Now the eye opener. We know the type of team we're capable of being. You know, I was telling him, boys laid in the forth like thank god it happened, like we ready to go. We should have been ready to go from the bye. But you know, NFL will humble you. NFL humble you went all over run early. It's about how you finished the season. Let's finish the right way to.
Welcome to Jags A and the NFL will humble you. This team got humbled against the forty nine ers on Sunday. Brian Sexton, John Osier with me here today and we're gonna recap a little bit of what went down. We talked about that on Monday, but then we'll start to kind of turn the page a little bit and focus.
On the Titans. Brian.
We we're gonna talk about some big things a little bit, but it's one of those where you need to still talk about it and acknowledge it cause it was that bad.
Well, and we're gonna hear from Rayewon Jenkins understanding and I thought he had it down right, and he's one of the leaders in this locker room. Is that you better let that sharpen you, right, I mean, you better let that great on you cause you some pain so that you can grow through it and figure it out. And I think just some conversations that I've had with guys the last two days, I think they all would agree.
Yeah, I'm not a big burn the tape guy or bury it or whatever you do with it when it's that bad.
I think they will learn from it.
I'm more of the pennoned I guess I've seen a lot of good teams lose a lot of games.
And lose some in bad fashion.
You know, I saw the Cole Salouse here in the game of three and seventy five yards rushing winning to the super Bowl, and people get tired of that analogy.
It's one time, but it shows you that it happens.
And it's important not to forget that this team has won eleven of its last four fourteen games. You can't forget that you got you know, boat raced the other day. But you also can't forget that the things you're doing are good enough to get to eleven and three, which back in the fourteen game seasons and number one seed. So don't lose sight of that either.
Well, can you do what the Cowboys did right and Alliance. Both of them won their next two games after being blanked. I mean, just absolutely. The Niners took apart the Cowboys. The Ravens demolished Alliance, and both of them are on winning streaks. The Cowboys lost in Philly, but they've won three or four. Can you rebound like that? I think the answer is yes, we'll find out on Sunday.
It's not.
It's I would say to use a college football analogy because I don't think this town is a college football town like that the way people say it is not what it once was. But if you lose thirty seven three in college football, you stink in the NFL. That's
not how it is. You can lose like that. To pull an analogy from way back, one of the best teams of all time, the forty nine Ers, lost forty to eight to Philadelphia in nineteen ninety four and then basically ran the table the rest of the way and one of the all time great teams that's thirty years ago, got.
Yeah, you go back more recently with it with the Patriots got bolted, their doors bowed off in Kansas City in twenty eighteen, and they won the super Bowl.
Right, I also lost once thirty one nothing in the open and won the Super Bowl. So it happens. It's you old cliche, it's what you do.
Now moving forward, let's go over some of our big things for us today.
Our first big thing is schooled.
They got schooled against the forty nine ers, there's no doubt about that. But also moving forward using that as motivation, kind of sitting on it and helping it, you know, help you get prepared as you move forward. Rashon Jenkins talked a little bit about it yesterday.
You know how that went down in that fashion yesterday, I would say kind of just letting that ling her around just a.
Little bit more.
You got to feel, you know, those type of losses just a little bit more.
You know where the level of play hath.
Has to be moving forward, and we had I wouldn't say we're we're getting that one out of our out of the building too quick, but I mean most certainly by by Wednesday.
John, you let it linger a little bit, but no, it's Wednesday, so you turn the page as well. How much of it is going to be just the start of this week being like, yes, acknowledge it and move forward.
What's over now? I mean, it's when they walk in the building today. It needs to be in the past. You let it motivates you. I think it's inside of you all week that you don't want to come out and play like that. You particularly don't want to come out and play like that in front of your fans. I think we forget sometimes because we see all the games, you know, and we're into it all the time. How important the home games are for fans who are touching this team and feeling a part of it. You're one
and three at home. I sort of discounted it last week. You need to play well at home, and you need to be walking out EverBank Stadium on Sunday with a better feeling, and what happened needs to be the like if you're thinking about turning the iPad off at.
Nine thirty or eight thirty, maybe you.
Think back on what happened on Sunday and give another fifteen you know what I mean, and a little extra motivation.
One of my favorite quotes is from Sir Winston Churchill, who once was fond of saying facts are stubborn things, right, so you can turn the page, but you can't ignore the fact that you didn't stop the run, that you didn't run the ball very well. And it's important in this case because your opponent's gonna come in knowing exactly
what the facts are about you. So you've got to carry those facts with you, not letting them, you know, beat you up, but at the same time not putting them down and saying, well, don't worry about those anymore. The fact is the fact they didn't They don't run the ball very well. We're gonna talk about that a little bit later. And they didn't stop the run very well on Sunday, and they didn't get good pressure, and
they turn the ball over too much. If you take those things and you focus on them this week in the light of because the Titans are coming in, focusing on them, you'll be fine. You'll handle it the right way.
The soccer reference to Sir Winston Churchill.
British.
For sure, we're not in London anymore. We're gonna move on from that one.
But it did feel like they were kicking the can down the road with some of the issues and it did catch up a big time against this forty nine ers. Our second big thing this week is strong soup to talk a little bit about the running game. Travis ETN has been amazing this season, but overall as a team, they haven't been running the ball very well and that really hurt them. John in that game against the San Francisco they can't get anything going well.
I think Brian mentioned it in the quick thought that they wrote for this week. Travis et is a good running back. They're not a good running team right now.
It's impressive that they have.
I think it's eight rushing touchdowns, which is a good number and very indicative of a good team.
They've stuck with it when it's been difficult.
Travis has given them some touchdowns that maybe is a team.
I don't say they didn't earn.
It's not real, but the Travis DTN has given them some touchdowns that if he wasn't special, so maybe they don't have. I think they've got to stick with it. I think they've got to get a little better at it. I don't expect them to be the Eagles, who are a run centric team. But he's too good and they're too good when he's right to let him not be a part of it.
Does that make sense?
He look, Yeah, it does go back to that play in which Tank Bixby had the ball go off his hands. Joey Bosa, you know, forces Trevor out of the pocket, and I think it was a bad decision to throw the ball. But it's third in the yard, third in the yard on their side of the field, and you can't get a yard, well, you can't. We have the numbers the Jaguars. Look at these numbers, folks, the Jaguars
on third down and one, two and three abysmal. You want to be over eighty percent on third down and one, and you ought to be somewhere much better than twenty five percent on third and two three out of five, sixty percent on third and three that number ought to be higher also, But third in one you're only eleven to seventeen on the year. That's got to change.
Problems are people know that too?
So you can tell by the way defenses are scheming up against them be.
Able to confidence level, right, I don't know that there's a lot of confidence, and not to harp on it, but we've talked about it John since the opener. That the interior of the offensive line, which has featured three different starting left guards, and they've obviously had an issue with Brandon Sherriff, who has struggled through an ankle injury.
But the interior of that line doesn't give you confidence that they can gain it, which makes it really much easier for Mike Vrabel and the Titans to come in and put Jeffrey Simmons right over the center on Sunday and say you're not getting it today either.
Yeah.
The easy thing to say is a third and one, just run it twice, But they've had situations where they've done that has worked work.
So.
Yeah, it when you follow teams closely, there are a lot of situations where coaches historically as much today, but coaches historically say if we can't get a yard on third and one, we deserve to win. Well, you can't really just accept that. So I get why the Jaguars are trying different things, but it does go back to if you can't pick up third and one on two.
Carries, you can't run the ball. Yeah, and you sort of say, hey, we you know, maybe we're not good enough. And I don't think they're ready.
To accept that yet. One more thought on this, and that is is that Doug Peterson and John has alluded to this for more than a year. Doug Peterson is never going to come in here and be that thirty two carry coach. He's not going to call for the ball to be the the running game to be the dominant phase of his offense. It's not what he believes as a former quarterback and what an offense looks like in the modern era. But running the football is about getting the yard or four when you want to get
that yard or four. And in the Jaguars history, they have generally been that team that could get what they wanted when they wanted to take those yards. Right now, they want it and they can't get it. That's what we have to watch over the last eight games of the season. Can they evolve into a team that says, we need to want to run the ball, We're gonna get it.
Yeah.
I think I want to clarify because Doug believes you have to run. What he doesn't believe from what in conversations I've had with him and been around that you if you're stacked eight in the box, I'm not going to come out and run just to prove I have big muscles and I'm gonna I'm gonna establish the run. He's not that, but if the look is there, then he believes you need to be able to run against the look.
And I'm probably not saying it exactly right. I think that's close. So I think that's where.
The other day people were saying, well, why didn't he run the ball more early? Well, he's not gonna come out just to Okay, I'm going to be a big man and run the ball against this if if the look doesn't dictate that, it's going to works.
Not going to be dumb about it.
And that's an Andy Reid fossy. Sometimes when people talk about the why is there passing game so horizontal, Well, some of that is the horizontal passing game. Some of that that school believes that that's a big part of your running game. So that's a little bit of a philosophical difference. That's different from what it was in the eighties and late seventies.
Where it was a home growd guy. Homegroom was a Bill Walsh guy. It's West Coast. It makes sense that was very successful for a long period time.
Let's go to our final big thing today and that's the Boy. As we look ahead to Sunday, the Titans are coming to town, there are always physical at least in our minds because of what Derrick Henry has been able to do over the last couple of seasons. But this team is a little bit different now that you.
Know they've got to work at quarterback.
Derrick Henry is getting towards the end of things, but he's still so dominant when.
He's on Eddie George before that, I mean, the Titans just have this cave man mentality about running the ball. And well, they brought up on Ryan Tannehill a couple of years ago, and he was not a success in Miami, but all of a sudden, he's got that big bulldozer behind him, sucks the safeties up to the line of scrimmage and he's going over the top. Henry might not be and I don't believe that he is obviously the same guy, but if you dare them, they'll put the
ball in his hands twenty five times. And as we saw last year, he had some good numbers against the Jaguars because it was you know, three three minus three then thirty three. Yeah, he can still do that. He's still dangerous. Here's my point on bully Ready. These guys have been the bully but they're about to start a transition to a completely different personnel group and style of play, and it feels like the Texans now are coming hard and fast, like we're here. The Jaguars are the best
roster in this division. They are the big dog in the AFC South right now. They better be the bully on Sunday and next Sunday as well. They better send the message that the South is ours. It was your, it ain't yours again, It's ours. And the only way you do that is to beat people up on the line of scrimage. That's how you get it done.
Yeah, I think, especially for the Jaguars defense, this is an important game and it's a game they should on pay per matchup. Well against San Francisco obviously very.
Good running the ball.
One hundred and forty four yards is Jaguars allowed, which was season high. There's been a lot bigger season highs around here before.
Well a lot of that was when the game had been already been rigged.
The Titans.
So far this season, this Titans offensive line is not your father's Titans offensive linelers. So at Jaguars defense that I still believe is very good stopping the run should match up against this, and Dereck Henry is still very capable. What he's not been able to do this year. They haven't been able to stick with it for long enough where he can just wear you down and get into
the fourth quarter and be big man Derrick Henry. So if they can stop that, stop them early, get a lead, I don't think it'll be a factor, but he's clearly good enough still. I think you'll have three or four great games this year, Derek Henry. Let's not have Sunday be one up, all.
Right, stay with us coming up after the break.
We're gonna go around the league at some of the goings ons right here on Jagsam. For ten years, Dreamfinders Homes has been proud to call themselves the official home builder of the Jacksonville Jaguars. You can visit dreamfinders Homes dot com for all available inventory and go jags Welcome back to Jagzam. It's presented by Field's Auto Group Jacksonville. Step up to Luxury at Fieldsauto dot com or in the Hyundai studios.
We talked a little bit about Texans.
We're gonna get more into Titans as the week goes on, but we kind of want to look around the league as well, because there's a couple of things that are pretty relevant to us, or at least former players on this team as well, one of them being Riley Patterson, who kicked a game winning field goal again against the Chargers.
And then also Jomichael ha.
Used to get dropped by the team earlier this week and then claimed by the Patriots off waivers. And then we look at the Bills because I mean, it's always nice to look at other situations that are going worse than your own situation make you feel a little bit better about it. Because they lost the Broncos in frustrating fashion. They fire their offensive coordinator and they're doing all the changes.
Which filey coach Brian.
It's panic load fire the coach.
I mean, I don't have.
An interesting solution to their problems. I doubt it will be.
But just to bring this up real quick, did you see that the Bill's logo was painted on the Broncos practice field last week? I thought that was an interesting motivational tactic by Sean Payton.
For his team.
Here's the relevance. Josh Allen has eleven interceptions to lead the league when.
They's coaches fault.
Which coaches fault? When they came to London, that team was on a three game winning streak. They had averaged forty two points in the three wins and allowed only ten and nothing seems to be working for them. And truthfully, as bad a game as Trevor Lawrence said he played right, he called it his worst game in the post game on Sunday. No one's paying any attention because Josh Allen and the Bills We're supposed to be a contender in the AFC and right now, Josh Allen, it looks like
he has fallen off a cliff. Do I think he can get it back. Yeah, he's a big talented guy. Willie stay tuned.
It's always been.
The moo with Josh is you're concerned about the interceptions and sometimes being a little loose with you know, I don't cover him, but the reception is he's loose with the ball going for the big plays. I just get tired of the turn key solution always being fire the coach, fire the coach. I don't think the coaches is throwing the eleven interceptions, but that's the eleven.
No and John McDermott said he had to do something. I mean, we've seen it around here and coaches get it. I'm not twenty eighteen where Doug Maroon fired his friend Nathaniel Hackett, right, and Hackett went to Green Bay and succeeded. So it isn't fire the coach. Ken Dorsey wasn't the problem. I don't think play calling was the issue. You have a quarterback who you know, he's so big, and he thinks he can do anything right, even squeezed the ball
into windows. It shouldn't be squeezed into so and for what it's worth, Trayvon Diggs didn't blame Ken Dorsey. He blamed Josh Allen.
Let's all point the fingers at each other because that's what's going on.
That was his brother.
I did like the Riley Patterson game winning field long goal for him, if only because I know and it kind of came out of the blue. Obviously, you got to pick up Brandon McManus if he's available, but Patterson kind of getting cut out of the Blue and training camp and then finding a new home in Detroit.
And also it's at the expense of the.
Chargers, So that's always interesting when that comes down to it, but I mean he seems to have their number, so I was happy to see that for him for sure.
Yeah, he is a nice kid. And there were some people who asked me what was the matter with Riley Patterson. But if you go back and watch his field goal attempt the game winner against the Chargers here, I mean, it just barely slid in and you don't see anything, just barely. With McManus, he's gonna kick indoors most of the time and he's a good kicker. Good for him.
Look, this is.
Half the kickers in the league have this career path where it's three or four teams.
Early. Look, Jason Myers, maybe one of the best kickers in the league, was.
Here and was the object of ridicule from fans a lot because he missed a couple of field goals.
And early in his career did struggle at times. I probably should have been cut.
Now deserves the accolades as being one of the best clutch kickers in the game.
So it's the path. I'm not sure.
I don't know if McManus was with the Broncos from the very star. I think he opter most of them hop around. It's a tough business. To start in until you get trusted from your team.
I was standing on the sideline as he was lining up Patterson the game winner against the Chargers last January, and I remember thinking, my goodness, the pressure that he is on him right now. What must he be thinking?
Better make this kid?
Yeah, she's pretty obvious, but I just as he's lining up and the whole stadium is holding its breath and it's all on him and his leg. It was It's a tough job. People don't think of it that way, but it is a tough job.
You have to have a certain personality for it, the same as they say about goalies and hockey, right, you have to be you have to be ready. You're going to lose games, absolutely, and you're gonna have to deal with it and take the brunt of that from everyone. Our final one is kind of just the mix up with the running back room a little bit to Michael Hasty was waved from the team and actually claimed by three teams on Waiver's gonna end up with the Patriots.
That opens things up here a little bit. We saw a little bit more of Diners Johnson than we've seen in the past game, and he had some success out there. But Tank is just that trouble spot and it's not his fault. I didn't feel like that pick that went off of his hands, but it's like, what.
Do you do with it?
You know, you need to keep using him, but it's it's getting to a weird point now.
Well, I mean, I think John has said it a couple of times. You know, when the game is on the line, you're probably not going to put him in. You're gonna give the ball to Travis. But you know, bookmark this moment. You know today, when I say it, a year from now, people will be like, Wow, this kid is a really good football player and they're going to need him. And you can't. You can't screw with his confidence. You just gotta keep giving him the ball
and let him have success. And it will help John if the interior of the offensive line, has dug alluded to on Monday in his press conference, gets better with more time together and continuity Walker and Fortner and Sheriff playing together, and then you can put him in there and let him gain four yards, four yards, you know, fourteen yards and start to build something. He hasn't had that chance yet yet.
I think Tank's gonna be good. I don't know when it's gonna happen, because I think he's gonna need a stretch where he gets ten carries. Yeah, I don't know if the way it's set up with Travis playing so well, if it's gonna be realistic to give him time to get into the flow. Think about Travis this year. If he was only getting three carries a game, how good would he be because he has needed those moments where Okay,
I hit the hole and I get seventeen. So I think at some point we're gonna be talking to Tank Bigs, be at his locker, and everyboy's gonna be realizing that, hey, this kid's good. I think it will be tough for him to reach that in this circumstance, maybe a little through no fault of his own.
We just got done talking about kickers and how kickers need time. They're either going to make some misses. They may need to go to two or three teams. Running backs, young running backs due to young players need that time. He needs the time on task. They just need to find it a window where maybe in the second half in some game this year they have a lead and go Tank, it's your time. You know, here's ten carries Go.
Does have a good sounding warn traves etn as well, who had issues earlier in his career last year and has moved forward with that. So I think that definitely is helping Tank because your confidence can be an issue at this point as well with some of the issues that he's had.
Say about this.
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Brian, what's dor this.
For that one?
Well, I alluded to it early, and that is the offensive line of the defensive line. Neither one of them played very well against the Niners. And the reason that we pointed out is because the Niners are good on both lines, right, So there's a little bit of margin for error there that it was going to be tough
for both sides. But you know, heading into Sunday's game against the Titans, what gives you more concern the Jaguars offensive line against Jeffrey Simmons or the Jaguars defensive line against Derrick Henry.
Thanks an easy too. I think.
I think the offensive line. This Jaguars defensive line, to me, has had one or two games, but for the most part, has been I think you could argue that and Travis Ey, tanneb and the strength of the team. I think they'll bounce back. I think the offensive line, I expect Walker little to start again. I think they're going to give that group time to get cohesion. History so far this year has shown they bounce back pretty well, so I think they will, but I.
Think they need to.
If they don't bounce back, then I will be very angsty if the defensive line doesn't bounce back, because, as John mentioned, is the strong pseudo the team. The O line is where the question marks are. That was the first game we've seen the full starting cast of what they wanted for their offensive line, so you could argue that was the first game, but it was a pretty not great first game.
So I don't know if full appreciation of how good Jeffrey Simmons is. I know Chris Jones just thought of as the best defensive tackle in football right now. This guy's not far from him. He was very good in both games last year against this team, and he was playing on a bum angle. It's healthy this year. Watch out.
I went with this is a crisis or a setback, and yeah, I don't know. I mean, and I don't think it's a crisis. I mean, I'm sorry, crisis or bounce back? One off. I think it's a one off. I don't think that we will see the emails, Brian.
It's like they've lost five.
Games in a row and have never played football before. This is still a team that's won eleven of fourteen games. It won five straight games going into this last game. I still think the same things that enabled them to beat good teams, not great teams, but they beat good teams this year. I think those teams. I think those things are there, and I think that will be enough.
Eight games left.
I think that's enough to win five or six of those last eight games, which gets you to what eleven or twelve wins. That's you know, better than not covered a bunch of twelve games. Teven seasons, right, I lost seasons too, So they still have a chance to be really, really good. So I think it's a one off.
I think it's a one off, but we're gonna find out, because you have they've not played well against the better teams at home, right Kansas City and let's not forget Houston, but Kansas City and San Francisco in particular. You've got the Bengals and the Ravens coming up in a maounter of weeks here in prime time at home. We're gonna find out whether it's a home curse or whatever you want to call it. But it feels like a one
off because we've seen this team play well. We've seen them overcome the adversity of five different games in five different stadiums, in six different time zones, all that stuff across six different time zone. So I think it's a one off. We luckily are going to have the opportunity to find out for sure over the next couple of weeks.
I think it's a one off. Two I'm hoping so.
But I think some of the issues that are repetitive that haven't been addressed, or the problems that I'm having offensive line not getting the passing game going, those are issues that have not progressed at this point, so that is something that I'm going to keep an eye on because I definitely think they can beat Titans. But if they're doing it in a way where they did on their five game win streak, have they really gotten any better or are they just kind of maintaining status quo?
So my this or that this week is a little bit about that. Do you stand pat and try to keep going it's a week eleven they've been trying to do that, or do you mix things up? When Ezra Cleveland is ready to put him into the lineup on offensive line, we know he plays a good left guard. Walker Little we haven't seen him there a ton. People do find that he can play different positions, But do you put him in there and kind of use Walker as the swing tackle at that point?
Well, that would be the only thing you could really change up on the roster right because you're dealing with so many injuries in the defensive backfield, there's not a lot you can do there. I don't know. I think I would tend to stand pat. You've got a lot of money in Brandon Sheriff. He is no longer the five time Pro Bowl guy, but he's still a pretty good player, and Walker Little hasn't played a whole lot of left guard.
I go back to a guy who I kept hammering at, and that was Luke Fordtner, and the coach defended him, saying he needs better guard play, better guard play, consistent guard play. I don't think you changed that up yet.
Yeah.
I'm part of the issue with the offensive line has been they haven't played together yet.
So do you move.
Walker Little output as Cleveland in after one and then what happens if he doesn't play well?
Then you move it back?
So I think this is probably the week to try to get some continuity.
And hope that Walker Little they believe it's a good play.
I mean, it's funny until Sunday, Walker Lio was best offensive lineman on this team, remember, Yeah, So let's give that a chance, not panic, and see if some continuity there and not playing against a great I'm not saying Jefy Simmons didn't good, but I don't think you would think that the Titans defensive line is as monstrous right now as the forty nine ers.
So let's see how they can do against.
And again get their feet wet a little bit before you make another change.
I would think that's.
How they go.
I think part of it too is getting Trevor to believe he's feeling protected as well, because you can tell by the ways moving his feet out there, he doesn't feel safe in the pocket. So that's obviously affecting a lot of what the offense has been able to do or not been able to do for I don't feel safe. It's not safe here. That's definitely something that they're gonna
have to work on. I'll bond together, feel a little safe together, say well, let's we'll talk about what we got going on the rest of the week here in Jags.
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I hate losing.
I feel like no one loves to lose. And I feel like we don't come here and work our butts off every day to go out there and put performance out there like that. And I feel like it's unfair to our fans to even go out there and do that, so we definitely got to all let a simmer and just kind of uses us field to prepare us throughout the rest of the season.
Travis talking, it's unfair the fans had to watch that. That's probably true someday that they had to watch that at home. They always seemed to get up for the Titans, though, so I expect a much better matchup.
Yeah, it's strange because the Titans, for guys like John and I who were here, you know, when they were the Oilers in the early days and Jeff Fisher was mouthing off, it became a bit of a natural rivalry and then it kind of flowed away, and it's been a long time since the rivalry was is heated, especially
with the Jags winning both those games last year. But it's funny think Doug has has been a nice job of reminding these players of the history of the franchise, and well, it's easy to get up when they have some good players who can embarrass it.
Yeah, Jaguars weren't very good for long time, so rivalries tend to faith, so they're back. Trevor had the look at the scoreboard moment last year in the stiff arm that's always fine.
You know.
I think rivalries where they talk a little bit and they clearly want to beat the other guy and they're thinking about the other team.
That's what it's all about. Supposed to be fun.
Steelers can't be your rival because they're not on the schedule every year, and though Kansas City has been the last couple of years, they're not on it every year either. The Titans, the Colts, and the Texans. You've got to carve rivalries from them so that you fill your stadium and people get up for the games. And it's nice to see some of that coming back.
I see when Bruin and Houston as Yeah, so stay with us.
We're gonna fully preview that Titans matchup for you tomorrow right here on Jagsam.
We'll see you then,