Latest / The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network / The O-Zone Podcast | Finding Ways to Win in "Clunky" Games w/ Kainani Stevens

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The O-Zone Podcast | Finding Ways to Win in "Clunky" Games w/ Kainani Stevens · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:05
Speaker 1: The Ozone.
0:07
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Ozone podcast with Jaguar's senior writer, John Ogier.
0:12
Speaker 1: All right, welcome into this early week Ozone podcast. I'm
0:16
Speaker 1: Jaguar's senior writer, John Ogier, and I'm here in the
0:19
Speaker 1: Hyundai studios along with this week's guest analyst extraordinaire for
0:22
Speaker 1: the week, Kanani Stevens. And first of all, thanks for
0:26
Speaker 1: doing this.
0:27
Speaker 2: Of course.
0:28
Speaker 1: This is the early week where we sort of look
0:30
Speaker 1: back and take a sneak look ahead and Unfortunately, we're
0:35
Speaker 1: looking back at a weird, what I would call a clunky,
0:38
Speaker 1: 20-13 loss to the Broncos. It's not a tragedy, Kai,
0:45
Speaker 1: because you're 1-1, you've played good teams. I think a
0:48
Speaker 1: lot of observers are so used to winning in the
0:52
Speaker 1: regular season that it was shocking and there's red flags.
0:56
Speaker 1: I don't think it's that, but it was a weird loss.
0:59
Speaker 3: It was, and even if they had won, we would
1:02
Speaker 3: probably still be talking about a lot of stuff they
1:05
Speaker 3: needed to work on, because they were able to get
1:07
Speaker 3: an early lead in that game, but it never felt
1:09
Speaker 3: like they were, you know, they've been in such a
1:11
Speaker 3: flow state, if you will, as of recent. The offense
1:14
Speaker 3: looks clean, they're forcing turnovers, getting sacks, and it didn't
1:18
Speaker 3: look like that. If they had won, it would have
1:20
Speaker 3: been one of those ugly wins, right? We found a
1:23
Speaker 3: way to do it, but ended up kind of losing
1:25
Speaker 3: momentum in the second half, and Understandable, tough road environment.
1:30
Speaker 3: That's a really good team that almost made it to
1:31
Speaker 3: the Super Bowl last year. It's not the end of
1:33
Speaker 3: the world, but it is different from what we've seen
1:36
Speaker 3: of this team lately and what we have in terms
1:38
Speaker 3: of expectations are different this season.
1:40
Speaker 4: Let's just be realistic.
1:41
Speaker 3: They expect the team to win every week, and I
1:43
Speaker 3: think that's a good place to be, but it also
1:44
Speaker 3: comes with questions when you aren't able to get a win.
1:47
Speaker 1: I'm going to bounce this one off of you because
1:48
Speaker 1: I know you grew up and your football mindset was
1:56
Speaker 1: shaped by the Patriots. who were a great team for
1:59
Speaker 1: a long time. When you're a great team for a
2:01
Speaker 1: long time, you have to learn how to win a
2:04
Speaker 1: lot of different ways. So to me, I think maybe
2:08
Speaker 1: this game showed that this nine-game winning streak that they
2:13
Speaker 1: were on was built largely on games where they played
2:17
Speaker 1: really well. The Colts last year, they sort of clunked
2:21
Speaker 1: their way to that win. They came back in spectacular
2:25
Speaker 1: fashion in.
2:25
Speaker 2: A couple of games.
2:27
Speaker 1: But I don't know that they have won a lot
2:30
Speaker 1: of games the way that they were trying to win
2:33
Speaker 1: in Denver or the way they could have won in Denver,
2:36
Speaker 1: and I think maybe that's their next step. I covered
2:40
Speaker 1: the Colts for 10 years during their heyday. People remember
2:45
Speaker 1: that team for the 35-10 wins, but they had a
2:49
Speaker 1: lot of wins against this franchise in particular where they
2:53
Speaker 1: grinded and the other team would walk out of the
2:55
Speaker 1: building saying, We blew it. This was the day we
2:59
Speaker 1: should have had them, and they didn't have them. So
3:03
Speaker 1: I think to be a great, sustained 13-4 franchise every year,
3:10
Speaker 1: you've got to learn to get that kind of a
3:13
Speaker 1: game against another good team.
3:14
Speaker 2: You didn't play your best, but you figured out a.
3:16
Speaker 1: Way to navigate it. And I felt like they navigated
3:20
Speaker 1: the first half, and then they couldn't quite navigate the second.
3:26
Speaker 1: Some of that's Denver being really good And they are
3:28
Speaker 1: a team that can do that too.
3:32
Speaker 2: Guess what? You got another one coming in that can
3:33
Speaker 2: do that. So I think.
3:35
Speaker 1: This is the period or this is the year where
3:38
Speaker 1: they need to learn how to be standing on the
3:41
Speaker 1: podium against a really good team, not having played their
3:46
Speaker 1: best and say, hey, we got out of this one.
3:48
Speaker 3: Patriots are a great example and Colts that you just mentioned.
3:50
Speaker 3: I think current day Chiefs are kind of like that
3:52
Speaker 3: current day. You're watching and you're like, how did they
3:55
Speaker 3: find a way? And When you mentioned the first half
3:58
Speaker 3: of that game.
3:58
Speaker 2: Bills do that all the time. Yes.
3:59
Speaker 4: You mentioned the first half of that game.
4:02
Speaker 3: Just to kind of describe what we're talking about, if
4:03
Speaker 3: people aren't familiar, they let up, what, three explosive plays
4:06
Speaker 3: in that one drive, but then end up getting an interception.
4:08
Speaker 3: That's the kind of stuff where it's like you're letting
4:10
Speaker 3: some stuff, you know, that's not great happen, but then
4:13
Speaker 3: you're bouncing it back.
4:14
Speaker 1: Momentum got away in the second quarter, and if you're, like,
4:19
Speaker 1: you weren't there this week, but when we were sitting
4:21
Speaker 1: in the press box together, we would have been saying, boy,
4:24
Speaker 1: the Broncos are getting this one.
4:26
Speaker 2: They've only got three points.
4:27
Speaker 4: Exactly.
4:27
Speaker 2: So they had that. Anyway, go ahead.
4:30
Speaker 3: And this is kind of maybe where it went down
4:32
Speaker 3: from there. In the second half, when they had that
4:34
Speaker 3: drive coming right out of halftime, if you get a
4:36
Speaker 3: touchdown there, all of the pressure is put onto Denver.
4:39
Speaker 4: It switches.
4:40
Speaker 3: It's little things like that that can change the entire
4:44
Speaker 3: focus of the game because then they're going to operate
4:46
Speaker 3: their offense a little bit differently. And Trevor had an
4:48
Speaker 3: interception in this game, but he played well overall. It
4:51
Speaker 3: felt like a lot of little things in this matchup,
4:53
Speaker 3: and that amounts to a big thing. But they're able
4:57
Speaker 3: to do that going forward. They're going to have more
4:59
Speaker 3: games like that, and that's why when I look at
5:01
Speaker 3: that schedule, I was like, they're going to have a
5:03
Speaker 3: worse record, but they'll probably end up being a better
5:04
Speaker 3: team off having games like that and finding a way
5:09
Speaker 3: or learning from a loss so that when it becomes
5:11
Speaker 3: playoff time, you now know how to win a game
5:13
Speaker 3: like that.
5:14
Speaker 2: That's a good point.
5:16
Speaker 1: I thought like you, how many games have you watched
5:20
Speaker 1: where a team– felt like it was outplaying the other
5:25
Speaker 1: team which i thought the broncos were in the second
5:27
Speaker 1: half and you're standing there going boy they're going to
5:30
Speaker 1: wish they had those points and then the other team
5:33
Speaker 1: gets a touchdown there you're you know i think if
5:36
Speaker 1: the jaguars score where they settled for the field goal
5:39
Speaker 1: on first and goal from the three even the broncos
5:42
Speaker 1: sidelines are looking at each other saying we had them
5:46
Speaker 1: and we let them off it's different and so yes
5:49
Speaker 1: that in I think a lot of Jaguars fans have
5:56
Speaker 1: watched a struggling team for so long that it's unusual
6:01
Speaker 1: for the Jaguars of the past who have played poorly,
6:05
Speaker 1: and there were spots where they played poorly, made a
6:07
Speaker 1: lot of mistakes, and still have a chance against a
6:10
Speaker 1: really good team. So I think that shows where the
6:12
Speaker 1: franchise is.
6:15
Speaker 2: It truly is a.
6:16
Speaker 1: Game of big plays and moments in the NFL. And
6:20
Speaker 1: talking to people around the building yesterday, They just didn't
6:23
Speaker 1: make plays. Even as poorly as they played in spots,
6:28
Speaker 1: the Broncos made three or four or five plays in
6:30
Speaker 1: the second half that were moment-type plays. Evan Ingram had
6:33
Speaker 1: a great play. Waddle had a great play. The Jaguars
6:37
Speaker 1: didn't really have that, and they'd been doing that for
6:40
Speaker 1: so long. I like to say some days you eat
6:44
Speaker 1: the bear, some days the bear eats you. It was
6:47
Speaker 1: not their day, and yet still a couple of times
6:51
Speaker 1: in the second half, It could have turned their way.
6:55
Speaker 1: One of the weirder games you've watched since you've been
6:58
Speaker 1: covering this franchise?
7:00
Speaker 3: Weird in the sense of it just had no flow
7:02
Speaker 3: to it either way. Because you're feeling kind of bad,
7:06
Speaker 3: then they get an interception or they'd score, but then
7:11
Speaker 3: you didn't feel it.
7:11
Speaker 2: You kept thinking, here's their shot.
7:12
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden it was like, oh,
7:14
Speaker 1: they didn't take it and they're still in it.
7:17
Speaker 2: And then they didn't do it again.
7:18
Speaker 3: It was the clunkiness of it, right? No one ever
7:20
Speaker 3: felt like they were in the control. I don't know
7:22
Speaker 3: where this game is going. Normally you can get a
7:24
Speaker 3: little bit of a feel, and there's momentum and ebbs
7:26
Speaker 3: and flows to it, but you didn't really know what
7:29
Speaker 3: you were watching. It just kind of seemed a little
7:31
Speaker 3: bit confusing. And it's early in the season. I looked
7:33
Speaker 3: around the league.
7:33
Speaker 4: A lot of those games happened.
7:35
Speaker 2: Uh, but it's so much harder when it's your team guy.
7:37
Speaker 4: Of course you feel it a little bit and I'm
7:40
Speaker 4: not traveling this season. So I wasn't there.
7:41
Speaker 3: So I was, it was a little bit different emotion
7:43
Speaker 3: watching it as well. Cause you feel a little disconnected
7:46
Speaker 3: in that regard, but this is how the fans are
7:47
Speaker 3: watching at home. Like what is the, you know, it's,
7:50
Speaker 3: so it's frustrating certainly. And, and going in there last year,
7:53
Speaker 3: knowing you can win in that environment. But at the
7:55
Speaker 3: end of the day, it's a one score loss on
7:56
Speaker 3: the road to a really good team. That's going to
7:58
Speaker 3: be in the playoff mix, I imagine. So it's not
8:01
Speaker 3: the end of the world, but it is important to
8:03
Speaker 3: learn that They overachieved last season.
8:05
Speaker 4: They were great, 13-4. That's awesome. They now need to
8:08
Speaker 4: learn how to grind it out.
8:09
Speaker 3: Their schedule is tougher, and it's going to look like
8:11
Speaker 3: that more often than not, I think, this season.
8:14
Speaker 2: That was segment one, guys. And you know what follows
8:16
Speaker 2: segment one?
8:17
Speaker 3: Dose?
8:17
Speaker 1: Segment two.
8:18
Speaker 2: That's why you're a professional journalist. So we're going to
8:21
Speaker 2: move on. I think we kind of talked about it
8:23
Speaker 2: all day today.
8:24
Speaker 5: It starts in practice.
8:25
Speaker 2: You've got to practice what's going to happen in the game.
8:28
Speaker 2: So if you kind of get last-ditch in practice.
8:29
Speaker 5: You're going to get last-ditch in the game.
8:31
Speaker 2: So I think that it was good for this to happen.
8:34
Speaker 5: Like, now we got to hone in on us.
8:36
Speaker 3: Like, it's all about us.
8:37
Speaker 5: And if we execute and commit to our play style
8:40
Speaker 5: and things.
8:40
Speaker 1: We do, it's going to be hard to beat us.
8:42
Speaker 5: So I think it was good to kind of have
8:43
Speaker 5: a wake-up call like this.
8:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was Jarrion Jones talking about it being a
8:48
Speaker 1: wake-up call. There are times I hear that from players
8:52
Speaker 1: and my eyes kind.
8:53
Speaker 2: Of glaze over. On this one, I think he may
8:56
Speaker 2: be right. I mean, I think this.
8:58
Speaker 1: I don't know about wake-up call, but I think back
9:00
Speaker 1: to what we talked about in the first segment, I
9:03
Speaker 1: do think this is still a relatively young roster in
9:08
Speaker 1: terms of has it experienced life in the NFL to
9:14
Speaker 1: experience all types of challenges that they need to learn
9:19
Speaker 1: how to overcome. And I do think they went to
9:24
Speaker 1: Denver last year and they smoked them. and they started
9:28
Speaker 1: playing great in the second quarter and kept playing great.
9:34
Speaker 2: That's how a lot of their wins came.
9:35
Speaker 1: So I think learning how to grind through these, again,
9:41
Speaker 1: will be their next test. I'm going to move on,
9:45
Speaker 1: sort of touch on the offense a little bit. Liam
9:49
Speaker 1: talked in his presser on Monday, has faith in the
9:54
Speaker 1: offensive line to recover. I'm not sure the offensive line
9:57
Speaker 1: played horrendous. My understanding is much less. like the entire team,
10:02
Speaker 1: everybody sort of took turns. And that's maybe why it
10:07
Speaker 1: felt so clunky trying to analyze it. You could look at,
10:12
Speaker 1: Pregnon gave up a couple plays early, and then he
10:14
Speaker 1: played okay. Ezra gave up a couple plays early, and
10:16
Speaker 1: then he played okay. Colvain landed the same deal. that happens,
10:20
Speaker 1: but Trevor was under pressure too much, I thought, to
10:23
Speaker 1: try to have a smooth Trevor-type game.
10:27
Speaker 4: And you saw that in Trevor's response.
10:28
Speaker 3: Not that he was rattled necessarily, but he didn't have
10:31
Speaker 3: as much time to go through progressions, and it didn't look...
10:35
Speaker 3: When you look across the field, Bo Nix was dropping
10:37
Speaker 3: back three steps and letting it go. That was kind
10:39
Speaker 3: of the way they wanted to operate going into that.
10:41
Speaker 3: I don't know if that was necessarily the game plan
10:43
Speaker 3: for the Jaguars, because There's different things they want to
10:46
Speaker 3: get into with Liam Cohen's offense, but he just didn't
10:48
Speaker 3: have as much time to throw the football. When you
10:49
Speaker 3: don't have time to throw the football, it's not always
10:51
Speaker 3: going to connect. The players aren't always going to be
10:53
Speaker 3: where you want them to be, or you've got to
10:55
Speaker 3: throw before they get there and you get an interception.
10:57
Speaker 3: So that part of it made it clunky. Also, they
11:00
Speaker 3: couldn't get the running game going as much as they
11:02
Speaker 3: probably wanted to. I imagine knowing what the Chiefs were
11:04
Speaker 3: able to do against the Broncos with their run games,
11:08
Speaker 3: I was expecting them to try to get to that
11:09
Speaker 3: a little bit more.
11:11
Speaker 4: There was offensive questions. It was one week. I don't
11:13
Speaker 4: know if this is a long-term problem.
11:15
Speaker 3: I know they want to be physical, and I know
11:17
Speaker 3: the oldest of adages is you've got to win in
11:19
Speaker 3: the trenches, and they didn't do that on either side
11:20
Speaker 3: of the ball. So starting right there, if you can't
11:24
Speaker 3: win either side in the trenches, you're not going to
11:26
Speaker 3: win the football game, very unlikely.
11:28
Speaker 1: And it's going to look clunky when you're getting beat
11:31
Speaker 1: up front. I wonder, and I'm not sure I had
11:36
Speaker 1: thought about this until something you just said, They looked
11:39
Speaker 1: so good against the Browns, and they were hot, and
11:42
Speaker 1: every button they were hitting was working. You had a
11:47
Speaker 1: line in the preseason that was sort of shifting around
11:50
Speaker 1: a little bit, the offensive line. You have Basial Tootin
11:52
Speaker 1: making a second start, and I'm not trying to make excuses.
11:56
Speaker 1: You also have a rookie tight end in Borkature still
11:59
Speaker 1: working in the new packages. We got used to seeing
12:03
Speaker 1: this team roll teams and run, so we thought, okay, it's.
12:06
Speaker 2: A finished product.
12:08
Speaker 1: I wonder if there's still a little bit of that
12:10
Speaker 1: going on. It's still a little bit of adjusting, figuring
12:13
Speaker 1: out what you're good at, figuring out, okay, here's where
12:16
Speaker 1: we need to play Basial. Here's where we need to
12:18
Speaker 1: play Rodriguez. Here's what feels right with this. It's very
12:23
Speaker 1: possible we look back because I do believe in Liam's
12:27
Speaker 1: ability to figure out his offense because we saw it
12:29
Speaker 1: last year.
12:30
Speaker 2: They're going to hit a run.
12:32
Speaker 1: I think we may look back on Denver early in
12:34
Speaker 1: the season and think, oh, well, they're just trying to
12:36
Speaker 1: adjust and figure out what they are this year because
12:39
Speaker 1: it is a year-to-year league.
12:40
Speaker 4: And they didn't play in the preseason, and that's by design.
12:42
Speaker 4: He doesn't want to do that.
12:44
Speaker 3: But this is kind of how you have to work
12:46
Speaker 3: things out in game because you haven't played in the
12:47
Speaker 3: preseason game. Not that you're going to get a ton
12:49
Speaker 3: out of a preseason game, but at least you're lining
12:50
Speaker 3: up and actually playing football. as opposed to enjoy practice.
12:54
Speaker 3: You can get the work in you want, but it's different.
12:55
Speaker 3: How many people have a great training camp, then when
12:57
Speaker 3: you get into the game, it's not the same. It's
13:00
Speaker 3: just a different matchup. It's practice at the end of
13:02
Speaker 3: the day. So they need to work on that. Also,
13:04
Speaker 3: at the end of last season, the run game did
13:06
Speaker 3: fall off a little bit, so I think they're still
13:08
Speaker 3: trying to work out, hey, we can be super successful
13:10
Speaker 3: throwing the ball. They're scoring a ton of points, but
13:12
Speaker 3: we can't forget about the run.
13:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think Liam knows he wants that to be going.
13:19
Speaker 1: in in december because he felt what it was not
13:22
Speaker 1: to be going last year right.
13:24
Speaker 3: And they have to figure out how to do that
13:25
Speaker 3: with the personnel they currently have and continue that into
13:29
Speaker 3: late of the season because we did see that points
13:31
Speaker 3: last year but then as you mentioned december january it
13:33
Speaker 3: started falling off so how they're going to do that
13:35
Speaker 3: with the current personnel they have basial tootin has the
13:37
Speaker 3: ability but again also i didn't analyze the tape for
13:40
Speaker 3: this but they didn't do great at pass blocking i
13:42
Speaker 3: don't know if they were blocking well for the run
13:44
Speaker 3: that might be something they need to work on as
13:45
Speaker 3: well because.
13:46
Speaker 1: Liam said that was okay compared to what it felt
13:49
Speaker 1: like during the game once he looked at it wasn't
13:51
Speaker 1: as bad yeah I mean and it was probably all
13:54
Speaker 1: relative because he's talking the day after a game and
13:57
Speaker 1: you know still trying to sort it through I have
14:00
Speaker 1: down here to talk wide receivers BT I don't know
14:03
Speaker 1: that I don't know that there's that much more to
14:04
Speaker 1: say about Brian Thomas Jr. had it had a tough
14:07
Speaker 1: game uh had a drop and it looked like he's
14:10
Speaker 1: still maybe not going up as strong at times for
14:13
Speaker 1: balls um I don't know how much more analysis there
14:18
Speaker 1: is there because it's been analyzed to death. I guess
14:23
Speaker 1: before we move on from offense, one thing that was
14:25
Speaker 1: interesting to me that I think sort of bodes well
14:30
Speaker 1: for the future, clunky game. I don't think they would
14:34
Speaker 1: tell you that they ever got into what they wanted
14:36
Speaker 1: to feel like. I've seen a lot of clunky Jaguars
14:41
Speaker 1: teams in the past not be able to function at
14:45
Speaker 1: all offensively when that happens. Even within the context of clunky,
14:51
Speaker 1: you probably should have been up 17 to three.
14:54
Speaker 2: You had a couple of good drives that you liked
14:57
Speaker 2: in the first half.
14:59
Speaker 1: And then in the second half, you had the one
15:00
Speaker 1: that started the second half, which should have gotten you
15:02
Speaker 1: to 17 to three. And then you were going, you
15:04
Speaker 1: had a big play to Jacoby. You still found something
15:08
Speaker 1: in those moments. So I guess I'm not surprised. I
15:11
Speaker 1: think this is going to be a really good offense.
15:12
Speaker 1: So their clunky day was 17 points, or 13 points,
15:15
Speaker 1: but they should have gotten more.
15:16
Speaker 2: I'm not sure what I'm getting at, except that.
15:21
Speaker 1: I still have great faith that even against great defenses,
15:25
Speaker 1: this offense is going to find its rhythm and be
15:27
Speaker 1: a 24, 27-point offense.
15:29
Speaker 4: It wasn't that far off, right?
15:30
Speaker 3: If you get one or two of those Brian Thomas
15:32
Speaker 3: catches or you can connect with Parker Washington, it.
15:35
Speaker 4: Could have extended some of those drives. They lost by
15:37
Speaker 4: one score, so.
15:38
Speaker 3: It could always have been changed by one or two plays,
15:41
Speaker 3: and that's when Liam was saying, we just didn't get
15:43
Speaker 3: that play at the time when we needed it.
15:45
Speaker 2: It's a league of plays. I mean, it always has been.
15:48
Speaker 3: Offensively, in terms of wide receivers, I know people are
15:51
Speaker 3: frustrated with Brian Thomas Jr. For me, this offense operates
15:54
Speaker 3: well when they spread the ball around, and they didn't
15:56
Speaker 3: do that. They had 12 targets to Park Washington, 8
15:58
Speaker 3: targets to Brian Thomas Jr. Everybody else had 2 or
16:00
Speaker 3: 1 target. That's not how they operate best, and maybe
16:03
Speaker 3: they were forced into that because of the defense. But
16:05
Speaker 3: Trevor needs to spread the ball around. That's when he
16:07
Speaker 3: operates best. Brenton Strange had two great catches early on
16:10
Speaker 3: in the game and then really kind of melted out,
16:13
Speaker 3: wasn't gone to later in the second half. And Jacoby
16:16
Speaker 3: Myers had a huge catch, but that was his only
16:17
Speaker 3: catch and his only target. So to me, and part
16:20
Speaker 3: of that is the way the game goes, maybe they
16:22
Speaker 3: went in wanting to do something different and they had
16:24
Speaker 3: to switch to this, but they operate best when they're
16:26
Speaker 3: able to spread it around and they didn't get to
16:28
Speaker 3: do that in that matchup.
16:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's always the balance. And they obviously
16:33
Speaker 1: want the balance. and yet they're best when they spread it.
16:39
Speaker 1: And on the flip side of that coin, Trevor's best
16:42
Speaker 1: when he's not forcing it.
16:44
Speaker 4: To one person.
16:44
Speaker 2: So when he's.
16:47
Speaker 1: Taking what the defense is there, and if the defense
16:50
Speaker 1: is giving them Brian Thomas Jr., then it's hard to
16:54
Speaker 1: not throw to him just because he had a drop
16:58
Speaker 1: a second ago. I'm not arguing with you. That's sort
17:02
Speaker 1: of the dilemma, right? That's the balance you're trying to reach.
17:06
Speaker 1: it's why Liam Cohen makes a lot of money.
17:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're not the coaches. We just talk about it later.
17:11
Speaker 1: We will move on to segment three, which is Liam
17:16
Speaker 1: said what?
17:17
Speaker 2: It's also after two.
17:20
Speaker 5: With Buster, Travis, Jarrion, and then obviously J. Lou specifically
17:25
Speaker 5: and some of the nickel stuff. We did it for
17:29
Speaker 5: the most part of the last season as well before
17:32
Speaker 5: Travis got hurt.
17:34
Speaker 2: It's something that.
17:35
Speaker 5: We've got to continue to do. We have corners that
17:37
Speaker 5: we have confidence in. Those guys can all make plays
17:41
Speaker 5: for us. They can all communicate for us. They've been
17:43
Speaker 5: in the system now. We've got to play it better,
17:46
Speaker 5: for sure, but we've also got to get to the
17:48
Speaker 5: quarterback to help those guys out.
17:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is another one, Kai.
17:53
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how much field there is to mine here,
17:58
Speaker 1: but Travis Hunter's playing about 60% of the snaps. It's
18:02
Speaker 1: obviously an issue that people are going to lock on
18:05
Speaker 1: because He was the number two overall pick in the
18:08
Speaker 1: draft and expected him.
18:11
Speaker 2: To be a starting corner this year. He is a
18:13
Speaker 2: starting corner.
18:14
Speaker 1: 6% of the plays is not what you usually expect.
18:17
Speaker 1: They're rotating instead. My understanding is there is great faith
18:22
Speaker 1: within the building that Travis, over the long term, is
18:27
Speaker 1: going to be a big-time cornerback in this league with
18:30
Speaker 1: impact on offense. It stands to reason that if he's
18:33
Speaker 1: not playing every snap, He's not there yet, and playing
18:38
Speaker 1: fine when he's there, but they're choosing the rotation. I'm asked, well,
18:44
Speaker 1: when is that going to stop? My only answer is,
18:47
Speaker 1: this team's going to do what it believes is the
18:49
Speaker 1: best thing to win, so they're not going to stop
18:51
Speaker 1: it until Travis proves that playing him all the.
18:56
Speaker 2: Time is the better way.
18:58
Speaker 1: I don't know how much more there is to say
19:01
Speaker 1: than that, although there's plenty being said outside the building.
19:05
Speaker 3: I'm sure the confusion comes in, right? They expect him
19:07
Speaker 3: to play on both sides of the football. Now he's
19:09
Speaker 3: not very much featured on offense. He's just not playing
19:12
Speaker 3: a lot. So therefore, people are expecting him to play 100%
19:15
Speaker 3: on defense. As mentioned, he had the knee injuries, working
19:19
Speaker 3: his way back in. He's still learning both sides of
19:21
Speaker 3: the football. That should also be mentioned. He didn't learn
19:25
Speaker 3: one playbook. He's learning two. He's a tremendous athlete. Both
19:29
Speaker 3: of these systems are complicated. And I know what they've
19:32
Speaker 3: added into the defense this year is complicated under camp.
19:36
Speaker 3: And I'm assuming they're going with a veteran presence. And
19:40
Speaker 3: we see Jordan Lewis is out there a lot. I
19:43
Speaker 3: know there's a rotation with Monteric Brown and Jaron Jones
19:45
Speaker 3: who've been here a little bit longer, but in the
19:47
Speaker 3: same system, the same amount of time, but. I just
19:51
Speaker 3: imagine it's a working their way up sort of thing.
19:53
Speaker 3: And they they don't feel that they're at a point
19:55
Speaker 3: where because they're not going to have the way that
19:57
Speaker 3: they play defense. They're not going to have. Travis Hunter,
20:01
Speaker 3: just match up with the best receiver and follow him
20:02
Speaker 3: all day. That's not how they play.
20:03
Speaker 2: Well, they don't play enough man to do that.
20:05
Speaker 4: Correct.
20:06
Speaker 3: So if that was all his role was, sure, but
20:09
Speaker 3: that's not what they do. So they're trying to utilize
20:12
Speaker 3: his skill set within their own scheme, and right now
20:14
Speaker 3: they want to rotate it. I'm sure either by necessity
20:19
Speaker 3: versus injury or necessity by he's playing the best and
20:22
Speaker 3: he needs to be out there 100%, it'll look different
20:24
Speaker 3: in a couple weeks. Right.
20:25
Speaker 4: It's week two. They didn't play in the preseason.
20:27
Speaker 3: Again, they are working through this as this goes along.
20:30
Speaker 3: And yes, they lost, so yes, it's frustrating, but this
20:33
Speaker 3: is going to be an ongoing process. No one's played
20:35
Speaker 3: on both sides of the football, and they're trying to.
20:37
Speaker 4: Figure this out as they go along.
20:38
Speaker 1: I was also told this. He just played his ninth
20:42
Speaker 1: NFL game. And I know people don't want to hear
20:46
Speaker 1: that he's still a rookie.
20:47
Speaker 4: But he kind of is.
20:48
Speaker 1: But he kind of is. Nine games, all the things
20:50
Speaker 1: you talked about. Uh, I got no vibe from talking
20:54
Speaker 1: to people that there's any worry about him long-term, uh, short-term, uh,
20:59
Speaker 1: they're trying to get him up to speed, uh, to
21:03
Speaker 1: be able to play full-time. So that's my interpretation of it. Uh,
21:08
Speaker 1: but there's no worry about him, uh, not being a
21:12
Speaker 1: great player. On to segment four, which will blow through quickly. Uh,
21:17
Speaker 1: I'm calling it pick a side.
21:18
Speaker 3: No.
21:18
Speaker 2: And you've already talked to him. Okay, I will.
21:21
Speaker 1: And Ornery Kai says no. So we're going to talk
21:26
Speaker 1: to offense.
21:27
Speaker 2: I'll pick defense.
21:29
Speaker 1: One topic here that is not going to go away
21:33
Speaker 1: until it does. Pass rush didn't get home. I thought
21:36
Speaker 1: the defensive line played good against the run. But many,
21:40
Speaker 1: many Ozone e-mailers this week have e-mailed me with a
21:43
Speaker 1: very succinct comment that I can't argue with. If you
21:47
Speaker 1: can't affect the passer when you're playing the best teams,
21:51
Speaker 1: you're going to have a hard time winning, especially late
21:54
Speaker 1: in the game. The Bills, the Broncos, the last two
21:58
Speaker 1: losses that really stick out with this team since they
22:01
Speaker 1: got really good fits that. I don't think anybody would
22:05
Speaker 1: argue that if you're not touching the opposing quarterback in
22:08
Speaker 1: the NFL in this day and age, you have a
22:10
Speaker 1: hard time winning big games.
22:12
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and I think that's where the frustration, I'm assuming,
22:15
Speaker 3: for the fan base comes from because that's where my
22:17
Speaker 3: mind went immediately was back to that playoff loss. We're
22:19
Speaker 3: seeing the same thing. They're not getting a pass rush going,
22:21
Speaker 3: and then explosives are exposing the secondary because you can't
22:24
Speaker 3: cover that long. There's probably more to it than that,
22:27
Speaker 3: but that's what it looked like. And yes, I know
22:29
Speaker 3: some of the personnel is different, but if we're having
22:32
Speaker 3: the same issue, the frustration to me is, is it
22:36
Speaker 3: the interior pass rush? Can we diagnose where this is
22:38
Speaker 3: coming from? if this was a problem we knew about
22:41
Speaker 3: eight months ago, why has it not been addressed? And
22:45
Speaker 3: in week one, you have all the success, you're playing
22:47
Speaker 3: a better team, and then you don't have the same success.
22:50
Speaker 3: So to me, that's an us problem we need to
22:52
Speaker 3: work on in terms of consistency because it is all complimentary. Listen,
22:59
Speaker 3: when we talk about pass.
23:00
Speaker 4: Rush, it affects everything else.
23:02
Speaker 3: And that is why when you're looking at these really
23:06
Speaker 3: important games that they're going to be playing because their
23:08
Speaker 3: schedule is more difficult. And if you want to play
23:09
Speaker 3: in the postseason, I want to see this addressed sooner
23:13
Speaker 3: than later so that we're not, again, talking about this
23:15
Speaker 3: in four months.
23:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not sure anybody on the defensive front outside
23:20
Speaker 1: Devon Hamilton, who my understanding was he was absolutely outstanding
23:27
Speaker 1: on Sunday. Trayvon played well in spots. But neither of
23:33
Speaker 1: the edge guys got the pressure in the big situation.
23:36
Speaker 1: That can be really hard if you're not getting interior pressure.
23:41
Speaker 1: Not sure they got very much interior pressure to help
23:43
Speaker 1: those guys. But again, I think the theme of that
23:49
Speaker 1: game was everybody took a turn of not making the
23:54
Speaker 1: play at the big moment. And that's why you lose
23:57
Speaker 1: 20-13 even when you're close. So, Moving on to segment five,
24:02
Speaker 1: and that's after four, Kai. And we'll close it out
24:06
Speaker 1: talking about looking around the league, ranking the Jaguars is
24:13
Speaker 1: what I call it. They fell out of my top five.
24:16
Speaker 4: Okay.
24:17
Speaker 2: But not far out of my top five. I now
24:19
Speaker 2: have the Seahawks.
24:20
Speaker 4: This is Ozone's top five.
24:21
Speaker 2: Ozone's top five.
24:21
Speaker 4: Got it.
24:22
Speaker 2: And darn it, that's the top five.
24:24
Speaker 4: That should be.
24:26
Speaker 1: Seahawks, Bills, 49ers, Chiefs, and Eagles is what I have.
24:30
Speaker 1: And I think I had the Broncos six or seven,
24:33
Speaker 1: and the Jaguars right behind that. And I got a
24:36
Speaker 1: little bit of a reaction. Oh, how can you have
24:37
Speaker 1: the Jaguars so high? They were terrible on Sunday. But
24:40
Speaker 1: I think the Broncos are good. I think the Broncos
24:42
Speaker 1: are a top 10 team, and I think the Jaguars
24:45
Speaker 1: showed their– I think they're a top 10, 12 team
24:48
Speaker 1: right now.
24:49
Speaker 2: So that's my five.
24:53
Speaker 1: And I believe the team out of that bunch, Seahawks, Bills, 49ers, Chiefs,
24:56
Speaker 1: and Eagles, I always watch the 49ers, guys.
25:00
Speaker 4: They're great, and they find a way.
25:01
Speaker 3: There are some of the Chiefs where it's like they'll
25:03
Speaker 3: have injuries. It looks on paper like it's going to
25:06
Speaker 3: be a mess, and they find a way to win.
25:07
Speaker 3: A lot of that is coaching, but they have skilled
25:09
Speaker 3: players and playmakers that make plays when you need them
25:11
Speaker 3: to make plays. We've seen that for many, many years,
25:13
Speaker 3: whether it's Christian McCaffrey or George Kittle or whatever they
25:18
Speaker 3: work around.
25:19
Speaker 4: They find a way. Now they've got Mike Evans up
25:21
Speaker 4: there doing stuff.
25:22
Speaker 3: They have someone that will make a play when you
25:24
Speaker 3: need them to make a play. We played there on
25:26
Speaker 3: the road last year. That's a tough environment. able to
25:29
Speaker 3: get a win there, but they're a talented team. And
25:31
Speaker 3: those are the ones you don't count out when we're
25:32
Speaker 3: talking about getting those ugly wins. It's teams like that.
25:36
Speaker 3: The Chiefs, of course, do that. I think the Rams,
25:38
Speaker 3: now that they're back in America, will probably be part
25:41
Speaker 3: of the conversation again at some point. Eagles, to me, though,
25:44
Speaker 3: are interesting because they go to Nashville and struggle against
25:47
Speaker 3: the Titans.
25:48
Speaker 4: And I think they are one that.
25:51
Speaker 3: Wins ugly but it doesn't feel like it's in a
25:53
Speaker 3: productive way always it almost feels like they back into
25:56
Speaker 3: it sometimes.
25:57
Speaker 2: They're gonna be 11 and 6 or 12 and 5
25:59
Speaker 2: yeah we'll see but are they super.
26:01
Speaker 4: Bowl but they're the ones that like then they're in
26:03
Speaker 4: the playoffs and.
26:03
Speaker 3: It's like all right this isn't gonna work anymore like
26:05
Speaker 3: it runs dry at some point yes they want a
26:07
Speaker 3: super bowl i understand that but at this point it
26:09
Speaker 3: just feels and i just say that based on you
26:12
Speaker 3: know having some eagles fans in my life that follow
26:14
Speaker 3: them and the frustrations that come along with.
26:16
Speaker 4: That uh it's very tenuous i think okay the uh.
26:22
Speaker 1: Final thought there. Seahawks to me are a team that
26:26
Speaker 1: even when they're good, I never seem to have a
26:28
Speaker 1: grasp of why they're good, except they're good. And they
26:33
Speaker 1: feel like sometimes Super Bowl champions win it and you
26:36
Speaker 1: feel like they're going to fall off. They feel solid
26:40
Speaker 1: to me. And it feels like that NFC West, just
26:42
Speaker 1: like last year when it was clearly the best division
26:44
Speaker 1: in football. Seahawks don't feel like a team yet that
26:49
Speaker 1: it's going to have a decline.
26:50
Speaker 4: So John, they don't have their starting quarterback, and they're
26:52
Speaker 4: still the best. That's crazy. What other team are you
26:54
Speaker 4: going to lose your starting quarterback? And you're like, oh,
26:56
Speaker 4: that's fine. They're still the best. That alone should tell
26:59
Speaker 4: you how well built it is.
27:00
Speaker 1: The 49ers seem to have the capability of doing that
27:03
Speaker 1: as well sometimes.
27:04
Speaker 4: Just because they have in the past, yes.
27:06
Speaker 2: But, yeah, it's remarkable. Quickly, Jaguars 1-1.
27:10
Speaker 1: Still in first place in the AFC South, though, and
27:12
Speaker 1: I think that may be you can get lost a
27:16
Speaker 1: little bit in the mud of what just happened. But
27:20
Speaker 1: big picture, they're a game up on the division, and
27:25
Speaker 1: I do think that that's something that they're going to maintain.
27:29
Speaker 1: You've got to win Sunday, but I do think having
27:35
Speaker 1: that lead, it looks like a division that's not going
27:39
Speaker 1: to get away from you.
27:40
Speaker 3: No, because they have the only win in the division
27:42
Speaker 3: right now if we're looking at the standings. So that's
27:45
Speaker 3: definitely something you need to keep an eye on going
27:48
Speaker 3: forward because at the end of the day, you've got
27:49
Speaker 3: to win your division to get into the postseason, and
27:51
Speaker 3: that will be their way in, in my opinion. I
27:55
Speaker 3: am hoping they don't have to go for an at-large.
27:56
Speaker 3: They can win the AFC South and do it that way.
27:59
Speaker 3: Patriots is a must-win in my mind if only because,
28:01
Speaker 3: you know, you're going to London after this. It does
28:03
Speaker 3: not get easier. This is a good, tough chunk of
28:06
Speaker 3: your schedule, and I don't want to hear from my
28:08
Speaker 3: in-laws this week. So if we could beat the Patriots,
28:10
Speaker 3: that would be awesome.
28:12
Speaker 1: Final thought, and I'll let you have a final thought.
28:17
Speaker 1: I think this is a hard game. I obviously want
28:22
Speaker 1: the Jaguars to win. I think they can. This Patriots
28:27
Speaker 1: team feels like one of those teams that you're always
28:31
Speaker 1: playing and you always feel like you should beat, and
28:35
Speaker 1: yet they never vary from what they do. and they
28:40
Speaker 1: always believe they're going to be in it. And I'm
28:42
Speaker 1: not sure I'm exactly saying what I'm trying to get
28:44
Speaker 1: at right, but those are hard teams to beat. Just
28:47
Speaker 1: like Vrabel's Titans teams used to do the same thing.
28:50
Speaker 1: You never could figure out why they were beating you,
28:53
Speaker 1: and then at the end of the game they were
28:55
Speaker 1: ahead of you.
28:55
Speaker 4: You had more points, yeah.
28:57
Speaker 1: When the clock stopped. I absolutely believe the Jaguars can
29:01
Speaker 1: win this game. I wouldn't be surprised if they do.
29:06
Speaker 1: If they do, it would be maybe equally or more
29:10
Speaker 1: impressive than if they had won last week. Because I
29:14
Speaker 1: think this Patriots team just makes you play. They never
29:18
Speaker 1: give you games. And teams that don't give you games
29:23
Speaker 1: can be very hard to beat.
29:24
Speaker 3: And it can be a small little thing that will
29:26
Speaker 3: swing it. And I think being at home is going
29:29
Speaker 3: to help them this week. Because I think if that
29:31
Speaker 3: Broncos game was here, there might have been a way
29:33
Speaker 3: to edge it back to get the Jags a win.
29:37
Speaker 3: Those are when the tiny little things matter. And I
29:39
Speaker 3: think playing at home, their final home game in Jacksonville
29:42
Speaker 3: for a while, and that's important to them. They want
29:45
Speaker 3: to play at home and they want to win at home.
29:47
Speaker 3: And it can just be something that small that can
29:49
Speaker 3: play a difference. Notoriously, New England does not play well
29:52
Speaker 3: in Florida this time of year.
29:53
Speaker 2: Fair, yeah.
29:54
Speaker 4: Just from my own personal history of remembering those games specifically.
29:57
Speaker 1: And one of the Jags– victories over this franchise did
30:01
Speaker 1: come in September in 2018. Very similar circumstance, Scott.
30:05
Speaker 3: Little stuff like that. And they are also a team
30:07
Speaker 3: that's working things out. Yes, they made it to the
30:09
Speaker 3: Super Bowl last year, but they have a lot of
30:10
Speaker 3: question marks as well. Drake May trying to figure things out.
30:13
Speaker 3: They have O-line troubles. Their defense is very good. So
30:16
Speaker 3: that will be something I'm sure Liam Cohen's honed in
30:19
Speaker 3: on this week and getting those O-line issues fixed because
30:22
Speaker 3: the Patriots will get after you that way. And Mike
30:25
Speaker 3: Vrabel is also a really great coach and Jaguars fans
30:27
Speaker 3: are well versed in that. So it will be a
30:29
Speaker 3: tight one. I am going to err on the sides
30:31
Speaker 3: of the Jaguars winning.
30:33
Speaker 1: Yeah. What you said, I'll close with September really is
30:38
Speaker 1: about working things out and you can say it every
30:41
Speaker 1: year to fans who have just seen their teams lose
30:44
Speaker 1: and it, it falls deaf, but you're trying to figure
30:49
Speaker 1: things out the first four or five weeks of the
30:51
Speaker 1: season and stay afloat so that you can play the
30:54
Speaker 1: last 10 games in Vienna.
30:55
Speaker 2: And, uh, I think it's what the Jaguars are going through.
30:58
Speaker 1: Much like what 90% of the NFL teams are. I've
31:02
Speaker 1: said all offseason, I think this team's magic power, superpower,
31:06
Speaker 1: is the ability to respond.
31:08
Speaker 2: Response will be their test this week, Kai.
31:11
Speaker 4: Now's the time.
31:12
Speaker 3: Let's see it.
31:13
Speaker 1: Kai, thank you for joining the Ozone podcast. Thank you
31:16
Speaker 1: to Brent Reber and Joe Fortunato. We will see you
31:20
Speaker 1: later in the week.
31:29
Speaker 3: We'll be right back.