I've been talking to the enemy all week to get as much information on the Jacksonville Jaguars as I can. The first question I always ask those that know the opponent is: Can you stop the Kansas City Chiefs rushing attack?
Alfie Crow of Big Cat Country says, Dan Patrick style, 'You can't stop them. You can only hope to contain them.' OK he didn't really go Dan Patrick on us but read on for what he really said.
"Stop it? Doubtful," Crow wrote this week. "Slow it down? Potentially. The Jaguars rush defense, currently ranked 19th in the NFL, hasn't been fantastic but it's been good enough."
I'm not sure I would be comfortable with "good enough" facing the No. 1 rushing attack in the league. The good news for Jax is that they did have success against one of the league's top backs. Read on.
"On Monday Night," Crow writes, "they were able to hold Chris Johnson in check the vast majority of the game. His best play came at the end of the game on 4th and 5 where the Titans were just running clock, Johnson exploded for a 35-yard touchdown run that put him well over 100 yards. Before that, he was very ineffective. This also has to do with the fact that there's no reason to run on the Jaguars, as their pass defense is atrocious."
The Chris Johnson numbers may be an indication that Jamaal Charles won't be the feature back on Sunday. He had 26 carries for 111 yards which is an OK average of 4.2 yards per carry. But they were successful on 25 of his 26 carries.
Remember the Jags game last year? It was supposed to be Charles' first game as the feature back after the LJ fiasco a week earlier. He only got six carries for an excellent -- but, for Charles, average -- six yards per carry. Maybe I'm looking too far into that but perhaps it's an indication that the Chiefs don't want to give Charles a lot of carries, like they don't like the matchup.
As of now I'm going to cautiously predict Thomas Jones as the team leader in rushes against the Jags.