The Jacksonville Jaguars are 0-5, are dealing with a PR nightmare in the form of Urban Meyer, and appear to have a quarterback and head coach not on the same page. It’s not that they can’t improve their situation, it’s just that it’s going to be tough sledding for a while and going to require some incremental changes along the way.
That’s not good enough for Urban Meyer, apparently. The embattled head coach spoke to reporters on Monday following the team’s latest loss. As part of that discussion, Meyer laid out his thoughts on how the Jaguars can not only improve but eke out their first victory in 20 tries.
His solution? To attempt to do something that only 33 NFL teams have ever done in 52 years.
Jaguars coach Urban Meyer says he likes the team's offensive identity right now. Adds that he wants "250/250," meaning 250 yards rushing and 250 yards passing.
(Checks schedule for Rutgers)
— Mark Long (@APMarkLong) October 11, 2021
The Jaguars are 0-5 and Meyer’s solution is to simply do something that NFL teams have done 33 times in 52 years. https://t.co/AFZcqUbY54
— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) October 11, 2021
One of the biggest critiques against Meyer as an NFL coach is that he seems to still think he’s back in college, where there was always an FCS team or Rutgers to whip up on and pad your stats. That is not the case in the NFL (where it’s like playing “Alabama every week”). That Meyer is more concerned with hitting statistical marks than he is trying to gameplan according to defeat each opponent feels like the kind of thing a coach at a college football powerhouse can consider but an NFL coach has no time for.
To put Meyer’s goal in perspective, the team has passed for over 250 yards just twice in five games while they haven’t rushed for over 200 yards once, let alone 250 yards.
The 2019 Ravens are statistically the greatest rushing team of all time and averaged 206 yards per game. Urban Meyer casually wants the winless Jaguars to start rushing for 250 yards per game. https://t.co/nVanbUKewD
— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) October 11, 2021
It’s also probably worth noting that the best rushing teams in NFL history didn’t rush for 250 yards in a game in any consistent way unless you want to go back to 1936 when the Detroit Lions averaged 240 yards on the ground per game.
Maybe this will be motivating to Jaguars players, maybe not. Either way, if Jacksonville keeps losing, it won’t matter what the stat lines look like. Come to think of it, if they win, no one will care what the stat lines look like either. It’s almost as if that’s the most important stat of all.
