The NFL’s version of San Diego Night kicked off Week 7 to the season Thursday night, and I’m not talking about Drew Brees looking on from a New Orleans Superdome suite as his son wore a Chris Olave shirt.
Not one, not two, not three but four San Diego County prep alums started in the Jaguars-Saints game.
The 760-area code dominance of Olave, unfortunately, was not much reprised.
In fact, for the Mission Hills High School graduate and his team’s new veteran quarterback, it was more like trying to flavor up fish tacos with alligator bait or some other bayou concoction.
Glitches in each half between Olave, the second-year wideout, and antsy quarterback Derek Carr fueled the Saints’ 31-24 home loss.
Despite the seven completions between them, things boiled over in the final quarter when Olave stopped his deep route, and Carr sailed the well beyond him. Prime Video cameras caught an infuriated Carr hollering, “What are you doing"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=8b64ff35-2d21-481e-88ae-8562dded85bd&cid=1ffe15d6-eb53-11e9-b4d2-06948452ae1a'; cnx.cmd.push( function() { cnx( { playerId: "8b64ff35-2d21-481e-88ae-8562dded85bd" } ).render( "11982501ceb44352bd1e95848c612274" ); } );
Carr, for sure, is under a lot of stress. Injuries have weakened his line’s blocking. Saints fans are booing an offense that smells like pluff mud. Carr isn’t living up to the big contract he got in March as the replacement to Andy Dalton and Jameis Winston.
The former Raiders starter, 32, itted the Big Easy has been anything but for him.
“I have been showing my emotions a little too much on my sleeve,” Carr said after the Saints fell to 3-4. “I have got to kind of chill out and that’s me holding myself able because that’s not going to help anything.”
Letting bygones be bygones, Carr trusted Olave on the Saints’ final play, targeting him a 15th time, only for a Jags cornerback to smother the wideout on a short fade route.
A year ago Olave was having a bright rookie season despite having to adjust to three different QBs.
He meshed with Dalton after he’d replaced an injured Winston.
Dalton looked more comfortable than Carr.
His 14 games yielded a 96.6 er rating and 7.6 yards per attempt.
For Carr, the seven-game numbers are 82.8 and 6.3.
Declines in both yards per catch (14.5 to 12.1) and catch rate (60.5 percent to 57.4) show Olave’s second-year struggles.
Not the only former San Diego prep star/Saints receiver in the lineup, Rashid Shaheed went through growing pains Thursday, too, but not before Al Michaels, who still sets the standard for NFL narration, pronounced the undrafted Mt. Carmel alum “as fast as anybody in the league.”
Aiming for Shaheed in the third quarter, Carr uncorked a scary trifecta — throwing late, high and wide. The deflected ball went to a linebacker who ran it for a touchdown, expanding Jacksonville’s lead to 24-9.
It’s not yet too gloomy for Carr and teammates. The NFC South is a potato-sack race. The Saints’ D stands among the league’s top 10.
But as readers here should know by now, the San Diegans’ challenges in working with a fourth Saints quarterback, just a season-and-a-half into their NFL career, accentuate the astounding good fortune enjoyed for consecutive decades now by Chargers -catchers.
Be it Philip Rivers or Justin Herbert, Team Spanos has been able to turn to an above-average QB for every start over the past 17-plus years.
That pours a lot of oil into the engine.
For the “San Diego Jaguars” tandem of linebacker Devin Lloyd and receiver Jamal Agnew, it was a better night.
As part of a Chula Vista moment, Lloyd broke up a third-down for fellow first-round draftee Olave, who began his high school career at Eastlake High, just a few miles from Lloyd’s alma mater, Otay Ranch.
Lloyd finished with 11 tackles, second on the team.
Agnew, formerly of Point Loma High and the University of San Diego, matched his season-high total by catching four es from Trevor Lawrence.
A year after Lloyd and Agnew assisted coach Doug Pederson’s first Jacksonville team to the franchise’s first AFC South title since 2017, the Jags (5-2) lead the Colts and Texans by 1½ games.
