Trevor: Are we worried?
Personally, I don’t *think* I am. I’ve always been a bit of a Jags QB apologist, though. But I do have to admit this game was the first time I’ve found my optimism start to crack a little. For me, it’s an offense thing and not a Trevor thing. But yeah, I’ve been writing off the offensive stuff as unlucky mistakes keeping us from looking the way we should look. After yesterday, I’m wondering if we’ve been looking exactly how we should with the way the team is preparing every week. At some point the flukes become the norm if they’re consistent enough.
Calvin Ridley: What the hell?
I’ll admit I didn’t watch the whole game yesterday. I was behind because we had a family thing, so I watched till halftime and then checked the score on NFL+. I saw 33-3 and decided I didn’t really want to sit there and watch the 2nd half, which apparently went 23-0 for us, lol.
But unless Ridley suddenly looked great in the second half, what the hell is going on with this guy? We saw all the camp videos of his insane speed. Like I remember that clip of him running a route then Zay Jones, and he made Zay look like some scrub with how much faster he was. Then we get into games and I literally forget he’s there. He’s just invisible. Wtf?
Anybody with some football knowledge know what’s going on?
O-line: Are the 49ers just that good, or is our oline that bad?
We had a healthy oline yesterday and the half I watched made it hard for me to put much on Trevor’s shoulders (Like I said, I’m Mr. QB apologist. Sue me). What building blocks do we have if our o-line is really that bad? We could keep Cam, maybe? Little? The guard we traded for? Were we wrong for trading Jawaan last season, despite his penalties?
It’s frustrating watching this season because Trevor gets blamed for the lack of a deep passing game. Yet I watch other games all across the league and QBs regularly have time to stand in the pocket for 3-4 seconds a few times per drive. Yes, it’s not every play, but generally the big explosive passes come on those plays when the line holds up and gives the QB time. We *never* have those moments.
WRs outside Ridley: Who is worth keeping next season?
I love Engram and Kirk, personally. Zay has been kind of this clutch guy for 3rd downs and redzone, too. I always kind of assumed someone else would fill the role if Zay wasn’t there, but doesn’t it kinda look like we somehow just don’t have that clutch guy if Zay is injured? That makes me question whether we’d be better off choosing Zay over Kirk, for example, if we had to in the next few seasons.
With the way Ridley has been looking, it seems like we still need a WR1/X receiver kind of guy, too.
Obviously, there’s more stuff, but I was kind of curious to see where other Jags fans are on those topics. I won’t even bother asking about playcalling because I think we’re all agreed that it sucks.
Trevor: nope. The one thing I hate is he seems to struggle with fumbles. He’s diagnosing defenses well at the LOS. He’s putting balls where only his guy can get it. Half of his interceptions are off the hands of his guys and the other half are coming when we’re getting to crunch time and he has to make something happen. He’s not missing reads, it’s just no one seems to get open. Out of everything wrong with this team, Trevor is not a problem.
Ridley: we are using him so poorly. He’s a route runner and we’re only giving him like two or three types of routes. If defenders know he isn’t breaking in, he isn’t strong enough to out muscle them and isn’t fast enough to out run them. Maybe the mistake was having too many guys who are best in the slot, but we took a shot on a potential game changing guy that hasn’t worked out so far.
OL: there’s a lot here. The 9ers were running 5 big guys up front a lot of yesterday’s game when they already have one of the best DLs with only 4. Our line also played to its floor. Our guys have moved around so much this season I’m not giving up on them, but they have to be better than yesterday even/especially against good opponents. Trevor has one of the fastest times to throw this year and he still is getting pressured at a high rate. Doesn’t help either that we’re running a lot of empty sets with no TE or RB help on guys like Bosa or TJ Watt.
WRs: 9ers ran a lot of 5-2-4 this weekend and yet I saw almost nothing exploiting the lack of personnel in the middle of the field. Barely any play action. Started with a bootleg and then gave up on those. Idk man, I’m not a football coach and these guys couldn’t have gotten to where they are without knowing way more about football than I do, but watching these plays it just doesn’t make any sense to me sometimes. Basically, I’m blaming playcalling far more than receivers.