Latest / Jags A.M. / Jags A.M. Podcast Ep. 261 | Improving After the Bye Week: Pass Rush, Explosives & More
Transcript
- 0:16Speaker 1: Welcome to Jags AM. I'm Kanani Stephens. Brian Sexton, John
- 0:19Speaker 1: Ogier with me today. Hope you all enjoyed your bye week.
- 0:21Speaker 1: But the Jaguars are back in the building and they're
- 0:23Speaker 1: getting ready to take on the Indianapolis Colts as they
- 0:27Speaker 1: had that week off.
- 0:27Speaker 2: But now they're right back into football.
- 0:29Speaker 1: Let's go over some of our big things from the
- 0:31Speaker 1: bye week brought to you by GEHA, Government Employees Health Association.
- 0:35Speaker 1: So we were last with you on Wednesday of last week.
- 0:38Speaker 1: And unfortunately, since then, offensive linemen have been Anton Harrison
- 0:41Speaker 1: has undergone surgery, and it's seen that he had a
- 0:44Speaker 1: torn ACL, so he will be out for the rest
- 0:46Speaker 1: of the season. Big thing number one is an O-line update. Brian,
- 0:50Speaker 1: obviously not the news we wanted. We did suspect he
- 0:52Speaker 1: would be out for at least some time, but where
- 0:55Speaker 1: does this leave the O-line for the rest of the year?
- 0:57Speaker 3: Well, thin, obviously.
- 0:58Speaker 4: I mean, we talked about the depth that this team
- 1:00Speaker 4: had three starting tackles, and Walker Little had played well individually.
- 1:04Speaker 4: in the second half of training camp, so we felt
- 1:06Speaker 4: good about where he was. Really, the bummer here is
- 1:09Speaker 4: that Anton Harrison had moved over to the left side,
- 1:12Speaker 4: and he wasn't perfect, John, but he was playing consistent football,
- 1:16Speaker 4: as consistent football as he had at any point in
- 1:19Speaker 4: his young career. And the Jaguars were excited about where
- 1:22Speaker 4: he was headed. Well, now that puts an end to
- 1:25Speaker 4: a guy that you were hoping this season to be
- 1:27Speaker 4: able to say, well, do we want to pay him?
- 1:29Speaker 4: Do we want to commit to him being our left tackle?
- 1:32Speaker 4: And now you have to go back when he's on
- 1:34Speaker 4: the field at some point in 2027 and say, all right,
- 1:37Speaker 4: prove it to us again that you can be a
- 1:38Speaker 4: consistent left tackle in this league. So there's that part
- 1:41Speaker 4: of it. The other side of it, though, is that
- 1:43Speaker 4: you've got Walker Little, who played well last week. He's
- 1:45Speaker 4: capable of playing at a high level. He was a
- 1:47Speaker 4: high second-round pick, highly regarded guy. He gives you something
- 1:52Speaker 4: in the run game because he's a really good run
- 1:53Speaker 4: blocker for a big guy. So you don't fall off
- 1:57Speaker 4: at all if he can come in and play consistent football.
- 2:01Speaker 5: Yes.
- 2:02Speaker 6: This is why, since this regime got here in January,
- 2:05Speaker 6: February of 25, that they focused on this area. It's
- 2:09Speaker 6: why they didn't trade Walker Little. Anton Harrison had been
- 2:13Speaker 6: playing and buying in and all that stuff in the
- 2:17Speaker 6: last three or four weeks as well as he ever had.
- 2:20Speaker 6: And the arrow was pointing way, way up. But this
- 2:25Speaker 6: is why they did this. This is why they didn't
- 2:27Speaker 6: trade Walker Little. It's why they have depth. They have
- 2:30Speaker 6: built where they feel like they have seven or eight
- 2:32Speaker 6: starting offensive linemen. So very few teams ever get to
- 2:38Speaker 6: the Super Bowl, which is where the Jaguars want to go,
- 2:41Speaker 6: with everybody intact. You're going to have a few spots
- 2:45Speaker 6: where you have to play your depth. And welcome to
- 2:48Speaker 6: this season in that sense. The season sort of starts
- 2:51Speaker 6: in a way when you get your first injury with
- 2:53Speaker 6: the guy out for the season.
- 2:54Speaker 5: So it starts now.
- 2:56Speaker 1: Let's go to our second big thing, which is buyers
- 2:57Speaker 1: or sellers. The trade deadline for the NFL is November
- 3:00Speaker 1: 10th this year. So we've got about two weeks left. Don,
- 3:03Speaker 1: where's this team going to be at? Buyer sellers are
- 3:05Speaker 1: not making a move at all, you think?
- 3:07Speaker 5: I think they want to buy.
- 3:08Speaker 6: I mean, it's usually when my wife goes shopping, she
- 3:12Speaker 6: wants to buy.
- 3:13Speaker 2: We want to spend money.
- 3:14Speaker 5: That's what we want.
- 3:16Speaker 6: Often you can't quite find, not as often as I'd like,
- 3:20Speaker 6: but you can't quite find the right thing to buy.
- 3:24Speaker 6: I think the Jaguars want, if they can, to improve
- 3:27Speaker 6: the pass rush. I think ideally they'd like to get
- 3:30Speaker 6: better on the interior and get a dynamic, game-changing defensive tackle.
- 3:38Speaker 5: Who you got? It can be hard, Brian.
- 3:42Speaker 6: You can be aggressive and not come home with what
- 3:46Speaker 6: you wanted to buy if there's nothing there.
- 3:48Speaker 4: And there may not be anything there, but there may
- 3:50Speaker 4: be an opportunity to sell, and obviously Brian Thomas Jr.
- 3:53Speaker 4: 's name has been at the top of everyone's list.
- 3:55Speaker 4: Just to share a story, I was in Kansas City
- 3:56Speaker 4: over the weekend, and Chiefs fans were asking me, well,
- 4:00Speaker 4: what do you think?
- 4:01Speaker 3: Can we get him? How about a five? What a six?
- 4:03Speaker 4: I said, why would you give up a five or
- 4:05Speaker 4: a six? And the point of this is, last night,
- 4:07Speaker 4: Kansas City would probably have given up a two to
- 4:09Speaker 4: have a guy like Brian Thomas Jr., because the Seahawks
- 4:12Speaker 4: just squeezed everything to stop Kenneth Walker, and they don't
- 4:15Speaker 4: have anything over the top. The point of this is
- 4:17Speaker 4: that there are some teams that are going to pick
- 4:18Speaker 4: up the phone and call, teams that look and see
- 4:21Speaker 4: where they have huge deficiencies. Kansas City can't throw the
- 4:24Speaker 4: ball down the field at all if you watched that
- 4:26Speaker 4: game last night.
- 4:26Speaker 3: They have no one to stretch the field.
- 4:28Speaker 4: So maybe, Kai, you can turn this to your advantage
- 4:32Speaker 4: and take a player who's fallen down your chart that
- 4:34Speaker 4: doesn't have a big role in your offense and grab
- 4:37Speaker 4: a pick that you might not have expected to get
- 4:39Speaker 4: for him from a team like a Kansas City.
- 4:42Speaker 1: James Gladstone will certainly be on the phone in the
- 4:43Speaker 1: coming weeks and will report when we have more.
- 4:46Speaker 2: News to tell.
- 4:47Speaker 1: Our final thing today, our final big thing today, is
- 4:50Speaker 1: bi-week win because Brian, the Jaguars didn't play, but everybody
- 4:54Speaker 1: else in the AFC South lost, so it kind of
- 4:56Speaker 1: feels like a win.
- 4:57Speaker 2: No, it did.
- 4:58Speaker 4: Listen, it was a winning weekend for the Jaguars, and
- 5:00Speaker 4: I was sitting in the airport getting ready to come
- 5:01Speaker 4: back and watching all three games. And, of course, the
- 5:04Speaker 4: Titans tied it up, and the Colts had a chance
- 5:06Speaker 4: late in the ballgame. They were driving, and the Texans
- 5:09Speaker 4: went to overtime, and all three felt their way.
- 5:12Speaker 3: Sometimes in a season, John, You wonder where you're at.
- 5:15Speaker 4: Jaguars lost in London, go to their bye week, trying
- 5:18Speaker 4: to figure out how things are going to lay out,
- 5:20Speaker 4: and then this happens. And you say, wow, we've got
- 5:22Speaker 4: a two-and-a-half game lead, and we didn't even play. Now
- 5:26Speaker 4: what are we going to do about it? You've got
- 5:27Speaker 4: the Colts here on Sunday. You've got an opportunity to
- 5:30Speaker 4: drive yourself way out in front.
- 5:33Speaker 3: If you just do what you do.
- 5:35Speaker 6: Yeah, and the Texans are off, so you've got a
- 5:37Speaker 6: chance to have a three-game lead. You want to be
- 5:40Speaker 6: at least two games up on them when you play
- 5:43Speaker 6: them later. uh, you'd like for that not to even
- 5:45Speaker 6: be a factor. So, uh, look, when the season's going on,
- 5:51Speaker 6: you get very week to week and rise and fall
- 5:55Speaker 6: and okay, boy, we lost this particular game. The Jaguars
- 5:59Speaker 6: have been far and away the best team in the
- 6:01Speaker 6: AFC South. They've been one of the best seven or eight,
- 6:04Speaker 6: nine teams in the league. Their place in the standing
- 6:07Speaker 6: reflects it. I think they deserve to be coming out
- 6:10Speaker 6: of this by with a lead. Uh, It starts now.
- 6:14Speaker 6: You put yourself in a situation to move forward, and
- 6:18Speaker 6: they couldn't be in a better spot. I mean, I
- 6:21Speaker 6: guess you could be six games up, but you couldn't
- 6:23Speaker 6: be in a better spot than two and a half
- 6:26Speaker 6: games up at this point, Brian.
- 6:27Speaker 4: And November, Kai, is the month where the pretenders and
- 6:30Speaker 4: the contenders separate themselves.
- 6:32Speaker 3: So here you go.
- 6:33Speaker 4: You've got on November 1st, the Colts in town, and
- 6:36Speaker 4: then you've got two games against the Titans. Right up
- 6:38Speaker 4: against the month of December, you have a chance to
- 6:41Speaker 4: really set something up going into Houston in December, that
- 6:45Speaker 4: game won't matter.
- 6:47Speaker 2: Stay with us here on Jags AM.
- 6:48Speaker 1: Coming up, we're going to talk about the three things
- 6:50Speaker 1: this team does best and three things we need to.
- 6:53Speaker 2: Get better at. Welcome back into Jags AM.
- 6:58Speaker 1: We're here in the Hyundai Studios on a Monday after
- 7:01Speaker 1: the bye week. So we took some time to reflect,
- 7:04Speaker 1: and we're going to use a... A program that the
- 7:07Speaker 1: Jaguars use with their coaching staff and their players called
- 7:09Speaker 1: Three Better, Three Best. So the three best things are
- 7:12Speaker 1: things they do very, very well. Three better are three
- 7:14Speaker 1: things they need to get better at going forward. And
- 7:16Speaker 1: we're going to start out with the nice things. So
- 7:17Speaker 1: we're going to start out with three best first.
- 7:19Speaker 2: So, Brian, what's your best? What do they do best
- 7:21Speaker 2: right now?
- 7:21Speaker 3: Well, they're the best in the league at stopping the run.
- 7:24Speaker 4: And they gave up the explosive 20-yard, 5-yard touchdown run
- 7:27Speaker 4: in the second half against Houston.
- 7:28Speaker 3: But other than that. They have not given up explosive runs.
- 7:31Speaker 4: They have not allowed running backs or running games to
- 7:34Speaker 4: dominate them. And when you look at some of the
- 7:37Speaker 4: better teams in the AFC, the Chiefs being one, right,
- 7:40Speaker 4: with Kenneth Walker, you know that you can line up
- 7:43Speaker 4: and play with the best running backs in the league
- 7:45Speaker 4: because you've got a stalwart on your defensive side of
- 7:50Speaker 4: the ball.
- 7:51Speaker 3: You stop the run.
- 7:53Speaker 4: And if you can't stop the run, and we've seen
- 7:55Speaker 4: plenty of examples of it through the years here, If
- 7:58Speaker 4: you can't stop the run, you can't do anything else.
- 8:00Speaker 4: And so for them to have that baseline, that bedrock
- 8:03Speaker 4: that they can count on, is something really strong going forward.
- 8:08Speaker 6: Yeah, I don't know if they're yet a great overall defense.
- 8:13Speaker 6: I think they're really, really good. But I do know that,
- 8:17Speaker 6: as you said, when you can stop the run the
- 8:19Speaker 6: way they do, out of 17 games, you give yourself
- 8:23Speaker 6: a chance to play really good defense that day. Now,
- 8:26Speaker 6: you might get in a situation where you can't quite
- 8:28Speaker 6: get to the passer, which this team's had a problem with.
- 8:30Speaker 6: But any time you can stop the run like that,
- 8:33Speaker 6: you can look in the mirror in the morning and think, okay,
- 8:37Speaker 6: we have a good chance to be really good on
- 8:39Speaker 6: defense today.
- 8:39Speaker 3: Well, if you can't stop the run, you have no
- 8:41Speaker 3: chance of getting better.
- 8:41Speaker 5: Ever.
- 8:42Speaker 3: Ever.
- 8:43Speaker 4: Because then you have no chance to lean into your
- 8:45Speaker 4: pass rush or your strong secondary or anything that you like.
- 8:49Speaker 3: So the ability to stop the run is key.
- 8:51Speaker 5: Yeah, they need to complement that with more turnovers.
- 8:53Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 8:54Speaker 5: That's been a strength.
- 8:55Speaker 6: Last couple weeks, that's probably why it felt a little
- 8:58Speaker 6: dicey in London. Didn't quite get those guys.
- 9:00Speaker 1: I was going to say, this feels like a Devon
- 9:01Speaker 1: Hamilton award, so just all the credit to D-Ham there
- 9:03Speaker 1: in the middle.
- 9:05Speaker 3: Ventral Miller has had a hell of a year, too.
- 9:06Speaker 2: Absolutely.
- 9:07Speaker 5: All those guys up front stopped.
- 9:08Speaker 6: I mean, Trayvon and Josh, as much as people want
- 9:11Speaker 6: to criticize sack numbers, I'm not sure you're a great run.
- 9:14Speaker 5: Defense without those two either. I mean, all of these
- 9:17Speaker 5: guys really play the run well.
- 9:18Speaker 2: John, when you're looking at this team, what do they
- 9:20Speaker 2: do best?
- 9:21Speaker 5: Well, I think they let Trevor dress.
- 9:25Speaker 2: Trevor Lawrence plays for the team.
- 9:26Speaker 5: Got it.
- 9:28Speaker 6: And it was easy, I think, in the first six
- 9:32Speaker 6: weeks to, you know, you get in the habit of
- 9:36Speaker 6: picking apart this and analyzing this. And you forget that
- 9:40Speaker 6: Trevor Lawrence, the quarterback, for what? How many years has
- 9:43Speaker 6: the franchise been around?
- 9:44Speaker 3: 30?
- 9:44Speaker 5: This is the 32nd season.
- 9:45Speaker 6: You've been waiting for this kind of level of quarterback,
- 9:49Speaker 6: especially in the last 15, 20 years when it's become
- 9:52Speaker 6: such a quarterback-centric league. They've got a quarterback who's playing
- 9:57Speaker 6: at an extremely high level that it would never surprise
- 10:03Speaker 6: you after a game with the Jaguars now if you
- 10:05Speaker 6: walked off and said Trevor Lawrence was the best player
- 10:08Speaker 6: on the field ever.
- 10:10Speaker 5: Now, there's matchups where you wouldn't assume that.
- 10:12Speaker 6: Josh Allen, I mean, there's quarterbacks that are in his league,
- 10:15Speaker 6: but he can carry you. And I'm not sure... That
- 10:20Speaker 6: there's nothing in the NFL that gives more of a
- 10:22Speaker 6: chance than that.
- 10:23Speaker 4: As I was watching games yesterday, I kept looking to
- 10:25Speaker 4: see quarterback play because I watched that Seattle-Denver Thursday night
- 10:29Speaker 4: game when we were in London and thought, well, here
- 10:31Speaker 4: are two teams that believe themselves to be contenders.
- 10:34Speaker 3: But would you take those quarterbacks as yours? Well, no.
- 10:38Speaker 4: And watching yesterday, I'm trying to think of quarterbacks that
- 10:41Speaker 4: you'd say, well, I'd rather have that guy than my guy.
- 10:43Speaker 4: I can't think of a single one yesterday that I watched.
- 10:46Speaker 4: I would rather have him than Trevor Lawrence.
- 10:48Speaker 3: So you're in.
- 10:49Speaker 4: A strong position in a quarterback-driven league to have a
- 10:53Speaker 4: guy who is a difference maker, a guy who can
- 10:55Speaker 4: push you over the top, who if you're not having
- 10:57Speaker 4: a good day, he can help get you to the
- 11:00Speaker 4: end zone. He can help get you to the finish
- 11:02Speaker 4: line by the strength of his talent. And Trevor is
- 11:05Speaker 4: absolutely one of those guys. playing at that kind of
- 11:08Speaker 4: a level. And you know who the other ones are, right?
- 11:10Speaker 4: Josh Allen, Joe Burrow did it yesterday on a day
- 11:13Speaker 4: where in the first half they could do nothing.
- 11:15Speaker 3: In the second half, he said, all right, I'm just
- 11:16Speaker 3: going to throw the ball around. You've got one of
- 11:18Speaker 3: those guys.
- 11:19Speaker 5: It's the consistency.
- 11:20Speaker 2: For so long, the knock was Trevor has these amazing talents.
- 11:23Speaker 2: He just can't put it together consistently.
- 11:25Speaker 5: It's consistent now. It's expected. Well, it's so consistent that
- 11:29Speaker 5: people don't even notice it anymore.
- 11:30Speaker 3: Right.
- 11:31Speaker 5: It's just what it is.
- 11:32Speaker 6: I mean, it's– last year it was, oh, he's coming along.
- 11:37Speaker 6: He's got 14 and four this year. I don't know
- 11:39Speaker 6: if he's still leading league in touchdown passes, but he
- 11:41Speaker 6: was up there at the bye. And he doesn't even
- 11:45Speaker 6: like make the highlights on the stuff because now people
- 11:50Speaker 6: are assuming it.
- 11:51Speaker 5: And that's a good thing.
- 11:52Speaker 1: Yeah. For mine, I was trying to kind of figure
- 11:56Speaker 1: out exactly what you guys give me your answers first.
- 11:58Speaker 2: And then I was like, all right, I got to
- 11:58Speaker 2: figure out what I'm going to say.
- 12:00Speaker 1: But resiliency for me, because it's and I compare this
- 12:04Speaker 1: just to other teams I've covered.
- 12:05Speaker 2: And things I've seen before.
- 12:06Speaker 1: And I'll use the Jaguars as an example, kind of
- 12:09Speaker 1: the end of the last regime here. They went to Miami. Travis, Travis,
- 12:15Speaker 1: he's an engineer fumbled in the end zone. They lost
- 12:17Speaker 1: that game. That was the first game of the season.
- 12:20Speaker 1: And it felt like that was it. It felt like
- 12:21Speaker 1: that broke open the dam and that nothing would come back.
- 12:24Speaker 1: And any time anything else went wrong after that, you
- 12:28Speaker 1: were just waiting for the house of cards to fall down.
- 12:30Speaker 2: And they don't have that anymore.
- 12:31Speaker 1: Ten things could go wrong in this game, and I
- 12:33Speaker 1: still have faith that Liam Cohen and his team are
- 12:35Speaker 1: going to find a way to at least be in
- 12:36Speaker 1: it and have a chance. Look at the Eagles game alone.
- 12:38Speaker 1: The way that that went down, that was not their
- 12:40Speaker 1: best game of football. They made a ton of mistakes,
- 12:43Speaker 1: coaching mistakes, player mistakes, penalties. But they put themselves in
- 12:46Speaker 1: a position to still have a chance at the end,
- 12:48Speaker 1: and they won. And that's not something that should be
- 12:51Speaker 1: taken lightly because there's not a lot of teams that
- 12:54Speaker 1: have that in them. If something goes wrong, they just
- 12:57Speaker 1: kind of, okay, that wasn't our day. They don't have
- 12:59Speaker 1: that here. It always feels like it goes down to
- 13:01Speaker 1: the final seconds, even the Texans. It's back and back
- 13:03Speaker 1: and forth all day long, whether or not you're playing your.
- 13:05Speaker 2: Best or not.
- 13:06Speaker 1: And that's a really good place to be, and that's
- 13:08Speaker 1: how you become a better football team is always being
- 13:11Speaker 1: like taking the best coming at you but finding a
- 13:13Speaker 1: way to bounce back.
- 13:14Speaker 3: You decide where the importance is, right?
- 13:16Speaker 4: I mean, this staff has unlocked Trevor Lawrence and gotten
- 13:19Speaker 4: that franchise quarterback that we just talked about. The other
- 13:21Speaker 4: side of it was they took a team that that
- 13:23Speaker 4: year that you mentioned, 2024, this team lost nine of
- 13:26Speaker 4: 10 games in which they.
- 13:27Speaker 3: Either had the lead or were tied in the fourth quarter. Oh,
- 13:30Speaker 3: it was an epic. It was an epic problem.
- 13:33Speaker 4: And in the span of months, in comes Liam Cohen.
- 13:37Speaker 4: And I still think that that Houston game last year
- 13:39Speaker 4: where they blew the 19-point lead was the turning point
- 13:41Speaker 4: of it all because there were guys in that locker
- 13:44Speaker 4: room who remembered the losing. It was muscle memory to
- 13:47Speaker 4: some of them. And Liam said, hell no, we're not
- 13:50Speaker 4: doing that. And then all of a sudden they went
- 13:52Speaker 4: on this eight-game run. And then how many times this
- 13:54Speaker 4: year has this team struggled or been stumbling? The fourth
- 13:58Speaker 4: quarter last week against the Texans. They go down 10.
- 14:01Speaker 4: They cut it to three. They go back down 10.
- 14:04Speaker 4: They cut it to three. I mean, it The resiliency
- 14:06Speaker 4: thing is huge. It's every bit as important, or maybe
- 14:08Speaker 4: just slightly less, than Trevor Lawrence.
- 14:10Speaker 5: They've become that team.
- 14:11Speaker 2: Trevor Haley's resilient.
- 14:12Speaker 3: Yeah, right.
- 14:13Speaker 5: They've become that team, and we've all watched them.
- 14:16Speaker 6: And I don't think people, again, they haven't done it
- 14:18Speaker 6: long enough for people nationally to realize they're this team yet.
- 14:21Speaker 6: But when you're watching good teams play and you're not vested,
- 14:25Speaker 6: teams like the Chiefs, not last night, but the great teams,
- 14:30Speaker 6: you're watching the third quarter and you kind of walk
- 14:31Speaker 6: by the TV and you think, oh, oh, that really
- 14:35Speaker 6: good team's down 10. And then you come back after
- 14:37Speaker 6: you make dinner and they've won, you're like, oh, they
- 14:40Speaker 6: won again.
- 14:41Speaker 5: Because they keep coming and keep resilient. I think the
- 14:43Speaker 5: Jaguars are becoming that.
- 14:45Speaker 6: I thought Liam Cohen's reaction after the Texans game fit
- 14:48Speaker 6: into that. And even Trevor Lawrence. That there wasn't going
- 14:53Speaker 6: to be soul search. And that Liam said, look, I
- 14:57Speaker 6: like this team. I have utmost confidence in this team.
- 15:00Speaker 6: I love this team. Whatever he said, I.
- 15:03Speaker 5: Unlike coming out of the Rams last year where there.
- 15:05Speaker 6: Was concern, what is this franchise? I think if we
- 15:08Speaker 6: looked at the Texans game, no, you didn't want to
- 15:12Speaker 6: lose it. But zero thought of anybody in the building
- 15:16Speaker 6: that they wouldn't bounce back from it.
- 15:18Speaker 5: I mean, it was a loss. It wasn't a tragedy.
- 15:20Speaker 2: It's a nice place to be. Yeah. Stay with us.
- 15:23Speaker 1: After the break, we're going to go over the three
- 15:25Speaker 1: things this team needs to improve upon after five weeks.
- 15:31Speaker 2: Welcome back into Jags Day.
- 15:32Speaker 1: I'm brought to you by Lowe's. We're here in the
- 15:33Speaker 1: Hyundai Studios. We just told you the three things that
- 15:36Speaker 1: this team.
- 15:36Speaker 2: Does best right now. But after the bye week.
- 15:39Speaker 1: Going into week eight and this home stretch of the season,
- 15:41Speaker 1: there's definitely stuff they need to improve on going forward.
- 15:43Speaker 2: So now we're going to give you our three better,
- 15:45Speaker 2: three things they've got to do better. Brian, when I
- 15:48Speaker 2: tell you this team needs to be better going forward,
- 15:50Speaker 2: what's the first thing that jumps to your mind?
- 15:51Speaker 4: They've got to stop the explosive plays. They've allowed far
- 15:54Speaker 4: too many explosive plays in the passing game. And the
- 15:57Speaker 4: most obvious answer there, John, and you've talked about it, is...
- 16:00Speaker 4: The pass rush has got to affect the quarterback. I mean,
- 16:03Speaker 4: not just pressures. They've got to hit the quarterback. They've
- 16:06Speaker 4: got to get him on the ground. They've got to
- 16:08Speaker 4: create turnover-worthy throws, which is a next-gen stat, I have
- 16:11Speaker 4: found out, which they haven't done. It's hard in this
- 16:16Speaker 4: league as a defensive back to hold up too long.
- 16:18Speaker 4: The rules favor the wide receivers and the quarterback. So
- 16:22Speaker 4: you've got to have a pass rush. And the Jaguars
- 16:25Speaker 4: right now, Listen, they have relied on a strong red
- 16:29Speaker 4: zone defense to negate some of those explosive plays. And takeaways,
- 16:33Speaker 4: which have negated some of those explosive plays. But you
- 16:36Speaker 4: can't keep giving up plays like that where you had
- 16:40Speaker 4: on that play, if you recall, you had someone on
- 16:44Speaker 4: the quarterback and he threw it up. And Noel came
- 16:46Speaker 4: underneath and Janice Gardeck was all over him on that play.
- 16:49Speaker 4: You've got to find a way to get home and
- 16:51Speaker 4: negate some of these because... If you don't, you're putting
- 16:55Speaker 4: yourself at a, every game has to be a shootout.
- 16:57Speaker 4: You don't get to lean into your offense.
- 16:59Speaker 6: Yeah, I think we saw in these highlights a little
- 17:01Speaker 6: bit of why they weren't absolutely panicked after the Texans
- 17:05Speaker 6: lost because there were some incredible plays that Houston made
- 17:10Speaker 6: when the Jaguars really played pretty good defense. You know,
- 17:14Speaker 6: Gardeck gets that kind of pressure most plays. That's probably
- 17:18Speaker 6: a fraction of an inch from a tipped ball in
- 17:20Speaker 6: the middle of the field that looks like a floater
- 17:23Speaker 6: that that you wind up intercepting. But they must get
- 17:27Speaker 6: more consistent up front pressure, and I believe it still
- 17:34Speaker 6: comes down to the internal stuff. Can they get it?
- 17:38Speaker 6: I don't know, but they need to.
- 17:39Speaker 4: Well, in talking to guys on the airplane ride home,
- 17:42Speaker 4: you know, there were so many opportunities for the Jaguars
- 17:48Speaker 4: to get there, but the Texans got rid of the
- 17:50Speaker 4: ball so quick. And so people want to look at
- 17:53Speaker 4: the number of sacks, and there's, what, five and a
- 17:55Speaker 4: half between or four and a half between Josh and
- 17:58Speaker 4: Trayvon right now. It's not all just, well, you've got
- 18:03Speaker 4: to rush better, right? I mean, you've got to get
- 18:07Speaker 4: some pressure up the middle. You've got to do something
- 18:09Speaker 4: to force things to the outside to take advantage of it.
- 18:12Speaker 6: Some of those numbers also are still a little skewed,
- 18:15Speaker 6: and I'm not trying to make excuses, but the Eagles
- 18:17Speaker 6: got the ball out, for example.
- 18:18Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 18:19Speaker 5: Lightning quick.
- 18:20Speaker 6: And in this league, if you have, if you have
- 18:22Speaker 6: a quarterback, if the opposing game plan is to get
- 18:24Speaker 6: it out quick, you're not going to get a lot
- 18:26Speaker 6: of sacks.
- 18:26Speaker 5: Eagles had 220 yards. So there are some.
- 18:29Speaker 6: Numbers there that, uh, you know, maybe get lost a
- 18:33Speaker 6: little bit in the constant criticism of the pass rush,
- 18:37Speaker 6: but in big situations, it hasn't been there enough.
- 18:41Speaker 3: So lots of pressure, but not enough sacks. They've got
- 18:43Speaker 3: to make those things happen.
- 18:45Speaker 6: Um, I went, I'm not sure this is exactly the
- 18:48Speaker 6: spirit of it because, again, we can talk about pass
- 18:50Speaker 6: rush all day.
- 18:51Speaker 5: I went with they need to get the more explosive runs.
- 18:56Speaker 6: And it's almost like I'm saying they just need the
- 19:02Speaker 6: possibilities to eventually.
- 19:06Speaker 5: Even out, right?
- 19:06Speaker 6: Because they've been so close. And through six games, you
- 19:10Speaker 6: feel like the run game's there. You feel like it's
- 19:12Speaker 6: getting better. But they haven't quite gotten that back-breaking run yet.
- 19:15Speaker 5: I think they will.
- 19:16Speaker 6: I think when they start getting it, you're going to
- 19:18Speaker 6: see this team get into the top two or three,
- 19:20Speaker 6: four running teams in the league because they're really consistent,
- 19:23Speaker 6: really good. But in this league, it's really hard to
- 19:29Speaker 6: have 10-play 80-yard drives. you need some of those to
- 19:33Speaker 6: pop to get back to the numbers I think people
- 19:36Speaker 6: expected scoring-wise.
- 19:37Speaker 5: From this offense.
- 19:38Speaker 4: Listen, they've had some explosive runs, but funny enough, on
- 19:41Speaker 4: those explosive runs, there's been holding penalties, right? There have
- 19:44Speaker 4: been things that have happened, whether they were.
- 19:46Speaker 3: Real or imagined, where good runs.
- 19:50Speaker 4: powerful explosive runs by Basil Tootin were called back. it
- 19:54Speaker 4: feels like they're very, very close. And you say, well,
- 19:57Speaker 4: you've got to clean up the penalties, right? And then
- 19:59Speaker 4: you see the Texans had 14 yesterday. I mean, the
- 20:01Speaker 4: flags are still coming at an epic rate. So before
- 20:08Speaker 4: November is over, John, I think we'll be talking about
- 20:10Speaker 4: how this running game really gave a boost to this offense.
- 20:16Speaker 5: If the category had been, and I'm not trying to
- 20:18Speaker 5: produce a show.
- 20:19Speaker 2: Please do.
- 20:20Speaker 5: If the category had been, give.
- 20:22Speaker 6: Me a breakout player for the second half of the season,
- 20:25Speaker 6: we all might have picked Basial. Because you feel like
- 20:29Speaker 6: that's so close that if you're watching, you already know
- 20:34Speaker 6: he's good.
- 20:36Speaker 5: It feels like he's about to turn into a star.
- 20:40Speaker 1: I cheated a little bit. I'm kind of taking off.
- 20:43Speaker 1: It's all about the pass rush in some way, fashion,
- 20:45Speaker 1: or form. But mine is affecting the QB because whether
- 20:48Speaker 1: that's through pressures or sacks or whatever it takes, they
- 20:51Speaker 1: need to get more takeaways. And I think that's where
- 20:53Speaker 1: this defense is going to thrive because I don't think
- 20:56Speaker 1: they're going to reinvent the wheel with this roster that
- 20:58Speaker 1: they have. Yes, you can make a deadline addition, but
- 21:00Speaker 1: they're not going to become what maybe the Texans were
- 21:03Speaker 1: last year in terms of sack numbers.
- 21:04Speaker 2: That's just not what this team is going to be.
- 21:07Speaker 1: And what they need to do is get pressure and
- 21:09Speaker 1: affect the quarterback so that they can get more takeaways.
- 21:12Speaker 1: And that's how they thrive is getting the ball back,
- 21:14Speaker 1: giving their offense another opportunity, taking points potentially off the board.
- 21:18Speaker 1: Travis Hunter's interception and end zone. They need more of that.
- 21:21Speaker 1: That's how I feel like this defense function is best.
- 21:24Speaker 1: And when I looked back at some of these defensive
- 21:26Speaker 1: performances the last couple of weeks, that's what was noticeably
- 21:29Speaker 1: missing is multiple.
- 21:30Speaker 2: Turnovers to me. I feel like that's kind of what
- 21:33Speaker 2: they need to see. Be successful.
- 21:34Speaker 4: Listen, I think this is a very good defense. But
- 21:37Speaker 4: in order to be that level that they believe they're
- 21:39Speaker 4: capable of, with a defensive coordinator I think that all
- 21:42Speaker 4: of us have confidence in, they've got to get what
- 21:45Speaker 4: you're saying.
- 21:45Speaker 3: They've got to get the takeaways.
- 21:47Speaker 4: They don't have Miles Garrett, who just, when he's healthy,
- 21:50Speaker 4: takes over a game. They have to have these takeaways
- 21:54Speaker 4: that give everyone else a lift, that make everyone else better.
- 21:58Speaker 4: And that, to me, is the difference.
- 22:00Speaker 5: I also wonder, and... You always hate to talk about
- 22:03Speaker 5: it because, oh, Ozone, you're making excuses.
- 22:05Speaker 6: I thought in the first four games, I thought the
- 22:09Speaker 6: pass rush was okay. The two in London was when
- 22:15Speaker 6: it's really started to ramp up. I'm not sure you
- 22:19Speaker 6: can overlook the fields over there on that front. And
- 22:23Speaker 6: was there a whole lot of pass rush in any
- 22:25Speaker 6: of those two games on either side of the ball?
- 22:27Speaker 6: So is it going to be the sack exchange?
- 22:31Speaker 5: Probably not.
- 22:32Speaker 6: Is it a better pass rush than people felt coming
- 22:35Speaker 6: out of England? I think it's a little better than
- 22:39Speaker 6: what you felt there.
- 22:40Speaker 1: I just don't know if the sack numbers are going
- 22:42Speaker 1: to be there because sacks across the league are down too.
- 22:44Speaker 2: So what we're thinking.
- 22:46Speaker 1: Is a normal number is not what's normal this season.
- 22:50Speaker 1: So kind of getting our heads wrapped around that and
- 22:53Speaker 1: what's realistic for this defense going forward. But we've got
- 22:56Speaker 1: a bunch of weeks to talk about that. So stay
- 22:58Speaker 1: with us. We'll tell you what's coming up this week
- 23:00Speaker 1: as the team.
- 23:00Speaker 2: Prepares for the Colts.
- 23:04Speaker 1: Jacksonville Jaguars bring our community together just like Florida Blue
- 23:08Speaker 1: does every day. For over 80 years, we've been here
- 23:11Speaker 1: committed to helping you and your family live healthier lives.
- 23:13Speaker 1: Proud to be the presenting sponsor of Sunday's game against
- 23:16Speaker 1: the Colts. Florida Blue, committed to you, committed to Jacksonville.
- 23:21Speaker 2: Welcome back in.
- 23:22Speaker 1: We have that rivalry matchup against the Colts coming up this.
- 23:26Speaker 3: Week, but we are wearing the rivalry uniforms.
- 23:28Speaker 1: We are wearing the rivalry uniforms. I'm sure people will
- 23:31Speaker 1: feel all types of ways about it, but they are interesting.
- 23:33Speaker 5: To say the very least.
- 23:35Speaker 3: Yeah, it'll be fun.
- 23:36Speaker 1: Brian, it was a bye week. What did you kind
- 23:38Speaker 1: of get into? What happened with you? What's going on?
- 23:41Speaker 4: If I could take this moment to just say something
- 23:43Speaker 4: about Pete Banaszak, who passed away on Saturday, and many
- 23:48Speaker 4: people who are watching this might not remember that he
- 23:50Speaker 4: was a big part of our early years in broadcasting here.
- 23:55Speaker 4: We use the word legend just so ubiquitously in the NFL.
- 23:57Speaker 4: Anyone who ever played is a legend. Pete was a
- 24:00Speaker 4: verifiable legend from the University of Miami, went to the
- 24:03Speaker 4: Raiders in the AFL in the 60s, played in AFL
- 24:06Speaker 4: championship games, played in Super Bowls, had two rushing touchdowns
- 24:09Speaker 4: when the Raiders beat the Vikings in Super Bowl XI,
- 24:13Speaker 4: had 16 rushing touchdowns that season. I mean, When the
- 24:18Speaker 4: Raiders were at their best, Pete Banaszak was a huge part.
- 24:21Speaker 4: In fact, there's a play you can look up called
- 24:22Speaker 4: the Holy Roller that changed the way that they officiate
- 24:25Speaker 4: the game. Banaszak came in at a moment, John, and
- 24:27Speaker 4: you recall this, where Jacksonville was still a college town
- 24:30Speaker 4: and needed to know the difference between the game they
- 24:33Speaker 4: play on Sunday and Saturday. He was our postgame host.
- 24:36Speaker 4: And he called himself the Polish Prince. He was from
- 24:38Speaker 4: northern Wisconsin. And he had the thick sort of 60s,
- 24:43Speaker 4: 70s sort of football player mentality to him. And he
- 24:48Speaker 4: was a gem. And he pissed players off. He made
- 24:51Speaker 4: coaches mad. And we were closer to his era, so
- 24:56Speaker 4: people appreciated that. He passed on Saturday. He was a
- 25:01Speaker 4: big part of it. And We were all forgotten at
- 25:04Speaker 4: some point in time. I just didn't want people who
- 25:06Speaker 4: did appreciate him on the postgame show.
- 25:08Speaker 3: Riling up the kicker.
- 25:09Speaker 4: Mike Hollis once called in to defend himself, which I
- 25:12Speaker 4: don't think has happened to this point. But Pete Banaszak
- 25:15Speaker 4: was a really valuable member of our broadcast team for
- 25:18Speaker 4: 10 years, and he passed on Saturday, so condolences to
- 25:21Speaker 4: his family.
- 25:22Speaker 6: Yeah, during that era, my paths never really crossed with
- 25:26Speaker 6: Pete because I was covering the game, he was in studio.
- 25:30Speaker 6: But I do remember as a kid, Pete Banaszak football cards,
- 25:34Speaker 6: watching him with the Raiders. And as you said, he
- 25:37Speaker 6: was a legendary part of the autumn wind blows. He
- 25:43Speaker 6: was that era and I always heard fantastic things about
- 25:46Speaker 6: him and absolutely mattered in the fabric of this franchise
- 25:50Speaker 6: early on.
- 25:52Speaker 3: He was a big part of it. I was sad
- 25:54Speaker 3: to see him pass.
- 25:55Speaker 2: Of course.
- 25:57Speaker 1: Stay with us here on Jaguars AM tomorrow or Wednesday, rather.
- 26:01Speaker 1: As I get back into regular week form, we will
- 26:04Speaker 1: be back as we look around the league and we
- 26:06Speaker 1: get prepared for the Colts matchup this weekend.
- 26:08Speaker 2: Enjoy your week.