“It gets tougher next week. The whole team will have to be sharper.”MARK BRUNELL JACKSONVILLE – In the wake of Jacksonville’s 25-10 wild-card playoff victory over the outmanned Patriots Sunday in a game that was anything but aesthetically pleasing, the Jaguars immediately acknowledged it’s going to take a much crisper effort to beat the Jets in the next round, Sunday at Giants Stadium.
“We’re going to have to be a much better football team when we go to New York,” Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin said.
That particularly goes for Jaguars QB Mark Brunell, who was erratic early in the win over the Patriots and finished just 14-of-34 for 161 yards and a TD.
Brunell, who returned Sunday after a three-game layoff because of a high left ankle sprain, was the first to acknowledge he needs to be “sharper against the Jets.”
The same, too, goes for Vinny Testaverde on the other side of the ball.
Testaverde, who’s reveled in a career rebirth as a Jet this season, completing 61.5 percent of his passes, throwing a franchise-record 29 TDs and only seven INTs and being voted to the Pro Bowl, has never defeated Jacksonville.
Though his personal statistics are better than average (131-of-214, 1,666 yards, 9 TDs, 8 INTs), he’s 0-6 against the Jaguars something not lost on him as he prepares this week to 071 . 0000.00break the schneid and help send the Jets to the AFC Championship Game.
“That’s a different team, so to me it’s irrelevant,” Testaverde said of his perfectly imperfect history against Jacksonville. “Before I faced Miami the first time [this year] I’d never beaten them.”
Testaverde was 0-3 against the Dolphins before helping the Jets beat them twice this season.
“I don’t look at what happened in the past and say, ‘Well, things are going to be bad because I haven’t had success personally against them,'” said Testaverde, who’s 12-1 as the Jets’ starter this season. “Each game is a different game. I try to stay optimistic and stay within the strength of our team. Of course, this [Jets team] is a different team than the ones I’ve been on.”
Testaverde is well aware what he’ll face when the Jaguars line up against him. He has huge respect for the consistency Coughlin brings the Jags.
“I’ve always had a lot of respect for Jacksonville and the ability they have on their teams,” Testaverde said. “Certainly they’re playing as well as anybody right now. They’re banged up a little bit, yeah, but they always seem to have guys that come in and work within their system, and that’s a credit to their system.”
Coughlin hopes his sys071 . 0000.00tem will be enough for Brunell to overcome his gimpy left leg. He spoke confidently that Brunell will be better against the Jets than he was against the Patriots.
“He’ll be a lot sharper as he gains confidence and after the way he played through this game,” Coughlin predicted. “He’s going to be real sore. Hopefully we can get that under control for a solid practice [tomorrow]. That’s what he really needs. He was sharp in the [Patriots’] game, but he had some passes that he wishes he had back.”
Brunell, whose arm looked overly strong after the long layoff, conceded he was out of sync.
“I was a little off early on,” he said. “I missed some throws. My footwork wasn’t where I wanted it to be. But as the game went on I was able to get that back and make some of the throws that we needed to hit. [Rust] was a factor early on, but I was able to settle down.”
Certain to be a factor 071 . 0000.00Sunday will be Brunell’s mobility or lack of it.
The Jaguars had to scale back their offensive gameplan because Brunell, usually a threat to scramble and roll out, wasn’t able to move well.
“We didn’t have as many bootlegs or as many sprintouts,” Brunell said of the gameplan for New England. “We changed the gameplan a little bit. Next week will be good in that I will feel that much better.”
It’s hard to imagine, though, Brunell healing up that much in less than a week, particularly after recovering from aggravating it a couple times in the game. The Patriots got decent pressure on Brunell, knocking him down often after passes. Brunell often got up limping, particularly late in the first half.
“I twisted the ankle before halftime and came out for the third quarter and wasn’t feeling all that great,” Brunell said.
Coughlin said he never considered taking Brunell out, though Brunell said, “We didn’t get into an argument. I just encouraged him, I should say, to keep me in there. It wasn’t a confrontation. He felt I could continue and I felt the same way.
“It gets tougher next week,” Brunell went on. “The whole team will have to be sharper.”
Brunell and the Jags will revisit some ghosts from their 1996 AFC Champion071 . 0000.00ship game, including Bill Parcells, who coached the Patriots to their 20-6 win and Jets’ CB Otis Smith, who scooped up a Jacksonville fumble and returned it for a TD to seal that game.
“They’re very impressive,” Smith said. “They can score points, especially in the red zone. And not just score points, but score touchdowns.”
Jaguars’ explosive rookie RB Fred Taylor, who lit up the Patriots’ defense for 162 rushing yards, will be a significant factor.
“They have a real strong running game,” Jets’ LB Bryan Cox said. “They have balance and a real huge offensive line that tries to enforce their will on you. They try to control the line of scrimmage, control the ball, and they can open it up when they want to.”
Jets’ LB Mo Lewis said, “They’re very explosive. They have a lot of weapons. We’ve got to expect the passes from the left when [Brunell] rolls out. He has a strong arm an the ability to get out to run.”
Added Cox, “Having a scrambling quarterback is very dangerous. They all scramble. I think it’s something they teach. They all take off, and run for some big first downs. It seems like it’s part of their system.”
Whether that remains a part of the Jaguars’ system on Sunday will depend on Brunell’s health.
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