Jones-Drew One Unhappy Camper

NFL News - October 15th, 2009 - Written by John

It's no secret that the Jacksonville Jaguars were a mess last week when they were stunned by the Seattle Seahawks, 41-0. They were underdogs heading in, yet four quarters later they looked like one of the worst teams in the league, allowing Matt Hasselbeck to throw four touchdowns in his return from a rib injury.

Running back Maurice Jones-Drew apparently took that loss worse than most, reports ESPN.com. Jones-Drew laid into his team Wednesday, taking 15 minutes to say he felt "embarrassed" and is not happy with the direction of the offense.

"I don't like to be embarrassed, so I do get upset about it," Jones-Drew told reporters. "You lead by actions. You can only say so much. You can talk to somebody until you're blue in the face and they're not going to do anything. But if you go out there and show why you're upset and you try to do something to correct your mistakes, then they'll pay attention."

No one is blaming Jones-Drew for the recent struggles of the team. He has 330 yards rushing and is among the league leaders with five touchdowns on the year. But his 75 attempts are far fewer than any other feature back in the league and said his frustrations stem from feeling like a "decoy" in the backfield. He only carried the ball 12 times in the loss to Seattle, while there were seven three-and-outs, two fumbles and a fourth down try that picked up squat.

"We have to figure out a way to be consistent," Jones-Drew said. "The running game is like chess. The running game is your pawns. They don't really mean that much in the beginning, but at the end, they surround the king and it's check mate. That's what the running game is.

"We're not going to break 30-yard runs every play. You're going to get 2, 3 yards a pop. You might get a negative run, but (defenses are) going to respect the run game and that's going to open up the pass game and open up the run game later on, where you're going to be breaking 10-, 15-yard chunks."

He also hinted that the team is going away from the running game far too soon and is no longer the physical run team they had gotten a reputation for. He coach Jack del Rio sidestepped the issue in response, but certainly has something to think about. He has changed the offensive line depth chart three weeks in a row.

"That's a big issue," Jones-Drew said. "How can you get continuity, how can you get chemistry going on when guys are rotating in and out? That doesn't happen.

"It's like ballroom dancing. You have to be able to move one way or another at the same time, fluently, otherwise you're going to step on her toes and she's going to step on yours. When your left tackle and left guard have been working together all week, and they're starting to get this chemistry buildup ... then you throw a guy in or you move a guy from here to here, you're throwing off something."

It should get better for the beleaguered team. They have been respectable in two games this year, beating the Texans and Titans in key divisional games. They now play St. Louis, Tennessee and Kansas City, which should be good enough to put them over .500. The Chiefs and Rams are both in the bottom seven in the NFL in rush yards allowed.

Although there is not a lot of promise for the Jaguars this season, you can still get a little excitemement from watching the games by checking out the Week 6 Betting Odds.

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