Chris Conley Shoulders the Blame For Jaguars' Offensive Performance Vs. Miami
“How you doing, Chris?” the reporter asked.
The Jacksonville Jaguars receiver couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Rough night.”
And it was a rough night. It was a rough night for the entire Jacksonville team, but on offense, for Conley especially. After the Jags lost to the Miami Dolphins 31-13, Conley arrived to answer every question about his performance on the night.
After the defense put the Jaguars into another 7-0 hole early, the offense took the field and rookie running back James Robinson immediately moved them downfield 28 yards on two runs. Then on the third play of the night, quarterback Gardner Minshew II dropped back off play-action and found Conley on the sideline.
It was a good throw. It was an easy catch. But Conley dropped it.
“Personally, in situations where you come out and have an opportunity to start the game with a good drive, you’ve got to make every opportunity count. In that first drive, I let this offense down. No excuses about that. You got to make that play. But really as an offense, guys stuck together and went out there and kept scrapping.”
The Jags were forced to punt and the defense gave up another score to make it 14-0 in the blink of an eye. As Conley mentioned, the offense worked it’s way back to make it 14-7 on the next drive. After going down two touchdowns again (and none of this is to take the blame off of the abysmal performance by the Jaguars defense who gave up a score on five of the Dolphins nine drives) Minshew looked for Conley again deep.
This throw was more questionable as Conley was in the middle of three defenders deep downfield. It was a risky throw that didn’t pay off. But it also officially set the tone for the night when Conley dropped the deep pass, as Minshew was strip-sacked one play later.
The Jags could have scored multiple drives throughout the game, but especially near the end of the half and the start of the second half. Both times the drive stalled after a Conley drop. But none seemed more painful than the pass at the end of the third quarter.
Minshew was hit as he threw but had Conley wide open on the sideline at the pylon. It would have been a running completion and a tough one for the receiver to catch up to, but still very catchable.
“It was a good check,” explained Conley.
“That wasn’t the play that was actually called. I guess Gardner noticed the three-press and was able to audible the play and give a nice little pump fake to the corner and keep the corner low, and run a go. We just missed each other, and that’s one we have be on the same page for. We have to connect.”
All in all, Minshew targeted Conley eight times. The sixth-year receiver and Jags captain caught three passes of those eight for 34 yards. Rookie running back James Robinson was the teams leading receiver with 83 yards. And the Jags No. 1 wide receiver, Pro Bowler DJ Chark, was forced to watch from the sidelines as a scratch with a chest/back injury sustained during a deep pass against the Tennessee Titans.
After the Dolphins loss, Minshew reflected on the difference in the offense without Chark but remained confident and loyal to the rest of what has been perceived as a deep receiver unit.
“DJ is a great player. He’s a guy that we love in basically any one-on-one situation. I have a lot of confidence in the rest of the team. The guys that we have out there, everyone dressed tonight, Chris [Conley], Keelan [Cole Sr.], Collin [Johnson], Laviska [Shenault Jr.], Dede [Westbrook], everybody can go win. As a group, we just didn’t get it done tonight.”
While the loss deserves to be placed squarely on the entire team across the board, it’s easy to see that Conley did have the worst catch-to-target ratio on the night (3-8). But Minshew says the two teammates each took the blame after the loss.
“Both of us saying, ‘my bad.’ We both wish there were things we could have back. So we’re going to move forward, look at the film, address it, and move on to [Week 4 vs.] Cincinnati.”
The willingness to both shoulder the blame is what Chris Conley feels will keep this offense, and this locker room, together as they put this primetime loss behind them and become the fun, productive offense that took the league by storm the first two weeks of the season.
“Take this time, look at this game, realistically look in the mirror and analyze what we could have done better. That’s what guys are encouraged to do. It’s what I’m going to do myself. But really, to band and stick together. There’s going to be a lot of stuff thrown at everybody right now.
“There’s going to be a lot of stuff thrown at people trying to pit us against each other. Stuff is already being thrown on social media and all that right now, and you got to really just block it out and go back to the drawing board and get back to work. There’s not enough time to rest on those things in this league.
“I still believe that this team can be as good as it wants to be. We just have to go out and we just have to execute, and I have to go out and I have to execute, being that leader on this team, being a guy who’s played in this league for a while, you’ve got to show up when the lights are on. You’ve got to show up."
