Opening weekend of the NFL season brings with it the opportunity to draw some conclusions from real football, rather than the hype that surrounds the offseason and the artificial preseason games. The Jaguars traveled to Minnesota with both teams coming off ugly 2011 seasons, but with young quarterbacks that they have every faith can turn it around in Year 2 and lead them to success.
While I wouldn’t have believed it last season, we did see some impressive play from both QBs, and each was able to lead a signature drive late in the game to put their team in position to win. The Vikings became the first team in NFL regular-season history to kick points in overtime and not automatically win the game, but they held firm on the next drive to earn the victory.
Jacksonville – Three Performances of Note
Clean Slate
If you’re going to make things easier for a young quarterback the first thing you need to do is keep him upright. While the Jaguars' offensive line was suffering on Sunday, at least they were solid as a rock at left tackle. Going up against Jared Allen, who was fresh off a season in which he sacked the passer 24 times, Eugene Monroe (+5.4) was perfect in pass protection and made several big plays in the run game too, springing the Jaguars' rushers for additional yardage and giving them the corner by pinning Allen inside.
To pass block 46 times in a game and keep Allen entirely without pressure is an extremely impressive feat. The only occasion Allen got the better of Monroe came early in the game when he jumped the snap (albeit barely), which beat the big left tackle off the ball so badly Monroe turned around the wrong way in an attempt to prevent disaster. Monroe has been working his way up the tackle rankings for a few seasons now, could this be the year he becomes one of the best in football?
Porous Secondary
The Jaguars made some additions to their secondary in the offseason but the unit was picked apart in this game, despite the Vikings being without Jerome Simpson, one of their top receivers . Aaron Ross (-2.4) in particular looked like he didn’t know the defense at all, and regularly appeared to pause and think about plays in coverage rather than react to where he knew he was supposed to be.
That lag in reaction time caused Ross to give up six catches on seven targets for 79 yards to three different Vikings receivers, and he chipped in with a missed tackle as well. Ross wasn’t alone in his off-day in coverage as Dawan Landry (-1.2) and Kevin Rutland (-1.6) both allowed every ball thrown their way to be caught.
The real Blaine Gabbert?
We couldn’t leave this section without talking about Blaine Gabbert. Last season his cumulative performance was as bad as we have seen at PFF since we began grading. You rarely saw much to suggest that he could be a viable NFL quarterback, so it was pleasantly surprising to see a different side to him this week. With an offensive line leaking pressure, especially off the right side, Gabbert was able to make some impressive throws and lead his team on drives, including what would ordinarily have been the game-winning touchdown drive with less than 30 seconds to go in the game. He was able to hit Cecil Shorts on the back shoulder deep down the right sideline as Vikings CB Chris Cook had inside position and never looked back for the ball. Gabbert put the ball outside to space where only Shorts would be able to adjust and make the play. Plays like that earned him a +2.6 grade for the game overall, and we got to see a little of the player the Jaguars expected when they drafted him.
Minnesota – Three Performances of Note
Don’t let the sacks mislead you
Both Vikings defensive ends were held without a sack, but they had dramatically different games. While Jared Allen (-5.4) struggled to get anything going all game, and finished with a hit, a pressure and little else, Brian Robison (+9.8) was a destructive force all day long. Robison was a constant fixture in the Jacksonville backfield, and when he wasn’t there he was batting down passes or chasing plays down from behind. He finished the game with three takedowns of Gabbert, six more pressures–some of them coming extremely quickly–a batted pass, three tackles and a defensive stop. If you’re reading that list and find you need to take a deep breath, blame the relentless display of Robison for filling up the stat sheet so thoroughly.
It’s not often you will see a guy so thoroughly dominant without notching a sack, but it can happen, and that is precisely why working from sack numbers alone is folly. Robison single-handedly caused breakdowns in the Jaguars' passing game, and forced Gabbert to work under duress for much of the clash.
Playmakers Present
This was supposed to be the game where Adrian Peterson (+0.7) would get just a few carries to try and find his feet again after his comeback. Eight months removed from ACL and MCL ligament tears in his left knee, Peterson was handed 32 snaps and 17 carries, and responded with 84 yards, two scores and three forced missed tackles. In short, if you didn’t know Peterson was playing in his first game since that kind of devastating injury, you wouldn’t have picked it up from watching him. He looked sharp, explosive and able to do damage with the ball in his hands.
The same thing goes for Percy Harvin (+1.5) who is one of the most electrifying playmakers in the NFL. The Vikings got the ball in his hands as often as they could, and he gained 104 yards from scrimmage. An impressive 77 of his 84 receiving yards came after the catch, and 17 of his 20 rushing yards came after first contact as Harvin showed the kind of burst hat can leave defenders for dead. To underline his performance, he broke a tackle from Terrance Knighton, a 317lb (allegedly) defensive tackle who had him in his grasp at the line of scrimmage.
Ponder’s Turn
In the battle of the two second-year quarterbacks, Christian Ponder's (-0.6) side prevailed, but he wasn’t quite as impressive as Gabbert over the game, despite making some great throws. This was a much better Ponder than we saw last season, but he has still not learned the speed of NFL defenses and was himself at fault for at least one sack. In college he may well have had the speed and athleticism to take off and be safe from the players around the defensive line, but at this level it just seems to lead to negative plays. The good news is he was able to deliver some stick throws in pressure situations, and, though his numbers were inflated by some impressive work from his receivers after the catch, he was efficient in the game. The signs are better for his development.
Game Notes
– Rookie kicker Blair Walsh (+3.1) hit all four of his field goals, including a 55-yarder to send the game into overtime, and another from 38 to win it in the fifth period. Not a bad debut.
– Maurice Jones-Drew, in an unusual backup role, was back returning punts for the Jaguars. He muffed one, so it’s probably not a career move that will stick.
– What does drafting a punter that high get you? An average of 53.5 yards over four punts in this game from Brian Anger (+1.3).
PFF Game Ball
I’m sorely tempted to give the game ball to the rookie kicker who may never have a bigger game in the rest of his career, but the best performance in this one came from Brian Robison who was a destructive force on his side of the line.
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