JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Urban Meyer said that he’s focused on the next five games and not regrets from his first season as an NFL head coach. The time to reevaluate everything comes after the season — a season that has stretched the franchise’s agony out for another year.
Then, there’s likely a good chance changes are made for Meyer and the Jaguars, who limp into Sunday’s game against the Titans at 2-10 and mired in a four-game losing streak.
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The big question this week is will things improve on offense against Tennessee? And will Meyer be more connected to game-day decisions than he’s appeared to be so far?
When asked if he had regrets about not being more involved with things during Jacksonville’s miserable season, Meyer said he’s more focused on the Titans than analyzing missteps at this point.
“I regret a lot of things, it’s not time now to do that,” Meyer said. “It’s time to try to get the best effort we can the next five games and then reevaluate everything.”
Things have been all over the place this week, notably on Jacksonville’s curious handling of the running back situation involving James Robinson.
Meyer said that play dictates whether a player is pulled from the game. Robinson lost a fumble, his second in as many games, on Jacksonville’s second offensive play. He didn’t get another offensive chance until he was targeted on a Trevor Lawrence pass with less than 30 seconds to play before half. Robinson’s next carry didn’t come until the third quarter.
Meyer said definitively on Wednesday that Jacksonville’s running backs need to do a better job of ball protection after losing three fumbles over a 25-carry span. Robinson was responsible for two of those and Carlos Hyde the other. Both were pulled after those fumbles, Meyer said.
“You bench yourself. If you lay the ball on the ground, you come out for a few plays and then it’s up to the position coach, whomever, to put you back in whenever that’s time,” Meyer said. “And that’s not James That’s whomever.”
Meyer didn’t provide much of a clear answer Monday about Robinson’s diminished role and seemed to put that decision on running backs coach Bernie Parmalee. That prompted questions about how Meyer, a football junkie and micromanager during his college coaching days, could be so oblivious to so many details as an NFL head coach.
Numerous times this season, Meyer has been out of the loop when asked about certain situations or a player’s role, be it on offense, defense or special teams.
“I just evaluated myself as my career went along and I wasn’t as productive in the things I need to be productive worrying about which foot the three techniques stepping with. … Reevaluated myself,” Meyer said.
“And last half of my career at Ohio State I didn’t micromanage everything, because it’s also hard to sleep at night when you don’t [delegate]. And .. you have coaches, that’s their responsibility. It’s not my responsibility. It’s their responsibility. Hire a bunch of good people. Coach the fundamentals as hard as possible, let them do their job. And a lot of times I get in the way that, I noticed, too.”