Poor Rushing Plagues Jacksonville Jaguars

The Jacksonville Jaguars have the worst rushing attack in the league. As mentioned by Daniel Lago, the Jaguars will now have to resort to using the pass to open up the run rather than the traditional reliance on the running game to open up the passing game. The poor rushing attack, however, is plaguing the Jaguars, causing quarterback Blake Bortles to take far too many attempts per game, opening up opportunities for costly turnovers. Blake Bortles simply is not at a point in his career where he can play mistake free football.

What do you do when your quarterback can’t play mistake free football? You run the ball.

The Jaguars can’t do that either, though, because their running backs haven’t been able to find holes or explode around the edge.

You need only look at the “minus guys” in Daniel Lago’s PFF review of last week’s game against the Tennessee Titans to see that the Jaguars’ offensive line isn’t doing a great job in run blocking either. Even two of the “plus guys,” center Luke Bowanko and guard Zane Beadles, graded out poorly in run blocking. The Jaguars don’t have a road grader on their roster who can make it possible for the Jaguars to rely on the run either up the middle or on the edges.

Toby Gerhart and Denard Robinson aren’t proving to be effective runners as a result.

This causes the Jaguars to pass a lot. The Jags pass the 12 most times of any team in the league. Part of that is the team falling behind, but a large portion of that is the inability of the running game to be effective. This leads to poor time of possession, greater opportunities for turnovers, and increased pressure on Bortles.

I agree with most of what Daniel says when he states:

"I understand wanting to have an effective running game, but there’s nothing wrong with having your rookie quarterback throw the ball 40 times a game. If he can handle it, which most think he can, then let Bortles take the reigns of the offense and do what he feels most comfortable doing."

But from a coaching perspective it also hurts the Jaguars because Bortles simply is not Aaron Rodgers right now and the receiving options aren’t that good either. Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers used to be able to play short passes as effectively as runs in large part because they had dependable receivers and a gifted, experienced quarterback. As gifted as Blake Bortles is, he doesn’t have the experience right now and the Jaguars’ receivers desperately need to improve to be dependable options. The coaches don’t have the personnel to effectively transition to that type of scheme.

The rushing attack doesn’t seem to have much hope of improving, so the Jaguars should try and use the pass to open it up. But at the same time, we need to see improvement from the passing game for it to be effective, otherwise this rushing game will continue to plague the Jaguars.