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Questionable play-calling near goal-line nearly cost Jaguars
The Sports Xchange
JACKSONVILLE — The Jacksonville Jaguars, leading 27-13 at halftime, took the second half kickoff, and marched to the Buffalo 1-yard line where they gave running back Toby Gerhart four shots and he was stuffed all four times.
That led to a lot of second-guessing about whether they should have tried a different play on one of the downs, if not two of them.
“Disappointing, certainly,” offensive coordinator Greg Olson said. “That can’t happen. Can’t happen. We said, ‘We have four shots from the 1-yard line and four straight runs and we’re going to score here.’ And we have to do that.”
But they didn’t.
The Jaguars ran the same formation on all four downs, with Gerhart running behind Tyson Alualu, the defensive lineman who is the blocking back in short-yardage situations.
There was discussion after the game about why they didn’t run T.J. Yeldon or try to throw a pass to tight end Julius Thomas.
“We felt good about the plan we had,” Olson said.
But it didn’t work, and instead of going up by three touchdowns, they gave Buffalo the momentum. The Bills had the lead in the fourth quarter.
The Jaguars made it meaningless because they came back to win the game, but if they had lost, the heat on Bradley would have increased.
–The Jaguars decided to trade Josh Scobee to Pittsburgh and hand the kicking job to young Jason Myers. Scobee struggled in Pittsburgh and was cut, and now the question is whether Myers will wind up following him out the door.
Myers missed his third extra point in London and has now made 15 of 18. He’s also missed three field-goal attempts and has made eight of 11.
The Jaguars will have to decide during the bye week whether they’re going to stick with him.
–The Jaguars removed Davon House from his starting cornerback spot and switched him to nickel back after DeAndre Hopkins of Houston torched him in the fourth quarter a week ago. They replaced him with Dwayne Gratz, but when Gratz gave up a 58-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Easley in the fourth quarter, House got some work at corner again. The Jaguars will decide during the bye week whether to go back to House.
“It (stinks) because I had a personal goal to start 16 games and that was taken away from me,” House said. “But there are still goals I can achieve so we’ll see what happens.”
–The Jaguars don’t usually do much blitzing, but since they haven’t put much pressure on the quarterback, they dialed up more blitzes Sunday, and one of them led to a touchdown.
Cornerback Aaron Colvin knocked the ball out of the hands of Bills quarterback EJ Manuel on a second-quarter blitz, and defensive end Chris Clemons returned the fumble 6 yards for a touchdown.
“We were aggressive at times,” coach Gus Bradley said. It was one of the four turnovers the Jaguars forced in the game.
–RB T.J. Yeldon returned to action Sunday after missing a game with a groin injury. He ran 20 times for 115 yards, including 28-yard touchdown run.
NOTES: WR Marqise Lee (hamstring) didn’t make the trip to London. He has missed four games, but the Jaguars hope to get him back after the bye. … TE Julius Thomas left with three minutes left because of an undisclosed injury. …G Zane Beadles (plantar fasciitis) had his left foot in a boot and had a crutch leaving the locker room. His condition will be updated after the bye. … TE Clay Harbor (knee) missed his first game of the year. … S James Sample (shoulder) didn’t play Sunday and his condition will be updated after the bye.
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