Sunday was far
Jaguars end skid vs. Texans, offer uplifting relief from Irma
from a typical day in Florida, and it wasn’t just the weather. After all, football fans watched the Jacksonville Jaguars defeat the Houston Texans, 29-7.
Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Harvey have embodied non-discriminatory monsters, taking us all for chaotic rides.
The Jacksonville Jaguars went to Houston with anxious eyes this weekend, looking back at the path of Hurricane Irma and what could be in store for loved ones and friends in Jacksonville.
The Houston Texans welcomed them to town, beaten down emotionally from all the carnage Hurricane Harvey left in its wake.
I watched from my living room on Sunday afternoon, raindrops pounding hard on our roof in Seminole County, thinking about my family in South Florida, where I was supposed to be for the first week of NFL football. Strange days indeed. Perhaps the Jaguars’ rousing 29-7 victory was all part of the crazy master plan, once you consider the oddities of what transpired.
What inspired you most looking at the Jaguars from afar? The franchise-record 10 sacks? Their first victory against Houston in seven games? Blake Bortles’ first victory over the Texans in four games?
The team even branded #Sacksonville on its official Twitter feed.
Let Bizarro World reign, starting with the ponderous quest of trying to find the game on Spectrum TV. Both the CBS and FOX affiliates went with hurricaneoverload by pre-empting the games in favor of continuous loop of hurricane coverage that seems to be going on forevermore.
It was a misguided call, a case of piling on by not giving hurricane-weary folks respite from the
storm. There are a gazillion outlets to gather information but only limited options for people who just needed to breathe — and maybe scream for something other than the fear of a Category 5 hurricane coming to town.
Fortunately, both affiliates switched the games to sister stations. Then it became a matter of finding them on that smorgasbord of cable options. After getting intermittent updates from the NFL Network’s Red Zone — glory, praise and amen! — a Facebook friend directed me and a number of other lost souls to Channel 463, a graveyard in the cable universe that suddenly came to life, much like the Jags.
Who were these people anyway?
The Jags ran all over the Texans, a far more entertaining drama than the regularly scheduled programming featuring reruns
of McCloud and Murder, She Wrote.
The day did have a nostalgic feel for a Jaguars team that has not celebrated a winning season since 2007. The Jags hadn’t posted an opening-day victory since Sept. 11, 2011.
This was a serious beatdown, especially defensively.
Oh, did I mention that rookie Leonard Fournette ran for 100 yards and a touchdown in his NFL debut?
Better yet, Bortles was an efficient game-manager, completing 11-of-21 passing for 125 yards and one touchdown. It’s the kind of crisp no-pressure game that Bortles needs to pick him up from his terrible 2016 season that stretched over into the summer of 2017.
All good, great even, until you get to the reality.
The Jaguars stayed in Houston overnight for safety reasons and will re-evaluate travel options on this morning.
The Texans remain home in Houston, where
damage estimates could reach between $150 billion to $180 billion.
The Tampa Bay Bucs braced for Hurricane Irma, like everyone else, after their game against the Miami Dolphins was postponed until Nov. 19. I was set to be at Hard Rock Stadium, covering the Bucs, the NFL’s new cool kids on the block. A Super Bowl sleeper. Darlings of Hard Knocks.
Instead, I stayed home, hoping power wouldn’t go out and cringing now and then as heavy branches dropped on our roof as nighttime approached.
A non-discriminatory monster as noted.
But at least the Jags game was respite from the storm, even if for a few hours.
Reality will come back at us hard today as Irma continues on her path through Florida.
Hopefully the reality of a new day will not be a harsh one.