverage, get off your blocks and make a play somebody! Earn your spot on this roster, so we can get Champ Bailey off the freaking field!

The kicking game is also now a legitimate concern. Kicker Jason Elam has already missed more field goals in 2 games than he did all last season – something that we NEED to fix as the toughest portion of our schedule approaches. I want to see him at his usual 100% this week – he and Todd Sauerbrun need to figure out whatever the hell is preventing these kicks from going in, and fix it.

5. Let the Jags keep the pressure on Cutler.

Two nagging problems nearly cost us last week’s game – the first, our rush defense, has already been addressed. The second was the pass protection of the offensive line. RG Montrae Holland had an inconsistent game; LG Chris Myers was plain awful at times, and both tackles Matt Lepsis and Erik Pears struggled to protect Jay Cutler. The Jags have a very solid defensive line, and know how to get after the quarterback. The offensive line needs to play better in the second half (how about not allowing a safety, Myers, or not allowing your man to tip the ball, Lepsis, and giving the defense 10 points?). Let’s get Cutler’s TD-INT ratio back into the positive. Step one is to give him more time, as we’re playing another solid secondary this week.

While the Jaguars have struggled early, they’re still a better team than the Bills or Raiders. I’d consider them somewhere in the middle third of the league. If we’re better than that, we need to beat them handily, but I’d consider this the first real test of our team to see if we belong in that upper echelon.