#then it would be arguably far worse on the opposite coast

[autumnblogs]

Day 4: You eat a weird bug and don’t even care.

Starting later than usual today because I’ve been absolutely swamped with work. Let’s get down to business to defeat the Huns.

https://homestuck.com/story/644

I’ve never really gotten why John falls asleep here. Seems an odd place to fall asleep, especially with the adrenaline rush that must have been. Maybe he’s passing out from exactly that? Alternatively, maybe Vriska is putting him to sleep.

 I also forgot that John Sleeps/Skaian Magicant is split between two flashes.

https://homestuck.com/story/651

Ah here we go. John has what are, if Jade is to be believed, lousy dreams. He dreams of his Dad, of clowns, of baked goods, of Fruit Gushers, of his own symbol, the weird knock-off slimer, and Harry Anderson, before finally Jade appears.

I am not a psychologist or therapist. I am not even anything more than an amateur literary critic. But let me give you my take on that. It’s clear that John is dreaming about all kinds of things that are giving him anxiety here, if Jade’s assessment about his dreams being lousy is true.

Harry Anderson is, as he’ll say later, kind of a weird mutual father figure for him and his Dad, and as a stage magician and comedian, he represents John’s aspirations.

John wants to grow up to be a great stage magician and comedian, and if there’s anything we’ve seen about the Heir of Breath so far, it’s how extremely self-critical he is of his abilities - he’s screwed up every disguise and magic trick he’s tried so far. 

The other things are pretty self-explanatory - he’s anxious about his relationship with his Dad, he’s anxious about his Dad’s identity, he’s anxious about his own identity - with the exception of the gushers. Are gushers just symbolizing Sburb for John? Does he have a premonition that the gushers are tainted by the hand of his archnemesis, Betty Crocker? Maybe that one’s just silly.

Maybe they’re all just silly!

https://homestuck.com/story/652

I promise I will have more to say about Jade’s conversations once she is actually introduced, but until then, she is too enigmatic for me to talk about :^)

I will say, if the fact that John is stressing out about everything in his life and just not vocalizing his anxiety, it’s probable that he thinks Jade is just as mysterious as his pals think she is, and is just not talking about it.

I think John, like Jake, is way more intelligent than he lets on, and probably just keeps a lot of things on a simmer, thinking about them without necessarily opening up about them. He talks a lot about surface level stuff for sure, but he seems a lot more hesitant to talk about emotions, theories, that sort of thing. It actually reminds me a lot of how Kim Kitsuragi from Disco Elysium, far from his highly imaginative partner the player character, writes his thoughts down in a notebook to keep track of his through processes, hunches, case details, etc, whereas the Detective organizes everything in an interactive Thought Cabinet that serves as one half of the game’s Inventory and Progression System.

For example, John’s ability to describe and his ability to theorize is on full display in the FAQs that he writes, but when he talks, he’s often just as disorganized as he is everywhere else. Maybe John needs to take up journalling.

Huh. I wonder if Kim is a Prospit Dreamer and the Detective is a Derse Dreamer? That would make a lot of sense. Once @bladekindeyewear finishes playing Disco Elysium (which he is playing at my behest), I’ll see if he’s interested in assigning Lunar Sway, Classes and Aspects to the two of them.

https://homestuck.com/story/665

Dave Owns. The Narrative switches between character perspectives often right before there’s a major climax so that lots of characters can all have climactic encounters in sync with one another.

Eye imagery is on full display here as Dave ascends to the highest point in the building. The Sun over Dave’s house is drawn differently from other abstractions of the Sun in Homestuck, and this particular drawing of the Sun will later be juxtaposed against Terezi’s eyes as Alternia’s Sun burns them out.

The Sun as the Symbol of Light is also juxtaposed with Rose’s eyes later when she uses her seer powers, strengthening the connection between the Sun and Eyes. Near the very beginning of the comic, Rose compares the Sun moving on from the east coast to the west as him casting his lurid gaze on younger parts of the world, or the country. I’m not recalling the exact phrasing at this time.

Lil Cal’s creepy eyes are also highlighted by the Camera here. Through the vehicle of Lil Cal, Lord English is watching and quietly giving approval to all of this.

I choose to interpret the camera’s focus in this flash as giving us a glimpse into what Dave is paying attention to. And boy does Dave notice all of these eyes on him. Between seeing the sun as a malevolent eye watching him, to Lil Cal’s glassy gaze, to the Cameras bro uses to surveil him 24/7, Dave feels like he’s constantly being watched, and I think it’s safe to say it gives him the creeps.

https://homestuck.com/story/673

WV’s self-estimation isn’t much better than John’s.

https://homestuck.com/story/678

I wonder if we can get some insight into the strange minds of the Carapacians in the way that before he’s even finished receiving the commands, WV acts on them. WV is even more impulsive than John.

https://homestuck.com/story/684

Oh yeah, WV’s self-worth is way worse than John’s.

https://homestuck.com/story/685

Luckily almost as soon as his thoughts come, they go. He doesn’t spend too much time brooding over his self-loathing and survivor’s guilt, so good for him.

https://homestuck.com/story/688

A whole bunch of things that are symbolically related to the cast!

While WV’s can town playtime functions as foreshadowing for us, it serves as a replay of the extremely recent past for him, at least in terms of events that we know about.

https://homestuck.com/story/694

The light on Serenity’s belly looks a bit like the Sun, and therefore, an eye.

https://homestuck.com/story/699

The Blue Trees of Can Town call forward to Terezi’s forest, but I don’t think this is probably more substantial than something fun Andrew decided to call back to when he was writing the trolls.

IDK. Maybe Blue Trees = Democracy = Justice?

But Terezi’s brand of justice has nothing to do with Democracy.

https://homestuck.com/story/709

Tab, like GameBro, is an artifact of a bygone age.

https://homestuck.com/story/711

It’s a lot easier to become a citizen of Can Town than it is to become a citizen of the United States!

https://homestuck.com/story/714

I wonder who input all those commands before WV got on board? Maybe whoever was in charge of building these contraptions in the first place - a Carapacian Lab Rat in the Veil.

Always felt like the unseen actors making Sburb run behind the scenes were one of the nicest touches, they lend an air of sinister mystery even beyond the Guardians.

https://homestuck.com/story/721

I am not good at chess.

Maybe sometime, I will have my friend who is good at Chess analyze this game, and see how he feels about it.

https://homestuck.com/story/735

WV’s Self Esteem is very, very bad.

https://homestuck.com/story/752

Our first introduction to the laws of time travel in Homestuck - the past is a place that materially exists, and in only one specific configuration that can be interacted with. You can only bring things forward from the past if nobody else got to them before you. You can’t go back and undo things that somebody else (or you) has already done according to the canonical configuration of events.

https://homestuck.com/story/757

This is ridiculously cool.

Homestuck’s huge climactic story events are arguably one of the things that makes it so special as a story. I can’t think of a story that does such a good job of building up tension in multiple storylines before having them all converge.

https://homestuck.com/story/760

:D

https://homestuck.com/story/765

I wonder what the exact mechanism is by which Jade is aware of the gaming abstractions and commands to the degree that she is? Is it just her Skaian dreams? This could be a one-off gag, but it could also be an indication of a degree of clairvoyance greater than that which I feel like the visions she has as the Prospitian Moon passes through Skaia.

https://homestuck.com/story/768

Jade loves to watch things grow.

It’s a Space Thing.

https://homestuck.com/story/777

According to BladeKindEyeWear’s Inversion Theory Jade’s complicated and carefully orchestrated time loops, which she uses to connect people with possibilities, is an example of her inverting under extreme stress, acting more like a Seer of Time, her opposite, than like a Witch of Space (in much the same way that Rose acts an awful lot like a Witch of Void for much of the comic’s first half!)

I expect a real Seer of Time wouldn’t need quite so many contrivances to keep track of everything going on in the past and future. Eventually, Jade stops using her colourful reminders, which is probably an indicator that she is no longer attempting to play outside of her lane.

https://homestuck.com/story/789

Pretty much all of Jade’s interests cast her immediately as someone with a pretty strong maternal instinct, something that she shares with other heroes of Space. Jade is a caretaker. 

Her playthings are dolls so she can roleplay the part of a Mom. She grows oodles of plants, and seems to have a knack for it. She likes animals, and though the only animal in her life takes care of her, she puts in some work to take care of him too.

Her interests definitely mark her as the more classically girly of the two between her and Rose, and like her brother is preoccupied with manhood and Dadliness, Jade seems to preoccupied with Momliness - which is odd, considering that she doesn’t have a maternal figure to aspire to! (Maybe the White Queen?)

https://homestuck.com/story/790

Jade is not of course, only girly. The same way that Dad’s culturally out-of-place baking hobby marks him as transgressively feminine to John’s dismay, Jade’s scientific and artillerist hobbies are transgressively masculine.

Although it’s tempting to say that Jade loves the sciences because Grandpa raised her to, or because she’s aping him after he died, she’s clearly born to it. I think about the question of nature and nurture a lot in Homestuck.

I think on the whole, it falls pretty far to the side of Nature. Characters who share a common ancestry also share common character traits more often than not, even in the absence of shared cultural touchstones, shared geography, shared timeline. The same character only has a limited number of possible choices that they could have made, as Aranea will later say.

On the other hand, some characters turn out very different in one life than they do in another. Dirk doesn’t turn out nearly the psychopath that Bro Strider is by the time that Homestuck Proper concludes.

https://homestuck.com/story/795

Squiddles are, as everyone knows by now, a manifestation of the Dark Gods of the Furthest Ring, but I think there’s more going on with them too - they have kind of a horny energy that I can’t quite place. I’m going to come back to that. Any case, they seem to be one of the symbols that Rose and Jade share in common, although Rose subverts the colorful and cute squiddles into icons more of the extradimensional beasties that they actually represent.

Maybe I think Squiddles are a symbol of horny for the same reason that snakes are lewd to Cherubs - there’s definitely something phallic about tentacles, and definitely something intimate about the idea of becoming someone’s tangle buddy. The very first time I read Rose’s handle, I thought it read Tentacle The Rapist, which I suspect is kinda the point, and some of Andrew’s other works have variously described the process of interacting with tentacles as being molested and so on and so on.

Rose and Jade actually share a huge number of symbols in common between the two of them, which I think is great, but also sad - Rose and Jade clearly actually have quite a lot in common, and the two of them don’t really interact very much.

https://homestuck.com/story/797

I’m going to eventually decode Jade’s fascination with animals too, but for now I want to remark that it’s not just the idea of looking like an animal that excites Jade - it’s the idea of being  like an animal that excites her. The exact same little poem is later reiterated by Serenity in WV’s nightmare, as he dreams of losing control of the power of the Ring of Orbs Fourfold and killing everyone he loves. What would be a nightmare for WV though is a fantasy for Jade. The idea of being out of control is thrilling for her.

Dave is also a furry.

https://homestuck.com/story/798

The trappings of a proper gentleman. Monocle. Pipe. Top Hat. Little White Gloves. A proper gentleman without these is a piss poor excuse for a proper gentleman indeed.

SYMBOLS.

https://homestuck.com/story/800

Another spot where Jade is able to interface directly with the audience, in some form or another.

https://homestuck.com/story/802

Jade may have fantasies of transforming into something more animalistic, but she’s not willing to indulge them.

https://homestuck.com/story/803

Jade completely rejects the symbols of witchcraft that Rose so readily embraces.

https://homestuck.com/story/804

Jade contemplates engaging in some Vriskaesque behavior. Is it just because Vriska is watching her? Maybe she’s picking up some Vriska-esque vibes through the feed as the Thief of Light practices her mind control. 

https://homestuck.com/story/808

I think it’s safe to say one of two things is going on here.

Jade is either literally cognizant of the audience and interacting with them, putting her on a layer of the story that is quite a lot closer to us than you would expect of someone as innocuous as Jade (maybe the immediate presence of the Fourth Wall upstairs could facilitate that relationship?)

Or Jade has an active imagination, is extremely lonely, and likes to interact with her imaginary audience as a way of projecting a friendly and hospitable demeanor onto the world around her in sort of the exact opposite way that Rose imagines the worst of everything and everyone?

Or, as it often is in Homestuck, it could be both motherfuckin’ things.

https://homestuck.com/story/829

Did I mention Dave is a furry? Dave is totally a furry.

If we read Squiddles as a symbol of intimate contact with living things, Jade’s computer having Squiddles front and center is appropriate - it’s her point of contact to all the people in her life.

Tune in on the morrow to watch Dave’s Bro beat the shit out of him.

Until then, this is Cam signing off, alive and not alone.

[channelnewswire-blog]

Drying out: New Zealand farming faces its irrigation addiction

The federal government has actually pulled its support for huge irrigation tasks, but smaller ones are still getting monetary support. RNZ's Eric Frykberg looks at the balance in between keeping farmers and growers in business and enhancing the quality of water in streams and rivers.

This story initially operated on RNZ-- Listen to the complete Insight documentary here

Stu Wright's family belongs to the fabric of Selwyn district, inland from Christchurch. They've worked the land near Sheffield for 125 years. The murky drizzle hanging over the furrows of his farm in the foothills of the Southern Alps, near Sheffield are at chances with his on-going struggle to keep his crops well hydrated.Here he grows seed potatoes, garlic, radishes and rye. But the method his family have farmed for over a century is no longer working."We were the huge clover growers in Canterbury,

but now, there is hardly any clover grown here since the irrigated guys are improving crops,"Mr Wright says."If you are a dryland farmer, you are making money

on irrigated prices but you can't match the production." Image: RNZ/ Rebekah Parsons-King Not only does he earn less, in some cases he can't even sell his crop at all, since business that market and disperse crops typically will not even sign a purchase contract unless watering systems are in place.But an opportunity emerged which implied he would have the ability to sign up with those growers, that were able to water their land; but at a considerable cost.Mr Wright was conscious big scale watering projects were under examination and chose to act while he still had the chance and signed up with the Central Plains Water scheme in inner Canterbury, which takes water from Canterbury rivers and brings it via a canal and pipes to farmers."Central Plains was most likely the last option to get water on the Canterbury Plains, "he states."We had a family discussion, we decided we had actually been here for over a century, and if we wanted to be here for well over another a century, then we required water." Being part of the Central Plains plan costs him $8000 a hectare, and he has still to break even on his investment. Pricey, he states, but still worthwhile.Challenges for dryland farmers in the North Island Nearly 700km

north of Mr Wright are dry nation farmers on the East Coast. One of those is Hugh Ritchie, who grows crops on a property near the Central Hawke's Bay settlement of Ōtāne.The land has remained in his family since the 1960s, and he values it deeply; often tending his crops through the night when dew on the ground makes them easier to cut. He uses irrigation water from deep bores on his land and points out the crops that need to have irrigation water to make it through.

"This is a seed carrot and it requires water to survive. "He does not just indicate the things that falls naturally from the sky and soaks into its roots.By "water"he indicates irrigation water, which can be guaranteed to guarantee the crop grows throughout the parched summer season in central Hawke's Bay, where the rain can often be ensured to dry up.Without it, no carrot seeds to grow the next crop anticipated in the grocery stores down the line.New Zealand supplies 75 percent of the world's carrot seed, he describes, and the business that trade in this commodity requirement to understand they have a regular supply from growers to provide self-confidence in making handle their own clients.

"It's a professional company and they require absolute reliability of crop and controlling water is

an important part of that. We will not even get a contract to work the ground without having water on hand, and reputable water, that can be ensured throughout the summertime." It's the very same situation for the crop of carrots, rather than their seed;

it's a non-starter without watering. In Hawke's Bay, lots of farmers and growers are desperately attempting to exercise how they may make it through in the face of future water restrictions.Many had their hopes pinned on the multi-million dollar Ruataniwha dam proposal to provide them with more safe and secure water products, which that concept deserted they're afflicted with uncertainty.In addition there are brand-new guidelines that require more water to stream down the primary local river, the Tukituki. Plus a new suite of water drilling opportunities have been revealed, which might diminish the resource further.Because Mr Ritchie utilizes bore water, he hopes he might get away a few of the water limitations that other farmers might quickly be facing.But it's not simply Hawke's Bay and Canterbury; these issues also plague other provinces parched in

the summertime sun such as Central Otago, Marlborough, and Wairarapa, and the situation is anticipated to get worse with climate change.Irrigation plans"incorrect hope"Supporters of watering plans argue New Zealand need to be recording rainfall that normally ends up in the sea by developing water storage plans now, prior to it is too late. Annabeth Cohen of Forest and Bird Photo: RNZ Critics like Annabeth Cohen of Forest and Bird, states the opposite is true: farmers should have recognised the limitations of their land long earlier, and not make its overuse even worse by building watering schemes at this phase."It sounds like a dream come to life to have all that water readily available, however it is generally false hope, "she says.

"We are not farming the ideal thing in the best place,

given the ecological limitations."In New Zealand, we're handing out water rights for 35 years. That is promising resources that are not offered now and will certainly not be readily available in the future. If we can't live within the present ecological limits, how do you believe we are going to fare when climate change changes all that?" Government funding of watering Irrigation in New Zealand goes back to the 1880s, when water rights

acquired for sluicing during the gold hurries were converted into rights to water farmland.More than a century later and the area now being watered covers 794,440 hectares or three percent of New Zealand's overall land area, and about 8 percent of the nation's farmed land. At present, 47 percent of irrigated land in New Zealand is utilized for dairy farms

and 29 percent is for utilized for arable crops and horticulture.Last year, the federal government revealed it was unwinding irrigation financing, while honouring existing dedications. Wholesale state support of irrigation plans is a thing of the past.While knocking back state help for huge plans, the government is designating$ 80 million for smaller schemes through the Provincial Growth Fund(PGF ). About 20 people or organisations have so far used for state money.Several applications, worth less than$ 1m have actually been authorized by officials at the Ministry for Company, Innovation and Employment. One large scheme in Northland, costing$15m, has actually been authorized by the Minister

for Regional Development, Shane Jones and the Minister for Economic Advancement David Parker.Rules for these state-assisted plans were signed off by ministers in December in an effort to prevent the ecological expense of a few of the

increase that came with higher irrigation in the past.The brand-new plans will not be permitted to increase the variety of stock on an offered plot of land, they will have to be commercially practical and will likewise be aimed mostly at locations where Māori land is under developed.They will have to be little to medium in size. They will of limited usage in main Hawke's Bay. This location has always been dry in summertime, and this problem will worsen with environment change.< img src ="https://www.radionz.co.nz/assets/news/78754/eight_col_2V9A5225_g.jpg?1471692432"alt ="The Tukituki River "width ="620

"height ="388"> The Tukituki River Picture: RNZ/ Claire Eastham-Farrelly The location deals with extra difficulties, with a loss of a water storage that farmers had actually hoped would assist, and requirement that more water must stream down

the Tukituki River, when arguably there is inadequate upstream.About 40 farmers, orchardists and entrepreneur are caught in a situation that the Mayor of Central Hawke's Bay, Alex Walker, states is deeply aggravating.

"Lifting of the river flows implies there is the potential for substantial water restrictions

for runs out 10 years. But there is no forecast regarding which of the 6 years are on ban and which are not." She states this makes it hard for individuals to choose which crops to plant and which ones to overlook.

[mvalleefootball-blog]

Ho-Hum Pats Win; Patriots Jaguars Preview

By Michael Vallee

Welcome to NFL groundhog day.  The Patriots win their division; the Patriots get a bye; the Patriots yawn their way to another easy breezy lopsided, barely-break-a-sweat home divisional blowout of yet another not-yet-ready-for-primetime team.  Raise your hand if you’ve heard this narrative before.  With their 35-14 win last week over the Tennessee Titans the Patriots, once again, kicked off their playoff season by dispatching an overwhelmed opponent that offered little in the way of talent or resistance as New England cruised to their record seventh consecutive AFC Championship.

It was every bit as effortless as the score suggests.

The Patriots are 11-1 under Belichick in the divisional round coming off a bye.  While this implies dominance, this divisional game wasn’t always as easy as that record suggests.  The closest of these games might have been the first, when the Patriots beat the Raiders in the now infamous “Tuck Game” in the ‘01 playoffs.  After that there was a close frigid win over the Titans, a matchup against Peyton Manning’s Colts and their record-setting offense, and even in the undefeated year of ‘07 the Patriots were locked in a one-score game in the 4th quarter against the Jaguars.

Then of course came the bloodbath in 2010 when the Patriots lost handedly to a Jets team they had beaten 45-3 just six weeks earlier.  It was one of the worst losses of the Belichick era as New England entered the ‘10 playoffs as prohibitive favorites to win it all.  It also ushered in the so-called “Tomato Can” era where the divisional game transformed from an early challenge to a glorified scrimmage.

Since 2011 the Patriots have played in seven consecutive divisional playoff games coming off a bye and they have coasted to a 7-0 record.  In those seven games the average point spread was -10 and the average margin of victory was 17.  The NFL lined‘em up and the Patriots knocked’em down.  Their opponents provided less resistance than Donald Trump’s nutritionist.  And nobody knew this more than Brady, who produced 21 touchdowns in these games to just four interceptions, posting a QB rating of 103.

The only test in that stretch came in 2014 when they twice had to rally from 14 down to beat the Ravens 35-31 in arguably the best game ever played at Gillette Stadium.  The rest of the time it was the Patriots toying with the likes of the overrated Andrew Luck and the overwhelmed Tim Tebow.  

However, those blowouts didn’t exactly serve the Patriots well going forward.  After that tough Ravens victory New England went on to win their 4th Super Bowl title, revealing a distinct pattern.  In the years when the Patriots faced a challenge in the divisional round (‘01 Raiders, ‘03 Titans, ‘04 Colts, ‘14 Ravens and ‘16 Texans) they would eventually win the Super Bowl.  In the years when they waltzed their way past some half-ass opponent (‘11 Broncos, ‘12 Texans, ‘13 Colts, ‘15 Chiefs) they inevitably came up short.

Coincidence?  Perhaps, but if sports history has taught us anything it’s that competition is a good thing for a team.  All of this reminds me of the 1991 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels who dominated college basketball and coasted into the Final Four undefeated.  Their Final Four opponent, the Duke Blue Devils, played in the most competitive conference in the country, the ACC.  On that day their prior competition served them well as Duke beat UNLV in a close game that they were simply better prepared for because of the schedule they played.  

Beating up on an inferior opponent teaches you very little about your team and in no way prepares you for a tough road ahead.  Sometimes it can even have an opposite effect, pumping a team full of overconfidence.  It’s in the close battles where you truly learn what your roster is made of.  A fighter reveals a lot more about himself in a 12-round brawl than he does in a first round knockout.

The Patriots will try to break that pattern this year as they attempt to win their 6th Super Bowl title.  They can take some solace in knowing that past dynasties have also cake-walked through the divisional round and gone on to win the championship.  The Cowboys dominated the league from 1992-1995, winning three championships in four years.  During those four years the Cowboys won their four divisional round games by an average of 20 points.  The 80s Niners also rolled through the divisional round in each of their four Super Bowl years, also winning by an average of 20 points.  Landslide wins in the divisional round obviously doesn’t preclude you from winning a Super Bowl, but so far for the Patriots it’s been a bad omen.

In the end was it a win last Sunday for the Patriots?  Yes.  Did we learn anything new about New England?  No.  Was it entertaining?  Barely.  Is it their fault that the best the NFL can muster for a second round playoff opponent is a crappy 9-7 Titans team lead by one of the lowest rated QBs in the NFL and a coach that was days away from being fired?  Absolutely not.  But now amateur hour is over and the real challenge begins: the challenge of beating a team that might actually put up some resistance.  A team led by such dynamic names as Blake Bortles and Doug Marrone.  On second thought, see you in Minnesota.  

Patriots Jaguars Preview:

How the Jaguars can win:  It’s not easy to make a case that Jacksonville will walk into Foxboro and beat the New England Patriots but if they pull off the upset here’s how it might happen:

The key to beating the Patriots in the Brady/Belichick era has always been the defense.  Unless your last name is Manning or Rodgers your just not winning a playoff shootout against Brady.  A quick scan of the Patriots worst playoff losses shows a relatively simple pattern - stop Brady and you have a shot.  In New England’s playoff losses to the Giants (‘07, ‘11), the Broncos (‘13, ‘15), the Jets (‘10) and the Ravens (‘09, ‘12) combined, Brady posted just a 73.6 QB rating and the Patriots averaged just 16.1 points.

Of course stopping New England is easier said than done, so how does Jacksonville pull it off?  For starters you need a team with the talent and stones to play a lot of tight man-to-man.  Brady abuses zone coverage, just ask the Steelers.  The good news for the Jaguars is they boast one of the best cornerback tandems in the league in Pro Bowlers Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye.  If you can take away New England’s short to mid-range bread-and-butter, and prevent them from moving the chains on 3rd down, you can frustrate Brady and the offense.  Then it’s time to attack.

The Jaguars are loaded up front with Calais Campbell, Malik Jackson and Yannick Ngakoue combining for 34.5 sacks.  If Jacksonville can take away the Patriots short passes and force Brady to hold the ball longer the Jaguars defensive front could thrive.  And if Jacksonville is smart they will be aggressive and not just rely on the front four to generate pressure.  There is a misperception that you can’t blitz Brady but if you have the horses to cover on the back end, well-timed and well-disguised blitzes, particularly up the middle, can be effective against New England.

This is also essential for the psyche of the young Jaguars.  If Brady is carving them up early it will suck the life right out of them and demoralize their inexperienced roster.  By the third quarter they will be staring at the game clock waiting for the pain to end.  But if they can get some early three-and-outs, and end a couple of those drives with sacks, then things could go in the other direction.  The cocky aggressive Jaguars will see their confidence swell, and their are few things scarier in the NFL Playoffs than a talented defense that thinks it can’t be stopped.  If that happens then New England will find themselves in a rock fight and they better hope Matt Patricia’s defense is up to the challenge.

The X-factor for the Jaguars defense is Gronk.  I can’t recall watching a Patriots playoff game where Gronk is dominating the middle of the field and New England loses.  If he is ripping off 15 and 20-yard gains down the seam Jacksonville is in for long afternoon.  The Jaguars have to make stopping #87 their top priority, and they have to deploy any and all methods to do it.  Chip him at the line, double-cover him, disguise coverages, hold him, grab him, punch him - they must try anything and everything or he will bury them (again, ask the Steelers).  And if all else fails don’t be afraid to give all-world cornerback Jalen Ramsey the assignment of stopping Gronk.  He has the size, speed and confidence to take on the Eric Berry role that has been effective in the past.

A lot will be made of the importance of getting that physical bull, Leonard Fournette, cranking and crafting a game plan that mitigates Blake Bortles from screwing everything up.  But those are minor sub-plots.  This game comes down to one matchup: a 40-year old soon-to-be-MVP quarterback vs. the number one pass defense in the NFL, and if the Jaguars lose that matchup, it’s going to be a long day at Gillette.

Curb Your Enthusiasm:  There is no denying the talent that Jacksonville has on the defensive side of the ball but a closer look indicates their lofty status as a dominant top two defense was significantly aided by a soft schedule.  The Jaguars 18 games featured opponents with an offense ranked 20th or worse and in the six games where they faced an offense that wasn’t among the dregs of the league they allowed 27.1 points per game, including two 40+ games in the last month against Jimmy G’s niners and the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Additionally their 55 sacks were dramatically inflated by the 20 sacks the registered in two games started by Tom Savage and Jacoby Brissett.

The Phantom Menace:  Can someone explain to me why so much of the pregame coverage has been devoted to the mysterious “Coughlin Factor”.  Jaguars president, Tom Coughlin, was a great head coach and had a lot of success against Belichick and the Patriots, but this idea that he is Brady’s kryptonite has been wildly overblown.  Yeah, I get it, the Giants beat the Patriots twice in the Super Bowl but it wasn’t as if Coughlin devised some magic defensive riddle to stop Brady.  Much of this reputation is tied to the ‘07 Super Bowl when Coughlin’s Giants shocked the football world by ending the Patriots undefeated season.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t that game come down to the simple fact that the Giants stout defensive line dominated a Patriots O-Line that had its worst game of the year?  Credit Coughlin for having his team ready to play but there wasn’t a lot of Xs and Os genius behind that win.

How they were built:  With the Jaguars pulling off a massive one-year turnaround, going from 3-13 to 10-6, it has a lot of people asking, “How did they do it?”  While the hiring of Doug Marrone and smart drafting helped, surprisingly it was free agency that keyed their success.  NFL free agency is usually fool’s gold.  For every success story there seems to be a dozen Albert Haynesworths and Adalius Thomases.  But Jacksonville bucked that trend the last two years and rebuilt their defense behind massive contracts to Campbell, Jackson and Bouye.

Attack Mode:  If the Patriots are smart they won’t make the mistake the Steelers made and allow Blake Bortles to get comfortable.  The Steelers registered zero sacks on Bortles last week and played the majority of the game on their heels, allowing Bortles and the Jaguars offense to dictate the action.  Jacksonville has no weapons in the passing game and Matt Patricia would be wise to unleash the dogs on the aerially-challenged Bortles and take the risk of Allen Hurns beating them.

Stupid is as stupid does:  Gotta love the stories surfacing from Pittsburgh that show just how unprepared mentally the Steelers were for the rematch against Jacksonville.  My favorite is Le’Veon Bell tweeting the following late Saturday night, “I love round 2s...We’ll have two round 2s in back-to-back weeks….”  Hey, why get a good night’s rest before your first playoff game when you can instead stay up late and piss off your opponent.  And this was after Bell had blown off Saturday’s walk-through, showing up with just five minutes left in practice.  Additional reports have multiple coaches and players showing up late the day of the actual game.  Is this the NFL playoffs or spring practice at Kent State?  And the disciplinary result of these   transgressions?  Nothing.  Zippo.  Do you think Dion Lewis would play if he blew off practice the day before a game and then trashed his opponent on Twitter later that night?  It amazes me Tomlin still has a job as he looks more and more like Marvin Lewis with a better roster. 

Perhaps most amazing is that the Jaguars curb-stomped the Steelers earlier in the year.  For normal teams that would be a wake up call but apparently there is nothing normal about the Tomlin Steelers.  Pittsburgh’s arrogance confounded their opponents who released these gems in response, “I was wondering why they were so confident,” said Ramsey.  “We stomped their ass last time and we knew we was going to do the same this time.”  Linebacker Myles Jack was equally puzzled by the Steelers bravado, “It was like they had...amnesia...or something.  I don’t know if they just forgot and thought that didn’t happen but it happened…”

Jacksonville Jag-offs:  Let’s end on a humorous note.  A few years ago an enterprising Jaguars fan devised Jacksonville’s own version of the steelers Terrible Towel and came up with the “Jag Rag”.  Yup, that actually happened.  I would love to watch YouTube videos of every guys reaction when they first heard the name Jag Rag.  Sadly, the Jag Rag is no longer available for purchase, providing the NFL with a big sigh of relief while disappointing anybody with a sense of humor.