Jacksonville Jaguars: 3 horrible stats that defined loss to Texans

2. The Jacksonville Jaguars ran the ball just 16 times in Week 1.

Heading into the regular season, the Jaguars’ running back room run looked like a strength. Even though Travis Etienne is out for the season, they still James Robinson, who showed in his rookie campaign that he can carry a heavy workload.

Knowing Jaguars’ offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell’s preference for running the ball, it was reasonable to think that Robinson would get a heavy workload in Week 1. Instead, the former Illinois State product got just five carries and 11 total touches. Why would you not make a Pro Bowl-caliber running back a bigger part of your offense?

Meanwhile, quarterback Trevor Lawrence threw 51 passes! Had the Jaguars gotten into a shootout with the Texans, it might’ve made sense for the coaching staff to have their rookie quarterback drop that amount of times. However, Jacksonville trailed for more than 20 points in the second half. Head coach Urban Meyer told the local media Monday that he never felt like they were out of the game. If that’s the case, the Jags should’ve kept feeding Robinson the ball.

Keep in mind that the Jaguars averaged almost five yards per carry. They abandoned the run by choice, not because they weren’t having success at it. To make matters worse, veteran Carlos Hyde got more carries than Robinson. You simply can’t win football games if you don’t get your best players the ball. The Jags can’t afford to become one-dimensional once again and have to craft a better, more balanced game plan for Week 2.