David Garrard and Troy Williamson provided optimism about the prospects for a big-play offense with a 74-yard touchdown connection on the first play of the game and a 61-yard completion in the second quarter.
But the explosive plays shouldn't overshadow all the mistakes the Jaguars experienced on other levels in a 24-23 loss to Tampa Bay in the preseason home opener before 42,177 at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. It's clear the club still has work to do.
"We are just starting to get into the groove of things," running back Maurice Jones-Drew said. "We are starting to become better with a lot of hard work. There are some things we have to correct, but things are going well."
After taking a 14-3 lead on Williamson's reception and a Greg Jones 1-yard touchdown run, the Jaguars were outscored 21-9 down the stretch. Todd Bouman rallied the Jags in the final minute to make it interesting by finding tight end Tyler Lorenzen for 20-yard TD with 40 seconds left. But Bouman's two-point conversion pass to Tiquan Underwood fell incomplete.
Josh Scobee kicked a 29-yard field goal with two minutes left in the third quarter to score Jacksonville's first points since the 7:48 mark of the second quarter. By then, Bucs quarterback Luke McCown had thrown two touchdown passes (to Jeremy Stevens and Sammie Stroughter) against a Jaguars defensive lineup that featured eight starters.
Jacksonville's defense, which operated out of a 4-3 front for all but two plays in the first half, played most of its starters for the first two quarters, and allowed Tampa Bay to convert 50 percent of third downs (4 of 8). Meanwhile, the club's offensive starters failed on all five of their third-down conversions in the first half.
The reserves weren't much better. Jacksonville converted just 2 of 14 on third down and 2 for 4 on fourth.
Garrard played more crisply than he did in the opening loss at Miami, blistering Tampa Bay for 216 yards on 10-of-16 completions for a 127.1 passer rating in the first half. He was sacked twice.
"I was seeing the field pretty well and guys were making catches for me," Garrard said. "The offensive line was blocking their tails off tonight."
Garrard's TD on the first play came off a bootleg fake as Williamson streaked down the field at least three steps ahead of the nearest defender, Sabby Piscitelli. Williamson caught three passes for a game-high 147 yards. His 61-yard catch came on a skinny post, off another Garrard play fake.
"It was a lot of fun with that fast start," Garrard said. "We are playing fast and guys are making plays. What a great run and catch by Troy. You can't beat that."
Instead, the Jags found a way to defeat themselves with shoddy play on special teams that led to two Tampa Bay touchdowns.
After Jones' TD run, set up by Williamson's second long catch, gave the Jaguars a 14-3 lead, Stroughter returned the ensuing kickoff 75 yards to the Jags 20. From there, McCown found Stevens for a 17-yard scoring pass.
Then Brian Witherspoon fielded the ball on the ensuing kickoff, and accidentally stepped out of bounds at the Jacksonville 3. A false start by Uche Nwaneri - who started at right guard - a Eugene Monroe holding penalty, and a Garrard incompletion on third down led to a Jacksonville punt. Tampa Bay marched 45 yards in 11 plays on its next drive to score on McCown's pass to Stroughter and go up 17-14 with 1:03 left before intermission.
"We got into some adverse situations [with field position]," Jaguars defensive end Reggie Hayward said. "Those types of plays you have to buck up and we let them score, gave them a little confidence at the end of the half. We will correct that and get ready for the regular season."
Former Jaguars quarterback Byron Leftwich started for the Buccaneers, and completed 6 of 12 for 63 yards.
"It was just another game for me," Leftwich said of his return to Jacksonville. "I was a little anxious in the beginning, but everything was OK."
From an injury standpoint, Jaguars defensive end Jeremy Mincey left the game with a sprained thumb, linebacker Clint Ingram was pulled out after taking blow to the head in the first half, and linebacker Lamar Myles left with a sprained ankle. The extent of their injuries wasn't immediately known.
Jaguars reserve linebacker Tim Shaw came away with the team's only sack, but Mincey, Terrrance Knighton and Quentin Groves each posted quarterback pressures.
"We are going to continue working on things and correcting our mistakes," said Jones-Drew, who ran once for 2yards and caught three passes for 18 yards. "We want to lead-up to our first game at Indianapolis. You don't want to peak too early. We want to maintain this, [but] we still have a lot of things we need to correct."
The Jaguars (0-2) play at Philadelphia on Thursday night.
michael.wright@jacksonville.com,
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