WEEK 1 - @ JACKSONVILLE
Jacksonville in 2015 is largely the same team you currently see on Sundays, except they added Sidney Rice.
Our gameplay is to have a balanced run and pass heavily dependent on short slants and curls, a tic-tac conservatism to chew clock and safely move the ball down the field.
We kicked off, and stopped Jacksonville on their first drive - three and out. On our first offensive possession, Alex Smith threw a pick 6. Not a good sign.
But things would change. After stopping Bortles and the Boys again, Smith audibled out of a quick slant after seeing the corners pressing with no deep safeties, and hit rookie sensation Broderick Payne on an 81-yd go route early in the 1st quarter.
We largely kept the Jags at bay. Bortles somewhat picked us apart, but we slammed the door shut on Toby Gerhart.
Offensively, Bishop Sankey started off blazing, averaging well over 6 ypc in the first half. With a decent lead and more predictable runs, he got more shut off in the 2nd half but still had a decent game.
Smith had a game quite the opposite of what I expected: 50% completions, an 81 and 70 yard TD pass. Things happen funny like that. Our gameplay was different than our gameplan. We didn't have any long drives. Instead, a lot of 3-or-6-and-outs, or quick, bombing scores. A bit concerning that we couldn't consistently trumpet down the field against a poor team.
All in all, though, against a relatively weak team, we start the season 1-0! 31-21 victory.
We host the Texans next week.
