dogfish
09-21-2007, 09:54 PM
SCOUTING REPORT, DAVID GARRARD:
strong and thickly built, but lacks ideal height for a quarterback. . . very athletic and quick, with excellent escapability-- can scramble to extend plays, or pick up yardage with his feet. . . throws pretty well on the run, and is definitely dangerous outside the pocket. . . has a good arm-- can throw the intermediate routes with accuracy and great zip when he sets his feet properly, and shows some touch on shorter throws. . .
can be impatient in the pocket, and will sometimes tuck the ball and take off instead of hanging in and going through his progressions. . . generally takes pretty good care of the ball, though he has been prone to fumbling. . . more of a game manager who isn't asked to make a ton of throws down the field, but his arm and athleticism allow him to make plays when the team needs them. . . a tough competitor who can spark the offense with his energy. . .
this promises to be a low-scoring affair, a physical slugfest between two teams that are looking to establish themselves as contenders behind the top favorites in the AFC. . . in this type of game, where points look to be at a premium, turnovers are even more significant than usual-- taking care of the ball will be essential on both sides, and whichever team does a better job of it should gain a very distinct edge. . .
jacksonville has been one of the league's most schizophrenic teams the past few years, looking borderline dominant one week and then laying an egg against a weak opponent the next, so it can be a little hard to predict what you're going to get from them. . . one thing we've come to expect is tough defense, though they do fail to show up occasionally-- tennessee gashed them bigtime with the run in week one, but i think it's pretty optimistic to expect that kind of production. . . they tightened it up considerably against atlanta, and i don't think our O-line matches up very well with their deep and talented D-line, particularly on the interior-- we've traditionally had the most trouble running against teams with big, powerful DTs, and they've got a massive pair of roadblocks in marcus stroud and john henderson. . . one thing worth mentioning is that henderson left last week's game twice with a head injury, and is questionable for this week's game-- it obviously helps us if he's out, but they do have one of the league's better reserve DTs in rob meier. . . of course he's not in the same league as henderson as a run clogger, but he does collapse the pocket nicely. . .
we do match up a little better on the edges. . . former bronco reggie hayward has continued to improve his run defense, but a recent PFT report suggested that hayward hasn't exhibited the same explosiveness off the snap coming off a torn achilles tendon. . . bobby mccray filled in very ably last year, and has won the starting job at RDE, though solid vet paul spicer will probably still see plenty of time in the rotation. . . it would be smart for us to attack the edges with the wide zone and force their ends to defend the run, and possibly cut their behemoth tackles rather than going right at them. . . atlanta ran much better to their left against the jags, a blueprint we should follow with matt lepsis over there-- maybe we can get travis henry isolated against undersized free safety reggie nelson a few times. . .
their linebackers flow to the ball very well, though, so i'm not expecting many big runs-- their DTs will make it hard for our interior OLs to get to the second level, so blocking from the fullback and tight ends will be important. . . they're a very aggressive D that swarms to the ball, and all of their 'backers have sideline-to-sideline speed. . . MLB mike peterson is one of the league's most underrated defenders, and darryl smith quietly developed into a quality player last year when peterson went down. . . smith is back on the weakside, with second-year player clint ingram capably manning the strongside. . . speedy rookie justin durant will probably get some time as well. . . henry needs to be decisive and take what he can get, because if he gets caught moving laterally he's going to get stuffed-- he said in a recent interview that he's never had great success against them , so he knows what he's up against. . .
safety gerald sensabaugh has been lost for the year, so sammy knight will be playing at strong safety-- knight lacks footspeed, but is still a thumper in the running game. . . i don't know for sure if the jags are considered a cover-2 base D, but they like to keep their safeties deep and play a lot of zones-- knight doesn't fit this style of play very well though, and we may see more of him up in the box against our running game. . .
the jags have a nice group of pass rushers-- spicer can move inside on passing downs, and DE/OLB brent hawkins is a situational pass rusher they're said to be pretty high on. . . they like to get pressure with their front four and keep those safeties deep when they can, and they'll use stunts and twists to free up linemen, but they also showed last week that they're not afraid to cut the blitz loose if they're not getting pressure-- harrington was getting comfortable in the pocket in the first half, but they unleashed the dogs after hafltime and totaled six sacks for the day. . . when they blitz, they seem to like overloading one side more than coming up the middle-- reggie nelson was pretty involved in their blitz packages, and all of their LBs can bring it. . . we'll probably have to give eric pears a good bit of help against their talented group of pass rushers, and dan graham should earn his money even if he doesn't catch a single ball. . .
i suspect that they'll want to pressure our young QB, because we have some precise route-runners who know how to uncover against zones if given time. . . they don't seem to mind moving rashean mathis around, and when he covers javon walker it'll be two of the AFC's best at their respective positions going head-to-head. . . mathis is fast and physical, and plays with a lot of confidence-- should be a fun matchup to watch. . . on the other side, brian williams is a solid corner, but he doesn't have quite the same short memory as mathis-- i like brandon marshall against him, and expect they'll probably give williams some help over the top with nelson, who has excellent range covering the deep halves. . . it also wouldn't hurt to use some motion and try to get javon matched up on williams a few times. . . nickel corner scott starks is fast but not very physical-- stokley, who's pretty familiar with the jags, should be able to make a few plays against him. . . I think it would make sense to run a little more 3-wide this week, both to get stokley involved, and to potentially spread the field and try running at their nickel defense. . . their dime back, terry cousin, is an unremarkable journeyman who’s been in the league for a while, and knows his assignments but lacks any special qualities as an athlete—we haven’t used much 4-wide, so I doubt he’ll see much action. . .
the jags' D tends to be vulnerable in the middle of the field, and can be attacked with drags and comebacks, although their pursuit speed and generally solid tackling tends to prevent lots of yards after the catch. . . unless we get them involved with some play-action, i kinda doubt our TEs will be much of a factor in the passing game against their speedy LBs. . . chef's size could give nelson some problems, but he obviously hasn't been in our game plans thus far. . . one thing about nelson. . . PFW's scouting report on him coming out of college was that he is instinctive but not very smart-- hopefully we'll put that to the test, and try to confuse him with plenty of pre-snap motion. . .
their secondary has performed very well against opposing receivers so far this year (not that they've faced any passing games of any consequence), and my guess would be that we'll see a much more conservative game plan than last week, when we weren't afraid to go after their corners. . . i would expect the typical slants, digs and outs with not many deep routes-- as i said earlier, turnovers have the potential to be particularly important, and i have a feeling shenanigans will look to protect cutler a bit against their strong defense. . . jay has to be smart and patient this week, and throw it away if nothing's open-- be a game manager, let the defense do it's work against a pedestrian offense, and play field position. . .
one thing i worry about is batted balls at the line-- the jags have the biggest DTs he's likely to face, and they're smart about getting those long arms up and disrupting passing lanes. . . our OLs need to help out and cut the DTs when they see 'em doing that. . . cutler has a bit of a tendency to throw the shorter routes a little flat, trying to smoke it in there when he should be putting a little more air under the ball, and he needs to be conscious of that this week-- a tipped ball INT like last week could really be disastrous. . . those DTs can really collapse the pocket, and i wouldn't mind seeing us try to get him out on the edge a few times off the play-action (did kubes take all the bootlegs with him to houston, or what?). . . coaching is one area where I think we have an advantage against them, so I’m pretty eager to see how shanahan will gameplan this one. . .
strong and thickly built, but lacks ideal height for a quarterback. . . very athletic and quick, with excellent escapability-- can scramble to extend plays, or pick up yardage with his feet. . . throws pretty well on the run, and is definitely dangerous outside the pocket. . . has a good arm-- can throw the intermediate routes with accuracy and great zip when he sets his feet properly, and shows some touch on shorter throws. . .
can be impatient in the pocket, and will sometimes tuck the ball and take off instead of hanging in and going through his progressions. . . generally takes pretty good care of the ball, though he has been prone to fumbling. . . more of a game manager who isn't asked to make a ton of throws down the field, but his arm and athleticism allow him to make plays when the team needs them. . . a tough competitor who can spark the offense with his energy. . .
this promises to be a low-scoring affair, a physical slugfest between two teams that are looking to establish themselves as contenders behind the top favorites in the AFC. . . in this type of game, where points look to be at a premium, turnovers are even more significant than usual-- taking care of the ball will be essential on both sides, and whichever team does a better job of it should gain a very distinct edge. . .
jacksonville has been one of the league's most schizophrenic teams the past few years, looking borderline dominant one week and then laying an egg against a weak opponent the next, so it can be a little hard to predict what you're going to get from them. . . one thing we've come to expect is tough defense, though they do fail to show up occasionally-- tennessee gashed them bigtime with the run in week one, but i think it's pretty optimistic to expect that kind of production. . . they tightened it up considerably against atlanta, and i don't think our O-line matches up very well with their deep and talented D-line, particularly on the interior-- we've traditionally had the most trouble running against teams with big, powerful DTs, and they've got a massive pair of roadblocks in marcus stroud and john henderson. . . one thing worth mentioning is that henderson left last week's game twice with a head injury, and is questionable for this week's game-- it obviously helps us if he's out, but they do have one of the league's better reserve DTs in rob meier. . . of course he's not in the same league as henderson as a run clogger, but he does collapse the pocket nicely. . .
we do match up a little better on the edges. . . former bronco reggie hayward has continued to improve his run defense, but a recent PFT report suggested that hayward hasn't exhibited the same explosiveness off the snap coming off a torn achilles tendon. . . bobby mccray filled in very ably last year, and has won the starting job at RDE, though solid vet paul spicer will probably still see plenty of time in the rotation. . . it would be smart for us to attack the edges with the wide zone and force their ends to defend the run, and possibly cut their behemoth tackles rather than going right at them. . . atlanta ran much better to their left against the jags, a blueprint we should follow with matt lepsis over there-- maybe we can get travis henry isolated against undersized free safety reggie nelson a few times. . .
their linebackers flow to the ball very well, though, so i'm not expecting many big runs-- their DTs will make it hard for our interior OLs to get to the second level, so blocking from the fullback and tight ends will be important. . . they're a very aggressive D that swarms to the ball, and all of their 'backers have sideline-to-sideline speed. . . MLB mike peterson is one of the league's most underrated defenders, and darryl smith quietly developed into a quality player last year when peterson went down. . . smith is back on the weakside, with second-year player clint ingram capably manning the strongside. . . speedy rookie justin durant will probably get some time as well. . . henry needs to be decisive and take what he can get, because if he gets caught moving laterally he's going to get stuffed-- he said in a recent interview that he's never had great success against them , so he knows what he's up against. . .
safety gerald sensabaugh has been lost for the year, so sammy knight will be playing at strong safety-- knight lacks footspeed, but is still a thumper in the running game. . . i don't know for sure if the jags are considered a cover-2 base D, but they like to keep their safeties deep and play a lot of zones-- knight doesn't fit this style of play very well though, and we may see more of him up in the box against our running game. . .
the jags have a nice group of pass rushers-- spicer can move inside on passing downs, and DE/OLB brent hawkins is a situational pass rusher they're said to be pretty high on. . . they like to get pressure with their front four and keep those safeties deep when they can, and they'll use stunts and twists to free up linemen, but they also showed last week that they're not afraid to cut the blitz loose if they're not getting pressure-- harrington was getting comfortable in the pocket in the first half, but they unleashed the dogs after hafltime and totaled six sacks for the day. . . when they blitz, they seem to like overloading one side more than coming up the middle-- reggie nelson was pretty involved in their blitz packages, and all of their LBs can bring it. . . we'll probably have to give eric pears a good bit of help against their talented group of pass rushers, and dan graham should earn his money even if he doesn't catch a single ball. . .
i suspect that they'll want to pressure our young QB, because we have some precise route-runners who know how to uncover against zones if given time. . . they don't seem to mind moving rashean mathis around, and when he covers javon walker it'll be two of the AFC's best at their respective positions going head-to-head. . . mathis is fast and physical, and plays with a lot of confidence-- should be a fun matchup to watch. . . on the other side, brian williams is a solid corner, but he doesn't have quite the same short memory as mathis-- i like brandon marshall against him, and expect they'll probably give williams some help over the top with nelson, who has excellent range covering the deep halves. . . it also wouldn't hurt to use some motion and try to get javon matched up on williams a few times. . . nickel corner scott starks is fast but not very physical-- stokley, who's pretty familiar with the jags, should be able to make a few plays against him. . . I think it would make sense to run a little more 3-wide this week, both to get stokley involved, and to potentially spread the field and try running at their nickel defense. . . their dime back, terry cousin, is an unremarkable journeyman who’s been in the league for a while, and knows his assignments but lacks any special qualities as an athlete—we haven’t used much 4-wide, so I doubt he’ll see much action. . .
the jags' D tends to be vulnerable in the middle of the field, and can be attacked with drags and comebacks, although their pursuit speed and generally solid tackling tends to prevent lots of yards after the catch. . . unless we get them involved with some play-action, i kinda doubt our TEs will be much of a factor in the passing game against their speedy LBs. . . chef's size could give nelson some problems, but he obviously hasn't been in our game plans thus far. . . one thing about nelson. . . PFW's scouting report on him coming out of college was that he is instinctive but not very smart-- hopefully we'll put that to the test, and try to confuse him with plenty of pre-snap motion. . .
their secondary has performed very well against opposing receivers so far this year (not that they've faced any passing games of any consequence), and my guess would be that we'll see a much more conservative game plan than last week, when we weren't afraid to go after their corners. . . i would expect the typical slants, digs and outs with not many deep routes-- as i said earlier, turnovers have the potential to be particularly important, and i have a feeling shenanigans will look to protect cutler a bit against their strong defense. . . jay has to be smart and patient this week, and throw it away if nothing's open-- be a game manager, let the defense do it's work against a pedestrian offense, and play field position. . .
one thing i worry about is batted balls at the line-- the jags have the biggest DTs he's likely to face, and they're smart about getting those long arms up and disrupting passing lanes. . . our OLs need to help out and cut the DTs when they see 'em doing that. . . cutler has a bit of a tendency to throw the shorter routes a little flat, trying to smoke it in there when he should be putting a little more air under the ball, and he needs to be conscious of that this week-- a tipped ball INT like last week could really be disastrous. . . those DTs can really collapse the pocket, and i wouldn't mind seeing us try to get him out on the edge a few times off the play-action (did kubes take all the bootlegs with him to houston, or what?). . . coaching is one area where I think we have an advantage against them, so I’m pretty eager to see how shanahan will gameplan this one. . .