National Football League

Jones-Drew ready for breakout game

Published Sep. 22, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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He got some offers, even a couple of intriguing ones.

But Jones-Drew wasn't quite ready to give up on his top draft pick.

''I'm not trading myself,'' Jones-Drew said.

And neither should anyone else, Jones-Drew insisted. Jacksonville's star player believes he's on the verge of a breakout game, maybe even Sunday against Philadelphia (1-1).

''It should pop sooner or later, hopefully sooner for my sanity,'' said Jones-Drew, who missed part of practice Wednesday with an ankle injury.

Jones-Drew has been mostly bottled up in Jacksonville's first two games. He ran 12 times for 31 yards Sunday at San Diego, the eighth time in the last nine games that he's been held under 100 yards.

He carried 23 times for 98 yards in the opener against Denver, but 34 of those came in the fourth quarter as the Broncos started showing signs of wilting in Florida's heat and humidity. Before that late spurt, Jones-Drew averaged 3.8 yards a carry.

He averaged 2.6 yards a carry against the Chargers.

''Teams have been doing a lot of good things against us by stacking the box,'' Jones-Drew said. ''We've been close a couple of times, but we're just going to keep working at it.''

Jaguars offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter counted 11 consecutive plays in which San Diego put eight defenders near the line of scrimmage and had one of the them blitzing running plays.

How do the Jaguars (1-1) counter that?

That's where quarterback David Garrard comes in. Garrard played one of his worst games against the Chargers, throwing four interceptions, getting sacked twice and missing two shots deep.

''You hit on a couple of those and they'll loosen up a little bit,'' Del Rio said. ''Until you hit on some of those, they'll be packed in there.''

In his first season as the starter, Jones-Drew ran for a career-high 1,391 yards and 15 touchdowns. He did it behind two rookie offensive tackles and a guard coming off reconstructive knee surgery.

Although some expected even more success in 2010, others questioned whether Jones-Drew's 312 carries — plus his 53 receptions and all those shots he takes while blocking on other passing downs — would take a toll on his body.

It became even more of a topic when Jones-Drew missed the final two preseason games because of some soreness in his sometimes-balky left knee.

Jones-Drew has repeatedly insisted his knee is fine.

Maybe so, but he hasn't scored a touchdown on the ground through two games and has only one rush longer than 10 yards.

''We need some explosiveness out of our backfield,'' Del Rio said. ''We'd like to get Maurice going. That's definitely something we'd all benefit from.''

Jones-Drew and the Jaguars have been relatively slow starters on the ground.

Former Jaguars star Fred Taylor gained most of his 11,271 career yards after October, and none of Jones-Drew's 12 100-yard rushing games came in the first two games of any season. Week 3 has been a different story, with Jones-Drew posting 100 games in three of his four previous years.

This could be his week.

''Obviously I'm upset about my performance, and a lot of guys are as well,'' Jones-Drew said. ''We kind of got a little bit out of whack as an offense in San Diego. Everybody is excited about coming back and starting over.''