Urban Meyer expected Jaguars to be cleaner by now

Jaguars running back James Robinson is pretty tough.

Urban Meyer told the local media running is the strength of the offense and pointed out they’re 13th in rushing. He’s right, the Jags rank 13th in both rushing yards and rushing touchdowns ahead of the game against the Rams. What makes this noteworthy is the fact running back James Robinson hasn’t been fully healthy since Week 8, when he suffered a heel injury. The head coach acknowledged as much.

"That’s with they’re running back that’s been our best running back has been dinged up for quite a while. That’s that’s a tough injury. And if he’s in for teams wasn’t as tough he was he won’t be playing."

The Jags have racked up 374 rushing yards (an average of 124 yards) in the last three games, and that’s with a Robinson that isn’t 100 percent. He toted the rock 17 times in Week 12 after getting 12 carries in each of the two previous games. It looks like he’s trending in the right direction and may get an even bigger workload against the Rams, which would bode well for the offense.

While it’s not sustainable to carry the ball 40 times per game, the Jaguars need to get their best offensive player involved and that’s Robinson. Meyer described veteran running back Carlos Hyde as an unsung hero but the truth is there’s a significant drop in talent from Robinson to him.

Meyer also suggested Laviska Shenault could get some playing time in the backfield, “Laviska is a guy we try to continually get involved”.

Even though the Jags will have a tough opponent in Los Angeles, this is going to be a chance for the coaching staff to get a bit creative and add some up-tempo concepts, which helped move the ball against the Atlanta Falcons.