JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville’s start under Urban Meyer was a bit of a letdown.
Can the Jaguars change things up on Monday night against the Saints in primetime?
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That’s the expectation.
Jacksonville visits the Big Easy in a rare Monday night game that will be televised by WJXT Channel 4. A one-hour pregame show begins at 7 p.m. and leads viewers into the kickoff at 8.
For Meyer and anxious Jaguars fans, here’s to hoping things look better this time.
It wasn’t pretty the last time when Jacksonville turned in a 23-13 clunker in a loss to the Browns.
The offense was lackluster under Trevor Lawrence and Gardner Minshew. The running game never got going. While there were spurts of excitement — Lawrence’s debut and two throws to Marvin Jones — it was a no doubt a bit of a downer.
Will things look different this time?
“I don’t think there’s any of that. Usually we have scrimmages, in college you have two or three scrimmages and go play a game,” Meyer said when asked if he was disappointed some things didn’t work in the preseason opener.
“I actually trained my mind for that one that this was a scrimmage, we have to play better. But I also get we that we’re [in a] 20 [game season], now you’re down to 19 more games, so it’s a marathon not a sprint. There’s certain things to work on but there were certainly things that were pretty good too.”
The next to the last preseason game is typically when starters see their most extended playing time. For Lawrence, he should be on the field for more than the 15 snaps he took against the Browns. Meyer still hasn’t named a starter between the No. 1 overall pick from Clemson and Minshew, although a case could be made for more reps for third-stringer CJ Beathard rather than Minshew.
Meyer made it clear after his NFL coaching debut that he wants to clean up the mistakes because pro football is a much faster game than college.
“I can’t stand bad plays, why did we call that situation? It is even magnified now because you just don’t have many plays,” he said. “I remember looking up and was like my gosh, we’re in the middle of the second quarter and we’ve had three drives, I think. In college, you have three drives in the first quarter or four if you are really cooking. I knew that but now that I did it, it’s on you quick.”
When the Jaguars lace ‘em up on Monday in New Orleans, it marks the return of the team to the TV sets that night. Sure, it’s preseason, but who cares?
The Jaguars were somewhat of a semi-regular visitor on Monday Night Football in their early years. Jacksonville played on MNF 15 times from 1997 to 2011, going 8-7. The first two games were classic, a 30-21 win over the Steelers on Sept. 22, 1997, and a 28-21 win over Miami on Oct. 12, 1998.
The Jaguars have not been on a regular season MNF game since Dec. 5, 2011. That’s a long, long time.