Life in the NFL Travis LaBoy

Sunday is the only day that matters

Similar to what we wore against the Redskins, we had a change in uniform this week at Jacksonville. This time we wore white on white instead of the blue on blue. We had a bit of momentum and confidence during the week of preparation. All of us were fired up for the game having won two straight, but we lost and lost big.

It was tough. One moment you look around and see your team fired up before game time and the next thing you know we were two touchdowns in the hole and struggling all over the field.

Our team struggled in every aspect of the game. Jacksonville has a solid team and certainly had prepared a good gameplan for us. I personally missed a couple of tackles, which led to a lot of extra yardage for the running back. I also missed an opportunity at a free sack. While everyone makes mistakes during the course of a game, it's those mistakes that hurt the most. In the NFL, any little mistake can mean the difference between a sack or a touchdown.

David Garrard filled in nicely at quarterback for the Jaguars, as Byron Leftwich was still recovering from injury. Garrard is a more mobile quarterback than Byron, and is hard to sack. We were able to put pressure on him, and I even got a sack in the game, but he was very effective against us.

We had a tall order trying to go into Jacksonville and knock off one of the better teams in the NFL. Still I think we can beat them. If you watched the game you may wonder how I can think we can beat Jacksonville after they beat up on us? I just feel we have so much talent on our team. We are so talented at every position, but we have struggled to put it together on game day.

Unfortunately, Sundays are the only days that matter in the NFL. No matter how good you look, or how perfectly you execute Monday through Saturday, if you don't do it on Sunday, it usually means that you don't win. And unfortunately we have been losing a lot of games that talent-wise we could easily have won.

Now the schedule ahead just keeps getting tougher. Next we play the Baltimore Ravens, who are playing at a very high level right now. It will be a very highly anticipated game for a couple of reasons, but mainly because of the off-season scenario that landed Steve McNair in Baltimore.

Steve is playing very well and leading a very good football team. Unfortunately for us, Steve knows our defense really well so it will help him during the game.

This game will be another huge challenge for our team, one that we can win if we do the things we are capable of doing. We have some key players returning to our lineup which will certainly add to our firepower.

We could still taste victory after this loss, but we are hungrier than ever to get that taste back. The Ravens are a tough team with some of the best players at their positions (McNair, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Todd Heap, Jamal Lewis, Jonathan Ogden). But if we play up to our talent level, we will have a great chance to pull out a win in front of our home crowd.