Avoid the hangover – Preview for the Bills game
By Zoltan Paksa
Special teams- Battle of the rookie returners
There is one unit which is decent at the Bills- special teams. Luckily the Jaguars can say the same about their unit as well (I have one word- Scobee). It seems this Sunday the moment will arrive, finally Deji Karim will hit the field. Although Tiquan Underwood has played well as a returner (which in my opinion gave him confidence which help him improving); I want to see the Nr. 1 option there, and that is Karim. The Bills however are already using their rookie weapon, CJ Spiller. He scored a 95 yard kickoff return TD against the Patriots on Week 3. Osgood and co. must prepare well for him. I can’t wait to see which unit will be more effective on Sunday.
How can the Jaguars avoid losing this game?
They must do 3 things:
1. Don’t let Fitzpatrick to make this game once again very close! In my opinion many Jaguars fans thinks for the first time this season the Jaguars face an average at best QB in Ryan Fitzpatrick. But there is a problem! He already beat this team in ’08; when he was the QB of the then winless (0-8)Bengals! Plus let me remind everyone; that Fitzpatrick throw 297 yards against the Jaguars last season (although Rashean Mathis missed that game because of injury); so if the secondary struggles, Ryan is capable to punish them! He knows how a QB can play well against this team! And he still got weapons! Lee Evans maybe is on the trade block; but he can play; so can Roscoe Parrish. 3rd WR Steve Johnson has been getting more involved in the Bills offense; and their best TE Shawn Nelson also debut against the Jaguars and we all know how big of an issue this team has with the TE coverage. Oh and C. J. Spiller can catch the ball as well…
2. Limit Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller – as I wrote; Tyson Alualu and Terrance Knighton must perform very well for that. We will see how good Jeremy Mincey is against the run (because I think he will see extended playtime at LDE).
3. Don’t beat yourself – Protect the ball. Jeff Lageman said; if the Jaguars do not give the ball away, they will win the game. I agree. If we see the same offense which played against the Colts; I think the Jaguars will win this game; no matter what the Bills do on offense.
With all these factors this game will depend on 1 thing; will the Jaguars have another hangover game or not. If the Jaguars will play on the level they did against Denver or Indianapolis; this will be a blowout. If we see “Week 2&3” kind of performances–this might be a loss. I wrote in the opening that we will know a lot about the ’10 Jaguars after this match. With all respect, the Bills are not a team on the rise and the Jaguars must defeat them without any problem. If this team prepares and focuses well, the game should be in the bag. I will go even further; if the Jaguars lose this on Sunday; they are not a playoff caliber team, they will erase all momentum and will struggle to be a .500 team. Having said that, I expect a close tight game on Sunday but with the Jaguars in control until the final second on the clock.
Prediction: Bills 17- Jaguars 24
Zoltan Paksa