Jacksonville Jaguars crushed by Tennessee Titans
The Romans used to discipline their mutinous soldiers by dividing them into ten groups and executing one from each group. They called it decimation. The Jacksonville Jaguars can’t be said to have been decimated by the Tennessee Titans because that would
imply that at least 9/10th of their ranks were shown mercy. No, the Titans were simply merciless. Jacksonville lost with 3 points against a whooping 30 for Tennessee.
All that while the Titans’ starting quarterback, Vince Young stayed off the field throughout most of the game. Granted the Jaguars starter, David Garrard, was sidelined early on too but let’s not lose sight of one important fact. 3 against 30! That was no
battle, it was a slaughter. The team leading the AFC South against a team that is lowest, something bad was bound to happen but this bad? No one would have thought. The Jaguars aren't one of NFL’s stronger teams but they aren’t a terrible side either. They
have won 3 and lost 3 games so far, defeating Denver Broncos, Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts. Broncos and Bills maybe, but Colts at least can’t be considered pushovers by any standard. Beating one good team in one game doesn’t make the Jaguars playoff
contenders; it just suggests that they would do better than one field goal in 60 minutes.
The Jaguars have not been treated like that in a home game ever before in history. Earlier, in this season they ended the game against Philadelphia on 3 points but the Eagles -28 points- fell just short of the Titans’ 30 points victory. “Not the night we
were looking for,” Jacksonville’s coach, Jack Del Rio said. “We turned it over four times, lost our quarterback. ... Not the kind of night we wanted to have.” There was just so much wrong with Jacksonville on Monday night’s football.
Jacksonville’s tight end, Mercedes Lewis said that the Jaguars, more than anyone else, were responsible for their loss on Monday night. “It's not them beating us. It's us beating ourselves”, Lewis stated. The Jaguars might have made it easier but we can
say with a fair bit of certainty that the Titans had a little something to do in beating the living day lights out of the Jaguars.
There were 3 turnovers from Jacksonville against the Buffalos but, fortunately for the Jaguars, the Bills weren’t able to make them count. The four mistakes that Jaguars made against the Titans surely did count. After David’s departure in the second quarter
due to a concussion he sustained, the Jaguars looked rather helpless. His replacement was the newly acquired Trent Edwards. “I'll just say I played OK”, Trent said. Some would say that he was being rather generous with his evaluation. “I mean, there were plays
out there I thought I could have made better and there were plays out there we were able to convert”, Edwards said.
Edwards passed 140 yards in the game, 30 more than Vince Young’s replacement, Kerry Collins. Except that Collins wasn’t intercepted twice and he also had a touchdown pass in the game. Collins was far more efficient. His 110 yards came of 16 attempts, 11
successful, while Trent attempted 24 times and had success only 14 times. The Titans’ coach was pleased with the Collins' run during the game. “We're very, very fortunate that we have two very good quarterbacks”, Coach Jeff Fisher said. Collins was the starting
quarterback for the Titans until he lost the spot to Young. He also has years of NFL experience behind him.
Even without their quarterback, the Titans didn’t miss a beat. The defence was on its toes and the offence kept coming through with yards. Pitching in with the offense along with Collins was Chris Johnson, who had one touchdown in the game. The Titans are
third in the league with the run and it was obvious on Monday night. Young rushed 111 yards and Javon Ringer came through with 42. The Jaguars, on the other hand, ran just half as many yards.
Jacksonville will now face the Kansas City Chiefs next week while Titans would take on the Eagles.
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