Luke McCown is "ALL IN" as the Jaguars starting QB now that Garrard has been shown the door.  Luke makes good decisions & gets the "BALLS OUT" fast.  No more holding onto the ball forever and a day until the QB gets sacked.  No More staring down a receiver all the way through his route either.  Oh yeah, Luke can actually read a freakin defense too.  Del Rio just needs to turn him loose and crank the volume up to eleven.  Luke is a gunslinger, he can make all the throws and he can look through his receivers to find the open man.  McCown is also always looking down the field during games.  Something that "Drop Down" Dave never seemed to be able to master.  Del Rio finds it hard to unleash Luke & allow him to be all the QB he can be.  I don't like that, but I understand where Jack is coming from. 

Maurice Jones-Drew wants the damn ball. Give him the damn ball Jack.  Mojo will be the key to any chance of winning against the Jets this weekend.  Everyone knows that Del Rio is going to try to be ultra conservative with the play calling again.  We all know that he won't allow Luke McCown throw that much.  We all know it's gonna be another very vanilla Sunday.  So if you're going to run the ball, at least run the damn ball with # 32.  that means no more taking him out of the game for an entire quarter.  that was a bonehead move if I ever saw one.  Thanks for almost costing your team the game last week Jack.  Luckily your team has a better defense than last year.  The defense saved your ass Del Rio, but they can't do it alone against better teams.  You're lucky that the Titans are a mess this year.  Keep it simple stupid.......give the damn ball to MJD all day.  Eat the clock & keep the Jets offense off the field for as long as possible.  Dirty Sanchez and company can't beat you if they're not on the field.

Jacksonville Jaguars DE Arron Kampman is still not ready to play football.  He continues to rehab his knee and has been seen at the team facility wearing a knee brace.  This may seem like a bad omen for the Jaguars defense, it's really not that big a deal.  He is being held out of games as a precaution.  When he does return to action, it will be on a limited basis.  He will play fewer downs in an attempt to limit his risk of re-injuring his knee and in an effort to get more impact out of him when he is on the field.  Make no mistake, the Jags want him to play, he wants to play, his teammates want him to play & all the fans want him to play too.  Having Arron on the field for gameday makes the entire defense better.  They just seem to feed off of his energy & kick it into another gear or take it to another level.  There is no real timeline for his return yet, but we all know he is doing everything he can to get back in the lineup.  He is known for being a workout warrior & he knows what he has to do.

This weekend, the Jacksonville Jaguars travel to New York City to play the Jets, a team many believe to be a Super Bowl contender. While I agree that anything can happen once a team gets into the playoffs (i.e. Cardinals get to the Super Bowl), the Jets aren't a Super Bowl contender in my books. In fact, I believe they'll be in a close wild-card race, and that makes this weekend that much more important.

I can already hear the Jets fan, "How can you say we're not ready to win the Super Bowl. We beat the Patriots last season in the playoffs at their place..." The thought of listening to that is nauseating, but I plunge forward. The Jets have one of the best defenses in the NFL. That's not being questioned, but they also have one of the most inconsistent offenses I've ever seen. As if they were trying to prove my point against Dallas last week, they played mediocre football offensively for 3 quarters, but they were able to put it together late and pull out a win. That's exactly what I'm talking about.

The general of the team, or the "Sanchize" if you prefer, is the cause of much of New York's offensive woes. Sanchez is going into his third year in the league, and his stats aren't very flattering. He's thrown 34 interceptions in his young career, but he's only thrown 31 touchdowns. Now, I'm not a big stats guy, and I hate the passer rating stats, including ESPN's newer "more accurate" one, but I will say this. If you throw more interceptions than you do touchdowns, you aren't doing a great job. To be fair, he did throw 17 touchdowns to 12 interceptions last season, so; he's making progress, but he's still far too inconsistent for the Jets to make a championship run.

Now we move to this weekend's game. The Jaguars will be playing for a potential wild-card tie breaker. That's why this week 2 game carries such significance. In my mind, the other two most important out of division games are the games against the Ravens and the Steelers. Both of those games could carry the same type of importance, and as we found out in heart-breaking fashion last season, tie-breakers are everything in the NFL.

I'll go ahead and write it here first. The Jaguars will not and should not lose this game. There's no reason that the Jets should win, and I think the Jaguars may even be able to sneak up on the high and mightly Jets. I'm not saying Rex Ryan isn't a good coach, but that team has a lot of big egos. Big egos don't always take the little guy seriously, and in my mind, Jacksonville is a bigger guy that's perceived to be a little guy.

To win, the Jaguars will have to play better than they did against the Titans. In that game, the Jaguars appeared to dominate the Titans pretty much the entire game, with the Titans getting in a couple decent shots. The scoreboard, however, didn't reflect that domination. I read earlier this week (and I can't remember where) that the Jaguars can't beat the Jets with field goals. I can't agree more with that, and they won't beat the Jets if they have to settle for field-goals when they have a second and goal from the 1 yard line.

To say I'm excited for this weekend is an understatement. This is a week 2 game that could have the feel of a wild-card game. After all, it may actually be one of the most important games that either of these teams play the entire year. I'll take the Jaguars 24, the Jets 17. That's my pick, and I'm sticking to it.

As soon as I began watching the Jaguars, Titans game at Everbank Field, I felt like the Jaguars were on course for a victory and a great start to the 2011 season. I didn't expect the Titans to have a chance to drive down the field for a winning field goal. Thank goodness Matt Turk decided to plop his last punt of the afternoon down just outside the 20, giving it plenty of room to bounce inside the 5 where it was downed. In reality, it wasn't a great punt, but the Jaguars, like much of the afternoon, just had it go their way.

The Jaguars rocked an all white uniform that hasn't been seen in years. Maybe they should stick with it.

Many analysts are raving about the job Luke McCown did coming on the heels of a somewhat surprising move by the Jaguars. Luke McCown was given the starting job Tuesday of game week, and he did exactly what they asked him to do. His only major flaw came on a short yardage fumble. Outside of that, he managed the game well.

The next step for the Jaguars and McCown will be for him to truly take the reigns as more than a game manager. Don't get me wrong here, I want to see the Jaguars run the ball and play good defense, but I also want to see them give McCown more responsibility. That's the only way we'll truly know what the Jaguars have in McCown, and I think Offensive Coordinator, Dirk Koetter, will slowly hand over more responsibility.

Now, we switch gears to a more newsier topic. Alfie Crow at Big Cat Country is reporting that sources tell him that Derek Cox could miss up to 3 weeks with a rib/chest injury. The injury was sustained when Cox went up for an interception and was taken hard to the ground. He landed out of bounds and was unable to secure the interception, but it was great defense by him, and the Jaguars would sorely miss him if he does indeed miss games.

The Jaguars travel to New York to play the Jets next week. This is a huge game for the Jaguars for a number of reasons. First, the Jaguars could jump out to a nice 2-0 start. Second, it's likely that this could be a tie-breaker game in terms of a wild-card spot, and if the Jaguars could win, they'd help themselves out for a December push towards the playoffs. Finally, they'll want to keep pace with the Texans, and the Texans play the Dolphins next week, a game I expect them to win.

The Jaguars are off to a nice start. Now, they just need to keep it going.

The Jacksonville Jaguars defeated the Flaming tacks of Tennessee on Sunday 16-14.  The Jaguars defense started by sacking new Titans QB Matt Hasselbeck.  Matt Roth wrapped him up and set the tone for the entire game.  The Jaguars got another sack from CB Drew Coleman, which resulted in a fumble as well.  They ended the game strong too.  Safety Dwight Lowery intercepted a  Hasselbeck pass with just 23 seconds remaining to seal the victory.  They also held Titans RB Chris Johnson to just 24 yards.  Yeah, 24 total yards.  He got stonewalled all day.  The Jags defense did let WR Kenny Britt catch 2 TDs, but they still dominated the game.

It's opening weekend, and everyone's stoked to get the NFL season going. Thursday night was a tasty morsel of things to come, and oh wasn't it great?

Andrew Strickert over at TotalTitans.com exchanged and answered each other's questions this week. Here's the questions that he responded to about the Titans and their upcoming season.

SC: We're all curious. How long do you think it'll be until Jake Locker takes over as the starting quarterback?

AS: Matt Hasselbeck could remain as the starter all year as long as he plays reasonably well and stays healthy, especially if the Titans have a decent record.  Personally, I suspect Locker will be the starter by midseason.  Hasselbeck hasn't played well for the last two years and I see no reason why he will suddenly get better now.  If Locker is "ready" in the coaches' eyes by midseason, I predict he'll start if Hasselbeck struggles or the Titans are losing.

SC: Chris Johnson held out for much of the pre-season. What do you expect from him, especially early in the season?

AS: Actually, CJ was a holdout for the entire preseason, missing all of training camp and all four preseason games.  I am optimistic here that things won't be as bad as they would be for most other backs.  The reasoning is that CJ was also a holdout last year, missing all of the OTAs.  However, he worked out in Orlando and reported to camp in good shape, and didn't miss a beat. Hopefully, a similar scenario will occur this year.  I expect for CJ to get about 20 touches on Sunday, although his backup is injured, so it could be a little more.

SC: How's the Titans defense looking this season? Will we see improvement, especially in pass defense?

AS: There is reason to believe the Titans will be improved against the run.  There's a new DC, Jerry Gray, who should improve the overall defense schematically.  I'm not so optimistic about the pass defense.  The starters in the secondary are the same as last year and they won't benefit from a pass rush to help them out, at least not this week. The top two defensive ends are injured and I don't think the Titans can generate a pass rush with just 4 d-linemen.

SC: Are the Titans in a "rebuilding" process, or is it more of a "re-tooling" process?

AS: It seems like the front office thinks it's only a retooling process.  There were some changes I hoped the Titans would make, that didn't happen, such as signing Dawan Landry (or someone) to replace Chris Hope, or upgrading the interior o-line with Harvey Dahl or another top guard.  They belatedly upgraded at fullback, but only after Ahmard Hall was suspended.  I guess that means I believe the Titans needed to rebuild but the front office thought a retooling would suffice.

SC: What do you think the Titans' final record will be at the end of the season, and is it good enough to get into the playoffs?

AS: We've got a new poll on our site asking our readers for their predictions.  As I write this, 38.5% believe the Titans will win 6 games or less and another 38.5% believe it will be 7-8 wins.  Football Outsiders Almanac predicted 5.0 wins, tied for fewest in the league with the Raiders.  The sports book Bodog has the Titans over/under at 6½ wins.  As I wrote in this article, nine times this season the Titans will look across the field at a team that had a better record last year and twice (Houston) they'll play a team with the same record as theirs was last year.  I thought the Titans would probably win six games but now that it looks like Peyton Manning might miss the entire season, that might be an extra two wins.  Is eight wins enough for a playoff berth?  Not unless the AFC South has a finish similar to the NFC West last year.