Last year, we ran a post making fun of the Jacksonville Jaguars for hiring Dirk Koetter as their offensive coordinator. Koetter, of course, was fired by Arizona State and will go down in history as the worst clock managing head coach of all time.

We must admit, for most of the season, our bashing of the Jags’ hire seemed off base. After all, Jacksonville won 11 games, made the playoffs, and then won its first game at Pittsburgh. But after watching the Jags’ win on Saturday night, we learned that you can’t teach an old Koetter new tricks. You just can’t.

Jacksonville dominated the majority of the game, namely the first three quarters. Early in the 4th, Ben Roethlisburger completed a long touchdown pass to pull the Steelers to within 28-17. Jacksonville got the ball back with 14:49 left in the game. Time for a heavy dose of Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew, right? Right? Wrong.

The Jags decide to run 3 pass plays in a row, up 11 in the 4th quarter. The first two are incomplete, then Garrard gets sacked on 3rd-and-10. Steelers get the ball back with 14:14 left. You have an 11-point lead and the no. 2 rushing offense in the NFL - and you can only manage to run 35 seconds off the clock??? How does this happen? How could Koetter possibly think that throwing the ball 3 times in that situation was a good idea?

If you run the ball three times on the possession and don’t get a first down, you still run about 2:20 off the clock. That’s 1:45 more than what they actually were able to use up. And that’s assuming that the no. 2 rushing offense in the NFL could not get one first down on the drive. That means Pitt gets the ball back with around 12:30 left, at worst - not with the entire quarter still left to be played.

So, Pitt takes the ball and drives it down for a TD to pull within 28-23. Jags get the ball back with 10:19 to play. Can you guess how Pitt gets the ball back just 1:29 later? Interception. It just doesn’t make sense! You have the no. 2 rushing offense in the NFL! You have Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew, yet you blow an 18-point 4th quarter lead!

Fortunately for the Jags, Garrard made a big time run on 4th-and-2 late to set up the game-winning field goal. But, if you’re a Jags fan, you have to wonder why Scobee was even needed to come in for that kick.

If the Jags want to have any prayer of upsetting the Patriots this week, we suggest they take the headset away from Koetter just like Jerry Jones does in that awful Pepsi commercial . We would hate to see the Jags blow yet another lead when Keotter calls for “sixty stretch farla uuuuggggghhhhh” on first down with a 7-point lead in the 4th.