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Starting strong safety Gerald Sensabaugh will likely undergo season-ending shoulder surgery soon. His season will end with 3 tackles and a fumble recovery. He will be replaced by veteran Sammy Knight who is off to a good start to his Jaguars career with 12 tackles already this season.
The Jacksonville Jaguars looked much better yesterday than they did against the Titans in week #1. The Jaguars had possession of the football for 34:15 of the game and the defense played very well. David Garrard didn’t lead the offenes to many points but his numbers were still solid as he completed 17 of 25 passes for 272 yards with 1 TD pass and he also carried the football 5 times for 20 yards (4.0 ypc). Fred Taylor (16 car, 56 yards) and Maurice Drew (11 car, 31 yards) were busy but neither of them was all that effective. Dennis Northcutt was the leading receiver on the Jags with 5 catches for 75 yards (15.0 avg). Reggie Williams also got out of the doghouse long enough to catch 2 passes for 41 yards and a TD. The Jaguars finished up with 113 yards rushing on 34 carries (3.3 ypc) and they completed 17 of 25 passes for 251 yards.
The defense was outstanding and it was led by linebacker Mike Peterson who had 7 tackles and 2 sacks. The Jaguars sacked Joey Harrington 7 times yesterday! The Falcons finished up with 82 yards rushing on 25 carries (3.3 ypc) and they completed 12 of 20 passes for 166 yards.
This is a game built for the Jaguars to punish someone. They are likely angry after the Titans came into Jacksonville and pushed them around. That will not happen this week against the Falcons. Look for the Jaguars to get back to basic football as they will attack the Falcons soft run defense repeatedly. The Falcons allowed 139 yards rushing on 27 carries (5.1 ypc) last week against the Vikings. Look for the running game to be a time share between Fred Taylor (16 yards) and Maurice Jones-Drew (32 yards) pounding away at the Falcons defense. LB Keith Brooking will likely be the main man that the Jags need to block to run amok on the Falcons defense. Look for the Jags to throw the ball a little bit more than usual on first down to trick the Falcons defense. They really need a receiver to step up and be the main man starting this week.
PREDICTION: After this game the Falcons will be looking forward to there bye week because they won’t lose. The Jaguars will stuff the Falcons running game and run all over them. The Jags should win this football game by at least 10 points.
The Jaguars have signed ancient (43 years old) kicker John Carney to replace Josh Scobee who is injured. Carney had a solid year in 2006 for the New Orleans Saints as he connected on 23 of 25 field goals (92%) and he also made 46 of 47 extra points. He finished up the season with 115 points which was an average of 7.2 points per game. Look for him to do a good job for the Jaguars just don’t expect him to make many 50 yarders.
The Jaguars have lost kicker Josh Scobee for the next 6-8 weeks with a strained hamstring. The Jags will work out a lot of kickers this week and I will keep you posted when they sign one. Hopefully it will be a veteran with some skills.