I'm not sure what's going on here, but I really hope that THESE are the Jaguars we see in the regular season. Despite a few miscues on offense, they've looked much more polished and been much more effective than they were against either Miami or Tampa Bay last week. Maurice Jones-Drew is finally getting long runs, the pocket is holding (mostly), and Troy Williamson is on point. On the defensive side, they're holding up remarkably well despite not starting 4 first-stringers. ('Course, the Eagles look awful, so YMMV.) Bonus points to Torry Holt for making a veteran move and scooping up a possibly-loose ball into the endzone. He ended up scoring a touchdown for the Jags after our intended receiver fumbled before getting in (on a rather dirty hit from Asante Samuel). Double bonus points to Brian Iwuh, a backup, for running an interception back 93 yards for a TD and then recovering a fumble on the next drive. I still think that the Jags need a new backup QB, though; Bouman isn't showing much improvement over last week. Garrard is looking better, but he made a few really bad passes. Greg Jones either needs more playing time or a replacement; I can't figure out which.
As for the Eagles, they look awful. McNabb is all over the field, and they only started moving the ball against the Jags' backup defense when they stopped shoehorning Vick into the game via Wildcat formations. They still haven't put him in alone, even though it's 2/3 of the way through the third quarter. The football fan in me would prefer to believe that they were simply dominated by the Jaguars' starters, but they really may have been overrated during the offseason. It may also be a confidence/focus issue - Michael Vick has been a huge distraction to the Eagles. The series with Vick in got absolutely nothing done for the Eagles, so it's certainly not impossible. Though he's still better than Kevin Kolb, who just grounded the ball in the end zone!
Either way, I have a feeling that this is karma trying to give the Eagles a wakeup call, courtesy of the Jaguars.
ETA: Ok, maybe not. But the Eagles only started scoring when they left their offensive starters in against the Jaguars' scrubs.
