hope springs eternal....or maybe somewhat less than eternal
The youngster, his buddy and I went to the Jaguars scrimmage Friday night, and my unbridled optimism got...well, bridled. I've been listening to the reporters talk about training camp, and listening to the coaches in interviews, and we're finally supposed to have an offense to go with that defense. I went. I looked. I looked some more. I looked on the field. I looked under my seat. I couldn't find it.
True, it was a scrimmage at the end of the first week of training camp. True, Matt Jones sat out. True, we have a great defense, and it's hard to make big plays against them. True, the offense takes longer to get in sync in training camp than the defense. All that said, though, I gotta wonder....what have these people been seeing that I totally missed Friday night? What promising signs to they see that I missed in a blown screen pass...in Byron or David Garrard not completing a single pass and going three and out in their first series of plays (while Quinn Gray, third stringer threw a touchdown pass in his first - scrubs against scrubs)? Coming out of that thing, the TV guys are saying "Don't read too much into what you saw Friday night." I can understand the reasons (or excuses, depending on your point of view) why it didn't look so good. The question is, why the spin effort? I find myself wondering, what did you see in the preceeding practices that made you tell me life was getting so much better, offensively? Where did you see something that did look like things were improving? Can you show me where to look? What made you tell me Byron's looking so much better, because I gotta tell ya, I missed that completely on Friday night. What made you tell me Fred Taylor is running like a man possessed? Friday night, he looked like the same old man, dancing, hoping for a hole to open instead of making one open. I want to believe, but my eyes keep telling me something isn't quite right here. There were bright spots. Maurice Jones-Drew and Greg Jones were running like men possessed, but overall, why am I not seeing what you guys are seeing?
Jack Del Rio said he looked at the tape and was encouraged, because that screen pass was just a half a step from being something big, and lots of other things were "this close" to being big plays. Well Jack, people at the bottom of their division look at tape and see most of their plays being a half a step from being something big. In the NFL, that half a step separates a Lombardi trophy from the first pick in next year's draft. That doesn't bode well for me.
No, I'm not ready to trash a season based on a scrimmage at the end of the first week of training camp, and I'm still optimistic, but I'm getting the idea someone's blowing sunshine up my ass. I just don't know why. We'll see. We still have all the preseason games to look better before this stuff starts counting....for whatever it counts for.
True, it was a scrimmage at the end of the first week of training camp. True, Matt Jones sat out. True, we have a great defense, and it's hard to make big plays against them. True, the offense takes longer to get in sync in training camp than the defense. All that said, though, I gotta wonder....what have these people been seeing that I totally missed Friday night? What promising signs to they see that I missed in a blown screen pass...in Byron or David Garrard not completing a single pass and going three and out in their first series of plays (while Quinn Gray, third stringer threw a touchdown pass in his first - scrubs against scrubs)? Coming out of that thing, the TV guys are saying "Don't read too much into what you saw Friday night." I can understand the reasons (or excuses, depending on your point of view) why it didn't look so good. The question is, why the spin effort? I find myself wondering, what did you see in the preceeding practices that made you tell me life was getting so much better, offensively? Where did you see something that did look like things were improving? Can you show me where to look? What made you tell me Byron's looking so much better, because I gotta tell ya, I missed that completely on Friday night. What made you tell me Fred Taylor is running like a man possessed? Friday night, he looked like the same old man, dancing, hoping for a hole to open instead of making one open. I want to believe, but my eyes keep telling me something isn't quite right here. There were bright spots. Maurice Jones-Drew and Greg Jones were running like men possessed, but overall, why am I not seeing what you guys are seeing?
Jack Del Rio said he looked at the tape and was encouraged, because that screen pass was just a half a step from being something big, and lots of other things were "this close" to being big plays. Well Jack, people at the bottom of their division look at tape and see most of their plays being a half a step from being something big. In the NFL, that half a step separates a Lombardi trophy from the first pick in next year's draft. That doesn't bode well for me.
No, I'm not ready to trash a season based on a scrimmage at the end of the first week of training camp, and I'm still optimistic, but I'm getting the idea someone's blowing sunshine up my ass. I just don't know why. We'll see. We still have all the preseason games to look better before this stuff starts counting....for whatever it counts for.
John put this out here at 7:06 AM
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