The Jaguars Game Plan vs. Texans Went Away From James Robinson to No Avail

Last Wednesday, Jacksonville Jaguars Offensive Coordinator Jay Gruden told reporters they would like to have rookie running back James Robinson with 20-25 touches against the leagues worst run defense, the Houston Texans.

Technically—technically—Robinson did have an opportunity to touch the ball 20 times in the Jags 30-14 loss to the Texans, but they came in a variety of ways and not enough were the rushes Gruden envisioned.

Robinson had 13 rushes, five receptions on seven targets and one wildcat snap that he was apparently supposed to throw but fumbled away before the opportunity was there. The latter was a direct snap to Robinson on 3rd and goal from the 3-yard line.

“We worked on that play a bunch,” Marrone explained.

“You work on things in certain situations and I think that we felt very comfortable with it. I don't think we did a good job executing it. I don't think we sold it well enough because the corner was able to get off on it. So you work on something during the week. You feel comfortable about it, you know when you're going to call it in that situation, and we just didn't execute it.”

The Jags weren’t able to execute in the run game near what they had been the previous four games, during which they averaged 104 yards per game and Robinson was averaging 71.3 rushing yards a game. On Sunday, he had 48, his second-fewest of the season (he had 46 on the ground against Miami).

It should be noted that Robinson—who has been given odds to win NFL Rookie of the Year—has set such high expectations in such a short amount of time that his 70 scrimmage yards overall being considered a down day is indicative of just how special he has proved to be already. He has now Browns running back Kevin Mack (1985) as the only undrafted players in NFL history to total at least 500 scrimmage yards through five career games.

Still, after an 11-yard rush up the gut to start the game, the Texans began to swarm Robinson the remainder of play. If it appeared stopping Robinson was their game plan…it was.

“He's a good running back,” said Texans defensive lineman J.J. Watt of Robinson.

“I mean, all week long we harped on the fundamentals, we harped on everybody doing their job, getting back to the basics a little bit, and I thought we did that well. Obviously, that in conjunction with stopping them early in the game, offense putting up points and then putting them in situations where they had to throw the ball late in the game makes a massive difference.”

Adds Texans interim Head Coach Romeo Crennel, “After that first series, I think what happened is we settled in. We settled down and started playing better run defense. I know on one play there was a cut. We had a pressure on, and the cut back got in between the pressure and the guy stunting inside and they were able to gain some yards.

"But once we settled it down, we were able to slow that running game down, and then what that does is that helps the pass rush when they have to start throwing, and the guys can kind of pin their ears back.”

It did in fact do just that, with the Texans sacking Gardner Minshew four times for a loss of 12-yards.

With several defensive players out on the Jaguars side (defensive end Josh Allen, linebacker Myles Jack and corner CJ Henderson) Marrone told reporters he felt coming into the game it would be high scoring and the Jags would have to drive down field often to stay in and ideally win the game. Jacksonville’s defense actually played up however, with Sidney Jones IV and Jarrod Wilson in particular both playing well in their first significant action together.

Because of that, the Jags came in wanting and planning to take advantage of other areas of the field besides just Robinson.

“I think that we wanted to go after certain people,” explained Marrone.

“We wanted to make sure that we could score touchdowns. We want to be able to push the ball down the field. We wanted to, we thought we would be able to do a better job converting a lot of those things…we felt that was going to give us the best opportunity. I mean, to go in there and we felt like we were going to have to score and we didn't. I think the game plan that we were trying to put together was to be aggressive and push the ball down the field and score points.”

As that game plan began to falter, Robinson could only do so much. He was regulated to the sidelines on most third downs as Gruden went with the experienced veteran Chris Thompson in those situational downs. Now as the Jaguars return home for a match against the Detroit Lions, quarterback Gardner Minshew II says they’ll look back at where Robinson was used, where he was stopped and how he can be used more to help the Jacksonville Jaguars get back on the winning track.

“That's going to be a thing we're going to have to look back at the film. I think he did a good job catching the ball today. And that's another way, just touches in general are good. But, yeah, we ran the ball well early, and we just got to capitalize on that momentum.”

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