Motto for the football schedule: Ball ’til you fall

Everyone has an excuse or reason as to why we lost our last three games. I have heard someone say that our quarterbacks just plain suck. I have even heard that we need a new coach and that we need a new coaching staff, including a quarterback coach and better special teams coaching.
Some say our losses are due to injuries and then again, some say it’s recruiting.
There are people out there who want Coach Pete’s head on the chopping block, and then there are those who want to know the rationale behind hiring an offensive coordinator who many feel isn’t coordinating much.
Some say that the players need to drink more milk, because their bones are breaking much too easily, and then there are those who say that the quarterbacks’ vision of the field rivals the vision of Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.
Honestly, I don’t know who or what to blame. All I know is that I am out there almost everyday watching these men to see where the problem lies, and it‘s not pretty.
So in some respects, these people may have a point, but I am going to tell you whom I think you should blame-because in my opinion, you all are blaming the wrong people.
Read on…
We have an offensive line that starts injured players. Correct me if I am wrong, but when you have such a line, they tend to be slower than your quarterback, runningback, and the rest of the backfield and whomever else want to run, because the blocking fails to get in sync. Hence, scoring probabilities run next to nil.
Due to this deficiency, overthrown balls will resort because plays are not executed properly, sacks will occur; blocking is near impossible and the opposing team’s pass-rush becomes overbearing.
That’s when the Jaguar Nation and others get perturbed.
For example, in the last paper, I wrote “Richard Peoples” instead of Kenneth Peoples in the article describing the win over UAPB. I apologize Mr. Peoples for the faux pas, but you may want to use the name Richard and go into some sort of witness protection program, because the Jaguar Nation is out for blood. Not just yours, but all of you.
Someone else mentioned to me that the defense didn’t play up to par in the second half of the SU/Jackson State game. Well, on that note, taking 95 snaps isn’t the kind of play I would want to partake in if I were a defensive back. Although it is their job to come out and force turnovers, pass-rush, sack quarterbacks, and cover opposing teams, and wash the car, mow the lawn, milk the cow, feed the dog, slop the hog, etc.., it is not their job to come out and do it every two and a half minutes.
Those boys were tired. And if you think that the defense isn’t supposed to get tired, think again! They played their hearts out and did what they could do. Even the best gets worn out in professional games.
No one got more upset than when I saw the nail that began to close the Jags’ coffin in New Orleans Saturday before last. Within five seconds of the opening of the fourth quarter, quarterback Robert Kent sent a 15-yard pass to Robert Jacobs for another JSU touchdown, making the score 29-14. Of course, that is not how the game ended, but I needn’t remind you of such tragedies.
Fans started leaving, and I hear that coaches were kicking chairs and tables (among other things), nuns started praying, Baptists were doing “Hail Mary’s”, someone broke out a ouija board and all you-know-what broke loose.
No one got more upset when the referee called Michael Hayes catch in the end zone out- of-bounds in the end of the third quarter last week. I lost all of my bearings. Not good for someone in a profession of such. I have to be unbiased. But I lost it all for the Jags.
But anyway, enough about my demeanor, whom do we blame for this losing crisis? Blame the ones who “prescribed” this blasted schedule.
I am not saying that we should not play the Div-I teams that we played earlier, but how about later on in the future after playing shall we say, the “less inclined” schools of the SWAC.
You schedule us to play schools that beat us up and break us apart early in the season and you expect us to be healthy and play like champions? Get real.
You let the dollar control the schedule and now that dollar is paying hospital bills for broken ankles, MRI’s, CAT scans, torn ACL’s, IV’s, enemas and God knows what else.
We are not that hard up for cash to make these boys go through this. We are not that hard up to make our fans so distraught that they leave the game a whole quarter early two games in a row. We are just not that hard up to become a school of athletic mediocrity.
Also, the count for the SU/JSU game was 35,305. For some reason, I just have a feeling that there were more people than that in the Superdome. Who counted the people and who counts the money?
The count for our home opener was only 17,863. Damned shame. Oh well, now you know how fickle your fans can be. There were more people tailgating and “investigating” the fire at the Minidome than those who actually attended.
You want the “bigger” games, you get the “bigger” boys on the “bigger” teams, we get a “bigger” injured list, and we end up with “bigger” losses.
I wonder just how much “bigger” will we be next season?
So in afterthought, I leave you, the reader, with this:
To our “boys in blue”, there is a motto that a famous person once said: Keep hope alive.
To the Jaguar Nation, there is another motto that another famous person once said: We shall overcome. So please come to the games, gosh!
And to all those applicable, there is a motto for the prescribed football schedule: Ball ‘Til You Fall.
To the players who have already fallen: Keep your head up.