Urban Meyer has had a hell of a fortnight.
After videos surfaced showing Meyer essentially groping a young woman at his own Columbus steakhouse, he’s been the subject of ridicule and a potential player mutiny. Meyer’s owner Shad Khan released a fairly condemning statement earlier in the week implying that Meyer had a lot of work to do to rebuild trust with the organization. (The rare vote of no confidence from an owner.)
Today’s game didn’t go well on that whole “rebuild trust of the organization” front.
Here, for example, was how the Jags defense played a red zone run:
At last a smart defense pic.twitter.com/cjBHlFXF10
— ¡BUM CHILLUPS AKA SPENCER HALL! (@edsbs) October 10, 2021
The entire game was, well, bad, but it wasn’t out of reach early in the fourth quarter with Jacksonville facing fourth and goal on the half-yard line.
Meyer elected to go for the touchdown, which is the right call! A score and a PAT would have given the Jags the lead. The playcall, though, was suspect.
NOTHING! 🛑
📺: Watch #TENvsJAX on @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/t3YGKXVN8n
— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) October 10, 2021
After the game, Meyer deflected responsibility for the play, blaming Lawrence for not being prepared to run a sneak and then also abdicating responsibility for the offensive set itself.
Lawrence: "No. I feel comfortable. Obviously I haven’t run it in a game, but I feel comfortable … no, QB sneak is something we can always get to and I feel comfortable with." https://t.co/uoxf3lr4Mp
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) October 10, 2021
Second straight week of Urban saying he’s not responsible for people lining up where they line up https://t.co/n01QOPhpy9
— Jason Kirk (buy my novel) (@JasonKirk_fyi) October 10, 2021
For all of the jokes to be made (as Jason Kirk did there), the real issue for the Jags as an organization is this: at what point is it best for Trevor Lawrence to get someone else in there? Because we’re just barely into his rookie season and Lawrence has already had to disagree with a head coach who sort of blamed Lawrence for a playcall decision. They’re also 0-5, and the rest of the locker room pretty clearly doesn’t like Meyer.
That goes back to the offseason, too, when reports surfaced that players were already suspicious that Meyer had zero idea what he was doing.
The Jaguars might not want to look bad by dumping Meyer, but Lawrence is the franchise, at this point. Meyer isn’t going to win any kind of public opinion battle at all at this point, but he’s also not going to win any internal battle with Lawrence.
It’s hard to see Meyer making it through the season, at this point, and he may have somehow made things worse today. Considering where he stood heading into the weekend, it’s surprising he managed to do that.
