Jaguars: The Urban Meyer criticism will only get louder after Week 1 loss

Fair or not, Urban Myer has been under scrutiny since being hired as the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. The criticism will only get louder after the Jags’ 37-21 loss to the Houston Texans in Week 1.

Over the last few months, Meyer has been gotten plenty of negative attention for several reasons, from inconsequential things such as having an assistant remind players to stay hydrated to hiring Chris Doyle as the team’s director of sports performance.

While some of the criticism is legit — he should never have hired Doyle — most of it doesn’t have substance. However, it won’t stop any time soon. In fact, it will continue to get louder as the losses pile up.

Urban Meyer’s tenure with the Jaguars’ isn’t up to a good start.

In the hours ahead of the Jaguars’ first game of the season, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports wrote that Meyer has struggled to adjust to the rigours of the NFL.

"Meyer’s temper and lack of familiarity with the ebbs and flows of the NFL calendar rubbing the Jacksonville Jaguars staff and players the wrong way."

That’s not the end of the critique. La Canfora notes that morale in the organization has taken a hit as Meyer’s outbursts continue. He goes on the say that his blunt remarks about players and coaches after games have come across as “bizarre”. Moreover, it seems like the head coach has trouble coping with losing.

"He becomes unhinged way too easily, and he doesn’t know how to handle losing, even in the preseason. He loses it and wants to take over the drills himself. It’s not good."

If the Jaguars start winning, the criticism of Urban Meyer will stop.

Heading into the regular season, it became somewhat of a trend to pile on Meyer. Most of the criticism was centred around the decisions he and the Jaguars’ brass made in the offseason. Whether he gave Tim Tebow the opportunity to attempt a comeback or using the franchise tag on left tackle Cam Robinson, most of the moves the Jags made earlier this year were called into question. In the end, Meyer can put an end to all the second-guessing if he wins. Alas, he isn’t up to a good start.

The Texans outplayed the Jaguars in Week 1 despite the fact that they had a “lesser” team. The fact that Houston was able to beat Jacksonville despite the fact that they didn’t have as many resources to make improvements in the offseason reflects poorly on Meyer.

The Jags had the most cap space in the NFL and four selections in the first two rounds of the draft. In theory, they should be better than the Texans, but it wasn’t the case on Sunday, as they played without discipline, committing ten penalties for 82 yards. That falls on the Jaguars coaching staff. The fact that Jacksonville abandoned the run early and didn’t make James Robinson a bigger part of the game didn’t help matters either. Also, the team’s brass made several additions to both the defensive line and the secondary and still allowed 37 points.

It’s possible that Meyer is genuinely overwhelmed with the transition from college to the pros. Maybe he needs a bit more time to get acclimated  Regardless of the reason, he must go back to the drawing board and look at everything that went wrong. There is still plenty of time to right the ship. But if the Jaguars don’t fix the issues that plagued them in the season opener, this is going to be a long year.