The Weather

The temperature is supposed to hover around 16 degrees through most of the game but when you factor in the wind chill it will feel more like 6 degrees.  Through in a slight chance for snow and you have yourself some classic Chicago football weather.  Fortunately for the Jaguars, they play very well in winter weather for a southern team.  Anyone who has any doubts about this should remember the 2 victories over Pittsburgh late in the year last year.  Fred Taylor is particulary excpetional in the cold weather and should have a good game.  The Bears are used to this kind of weather so it shouldn’t affect their play dramatically.  Matt Forte should see lots of carries against a Jags defense that struggled to control Steve Slaton last week.  The pressure is on the Bears to win after losing last week to the Vikings so this could play into the Jaguars hands.

Injury Report

Jaguars:

Greg Jones – FB – Questionable

Greg Estandia – TE – Probable

Tony McDaniel – DT – Probably

Bears:

Dusty Dvoracek – DT – Out

Jason McKie – RB – Doubtful

Anthony Adams – DT – Questionable

Adewale Ogunleye – DE – Questionable

Hunter Hillenmeyer – LB – Probable

Prediction

The Bears will do what every team has done this year: make the Jaguars throw the ball.  While I do not blame Garrard for the Jaguars losing season, I do not think our passing attack is potent enough to beat the Bears.  The Bears will control the clock with their running game and keep Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew from causing any major damage.  Bears 24 – Jaguars 10

Many Jaguars didn’t even play. That is not really a shock considering it was the last preseason game and they already proved themselves against Tampa. Fred Taylor, Maurice Jones-Drew, Paul Spicer, John Henderson and Reggie Hayward were among the men who had not dressed out. However, David Garrard trotted out onto the field for the first series.

The Jaguars’ first attempt to bring the ball down the field fell short. After a nice Adam Podlesh kick, the Redskins found themselves on their own 18 yard line. They were coming out to try to recover after their crushing defeat against Carolina. Unfortunately for them, Mike Peterson found himself running back toward the Jaguar end zone after Rashean Mathis tipped the ball. After a few failed run attempts by Greg Jones and a nice catch by Matt Jones, Reggie Williams caught a touchdown pass. Of course, Scobee’s extra point was good and the Jaguars were up 7 – 0. 

The Redskins tried to regain their footing after a Scobee kick off. The Jaguars’ first string defense was in and they had no chance. After losing a time out due to a failed challenge, the Redskins punted the ball away. Garrard threw a nice pass to Matt Jones (who kept on going). Jones looked fantastic all day and you could see that Garrard really trusted him. In fact, Garrard trusted him so much that they went for a long ball and Garrard got intercepted. The safety for the Redskins saw the ball lopped high and long in the air and got to it quickly. It was a good play on his part but it wasn’t necessarily a pass Garrard had any right throwing. He did get hit after he threw it so maybe he was a bit rushed. Thanks, offensive line.

Despite the offensive line letting Garrard get knocked up, the defensive line played amazingly. The Redskins suffered another three and out and Cleo Lemon came in. Lemon got the advantage of once again playing behind the first string offensive line so the Jaguars could really see what he was made of. Two passes to Mike Walker had the Jaguars driving down the field. Troy Williamson got his first catch of the preseason (it was the first game he really played, Viking fans) and continued the assault on the Redskins. A Lemon pass to Greg Estandia insured a touchdown and the Jaguars were up 14 – 0. Unfortunately, Mo Williams suffered a sprained right knee on this drive. Uche Nwaneri replaced him.

Colt Brennan came in for the Redskins at this point and drove it down the field enough for the Redskins to get their first and only points: a field goal. The Jaguars got the ball back to eat down the final minutes of the first half. This is the point where Chauncy Washington started to shine. Scobee kicked a field goal and put the Jaguars up 17 – 3. 

At the end of the half, Lemon had a 122.9 passer rating. Washington ran for 42 yards on six carries and also had 32 yards receiving. Todd Bouman came in after another failed drive by the Redskins in the start of the second half. 

From Vic’s in-game blog:

8/28/08 at 8:42 PM

Derrick Harvey is in the game.

8/28/08 at 8:42 PM

He’s at left defensive end. I think that’s noteworthy.

8/28/08 at 8:43 PM

Now he’s at right end. I think that’s noteworthy, too.

8/28/08 at 8:45 PM

Now he’s at left end. By the way, has anyone seen Quentin Groves?

8/28/08 at 8:45 PM

Now he’s out of the game.

8/28/08 at 8:48 PM

Harvey is back in.

Richard Collier ruined the Jaguars drive with more than one flag against him. Not good considering he is fighting the starting job. The game itself actually became a flag fest at the end. Nothing too remarkable happened. Oh. Wait. No. Troy Williamson caught an awesome 51 yard pass by Bouman for another Jacksonville touchdown! Yay Williamson. Jacksonville won the game 24 – 3.

Jaguar fans should be excited about the preseason. Fans were spelling out doom and gloom when the Dolphins marched all over us. However, the defense is looking much better than they did last year and there is a lot of depth there. The passing game isn’t secure but the run game still looks great. Reggie Nelson has been fantastic. Matt Jones has really stepped up. The team looked ready to play next week against the Tennessee Titans. They better be. Besides the fact that it is a divisional game, the Titans deserve to be crushed. Screw you, Jeff Fisher.