2011 NFL season and Jacksonville Jaguars change of sides: from Wayne Weaver to Shahid Khan - Part 1
The Jacksonville Jaguars are probably the only team to have gone through so many ups and downs in the 2011 National Football League (NFL) regular season.
The team, at the end, had to lose so much in the season, including the selling of the franchise by its former owner, Wayne Weaver, to an out of the blue contender, Pakistani-born American businessman, Shahid Khan.
The start of the season was business as normal for the Jaguars as they opened the season with a win over Tennessee Titans.
They then went on to lose five games straight before pulling off another win which was against the American Football Conference (AFC) North champions, the Baltimore Ravens.
This was probably the highest point of the season for them, as by then, they were the only outfit in the NFL, which was less prone to injuries.
Only a couple of players were out with minor injuries and nothing was as serious and season threatening as the injury of their cornerback, Rashean Mathis, who suffered the injury in the second half of the season.
No one could sense then that a storm was in waiting for the Jaguars in the later part of the season as their coach, Del Rio, might not have taken the ambitious target of his employer serious enough.
Del Rio was given the task of taking the team to the playoff round of the league.
He might have laughed it off then, just hoping once again that the season simply turns out to be a better one for them.
It was probably his sacking on November 29, 2011, that made him realise that Weaver was true to his words about the task he had given him, but it was too late for him to salvage his position then.
By and large, after having started the year on a winning note, midway through was relatively calm for the Jaguars, despite losing half a dozen games by then.
It was there and then that the course started changing for them when they were hit with bad news in almost all departments.
First, it started with their injuries.
They lost key players such as Rashean Matthis and Maurice Jones-Drew to injuries.
At one point they were the only side to have placed as many as 27 players on the Injured Reserve (IR) list.
This did not bode well into their hopes for a better performance.
It became their lowest point in the season, as once being the only team with fewer injuries went worse to worst with so many players ruled out for rest of the year.
By end of October 2011, they were even trailing behind the teams of their stature in AFC South.
The only side behind them was Indianapolis Colts, which by then, were not hopeful of a win without its star quarterback, Peyton Manning.
It was also the time period when the Jaguars' coach started relying on their rookie quarterback, Blaine Gabbert, signed as the 11th draft pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2011 draft.
Gabbert ended up falling short in his first eight starts at the position, out of the total eight he had made by then.
However, Rio remained persistent with him, claiming the player had not been given enough opportunities.
He was confident and assured his side that Gabbert will prevail one day.
That day, however, seemed too far to come, and the coach was criticised from inside and outside the team, for sticking with Blaine as a starter.
The issue took so many twists and turns and finally ended up costing the coach his job.
On the very next day both the coach and his employer denied that sacking of the coach was on the cards, but the official was gone for good.
Disclaimer: The views expressed do not reflect the editorial policy of bettor.com
Tags: