Jones-Drew Returns With TD as Jaguars Top Titans

It wasn’t the view Jones-Drew wanted, certainly not the one he expected.

Jones-Drew got the message, though. Loud and clear. The Jacksonville Jaguars are going to be cautious with their star player, even if it means upsetting the 5-foot-7, 210-pound bruising running back.

Jones-Drew ran for 97 yards and a touchdown in his return from knee surgery, and the Jaguars took advantage of a fast start and some clutch plays late to beat the Tennessee Titans 16-14 in the season opener Sunday.

The victory prompted warm and fuzzy feelings in the locker room — for everyone except Jones-Drew.

“He wasn’t happy,” coach Jack Del Rio said. “He ended up carrying the ball 24 times, which is OK. We got up early in the second half and he already had 21 carries. I’m not wild about the prospect of him taking it 35 times in the opener, so that was my call. We had talked about a play-count for him.

“He’s so competitive and he’s not happy about it. But that’s going to happen as we monitor and try to keep him to a certain number of reps as we go throughout this season. Hopefully he can channel that energy in a positive way for us. It’s not about any one person here. We want to utilize our best players. It’s about the Jacksonville Jaguars winning football games.”

Jones-Drew had a 21-yard touchdown run on the team’s opening possession and even carried the ball on six consecutive plays late in the third quarter.

But coaches turned to Karim for much of the final 17 minutes. Karim ran 14 times for 33 yards, a 2.4 yards-per-carry average that had Jones-Drew itching to get back on the field.

“I feel like I could have played more,” said Jones-Drew, who had surgery to repair a torn meniscus in January. “Last year I played on one leg. Now I have two. … That was the coach’s decision. They made it and I had to abide by it. We talked about it and they know I’m very unhappy about that.

“Every player on this team wants to play and I felt like I had more in the tank, more to give to the game, to my teammates and I just couldn’t give it to them because I was on the sideline.”

Jacksonville’s game plan was to run the football early and often. Not only is it what the Jaguars do best, but quarterback Luke McCown was starting his first game in four years and Tennessee was playing without defensive ends Jason Jones and Derrick Morgan.

The Jaguars ran 47 times for 163 yards. They dominated most of the first three quarters, shutting down Titans running back Chris Johnson, forcing seven punts and applying steady pressure on Matt Hasselbeck.

Johnson, who joined the team a little more than a week ago following a holdout, was pretty much a non-factor. He ran nine times for 24 yards and caught six passes for 25 yards.

The Jaguars were up 13-0 and could have enjoyed a bigger lead if not for having to settle for field goals. Tennessee made it close with a pair of second-half touchdown passes from Hasselbeck to Kenny Britt.

“They came out of the box with the crowd and the enthusiasm and they got points on the board and we didn’t,” new Titans coach Mike Munchak said. “We were flat early and there’s no reason for that.”

The Titans finally got things going late. They made it 16-14 on Britt’s second score.

Jacksonville did just enough to hold on. Mike Thomas made a leaping grab on McCown’s third-down pass over the middle. The 26-yard gain helped Jacksonville take time off the clock. The Jaguars ended up punting, but they pinned Tennessee at the 3-yard line. The Titans still had a shot, but Dwight Lowery intercepted Hasselbeck’s deep pass in the closing seconds.

“The smarter play probably would have been to hit Chris and see what he could do and hopefully spike it and give our field goal team a chance,” Hasselbeck said. “I’m sure the coaches will come up with some positives, but right now it’s hard not to focus on the negatives.”

Jaguars Release David Garrard

Whether it saves Coach Jack Del Rio’s job remains to be seen. The team’s owner, Wayne Weaver, has said that Jacksonville needs to make the playoffs for Del Rio to stick around.

Del Rio made it clear late last season that he had grown tired of Garrard’s inconsistency, but the coach remained steadfast through training camp and the preseason that Garrard was his starter. That changed Tuesday, when the Jaguars parted ways with Garrard after nine up-and-down seasons.

“He just couldn’t get it going,” said Del Rio, who added that the team did not try to trade Garrard. Del Rio turned the starting job over to Luke McCown, who outplayed Garrard in the preseason.

“I was shocked by the decision,” tight end Marcedes Lewis said. “They obviously felt it was time to go in a different direction. Luke had a great camp, everyone knows that, and now he’s the guy. There’s no drop-off.”

Garrard did nor return phone or text messages seeking comment, but he thanked Jaguars fans on his Twitter feed: “You’ll always have a special place in my heart and my family’s heart!”

Garrard ends his Jacksonville career with 16,003 yards passing, 89 touchdowns, 54 interceptions and a 39-37 record. He also ran for 1,746 yards and 17 scores.

GIANTS’ GOFF OUT FOR SEASON Giants linebacker Jonathan Goff will miss the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Goff, in his fourth season with the Giants out of Vanderbilt, sustained the injury during Monday’s practice. He had 80 tackles and a sack last season, when the Giants finished 10-6.

The Giants have lost five key members of the defense for the season since training camp opened. Last week, they lost the backup linebacker Clint Sintim to a season-ending knee injury.

Lindell Seals Bills’ 35-32 OT Win Over Jaguars

Lindell’s kick came after Jacksonville’s Josh Scobee missed a 53-yard attempt. It was a back-and-forth game in which Buffalo squandered a 17-point first half lead and had to overcome a 15-point second-half deficit.

With much of the crowd gone by halftime, Tyler Thigpen forced overtime by hitting Paul Hubbard on a 4-yard touchdown pass with 38 seconds left. The two hooked up again for a 2-point conversion.

Not that many were left watching in a game in which much of the crowd had left by halftime, the starters sat the bench and the game was approaching its fourth hour.

Both teams are 1-2.

It was the NFL’s first preseason overtime game since Aug. 16, 2008, when Seattle beat Chicago 29-26. That one was at least decided early, when Brandon Coutu hit a field goal 3:28 into the extra frame.

The Bills appeared ready to blow the game open in the first half when their Ryan Fitzpatrick-led offense finally showed spark — and a quick-strike dimension — in building a 17-0 lead.

In completing his first 11 attempts, Fitzpatrick threw touchdowns passes on consecutive plays — an 11-yarder to Marcus Easley and a 52-yarder to Stevie Johnson — 65 seconds apart in the second quarter. He finished going 11 of 12 for 165 yards passing in four series, and a kneeldown, through the first half.

That more than doubled the 88 yards Fitzpatrick had in six series through Buffalo’s first two preseason. The two touchdowns were the first scored by the Bills’ starters this preseason, and the 17 points in the first half were 4 more than Buffalo managed in its first two weeks.

“We’ve said all along, we wanted to carry over what we’ve been doing in practice onto the game field, and I think we did a good job of that today,” Fitzpatrick said.

Jacksonville quarterback David Garrard overcame a slow start by producing 17 points on his final three series. Playing mostly against the Bills second-string defense, Garrard scored on a 4-yard run and then engineered a 10-play, 76-yard scoring drive capped by Brock Bolen’s 2-yard run to open the third quarter.

Garrard finished 11 of 21 for 106 yards in his second start, while both touchdown drives where helped by lengthy pass-interference penalties — a 20-yarder against Drayton Florence and a 31-yarder against Reggie Corner.

The Jaguars took 24-17 lead with 4:53 left in the third quarter when linebacker Jacob Cutrera intercepted Thigpen’s pass and returned it 16 yards.

Rookie first-round pick Blaine Gabbert had an inconsistent outing for Jacksonville. He went 6 of 13 for 52 yards with an 11-yard touchdown pass to DuJuan Harris and an interception.

Linebacker Paul Posluszny had six tackles in his first game against the Bills since signing with Jacksonville in free agency last month. Though Posluszny was beaten by Jackson on a 30-yard catch up the left sideline in the first quarter. Posluszny responded by stuffing Jackson for a 1-yard loss on third-and-goal from the 1 to force the Bills to settle for Rian Lindell’s opening 21-yard field goal.

Bills running back Fred Jackson backed up his off-the-field comments with a strong showing. He finished with 33 yards rushing and a 30-yard catch to cap a week that began with Jackson questioning whether the Bills had disrespected him by starting C.J. Spiller in a 24-10 loss at Denver last weekend.