Outcoached, outplayed, out muscled
Jaguars Takeaways: Ten things from the win at Pittsburgh
1. How deep into the play-book did Jaguars offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett dig for the opening drive? Tight ends Ben Koyack (21 yards) and James O’Shaughnessy (19 yards) caught their first opening-drive passes of the year. They were previously the intended target for incompletions against Tennessee in Week 2 (Koyack) and at Tennessee in Week 17 (O’Shaughnessy).
2. Receiver Keelan Cole saw his playing time dip – only 23 snaps, which ranked him third at his position behind Dede Westbrook (42) and Marqise Lee (39). Allen Hurns played 17 snaps. On defense, end Calais Campbell has played 133 snaps in two playoff games, a huge workload for a lineman. And Marcell Dareus continues to play a bigger role – 44 of 78 snaps compared to 28 for Abry Jones.
3. Yes, that was guard/center Tyler Shatley serving as an extra offensive lineman on the Jaguars’ first drive. No surprise there. Yes, that was Shatley running a route. That was a surprise. It came on third-and-goal from the 1. In heavy personnel (2RB/2TE/extra OL), the Jaguars kept nine players in protection and had Shatley flare right at the snap. “Once I got into the game, I was thinking, ‘OK, here we go,’” Shatley said. “But they sniffed that one out pretty good. They didn’t bite on it as much as I hoped they would.” Bortles threw it away to set up Leonard Fournette’s touchdown on fourth-and-goal.
4. Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley’s interesting day started on the first series. To answer the Jaguars’ first scoring drive, he ran empty backfield on three straight snaps and threw to Antonio Brown, JuJu Smith-Shuster and Eli Rogers before punting. How Le’Veon Bell does not get an opening-drive touch is mysterious.
5. Pittsburgh’s first failed fourth down play was doomed from the start. Needing a yard from the Jaguars’ 21 late in the first quarter (and already behind 14-0), Haley called a toss right to Bell. He caught the football six yards behind the line of scrimmage. It is simply the wrong kind of play to run against the Jaguars’ athletic defense. Cornerback Jalen Ramsey dodged the block attempt of tight end Vance McDonald to stop Bell for a four-yard loss, which was the same as a takeaway. The Jaguars made it 21-0 on the ensuing drive. Also on that fourth down play, right tackle Marcus Gilbert left with a concussion after colliding with strong safety Barry Church.
6. The Jaguars took a 21-0 lead on tailback T.J. Yeldon’s four-yard run. The threat of Bortles as a runner helped the play. Bortles ran for nine yards and scrambled for 11 earlier in the possession. On third-and-2 from the 9, Fournette gained four yards, but Bortles was popped by linebacker T.J. Watt after the exchange (illegal because of the read concept). Two plays later, Watt had to stay home for just a second on the Bortles action and that allowed Yeldon to squeeze by him for the touchdown.
7. Both of the Jaguars’ sacks were impressive one-on-one wins. On the first, Yannick Ngakoue tried to go wide but was cut off by left tackle Alejandro Villaneuva. But Ngakoue re-set his feet and worked back inside toward Ben Roethlisberger for the sack in 3.51 seconds. Smith returned the fumble 50 yards for a touchdown. On the second sack, Dareus used a combination of hand technique and brute power to push back All Pro guard David DeCastro for the sack in 3.40 seconds.
8. Two plays after Dareus’ sack, Pittsburgh (down 28-7) faced fourth-and-11 from the Jaguars’ 36. Some of Roethlisberger’s touchdown throws were perfect placed against solid coverage. This was perfectly placed against poor coverage. Receiver Martavis Bryant started from the left side and ran an “over” route. He crossed the sight of free safety Tashaun Gipson, who was either caught flat-footed, looking left toward Brown (running an in-breaking route) or some of both. Bryant got past Gipson for the touchdown.
9. Up 28-21 in the third quarter, the Jaguars’ offense slowed down point-wise, but they were able to run some clock. Late in the third, they ran off three minutes thanks to Bortles’ 16-yard scramble on third-and-8. On the next drive, which bridged the third and fourth quarters, Bortles threw 13 yards to Yeldon on third-and-10.
10. It wasn’t Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin’s finest three hours. After making it 42-35 with 2:18 remaining, Tomlin opted for an onside kick even though he had two timeouts and the two-minute warning left. He could have kicked off and leaned on his defense – even though it had been gashed – to rise up. Instead, the Jaguars recovered the poor onside kick and ran three plays before Josh Lambo’s 45-yard field goal stretched the lead to 10 points. And on the final drive, as the Steelers wobbled downfield (eight plays from 1:45 to :32), Tomlin passed on kicking a field goal to make it 45-38 and then doing another onside kick. The Steelers scored with one second remaining.
http://jacksonville.com/sports/jaguars/2018-01-15/jaguars-takeaways-ten-things-win-pittsburgh
