Memphis’ Offense Too Much For Jags, Fall 52-35
Darrell Henderson rolled up 188 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Memphis Tigers over the Jags 52-35.
The South Alabama offense tried to keep up with Memphis, but Darrell Henderson’s 188 yards on 22 carries and two touchdowns helped the Tigers outpace the Jags 52-35.
The Jaguars offense, led by Evan Orth, kept the Jags in the game well into the fourth quarter. Orth’s favorite target, Jamarius Way, had another huge night for with 10 receptions for 185 yards and a touchdown.
Kawaan Baker continues to contribute with 82 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns. He had 33 yards on the ground on five touches with a touchdown then caught four passes for 49 yards and a touchdown.
Tra Minter led the Jags rushing with 35 yards.
Patrick Taylor added 75 yards rushing on 17 carries with two touchdowns for the Tigers. Tony Pollard carried three times for 30 yards and a rushing touchdown too.
Damonte Coxie led the Tigers with 113 yards receiving on eight catches with a touchdown. John Williams added 65 yards on five catches and a touchdown.
Nigel Lawrence led the Jags with 11 tackles. Sterling Fisher was the only Jag to record a sack.
The Jags came out strong driving down and scoring on the opening possession of the game when Baker ran in from 13 yards out.
But the Tigers answered right back on their first possession with a eight of their nine offensive plays being runs capped off by Henderson’s first touchdown. Memphis would score 21 unanswered points to take a 21-7 lead with 10:21 left in the second quarter.
The Jags would finally answer sparked by a 62 yard reception by Jahmmir Taylor and capped off by a two yard run by Tra Minter to make it 21-14.
The Jags would tie the game with 53 seconds left in the first half when Orth found Zac Crosby in the end one for his first career touchdown.
Memphis opened the second half with a touchdown drive with another run-heavy drive that covered 61 yards to make it 28-21.
After Memphis added a field goal, the Jags drove down for a touchdown after Jamarius Way’s big 29 yard catch highlighted the drive. But after a false start on the line backed up the Jags PAT attempt by five yards, the Tigers broke through the middle of the line and blocked the attempt to keep a 31-27 lead.
Down by four, the Jags decoded to go for it on 4th and 2 at the Tiger 8 yard line, but Minter was stopped for no gain turning the ball over on downs.
Memphis seized the opportunity and drove 92 yards on seven plays to take an 11 point advantage over the Jags 38-27 with 13:32 left to play. Just a few minutes later the Tigers would add to it on a three play, all Darrell Henderson drive where he ran for all 64 yards, 54 of them on the touchdown run to open up a 45-27 lead.
USA was in business deep in Tiger territory after Zac Crosby blocked a punt. Orth then went to work throwing the ball to Kawaan Baker, Jordan McCray and the final three to Jamarius Way including a four yard touchdown and a two-point conversion to him as well making it 45-35 with 7:30 left.
Memphis answered right back with another run-heavy drive with six of the eight plays being runs, but a pass interference call on Jalen Thompson on 3rd and 7 extended the drive and on the next play Patrick Taylor takes it in from 11 yards out for the final score of the game 52-35.
South Alabama had their best offensive performance of the season with 467 total yards, 360 of it through the air. Memphis rolled up 563 yards of total offense with 271 yards on the ground and 292 through the air.
Coach Campbell spoke after the game praising the receivers and acknowledging mistakes, “We made a couple of mistakes that I can point the finger directly at myself for that could have made the game even more interesting. Our guys though fought hard and gave a great effort. We created some mismatch opportunities on offense. They [Memphis] had a hard time covering Jamarius and our other receivers. They were out there making plays.”
South Alabama (1-3, 1-0 SBC) will play their second of three-consecutive road games when they travel to Boone, North Carolina to face Appalachian State (2-1, 0-0 SBC) in the Jags second Sun Belt Conference game and the Mountaineers first conference game of the season.
The Tale Of The Numbers:
Jags Hit The Road To Face Memphis In First Of Three Consecutive Road Games
South Alabama travels to Memphis for a 7pm kickoff against the Tigers.
Offensively the Tigers have a strong offensive line and backfield. They returned four of their five starting offensive linemen and a junior running back in Darrell Henderson that is averaging an absurd 14.5 yards per rush and 173.7 yards per game. He has 526 yards this season on 36 carries with six touchdowns.
South Alabama’s defense is allowing an average of 184 yards per game on the ground. The Jags defense will want to stop the run, as they have tried to do in their previous games, and make Memphis one dimensional and forced to throw the ball.
However USA will have a huge task ahead of them with Henderson. No one has stopped him yet this season but the Jags have made star running backs look bad before (See San Diego State two years ago).
Defensively the Tigers return some talented linebackers behind a defensive line that is lacking in depth but has played well so far this season.
The Jags defense sparked the Jags to their big win last Saturday behind Jalen Thompson’s two interceptions and a touchdown. He has three interceptions on the season. Safety Nigel Lawrence leads the team in tackles, but that also points out that the opposing offense is having success getting to the second and third levels of the defense if your safety is leading the team in tackles.
Despite the high points of the defensive secondary, the Jags are allowing almost 300 yards per game. The Tigers quarterback Brady White has thrown 10 touchdowns on the season with no interceptions. While he has yet to face the meat of their schedule, he has not made any mistakes yet.
So far this season the Jags have made most of their yardage on the ground with read options and some triple option. Quarterback Evan Orth, at least for the time being, looks to be the guy at quarterback as senior Cole Garvin remains suspended indefinitely from the team and redshirt-freshman Cephus Johnson just has not seen much playing time.
In addition to throwing for 429 yards, three touchdowns and only one interception, Orth is also the teams leading rusher with 104 yards. The Memphis front seven will key off of him.
Jamarius Way came up big time against Texas State by setting a new school record with 11 catches in the game and almost set another one with 173 yards in the game. Up until that game, Kawaan Baker has been the workhorse in the passing game but the Bobcats did a good job of keeping him in check during the game.
The Tigers were successful in shutting down Georgia State’s Penny Hart last week so they’ll want to do that again this week. Additionally the Tigers have a similar player in a similar role as Baker so it seems they may have some experience with the way the Jags use Baker.
The spread for the game is 30.5 in favor of Memphis. It looks like Memphis, behind their very high tempo offense, could score at will on the Jags if USA struggles with penalties and getting off the field on third down. But 30.5 is quite large. I think the Jags will cover but its hard for me to see a way the Jags win the game without LOTS of help from Memphis and breaking up with penalties, cold-turkey.
Inside the numbers:
Coach Joey Jones Show Recap 2009-10-20
Chuck Dunn, the outside linebackers coach, joined Coach Jones and Lee Shirvanian at Wing’s Sports Grill for the show on Tuesday. Once again Coach Jones ordered the ‘unofficial’ Joey Jones Special, which is the black and white chicken platter with steamed broccoli.
Lee asked Coach Jones about an email that a listener sent that they didn’t get to cover last week. They asked if the records from this year, like the win-loss, rushing yards etc. would be included in the future since we are not playing Division-I schools. Coach Jones said they would, they may have an asterisk by them but yes they will be kept for the future.
Lee also had a question about red shirting. They were wondering if he was going to be red shirting anyone this year, is anyone being red shirted right now? Coach Jones answered that they are doing some red shirting, they have some players that are being red shirted this year and they will look at it next year as well. He also mentioned that they have to, they have to plan ahead and spread their graduation classes out. They have to look four and five years down the road to plan that out so they don’t have 40+ players graduating in one year.
It was mentioned about Brandon Ross, how he has two more years of eligibility after this season. Lee asked wouldn’t they like to have a player like him around when they reach Division-I play. Coach Jones said yes they definitely would and that they have talked to him about that and have worked it out.
Talking about Louisburg, Coach Jones said they may have under estimated them a bit at first. The game film they got was from pretty far away so they couldn’t tell their size and were caught a little off guard by their speed.
Lee asked Coach Jones which of the quarterbacks played better on Saturday. He said he thought they all played better. Myles played better, completed more passes and managed the game well. Brennan Sim came in and threw a couple really good passes. He said he was proud of them.
Back to Brandon Ross, Lee asked how did Memphis ever let him go. Coach Jones said he didn’t know but he was sure glad they did. Coach Jones said he was a great running back and has a lot of potential. But said if he learns how to run every play like its his last, then he could continue his career in the NFL.
Lee asked Coach Dunn what kind of rotation he had for the outside linebackers and if he was satisfied with it. He said that he was satisfied and that hey had three guys in the rotation, Josh Chestang, Clifton Crews and Logan Bennett. He said they are a great good and probably the most coachable group of players he has ever had.
Lee asked how Coach Dunn and Coach Crain, who coaches the inside linebackers, coordinate to coach the linebackers. He said they are good friends and do a good job communicating.
Lee asked if it was easier to be an inside linebacker or an outside linebacker in the Jaguars defensive scheme. Coach Dunn answered that both are tough. Coach Clark asks the linebackers to be the quarterbacks of the whole defense basically.
Coach Jones said that they are more than just two positions of linebackers, inside and outside. Everything has gotten much more specialized now. The inside linebackers are covering the A gaps and the B gaps as well as chasing the ball outside. The outside linebackers are really covering two halves of the field, they have to contain the quarterback and running backs inside and not get outside of their defense. They can rush the passer from the edge and drop back into coverage. He said he thought the outside linebackers really had to learn more as far as different skill sets than inside linebackers.
Lee asked if their decision to run the ball more came from the weather being so windy. Coach Jones confirmed that and said that they had planned to throw the ball more but the wind was blowing 25 MPH. He watched snaps before the game and saw the ball get blown two feet to the side before the ball reached punter. Thus if the quarterback throws the ball down the field then its probably going to get blown six feet which can cause interceptions to happen.
Coach Jones talked further about the Jaguar passing game by stressing that the Jags definitely have to become a better passing team. He said that that is their goal this week is to improve their passing game and he wants to really put the ball in the air in the next two games.
Lee was a little surprised by Coach Jones commentary and asked why when they are running the football so well. What difference does it make? Coach Jones answered by saying that he wants them to be a complete team, a better team by the end of the year. In staff meetings and player meetings they said they want to work on their weaknesses and their weakness on offense is their passing game. Coach Jones said he thinks that the Jags are an average passing team and a great running team right now. He did qualify his answer by saying that they are not going to sacrifice a win just to throw the ball more. If they are struggling throwing the ball, then they will run the ball if that is what works.
The next question asked was about the consideration about the wind in the game against Louisburg. Lee asked how much consideration went into it before the coin toss. He then mentioned remembering hearing about Coach Saban in a recent windy game that he based everything so that he had the wind at his back in the fourth quarter. Coach Jones said they certainly consider that in game situations. One thing they have to look at is the time of day. Coach Jones said that they wanted the wind in the first quarter because they thought it would be the strongest and that it would die down in the evening. But if you know that the game will be gusty the whole time, then you would want the wind at your back in the fourth quarter.
Coach Jones was then asked why the offense took so long to get going against Louisburg. He answered that it was probably a couple things, the first he mentioned was that maybe it was his fault that he did not prepare them well enough and he took full blame for that. The second thing was that the defensive front showed a look that was not on film and so the first couple series the line was confused about where to go and who to block. Then it was a matter of one guy making a mistake while everyone else did their job and that one guy came through to make a play.
Coach Jones then mentioned how it goes on offense versus defense. On offense everyone has to do their job and if one guy messes up it can throw everything off. While on defense you want all 11 players going to the ball but it only takes one guy to make a play thats the difference.
The injury report was slim yet again. John Mark Patrick still has the knee problem but the good news is that he came onto the field in Monday’s practice to do some drills and light workouts. Coach Jones said that hopefully, by next week, he might be able to play. That depends on if they can get him ready in time. Its still touch and go really. They had a couple people injured yesterday that were just one or two day issues and that they should be back this week.
Lee asked Coach Dunn if the Jags practices were tougher than the games. Coach Dunn replied that they get after it and Coach Jones does a good job of setting up practices where they get good competition against each other.
They have talked before about putting together an offensive game plan for a game, so Lee asked Coach Dunn about how they go about putting together a defensive game plan. It all starts with Coach Clark obviously, but Lee asked what part Coach Dunn plays in that process. He answered that his part is that he takes the opponent and breaks them down play by play, personnel, down and distance, formation, strong, weak and other factors. He compiles all of that into what they call a hit chart. He breaks it down into formations, both right and left, and if its a run or pass and where they threw it or where they ran it. He then gets a percentage and gives the numbers to Coach Clark so he can plan according to that.
Coach Jones said he likes to know what is going on in the defense but he doesn’t get into the middle of it all the time. He mentioned that he is a 3-4 guy. Lee asked him why to which he answered that from an offensive standpoint blocking an odd front (3 is odd, 4 is even) there are several ‘bubbles’ that can change in a 3-4 scheme. But against an even front like a 4-3 or even a 4-4, there are more predetermined ‘bubbles’. Coach Jones said that based on his standpoint from the offense, there is a better running game against a 4-3 than a 3-4 because of the predetermined ‘bubbles’. Based on their game plan and play list, when they play against a 4-3 defense their run play list was more than they had against a 3-4 defense. So that tells Coach Jones that if you can hold up with 3 guys on the defensive front and hold the running game then you have a better chance to stop and offense.
Coach Dunn said that they (the linebacker coaches) like the 3-4 because its a chance to put more speed on the field. The offense tries to match the personnel, but with the 3-4 they can keep the same guys on the field no matter what the offensive formation.
Lee then mentioned how they have talked about the wildcat formation and how its just a throwback to the old days and the single wing and box formations. He asked how long it will be before the defenses catch up to what the offenses are doing.
Coach Jones said that he does not think that the offenses have explored the offense enough in college. He mentioned the offenses they used in High School when he was coaching that utilized the shotgun and was very multi-dimensional with it all the way back in 2000 and 2001. But he said that it involved the quarterback running the ball a lot. The Jags does not use that wildcat formation because they don’t have to put someone back there that can run because they feel that the quarterbacks are athletic enough as it is.
The quiz question was name the player who had the most sacks in the game versus Louisburg JC. The Vanguard’s own Hannah Skewes answered and won with Josh Chestang. Check out her work online.
Lee and Coach Jones also mentioned that the Jags will be sporting a slightly different look on October 31. Instead of wearing their red jerseys with white pants they are going all red. Red jersey’s and red pants to take on Fork Union Military. Come on out to Ladd-Peebles Stadium and bring your kids. If they wear their costume or the jersey of their favorite team (which should be the Jags) they will get in free. Plus they will have some extra special kids activities since its Halloween.
Go Jags!
