Chris Ivory ruled out for Jaguars vs Chargers: What it means
By Luke Sims
Chris Ivory‘s absence due to a medical issue right before the Week 1 game against the Green Bay Packers, severely hurt the Jacksonville Jaguars’ chances of winning. He’s now ruled out in Week 2 as well.
Chris Ivory’s absence from the first week of the 2016 season contributed to the Jacksonville Jaguars’ close loss to the Green Bay Packers. His absence limits the Jaguars’ ability to win games, severely hampering the offense.
Week 1’s absence was a surprise. The Jags have plenty of notice for Week 2, though.
In a game that will be critical in measuring the team’s progress, it is important to get all the right pieces in place to show the team’s true strength. The San Diego Chargers-Jacksonville Jaguars game is winnable, but with Ivory (and Prince Amukamara) set to miss Week 2 due to a general medical issue, things get a lot closer.
T.J. Yeldon struggled to run against a Packers defense that was not particularly great in the opener. He finished the day with 39 yards on 21 carries. The Jags rushing attack needs to do better if it hopes to win games without relying solely on Allen Robinson, Allen Hurns, and quarterback Blake Bortles.
Bortles is capable of driving the offense, but he isn’t a one-man show. With Ivory and Yeldon in the backfield he is able to keep the defense honest with strong running that rotates in fresh legs with different running styles. Without Ivory, the offense doesn’t have that ability. Denard Robinson is not an adequate substitute.
The Yeldon-led rushing attack in 2015 was actually less productive than 2014’s anemic rushing behind Toby Gerhart (1473 yards to 1633 yards). It isn’t that Yeldon isn’t a hard runner or that he can’t be a workhorse back, but clearly the Jaguars are more effective with diverse running options than just with Yeldon. The 2016 opener only reinforced that.
Does missing Chris Ivory do enough to force this game to be a toss-up? I think it does and I also think it puts a lot of undue pressure on a lot of other players. The 2016 Jags are designed with Ivory in mind and his absence, once again, creates issues for this team. The team knew he would miss the game, but it will have to perform at a high level if they hope to win.
Next: What will be fact and what will be fiction when the Chargers and Jags play?
Hopefully they can gut it out and come away with a win, but the whole game just got a fair bit harder.