Count down. The kickoff continues. The Jags and the Houston Texans coming up today at one o'clock at t i A Bank Field in Jacksonville, and we welcome in prior to the Jaguars running back Fred Taylor. The second half is underway, Fred, how are you, j P. I'm good, man, I'm good. I'm just hoping that guys can get on track, you know, find a way to do something positive at least where they're confident, if nothing else. So it won't
be easy. As we said earlier in the season, UM help isn't coming from anywhere, and that is shown unless um Jake lu Luton I pronounced his did It's hard to even pronounce it. Man, I mean I don't know the guy. I'm not in the building enough. But hopefully, um we can, we can see what he has. Maybe it's a bright spot. Who knows well, you said you don't know him at all. Well, nobody really knows him
at all. He's a rookie. Nobody has been around the building, nobody has been in the locker room in terms of the media that to really get to know this guy. And then we'll find out on Sunday what he looks like on the NFL game field for the first time, no preseason, no offseason workouts except for the training camp periods.
A big unknown here and things can change from positive training camp practices to NFL real lights of the study with J. J. Watt and others lined up on the other side, things can change, Like you know, the first meeting that the Texans have force acts. This meeting, it could double, it could be eight. Um. But I don't want to be the pessimist, you know, I want to make sure that um, all things considered, uh, you know,
just the offense as a whole. Hopefully they can get out there and do some good things for the kid, you know, because it's gonna be frightening. You know, you have merciless over there, you have what over there, you know, and you have a Texans team who's won in six only win was against the jack So I'm pretty sure that confidence in sky high in this matchup near liking their chops, knowing that Menshoe isn't out there, so it's
gonna not gonna be easy for for Jake. But more more than that, you know, the defense, you know, the defense has to find a way to step it up to even give him a chance. Even even Gardner out there, you can't outscore them. You're giving up thirty plus points a game. It's hard for any quarterback in the NFL to get a victory when the defense is given up so much. Let's continue that defensive conversation now, Fred, you know, they haven't had much of a pass rush. I haven't
really had any pass rush this year. Um, They've struggled in moments stopping the run though that was a big emphasis earlier in the year. They're banged up a good bit, a lot of young guys are out there playing and as you said, helps not on the way on the defensive side. What can they do to get everything going in the right direction with all that happening. Still, you know,
considering JP they're they're giving up over thirty points a game. Uh, team is one in six year in start of rookie quarterback. You know, you just got to try to get creative as a defense coordinator. You know, takes some chances, you know, dial up some pressure packages, things that other teams hadn't seen on film. You know, go back and look at what other teams have had success against the you know, let's say the Texans use them, for example, because the
game that they're playing. Now, uh, let's let's see who has success against them. You know, create some opportunities for the guys to make plays. Pressure the quarterback, do some exotic packages, develop some zero bitches, uh for man and man coverages. Challenge your cornerbacks. You know, let those linebackers blips. You got Miles Jacks back out, you know you sent him. Use the team speed that you have, the draft picks,
you know, put them on the edge. Just turn them loose, man and say, you know, like the coach used to do back in the day, rush the passer every play, you know, play the run by way of rushing the passer. Let's just get anxiety. Let's see what happens again. Help isn't coming. Things aren't necessarily gonna get any better doing what you've been doing. So you got to try to get creative, get anxiety, and hopefully you guys will make plays for you. Fred Taylor with US Pride of the
jaguarris running back back to the offensive side. Now, how can a veteran player, how can any player, I guess, help out a young quarterback at his first start. Did you ever have something like this in your career where you had here we go, a rookie coming again to start this first ever moment in the NFL. Has that ever happened with you? Yeah? Yeah, without a doubt. Um,
when Byron left was replaced Mark Brunell. You know, as much as we all fell in love with Byron the person, you know, based on the potential, you know, the heroic efforts that he just played back at Marshall. He's a fighter, you know, he played with tenacity. Uh he just didn't quite you know, get it for for the high draft pick in which he was selected. But nevertheless, you know, you look over to the side, here's a guy in
Brunell who you know, old faithful brew man. He still had a lot in his tank, but you had a new regime in there. They brought in their draft pick and obviously they wanted to see what he was made of, and they made the change. It was a solid feeling and a lot of our you know, solid taste in a lot of our miles. It could be similar. I mean, who knows, but Mark was a lot more proven than Gardner Minshire, you know, So for for me, it was
a bigger change when that came in. A guy who hadn't played beside Mark for for five years leading up to that change. So, I mean, but I don't know. You have a lot of young guys in that locker room now. I think the only veteran UH guy in there really Um, with the exception of the offensive line, but when you look at the receiver position, um, it's about it. Chris. Chris Connelly is the only bat guy in there. So these other guys just want the ball.
I'm pretty sure they just want the ball, even though they've established some sort of relationship with Gardner, they just want the ball. You know, he doesn't know any better. Chart is year two. He's he just wants to go out there and perform well. So maybe he can post a little bit on Instagram and killing Cole who has been making some plays. I'm sure he just wants to get continue to make plays, no matter who's throwing him the ball, so he can uh get that you get
a bigger contract at some point. So this is all the experiment for everybody. We don't know what the end result is gonna be. I'm hoping, you know, from the optimistic point of view, that he goes out there and do well the same that I would hope for Gardner, but I mean, who knows. I know, Jack's Nation. They're hoping that we can get somewhere in that quarterback lottery and that Trevor Lawrence lottery if if that's you know,
still option at the end of the year. The follow up question to this will be about the rest of this year. And we know things have not gone well so far. It's a six game losing skits currently. It's a lot of injuries. Obviously the quarterback position is checking up now due to injury. Uh. The schedule coming up is definitely cold too. There's a lot of really good,
talented football teams on that schedule coming up. If things don't go well and this young football team continues to come to work every day, how do you continue to motivate a young team like the jaguarris to continue to do things the right way, to teach them how to go about business in the NFL? Is that a hard thing to do in the environment this team could be in the later in the year. You know that follows on the headman's lap. You know, Coach Marone, you know
he's gonna have to continue. You know, I hate to use this term, but he's gonna have to, you know, go down with the ship, go down swinging or whatever it may be. You know, teach these guys what the NFL is all about. That is getting getting up every day, no matter what it is, going out there, being the best that you could be, you know, displaying some character,
maintaining a sense of integrity, even since of urgency. And I know it all sounds cliche out on the surface, but for me, even our in our losing years, you know, my motivation came from within. It came from loving to compete, you know, not even the money was a byproduct of of me competing in that hard in that passion for the game. So a lot of these young guys should
just be wanting to get out there to play. You know, they have a roster full of young guys who you know, they want to take advantage of their opportunity, and that's just getting out there to play, no matter the record. At some point, you got to toss that out. I'm pretty sure they're not gonna make the playoffs this year unless they run off nine in row, and that's a
doubt that will happen. So just get out there, be excited about going to work, excited about being around teammate, Excited about wearing a uniform and competing and beating your guy in the one on one matchup. Well, the matchup this week for the Jags the Houston Texans and kickoff coming up at one o'clock. We will talk to you in the post game, Fred no doubt man looking forward to a JP when we returned the final word with head coach Doug Brown before kickoff Jags Texans at one o'clock.
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