Jaguars counting on improvement from QB Garrard

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP)—The Jacksonville Jaguars took away David Garrard’s(notes) radio show early in the season, then stripped him of the authority to audible Sunday.

What’s next? His starting job?

Not quite. The Jaguars (3-4) have made it clear they need Garrard to play better to have a chance to compete on a consistent basis.

Garrard has no touchdown passes, four interceptions and two fumbles in the last three games. He also has been sacked 10 times in that span behind a shaky line. The Jaguars, who have lost two of three, face Kansas City (1-6) on Sunday.

“They can’t look over here and say, ‘Well, this team is firing on all cylinders,”’ Garrard said Wednesday. “We have to be able to execute. In the NFL, whoever you’re playing, you’ve got to go out and execute and make the plays necessary.”

The Jaguars have struggled to execute in several games this season, especially in Sunday’s 30-13 loss at Tennessee.

The Titans stacked the line of scrimmage in hopes of getting Garrard to audible from runs to passes—something that worked in Jacksonville’s favor in their first meeting. Garrard threw for 323 yards and three touchdowns in a 37-17 victory in early October.

This time, Tennessee played press coverage on receivers Torry Holt(notes) and Mike Sims-Walker(notes) and took away the quick slants that were so effective in the previous game. The Titans essentially dared Garrard to beat them deep.

The result? He completed 14 of 28 passes for 139 yards, threw two interceptions, was sacked three times and hurried way more often.

“We’ve just got to do better as a team, period,” Garrard said. “No matter what a defense does against us, we have to still be able to execute our game plan and go down and score points.”

With Garrard struggling, coaches told him to stop checking out of run plays to Maurice Jones-Drew(notes)—no matter how many Titans were near the line.

“We took that privilege away or that ability away and said, ‘Look, just hand it to him and let him run the ball,”’ said coach Jack Del Rio, who added that Garrard will get his authority to audible back this week against the Chiefs.

Jones-Drew didn’t carry the ball until Jacksonville’s fourth series. He took a pitch and went 80 yards for a touchdown. He also ran 79 yards on the team’s first play of the second half, but he ran just eight times in the game and still finished with a career-high 177 yards.

Jones-Drew, who complained about not getting the ball enough following a 41-0 loss at Seattle last month, stopped short of doing the same this week.

“Hopefully we have a chance where we can run the ball a little bit and be a balanced offense by throwing the ball effectively,” Jones-Drew said. “I just want to win. Whatever it takes to win. Obviously, we didn’t win last week so we’ve got to figure out a way to execute and find ways to win.”

It starts with getting more from Garrard, who signed a six-year, $60 million contract extension after the 2007 season that included $18 million guaranteed.

He threw 15 TD passes and 13 interceptions in 2008, and has five TD passes and five INTs this year. He hasn’t thrown a touchdown pass in five of the team’s seven games.

Del Rio told Garrard to give up his weekly radio show in late September after learning that the quarterback was talking about things unrelated to the next opponent two days before games.

Garrard downplayed the decision at the time. He did the same with Del Rio’s move to take away his pre-snap calls.

“It wasn’t taking audibles and the game plan out of my hand,” Garrard said. “It was, ‘They’re defending this well this time and we need to just try to force the ball to him.’ When we started to do that, you saw that we were getting some pretty good chunks. It was just an adjustment. It wasn’t, ‘Let’s take things from Dave.”’