Jaguars looking to bounce back after a tough loss to the forty nine ers. What's your biggest concern going up against the Titans?
Mike Vrabel, He always has this team ready to play. We k teen last year he had Joshua with Dobbs and the Jaguars needed a late miracle to make it happen.
Stay out of your own way.
Welcome to Jagszam on this Thursday. I'm Kannannie Stephens, Brian Sexton, John Osier with us as we get ready for the Titans matchup this Sunday. We put the forty nine ers in the rear view mirror. We're focused forward now because this is a big divisional matchup. We talked about it all week. It's gonna have big repercussions, especially going to the Texans the week after.
You know, the Jaguars had lost five in row to the Titans entering last season, and they won both of those and it felt huge because they had solved the Derrick Henry diloma. They had figured out some things. Of course, the Titans were all beat up. Now you want to keep that going. We talked a little bit yesterday about you're the big dog in the division, or you're supposed to be the big dog in the division. With rookie quarterbacks across their roster, this is a week to prove it.
Yeah, and I'm the first guy.
You Guys hear me all the time talk about how dangerous the Titans are. I never really believe you've got that team until you put them away. But that being said, the reason I answered the top of the question show the way I did. I think this game is more about the Jaguars and is about the Titans. The Titans are fine. If you don't play well, they can get you.
But you've got to not turn the ball over. And then you've got to play defense, meaning stop the run, create turnovers if you play to what you believe your identity is, which is creating turnovers, being smart on offense. They haven't been that, so they believe their offense is and stopping the run. You're fine against this team, but they haven't done that enough.
Got to help yourself. Let's go over some of the things we have for you this week. We're gonna start out with the tail of the turnovers. That's been a buggaloo for this team as of late. Finally caught up with them against San Francisco. Trevor Lawrence talked yesterday about some of those issues, so things like that.
You know, I don't harp on too much those four count situations like that, But the other ones, you know, go back to Pittsburgh game, the one in the end zone, go back to I think there's one against Indy, there's one against Houston. Those are the ones that I can think of where I feel like I didn't make a great decision. So I think more more the issue personally individually has been hanging on to the ball, you know, in the pocket, getting stripped, if I am taking a hit, keeping two.
Hands on it.
You know, I gotta do a better job of that. And then collectively as an offense, you know, we have to do a better job as a whole of just not giving the ball away. We've had too many this season.
John, we talked a little bit about, you know, that throwaway kind of interception at the end of the game. Not talking about that, but just being smarter, whether it's throwing the ball away when you're in field goal range, not taking a sack, or you know, when you tried to fire it off Tank's hands at one point in the San Fran game and just is that just Trevor trying to force stuff because he wants to make something happen.
Yeah, I think there's an element in the ozone podcast that's.
Last week.
I talked to Travis Etn and he had a fascinating part of it where he talked about how he had to learn to run in the NFL, meaning he had to learn that it was okay to take a four yard run. He said that was really hard for me, that he couldn't beat everybody to sidelines. You saw it last year, and it's hard to incorporate that if you're a running back when you're first figuring it out. But you saw it last year trying to make every play
a touchdown. Well, now he's a much better running back because he has an NFL mindset.
I think there's a degree of that with Trevor, and he's such a.
Talented guy and he's the quarterback believes that he can make a big play on every play. We talked about it earlier. The Tank Bigsby interception last week. No need for the ball to be thrown because it was not going to be.
A play that led any where, even if it so, even if he.
Catches that ball, it's it's a two or three yard loss. Now Trevor has no way of knowing how the play is going to eventually go, but you can lower your risk in a situation. Uh, and just dirting the ball much the same way in the pocket. It felt like Indy when he got hurt trying to make a play outside where you just got to learn to sort of take it. Now, you don't want to curtail the instincts that this kid has because.
He makes special happen.
Uh.
So what we're talking, I'm sitting here saying it. I don't know if I can do it in real time.
It's situation, but that's what you gotta do, and that I think is his next process to becoming elite is figuring out those situational awareness.
Yeah, you've got to know what's going on around you. Which it's the throw in the end zone last year against Houston or and this year this year against Pittsburgh. I'll give you a better one or one that stands out more to me. It was against the Bills in London. They get the ball with eat across midfield right in their second half and they're looking to hold off the Bills who were charging and the ball goes over his head.
Just fall on it, just recover the ball, live to find another place and he kind of fumbles to pick it up and then he runs and someone's wrapped around him, and then he tries to throw with an arm up. Don't just go down. Punting is okay, and that's something he has to learn.
Yeah, there is a school of thought.
If you end every possession with a kick, you're okay. And you don't want to completely go that direction, because again, the NFL is about making plays and quarterbacks.
You're gonna have mistakes. But I do remember with the Colts when I first got there.
Peyton Manning was very interception from Tony Dungee got there and I asked him, I said, well, isn't isn't a quarterbacking this day and age. You're gonna have some picks, right, you gotta live with that, And Tony's like, nah, now you really don't. Well, one year after Tony got there, Peyton went on a run where it was it was ten in or seven and lower. So the point is you can have explosive offense with that interception. And this is sort off topic because I don't think Trevor's super
interception prone. It's just more situations where the fumbles in the pocket, he said yesterday, those are ones that sometimes you just get blasted from behind. It's going to happen. But there are other times where he'd be the first to tell you there can be better ball protection. And it's a turnover, sack fumble like that is such a moment. It's not just one play, it's a couple of series
that it takes you. The other day fumbles on the forty eight, Yeah they stopped him, but the field position was all sort of tucked back against the Jaguars.
Those are tough things to overcome.
Last five games, twelve turnovers. That they're four and one is a miracle, right, The numbers say you should be two and three. Right. You just don't win when you turn the ball over that much. If they're going to change the trajectory and go where they want to go, oh, they got to protect the football.
The reason they were able to do that is because of our big thing number two today, which is tail of the takeaways. The defense has been miraculous and takeaways. The differentials not great because of the turnovers. But racheon Jenkins talked to us on Monday, and he said, the team really needs to get.
Back to that we w I mean, we got to help our offense out in situations like that, just just I mean really because that that was a great defense that they they were playing against yesterday. So we have to you know, those are one of those games you just have to go defense for defense, and we we know what our formal is on our defense, and that
is takeaways. We've done a great job thus far with the takeaways, but we know, you know, in order for us to continue to have the sess success that we were having, uh, we had to have those takeaways.
Ran the success of this defense a lot of it is stopping the run and forcing turnovers, and they didn't really do that against San Francisco and they didn't play very well. Obviously a great team they're facing offense, but how do you get.
There to that saw a shocking number yesterday that the Jaguars are zero and twenty in the last twenty games in which they have not forced a turnover. Oh and twenty they've lost the last twenty games in which they have not taken the ball away. It's amazing. You have got to get back to that mentality. Especially, we're a quarterback at an offense that are turnover prone. Right now, you have got to give them an extra possession, You've
got to give them a shorter field. You've got to make it easy on an offense that right now is still trying to find itself. I'm amazed that here we are coming up on Thanksgiving and we're still talking about an offense that hasn't found itself. John. But if the defense doesn't do some things to help them right now, they're not capable.
Yeah, play the other way a little bit.
I think sometimes turnovers can be chicken an egg, meaning you know, if you're trailing ten, nothing off off the get go to team like San Francisco and then thirteen and three, Well, they're built to very easily not turn the ball over a whole lot. So some of that is sort of self fulfilling, if that makes sense. Now, I'm not saying they couldn't got any turnovers, but in that game, I think about what happened early in that game.
All of a sudden, you had the short punt by Logan Cook, which is incredibly unusual, but all of a sudden, San Francisco starts on their thirty seven. It's been a long time since a field position has really played into this team's favor this year the Jaguars. So when San Francisco gets the ball in that situation, they're gonna be a little smarter. The great teams are not gonna turn the ball over to you, and they have a good situation in hand because they know to protect leads.
That being said, this team has turned the ball.
But we'll go back to the previous loss against CJ. Stroud and the Texans back in September. That's a rookie quarterback who had thrown the ball all over the place. Now, he hadn't been interceptive at that point in his career. You would think you'd be able to break the narrative, which was the Jaguars getting in their own way for most of the game, and they couldn't get it done. So, I mean, I do get the other side of this thing.
But you've got a rookie quarterback this week, and Will Loves who has shown a propensity to just chuck the b down the field. He had in the touchdown pass since the Falcons game, which was winning through four. So he's gonna come out gunning, go get it.
I'm going to see it.
Our final big thing this week is tale of the Titans, because, as we mentioned, they're not the Titans were always used to seeing their three and six. This year, they've had some struggles for sure, and Trevor talked a little bit about what this division is like right now and why this is so important.
We look at our division and it's it's a pretty tight it's a pretty tight race right now. You know, we're technically in first, but we're i mean, the Texans and the Cults are right there. So and then the Titans they're still i mean they're three and six, so they're still we're still so early in the season. We were in their position to think about it last year,
so we understand their sense of urgency. On the on the flip side of that is they know how big this game is too, so we're going to get their best shot. They're a good team.
Talking a little bit about last year where it the Jaguars were kind of in their position and then they came back to win the division titles. So that just shows how important this is to kind of get as big of a lead as you can, as early as you can.
Their offensive line had long been a strength for them, and those guys have now gone away where the retirement and injury or free agency. And of course Derrick Henry is reaching that moment where big power running backs start to decline, although he's averaging over four yards carry and if you give him enough carries, he can really do some damage to you. That being said to me, this is all about these Jaguars being ready for this game
because last year they're playing for the playoffs. Guy, and it's a primetime game here and Mike Vrabel comes in with a guy that they had plucked off of the Detroit Lions practice squad. No, we know Josh Dobbs because he was here for a time in twenty nineteen, and then we've seen what he's done this year in Arizona
and Minnesota. Nothing against Josh Dobbs, but there was no way that that Jaguars team was on a winning streak should have struggled like they did against Josh Dobbs in primetime with the playoffs on the light, and yet they did. So this team has got to be ready to avoid the sort of what do you want to call it? Letdown that they had on Sunday against the forty nine ers bloodbath. They've all used the term we laid an egg man. You can't lay an egg in the first quarter and beat that guy on Sunday.
Yeah, it's a huge game. It's out of time for panic because most seasons, even when it team's good, it's pretty rare at mid season.
To have a five game lead and feel like you clinch the thing.
It's the NFL. You're gonna have a couple of bad games. Teams are gonna get close. It's still early. Everybody's so bent up about the Texans, and I get the Texans are fine, but they've also won the last two games by a narrow margin.
They've had their time.
If you win the next two, you can make this surge feel almost incidental. But guess what the Texans, if they win their next two, they can make this surge feel really important.
That's what the.
NFL is all about. So I think the Jaguars, I think they're gonna recover. I think they have been very good coming off bad law Is under Peterson.
I think they're going to go on a little run here.
But they got to go do it just because I say it a main Yeah, you know they played awsome.
If it did, right, I mean I can say what.
Else do you want?
Right?
I mean if you just throw out be sitting here. Look, this is simple. This is real armchair analysis. This team can play better on both sides of the ball. Although the defense is really played well this year. Time to go play well, right? I mean, this is November when the pretenders are separated from the contenders. November is that fulcrum, that swing point in the season where you start to identify who can and who cannot prove it. Let's go, let's do it.
Stay with us.
Coming up after the break, we're going to go over some of the impact players to seek for the game on Sunday. Subdith is sordest, trusted and reliable moving company said it is proud to be the official moving partner of the Jacksonville Jaguars. You can get a guaranteed quote today by visiting Setith dot com. Slash Jacks welcome back to jag Zam. We're also presented by Field to Auto Group Jacksonville. You can step up to luxury at fields
Auto dot com. Now we're gonna go over some of the impact players what we think they'll be doing in the game this weekend, Brian, who are you looking at?
I'm going with Josh Allen for my will He won't, he might, and I think he will have a big game. He played well last Sunday. He didn't have the numbers against Trent Williams, but he more than held his own, and so I think he breaks through this week. Now it might not always be him, It might be the guy on the other side, Trayvon Walker, who last week
played probably his best game as a pass rusher. We couldn't really talk about it this week because everything else was bad, but he was right there in the face of the quarterback. And Josh Allen might be in the pocket pushing things his direction and won't get the numbers, but you'll feel Josh Allen. You also might feel Treyvon Walker because of Josh.
Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think the edge of guys have been good all season. I think circumstances in each game will determine how many.
Sacks those guys get. That's usually the case.
I went with Calvin Ridley.
He will be a factor offensively, and he will draw in interference penalty because he always does. I think sometimes that has gotten lost this year. His numbers have frustrated fans. I'm sure asst his numbers have frustrated Calvin a little bit, but I think it shows you how hard he is to cover and how legitimately dangerous he is. I think he's drawn nine penalties. I think the number is over one hundred yards. That's not nothing, and a couple of
those penalties have changed the game. So I still think he matters in this offense.
He won't be the quote focus. They're not going to feed him the ball. I just don't.
I got a lot of emails this week why is any more involved? And I just don't think this offense right now wants to overly feed him. Well, I remember how clunky had felt early in the season when they were trying to do that. I think they want to have it still happen or organically for him. I think they will take some deep shots. They talked about that. If you're gonna take deep shots, it's a Calvin Ridley type game.
So it gets some and I think you're gonna see.
Him come out and throw five straight past the can't really in the game. He might make the difference. I thought he would make a big difference last week. I was surprised that he was not a big time factor. I think the game circumstance didn't allow it.
They didn't get in the red zone very much. But I think he.
I think this is the game where he starts to sort of move in that direction. I think after nine games, you're gonna feel that chemistry sort of come together.
Yeah, you know, I talked to some folks in Atlanta who they said that he was always most successful when he was in motion, that he wasn't a static receiver, and a lot of times you see him but the line of scrim is just jumping, and of course he's being pressed because he's Calvin Ridley. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't try to get him in motion more to get him moving, because when you look at the big explosive plays that he's been capable of in his career, a lot of those have him.
Moving and we haven't seen much of that yet. No, not yet, So definitely an option. I went with Travis etn because I think he will get back in the end zone. Of course, the team in general didn't get in the end zone in their last game, but I think Travis is when we've seen the offense do well. It's when Travis has been doing well. He won't take
over the game. I don't think he's gonna have three touchdowns, but I think he will get back in the end zone, get things moving a little bit, and he might be kind of the key to help open things up on offense. We saw him get that receiving touchdown a couple of games ago, and I think that's something that they haven't utilized a ton of either, And that might be something where if they show a couple different looks kind of
Travis as a threat there. He has good hands, he can catch, so to kind of utilize him in that way, maybe something new, something different. I mean, you got to try something at this point, right.
Yeah, yeah, you sure do. I mean I also wouldn't be surprised to see them really try to force the ball into short yard situations with Travis. They have a lot of confidence, you know, I mean, doct Doug Peterson said when training camp again he can get his shoulders square to the line of scrimmage and be that you know, fifteen sixteen hundred yard back. Well, if he's going to be that over the course of his career, he's gonna have to be able to get third down to one,
third down to two. And as I talk to people, John, there's nobody that exhibits any lack of confidence in Travis, and I just get the sense that they want to maybe force the issue with it.
Yeah, he can definitely do that. They tried a little bit last week. I thought to sort of minimize his carries a little bit. I would say minimize, but you know, give the earnest and tank some carries. I still wonder how much they'll be able to stick with that as games get important and close, because Travis has been so good and it's important it's a good call cut, it's so important to be able to run the ball into
the end zone. When they have felt like a good team this year, they've been doing that pretty well, and they beat Indy early in a stretch where they were winning finishing off the drives. Against Buffalo New Orleans, that's when they felt like they were flexing a little bit offensively. So last week was tough because you could really stick with it. But I think as when games are closed, I think you're gonna stick with ETN and I'll begin
a buntion he knows why are they running so much? That, you know, but I think they feel like they've got to stick with it even when it's gonna struggle, and I think it's thing's gonna struggle at times with some pops from him.
All right, stay with us as we look ahead. We're gonna give you what we think the headlines will be on Monday. At the break. This Sunday's game against the Titans is going to be delivered by c S f CFX is how tomorrow moves. Not great at predicting the future, but we are going to try today as we do tomorrow's headlines today. So Ryan, when do you think the front page is gonna say on Monday.
Well, if if I was the headline rider, I think you would say something like tightened up because the Jaguars have been too loose with the football. The great thing about the T ANDSS is that they play fundamental football. They really do the little things well, which requires you to do the little things well. But I don't think there's anything more important heading into the stretch run of
the season than doing the little things well. I mean, it's great to get the over the top passes to Calvin Ridley, but if you go convert on third down and two or third down and three, you're not gonna stay on the field. If you don't convert in the red zone right and get the touchdowns step of the field goals, you're not gonna win the games against the Bengals and the Ravens late in the year when seeding
is going to be so important. So a game against the Titans requires you to play good, sound, fundamental football, and I think they'll be tightened up and ready to go for the stretch run.
John, you go back to newspaper days, what do you get for the headline?
See?
I went with back where they belong?
That you know they're already in first place, so I guess it's still where they belong. I say, think they're the best team in the division. I think when you're six and three, you've earned that status. Mainly, I think this game and they play well, and I think they'll play well. I think fans will say, Okay, well, it's okay, we're seven and three. We've got a good stretch run coming up in front of us.
There's still hope.
I think maybe this game will put some perspective back in the conversation.
And you know that's really important because they may not look elite, right, I mean, they may not look like the San Francisco forty nine ers or the Kansas City Chiefs, but they're still a really good football team. And that's what I think people have lost. You you get beat like that, John, you walk out of here and going, man, they are not what I thought they were. And you immediately go from here to hear in your people's minds and the opportunity to get back right tightened up, back
where you belong to start playing good football again reminds people. Yeah, I mean they're not here. They may not be here, but they're like here. This is what this week is about.
It's gonna sound like a coach cliche, but teams are different throughout the course of the year. The Patriots Flints lost the Buffalo bill is thirty one nothing to win the Super Bowl and they.
Lost in the opener.
So you can get most coaches want to get to mid November and then try to stay healthy, improve, start peaking, start playing.
Well after this. So six and three, you win this year, seven and three and you have seven left. You have it all out in front of you. If you.
Improve like you think if you started hitting some chemistry like you think, and you go on a run, there all of a sudden, that seven and three start gets here at twelve and five and you and you forget all about this. They were two and six last year. Yeah, improvement is possible in the NFL. They have to improve, but you need to win this to put yourself in a position.
To do that.
I think it's definitely a stepping stone game in my mind as well, because I think I went when defense dominates, because if the team is going to be good this year, thought it was going to be offense, it's the defense. So they need to go out there, take care of Derrick Henry, make him not a huge factor, and also take advantage of the rooky quarterback. Will Levice had those four touchdowns in his first game. He hasn't looked great after that. He's someone you can rattle.
He's someone you.
Can get to, you know, force a couple of interceptions, bad throws, and give your offense the ball back. Because because we know they need time to figure things out, I think this is a good game for them to kind of get in the end zone, get a win, kind of work on it, and then Houston will be a huge matchup that we're looking at.
You know, Henry Is he's been a story obviously because he's from here and he's a great player. Last year he had fifty carries fifty one carries and just over two hundred yards in two games. And a guy grabbed me the other day, go, that's your four yards per carry. Well, he had one fifty yard run, right, So then he had fifty carries for one hundred and fifty yards, which
is three yards. So if you can just keep him from getting that big run where he hits the scene downfield, you can limit him and the hammer that he can be at your defense. I mean, trust me, we were all still traumatized by the ninety nine yard run on Thursday Night Football back in twenty nineteen. He's not that guy anymore, but if you give him a crase and let him do fifty on you, it's gonna make you look bad.
Let's hope they keep him contented, all right. Coming up after the break, we're gonna have a little more about the game on Sunday and we'll be right back. Jags fans, if you want customized Jaguars furniture for your home, You just have to check out zipchare dot com to browse all the customizable options. ZIP Chair is furniture made for fans. So we're back here at Everybank Stadium this week. It's actually the Salute for Service games, so it's gonna be great.
We'll have tons of veterans, military members their families.
Out there today.
A lot of cool stuff is planned for that and hopefully a good outcome on the field as well, because we haven't seen a lot of great home games so.
Far this year. No, and that has been a point of contention all week long. You know, in every press conference, you're in the locker room, Hey, what's the matter at home? And nobody has an answer for it. I don't know that anything's the matter at home? They just last week it was San Francisco. Yeah, great, done, hard to explain that. The Houston gag still looking for you know, what went wrong there because that was supposedly a good week of practice off the lows to Kansas City. I don't know
about the home thing. Here's what I know, you know, going all the way back to the first game they ever played in this stadium in the regular season against the then Houston Boilers, this franchise now in Tennessee has had the upper hand. I think it's thirty three and twenty three the number in terms of the regular season. So Jaguars haven't won three in a row against the Titans since two thousand and five, two thousand and six. It's been a long time.
Time to start something, y Yeah, time.
To start well again. My theme has been if this is going to be your division, if you believe you're the big dog in the division. You got young quarterbacks. You have a young quarterback, but you've got young quarterbacks now that they're starting to lean on a little bit. This is a year to establish it, go get it.
The next two weeks shape the narrative, but it starts this week. If you know when this week, then boyd, does Houston look like? You know, yeah, yeah, you're hardly.
Thinking about Houston at that point because you're worried about what's going on here.
So and much credit to C. J. Stroud, I mean, and Demigo Ryans. I mean, if he's the coach of the year right now in the NFL, that's not a great roster. I mean, they're just getting started with their rebuild. But the quarterback is a revelation and the coach has them playing really well. So that's for next week's shows. We'll have a lot to talk about. But if you get through this one the way that you should, will you set up a big game next week?
All right, it's gonna be a good one. We hope you all enjoy the game on Sunday. We'll be right back here on jagxam to go over everything for you. On Monday morning,