Tag: NFL

Jaguars looking to bounce back against Titans

The Jacksonville Jaguars are hoping that another week of practice will help in defeating the 4-10 Tennessee Titans this Sunday.  The first meeting between the two teams ended with a 29-27 Jaguars victory.

The Jags may get some added motivation as longtime center and 14-year NFL veteran Brad Meester announced his intention to retire at the end of the season.

“It’s something I seriously thought about for a long time,” Meester said. “It’s been a tough decision for me because this is something that I love doing. … But the more and more I thought about it, the more I know that it’s time and I’m looking forward to that next chapter in my life and being able to spend some time with my family.”

The Titans, who are second in the AFC South, have yet to win a division game and Head Coach Mike Munchak is left scratching his head.

“We should have three division wins, but we don’t,” Munchak said. “We got to finish with two here. It does mean a lot for that reason. You’re battling for second in the division I guess or whatever that comes to at the end. We got to beat a team that has given us trouble.”

Great tickets and seats are still available for this weekends match up.

 

Jags looking for a fresh start

When Shad Kahn took over as the new owner of your Jacksonville Jaguars, he promptly declared that he would bring a winning tradition to the franchise that has been sorely missing.  He first went out and hired offensive genius Mike Mularkey who turned Atlanta’s Matt Ryan into one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks.  Although Mularkey was not so successful as his last stint as a head coach (with Buffalo 2006-2008 where his record was 14-18.

Mularkey was asked if he thought he would prove successful in Jacksonville.

“When you start sobering up, how does it feel?” Khan said. “That’s the key issue. After the binge, how do you feel? … A wonderful thing about football is everybody looks great until the ball is snapped. Once the ball is snapped, results speak for themselves and we know in September how good a job he is doing preparing, strategies, (assembling) the staff. It will all come out. By that time, the buzz, the splash, is going to be history.”

Front office and coaching changes aside, the team will also have to deal with the sophomore season of Blaine Gilbert who passed for over 2200 yards last season with 12 touchdowns but was less than stellar.

Get your tickets to the new incarnation of the Jacksonville Jaguars!

THE FIFTH DOWN; Jaguars (4-9) at Falcons (8-5)

Jaguars (4-9) at Falcons (8-5)

8:30 p.m. Eastern, NFL Network

Line: Falcons by 11

Great news, NFL Network: the Jaguars may no longer be television ratings poison. The Jaguars were responsible for the two lowest ”Monday Night Football” ratings of the season, but the Seahawks and the Rams managed to tunnel beneath them with this week’s cavalcade of blocked punts, hacky-sacked snaps and screen passes that hit the receiver’s knee on one bounce. The Jaguars also scored 41 points in their win over the Buccaneers, more than in their previous three games combined and more than twice their previous season high.

The Jaguars now have the potential to hold your attention. All it took was a change in coaching and ownership, a series of fumbled punts by the opponent and the kind of general lassitude that came when two teams (Seattle and St. Louis) with seven total wins faced off in mid-December.

Falcons Coach Mike Smith, a former Jaguars coordinator, was briefly hospitalized after Sunday’s victory over the Panthers with an undisclosed illness. Smith was back in Atlanta on Monday and will be on the sideline Thursday. Smith is from Daytona, Fla., and while he enjoys trips back to Jacksonville, playing at home cuts down on his ticket costs. ”It’s a little cheaper up here since I don’t have as many friends as I did in Jacksonville,” he said.

Smith’s Florida supporters can watch the game on television. The network needs the ratings.

Pick: Falcons

(Pick does not reflect the betting line)

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.

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