unfortunately, he was the ONLY perfect part of the Jaguars 1st preseason game of 2011.  The Jaguars were missing lots of key players, but that's no excuse for the poor preformance against the Patriots thursday night.  Del Rio had better get his head out of his butt and get things fixed REAL FAST.  The worst part of that game in my mind is that the offensive play calling was so predicable, so damn vanilla that 2nd and 3rd string offense made the New England defense look like seasoned NFL vets crushing some little league flag football kids & Jacksonville's back-up defense did the same for their offense. 

It's Sunday, which means I get to write about whatever I want. Today, I want to tackle an often debated issue. How much value is there in sports blogging? In my mind there's a lot.

Groups like ESPN, Yahoo Sports, NBC Sports, etc. are very good at reporting facts. They hire top notch people to report on breaking news. After that, they hire analysts, often former athletes and coaches, to analyze breaking news and developments.

Sports bloggers have no chance, most of the time, at breaking news. The best we can hope for is to happen across early reports of trades, signings, firings, etc. and to quickly post something before the big boys can get to it. After all, search engines like Google love those who are first to the punch.

So where is the real value in sports blogging?

Me on Sons of Roto:

"I'll field this question in reverse order. I think the no hazing rule is intended to get his team focused only on football. With such a short off-season, the Jaguars can use all the focus and time they can find. It's a little thing, but it should ease the rookies' minds. As far as wins and losses goes, there's a lot to consider. Should the Jaguars find themselves at something like 2-6 or 3-6, I wouldn't be surprised for Del Rio to be fired, and at that point, Gabbert would almost certainly be given the reigns. On the other hand, I would expect Garrard and Del Rio to remain in place providing that the Jaguars can stay at .500 or better. Finally, there's always a possibility that Garrard doesn't play well in the pre-season and Gabbert does. If that happens, It's not unreasonable to think that Gabbert could start week 1. There's a lot of moving parts in Jacksonville, and it'll certainly be interesting to see how it plays out."

There's no way to look at the final score from the Jaguars, Patriots game and not cringe. It was an ugly score, the kind we saw in the first half of 2010. Oh, there's one more thing about it. It meant nothing. Sure, there was a few negative things to take away from the game, but frankly; this game wasn't about looking pretty. It was about evaluation, and I think we learned a lot.

First off, Blaine Gabbert is indeed a true rookie. He definitely made some nice throws, but he was also caught a few times holding the ball too long. He also threw a pass directly to a Patriots defender who dropped it like a hot potato, but it should have been an interception, and you can't count on defenders dropping it in the regular season.

The Jaguars have signed DE Matt Roth to a 1 year contact.  He is expected to start right away according to NFL insiders.  He will line up opposite of Arron Kampman.  The Jaguars will be counting on Roth to solidify the D-line this season.  They will now have the luxury of rotating Kampman, Roth & Lane as the starters with Morgan, Hart, Odrick & Scheichl as the back-ups.  This should generate more sacks, QB pressure, forced fumbles and all around disruption in opposing team's backfields.  Added D-line pressure will also help the linebackers and the secondary in getting turnovers as well.  Matt Roth brings a lot to the table for the Jaguars.  He has amassed 272 tackles (199 solo), 20 sacks & 6 forced fumbles since 2005.  He was drafted in the 2nd round by Miami and played DE and OLB in the Dolphins 3-4 defense.  He was claimed off waivers by the Cleveland browns in 2009. 

Tonight's game will be the first NFL game since the Super Bowl. The Jaguars will be playing the New England Patriots in a game with no real significance. I'm telling you now, the knee-jerk reaction from this game could be hard to cope with. If Blaine Gabbert plays well, then that's great, but don't worry too much if he doesn't play great. Just watch, listen, and enjoy.

We're all excited about the upcoming season. I'm simply giddy about the pre-season games tonight. I know they're not important, but I can't help myself.

Aside from all the excitement, there's still this whole black uniform thing that, apparently, many of you miss as well. Here's a link to sign a petition bringing the black uniforms back. It was sent to me by a reader, and I encourage any of you that would like to see the Jags in black to sign it.