Week 10 Post-Game Prescription: Feed Denard Robinson

I am in no way a doctor, but if I were and if I specialized in making football teams play better, I would be prescribing more and more of Denard Robinson to help the Jacksonville Jaguars climb out of their offensive woes.

The Jaguars are struggling mightily in a number of areas and one of the few bright spots is Denard Robinson’s stellar play at running back.

He was one of the hottest running backs in the league when he went head to head against DeMarco Murray in Sunday’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys. To reward him for his efforts and because the Jaguars are very good at exploiting their best weapon, they gave him just 15 carries for 60 yards.

Yup, you read that right.

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15 carries, 60 yards. That’s a four yard per carry average that the Jags could have ridden all day, with a threat to break it open on any given play.

Like he did when he ran for two scores

, including a beautiful 32 yarder to put the team up 7-3 early. His 15 carries was the lowest total over the past four weeks. The one win for the Jaguars has come when he had 22 carries.

Instead, Robinson was given the cold shoulder later in the game with Toby Gerhart and Jordan Todman notching an additional six carries for all of eight yards.

More importantly, however, was the quick decision to move the focus of the offense to the strong but highly inconsistent arm of rookie quarterback Blake Bortles. The young quarterback is going to be something special one day, but right now he’s struggling (especially under pressure). Bortles finished the day with 37 attempts (tied for second highest in the season) which has not been a prescription for success this season. The Jaguars’ lone win was when Bortles threw just 31 times and the offense ran through Denard Robinson.

Robinson is the key to offensive success in Jacksonville yet he seems to be ignored when the Jaguars find themselves trailing, even when there is plenty of time left to utilize the running game.

Most of Robinson’s 15 carried came in the first half on Sunday and while the team was down 24-7 at halftime, the offense was sparking more when Robinson was carrying the ball. The Jaguars cannot abandon the run so quickly. They can’t abandon Robinson so quickly.

While giving Denard Robinson more carries won’t heal all of the Jaguars’ ailments, it could go a long way toward making them competitive. It would have kept the ball out of Tony Romo and Dez Bryant’s very capable hands on Sunday for a bit longer and it likely would have picked up a few more yards than the Jags were getting without Robinson’s rushes.

Week 10’s prescription? Feed Denard Robinson more. A healthy dose of 20+ carries per week should do it.