I like to do little midseason reviews and evaluations. It's just something I've always done because they give you a feel for what the season will be.
Anyhow, I asked the Jaguars' director of broadcasting for some TV ratings information, and after studying what he gave me I was able to form two conclusions: 1.) The Jaguars' TV ratings in Jacksonville are some of the strongest in the league. 2.) College football is not king in Jacksonville.
Actually, this year's ratings only confirm what we already knew. Those two conclusions aren't new; it's been that way since the Jaguars first arrived on the scene. The NFL, simply put, is king of the game.
Here are the facts:
• Through the first eight weeks of the NFL season, six of the seven-highest rated football games in Jacksonville belong to the Jaguars. One belongs to the Florida-Georgia college game. In order, it's the Jags at Jets, Jags at Colts and Jags at Steelers. Then comes Florida-Georgia, followed by Jags at Rams, Seahawks at Jags and Broncos at Jags.
• The Miami-FSU game is number eight, followed by the Chargers-Eagles, Steelers-Bengals and Cowboys-Chargers, all of whom out-rated the Tennessee-Florida game.
• Patriots-Steelers, Raiders-Titans, Patriots-Broncos and Eagles-Falcons all out-rated Florida-Alabama.
• Of the 20-highest rated football games on TV in Jacksonville this season, 16 of them belong to the NFL.
Those are the facts. College town? Come on.
Here are 10 things the Jaguars have to do to beat the Texans.
- Show up—They didn't do that last year.
- Ask their fans to show up—They didn't do that last year either.
- Block and tackle—Execution of the fundamentals will win more games than fancy plans and schemes.
- Play hard—They didn't do that last week.
- Play tough—They didn't do that last week either.
- Compete—Not only against the Texans but amongst themselves because jobs are on the line.
- Get an attitude—Like the one this column has.
- Kick field goals and don't have a punt blocked—They didn't do that last week.
- Sack the quarterback—The Texans are last in the league at protecting the quarterback.
- Run the ball—The Texans are last in the league at stopping the run.
