–Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone was forced to clarify his rationale in going for a two-point conversion in the closing seconds of the Jaguars 31-12 win over the New York Jets on Sunday. The Jaguars scored on a 1-yard run by T.J. Yeldon with 25 seconds left in the game. Following the score, Marrone opted to go for a 2-point conversion instead of kicking the PAT. The attempt failed when a Blake Bortles pass to wide receiver Dede Westbrook was incomplete.
“If I had to do it all over and I knew this was going to happen, yeah, I wish someone would have said something,” Marrone said on Monday. “Because the one thing I don’t want to do is get my character attacked which has happened in the past. We said if we scored (the lead) would be 19. This is way before (our final drive) and we said we are going to go for two. When we scored, it was just natural to go for two.
“What pisses me off, honestly, people that do know me, do know how much I respect the game and I have a ton for Coach (Todd) Bowles and (Jets general manager) Mike Maccagnan is one of my good friends. Whatever happened in the past is the past and has nothing to do with the people or the game themselves who are on the field. For me, that is exactly what happened. Right, wrong or indifferent, and I would never do anything like that. I wouldn’t because I respect the game too much. It has nothing to do with any of the other crap that people bring up.”
–Not to be overlooked in the Jaguars strong defensive performance last Sunday in which they allowed the Jets just 178 total yards, was a career-day performance by Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles. When Leonard Fournette went out of the game midway through the second quarter, the Jaguars had three more running plays than passing plays. But from that point through the rest of the game, the Jaguars had seven more passing plays than runs. The majority of Bortles’ 38 pass attempts were short throws. The official play-by-play account of the Jaguars’ first two possessions showed Bortles completing all 11 of his pass attempts and all 11 were listed as “short left,” “short middle” or “short right”.
The Jaguars did open it up somewhat in the second half and Bortles connected with receiver Donte Moncrief on a 67-yard completion for a touchdown, less than half of which came on Moncrief’s run to the end zone after the catch. Bortles finished with a career-high 388 passing yards, bettering his previous best of 382 at San Francisco last year and his season-high of 376 against New England two weeks before.
“(The Jets) did a good job of disguising some stuff. I think talking about it throughout this past week, I really wanted to push the ball down the field and make up for not doing it last week,” Bortles said. “I think it was coming along and the big thing this week was just emphasizing only take it if it’s there. You do that because that’s exactly what they’re trying to do to kind of bait you into throwing one into some coverage.
“When you get the ball to Corey (Grant), T.J. (Yeldon) and some of these guys in space it’s a 10-15 yard gain every time so it’s just positive getting a big chunk.”
–The Jaguars have now started three different combinations on the offensive line in the first four games. Josh Wells started his second game at left tackle in place of Cam Robinson who is out for the season with a torn ACL. Chris Reed was the starter at right guard a week ago against Tennessee in place of A.J. Cann who was out with a triceps injury. And now the Jaguars could be looking at yet another lineup this Sunday against Kansas City, depending on the status of starting center Brandon Linder.
Linder went out in the second quarter of last week’s game against the Jets after suffering a back injury. At halftime, Jaguars officials announced that Linder would not play the second half. Reserve Tyler Shatley, one of just two extra linemen that were active for the game, came in for Linder and played the rest of the way. Depending on Linder’s availability, Shatley could earn his first start since starting the last game of the 2016 season against Indianapolis. If he’s tabbed the starter, Shatley said he’ll be ready.
“We’ve talked about it in the past, that when a starter goes down, our job as the backup is to go in there and not miss a beat, be able to fill in and keep the offense rolling,” Shatley said.
Shatley held up well in replacing Linder at the all-important center spot. The Jaguars offense accumulated 503 yards of total offense, the fourth highest total in franchise history. Shatley felt comfortable with his performance in his first action since the last game of the 2016 season.
“There were some things I did well and some things I need to work on,” Shatley said. “You’re always chasing that perfect game to keep getting better. I just need to work on some things that I didn’t do as well as I should have.”
–Chad Henne was a close teammate of Blake Bortles for the past four seasons before he signed a free-agent contract with Kansas City during the offseason. Henne was the starter when Bortles was drafted as the No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 draft. It took Bortles just three games to replace Henne as the starter, and he’s started every game for the Jaguars since Game 4 of the 2014 season. The two quarterbacks were close friends when teammates for the Jaguars and plan to visit before or after Sunday’s game between their respective teams.
“I talk to (Chad) probably every other week or so,” Bortles said. “Just, ‘Hey, congrats on the win. Good job.’ I talked to him the other day. I said, ‘Hey, good win on Monday night. Let’s catch up before or after the game on Sunday.’ He’s good. He’s awesome. He is the perfect guy to be around a young quarterback, so I’m sure he’s been good for (Patrick) Mahomes.”
Bortles said he has good memories of the time he spent with Henne when they were teammates in Jacksonville.
“Really my first three years, it was just me and Chad. I came to the bench and he went over what the looks were the previous series with me,” Bortles said. “I have learned a ton of football from him. He kind of took me in when I was 21 years old and I came here. I would go over to his house and his wife would cook for me and I would hang out with them and their two kids. We did a lot of stuff together. He was a huge part of my growing through I guess football as a professional athlete on and off the field. I owe a lot to him.”
BY THE NUMBER: 8-1 – Jaguars record under head coach Doug Marrone following a loss. Only back-to-back losses during this time was last two games of the 2017 season to San Francisco and Tennessee.
