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Senior Moments: December football · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:01
Speaker 1: Something you may remember from the good old day. I
0:04
Speaker 1: feel so old. Time for senior moments here has become
0:16
Speaker 1: for the close of November, starts the key month of
0:19
Speaker 1: December seven and four with three straight home games. Brian Sexton,
0:23
Speaker 1: senior writer, John or your Joe Fortunado's here somewhere in
0:26
Speaker 1: the Cavernet studios, ambling, hobbling about a little bit hurt
0:30
Speaker 1: this week, plan hurt uh. Jaguars came home from Arizona
0:35
Speaker 1: a little bit hurt. Feelings hurt um and people are
0:38
Speaker 1: worried about them, and there are some things to worry about.
0:41
Speaker 1: So what if we take a couple of minutes here
0:43
Speaker 1: and talk about the true state of the Jaguars where
0:47
Speaker 1: they are heading into the home stretch. And before we do,
0:49
Speaker 1: let's just say this, before you lose perspective on what's
0:52
Speaker 1: sort of wrong, what an incredible opportunity they have right now.
0:56
Speaker 1: They're seven and four. They have gotten through went on
1:00
Speaker 1: paper before the season seemed the tough part. Eleven games,
1:04
Speaker 1: a bunch on the road, four and two on the road,
1:08
Speaker 1: beat Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh, pounded Pittsburgh one twice on the
1:12
Speaker 1: road in the division, which no matter how it played,
1:15
Speaker 1: out when you start circling stuff for the season. That's
1:18
Speaker 1: three big gets. And now they're back in EverBank Field,
1:22
Speaker 1: three game homes stand with everything at hand, they've never
1:27
Speaker 1: had a three game homestand in December and franchise history
1:30
Speaker 1: that they've gone into leading the division. So if you think,
1:34
Speaker 1: if you if you take all that and say, where
1:37
Speaker 1: do you think they were gonna be? Oh, they're so
1:39
Speaker 1: far ahead, unbelievable December shaping up and you gotta take advantage.
1:43
Speaker 1: If I told you seven and four after eleven tied
1:46
Speaker 1: for first place heading into this, you would have taken
1:48
Speaker 1: it in August. If I had said ten and six,
1:51
Speaker 1: and like your head was on fire, if you'd say
1:53
Speaker 1: that right exactly, especially based on the way that we
1:55
Speaker 1: saw the offensive line player in the preseason here against
1:59
Speaker 1: Tampa and Carolina without a doubt. Uh, if I had
2:02
Speaker 1: said tenants six, wild card team, you play on the road,
2:06
Speaker 1: you don't win the wild card game, but you make
2:07
Speaker 1: the playoffs, would you sign well of Jaguars fans would
2:12
Speaker 1: give me that after the years of double digital losses
2:14
Speaker 1: and and not making the playoffs and disappointment, you sign
2:18
Speaker 1: in the lone you take it. So the perspective is there,
2:21
Speaker 1: there's fiftent maybe maybe a little bit more than that.
2:24
Speaker 1: The expectations run realistic, right, they're thinking, well, look, I
2:27
Speaker 1: mean lines up for us to finish thirteen in three
2:31
Speaker 1: and have a boss. You heard that kind of talk
2:33
Speaker 1: in recent weeks. So coming home losing to blame Gabbert
2:37
Speaker 1: and Adrian Peterson and a reshuffled offensive line out there. Um,
2:42
Speaker 1: there's a sense of panic on some people's part. There's
2:45
Speaker 1: a sense of unease on most people's part. So let's
2:49
Speaker 1: just deal with the fact. The defense is what. The
2:51
Speaker 1: defense is very very good. Any holes on the defense
2:55
Speaker 1: that were you today? Um no, not in the grand
3:00
Speaker 1: scheme of things. I mean, it's look, this is the
3:03
Speaker 1: National Football League and you're going you know, you can
3:08
Speaker 1: say what you want about the two thousand Ravens. They
3:11
Speaker 1: were a great defense. They gave up at the end
3:14
Speaker 1: of the season that year. They gave up like four
3:16
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty yards passing to the Jets. Maybe exaggerating,
3:19
Speaker 1: but it was. It was absurd the amount they give
3:21
Speaker 1: up thirty six to Jacksonville that year. Uh So, no
3:25
Speaker 1: defense is gonna hold things to one sixty with ten
3:29
Speaker 1: sacks every game. The rules aren't designed for that right.
3:32
Speaker 1: So to me, the defense UH has done an amazing
3:37
Speaker 1: job in most games of doing something where you look
3:40
Speaker 1: at and go that should have won the game. Ten sacs, tensacs,
3:43
Speaker 1: five turnovers, five turnovers twelve yards. And against the Bengals
3:46
Speaker 1: the other day, to me, they got the ball back
3:49
Speaker 1: twice for the offense in score situations that should have
3:54
Speaker 1: ended the game. To me, the defense did its job.
3:57
Speaker 1: I don't worry about this defense being good enough to
3:59
Speaker 1: win every game the rest of the season. The thing
4:01
Speaker 1: I went, the thing I worried about I think was
4:04
Speaker 1: handled with the loss, and that was I talked to
4:06
Speaker 1: guys last week and talked about focus. And it was
4:09
Speaker 1: the first week that they had a full one game
4:11
Speaker 1: lead over the Titans, and you know, how do you
4:13
Speaker 1: focus going forward looking at the lineup and who you're playing.
4:17
Speaker 1: And I didn't believe them when they talked to him,
4:19
Speaker 1: all we're focused, we know exactly the players are always
4:22
Speaker 1: going to say that. I got a sense that the
4:24
Speaker 1: power rankings and the defensive rankings and a lot of
4:27
Speaker 1: that that adulation was well deserved. But I kind of
4:31
Speaker 1: got the sentence, especially for some of the younger players.
4:33
Speaker 1: They had taken a bye to that apple, and I
4:36
Speaker 1: think it got solved late in the game when Blaine
4:38
Speaker 1: Gabbert hit the long pass and the touchdown to give
4:42
Speaker 1: venteen lead. I think there was a little humility there
4:44
Speaker 1: and and they get it. They they have to focus
4:46
Speaker 1: no matter who the quarterback is, whether it's Blaine Gabbert
4:49
Speaker 1: noted failure in Jacksonville or Jacoby Brissett who's been battling
4:53
Speaker 1: all season long, they better be sharp. So I think
4:55
Speaker 1: they're fine. Offensively, different story, Yeah, I don't know. I
5:00
Speaker 1: don't get the sense. I've been asked a couple of
5:02
Speaker 1: times this week, what are the answers on offense? Frankly,
5:05
Speaker 1: I don't think there are answers on offense. I think
5:07
Speaker 1: the offense is what it is. Uh. There's not gonna
5:10
Speaker 1: be a magic bird come down from the sky and say, yeah,
5:13
Speaker 1: you're gonna be a great passing offense. Uh, you know,
5:17
Speaker 1: I don't think I think Jeremy Jeremy Partnell comes back
5:20
Speaker 1: this week, I don't think. I don't think he's the
5:22
Speaker 1: magic elixer. I think he helps you. The reality is
5:25
Speaker 1: this has been a team that, for the most part,
5:28
Speaker 1: has not been dominant offensively in anything this year. It's
5:34
Speaker 1: it's been a good running team. Uh. It has not
5:37
Speaker 1: been a running team that you felt like controlled games. Uh.
5:41
Speaker 1: Well wait, you didn't feel like they controlled the Pittsburgh game.
5:44
Speaker 1: You didn't feel like one out of nine or one
5:46
Speaker 1: out of eleven. Okay, they controlled that game. But for
5:50
Speaker 1: the most part, and maybe Baltimore and maybe, Uh, they
5:54
Speaker 1: had a pretty good impact in Houston on Opening Day,
5:56
Speaker 1: although I mean, I know the defense sacked the quarterback
5:58
Speaker 1: eleven or ten times, had a good impact. My point being,
6:02
Speaker 1: they have averaged Fournet has averaged four yards to carry
6:06
Speaker 1: three times this year. Um. And one of those games
6:10
Speaker 1: was the Rams game, which I'm not sure you would
6:13
Speaker 1: make the argument that was a dominant running day except
6:15
Speaker 1: for the seventy five yard that was where they right
6:19
Speaker 1: after the the opening to drop. The other one was Cleveland,
6:22
Speaker 1: which again an impressive effort for Fornet against Cleveland, But
6:25
Speaker 1: you never got the feeling in that Cleveland game like
6:27
Speaker 1: they were dominating the line of scrimmage. So I don't
6:30
Speaker 1: think that's gonna happen. I think they're a good running team.
6:33
Speaker 1: They can play to that formula and get enough out
6:35
Speaker 1: of the run to be successful. But this offense, I believe,
6:39
Speaker 1: for the last five games, is still going to struggle
6:43
Speaker 1: for consistency. UM. I don't think you're gonna have a
6:46
Speaker 1: whole lot of games that you come off saying, boy,
6:48
Speaker 1: that offense and just drove the other I think it's
6:51
Speaker 1: what it is, UM, But I think you can offensively
6:55
Speaker 1: do what they started to do the other day, which
6:57
Speaker 1: is scrap, claw, fight, find your way. So the formulas changing, Um,
7:04
Speaker 1: the formulas no longer play great defense and run the ball.
7:07
Speaker 1: I think that's where they want to formula to be.
7:08
Speaker 1: I'm not sure the run the ball formula has been
7:12
Speaker 1: the dominant formula that maybe the stats have shown so
7:16
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty four yards a game rushing is not
7:20
Speaker 1: indicative to you, and I tend to agree with you
7:22
Speaker 1: because it didn't feel like they were able to. Let's
7:24
Speaker 1: show the numbers out for to me twenty four years
7:28
Speaker 1: in this league. My belief is that success running the
7:32
Speaker 1: ball is when you line up and the other team
7:35
Speaker 1: knows what you're going to do and they still can't
7:38
Speaker 1: stop it. In other words, third down to two, we run,
7:41
Speaker 1: and we either run in the A gap or the
7:43
Speaker 1: B gap, so buckle up, guess which one we're coming at.
7:47
Speaker 1: We can run when we want to run. And it's
7:49
Speaker 1: hard to make a case that they have done that
7:52
Speaker 1: most of the season. I have m but that doesn't
7:55
Speaker 1: mean that you shouldn't be running team and that you
7:59
Speaker 1: shouldn't strive for it who you are. I mean, that's
8:01
Speaker 1: still what they have to be. So my contention is
8:06
Speaker 1: the guard play here? Is the problem been a struggle? Yeah,
8:10
Speaker 1: and because there's always someone in the gap, the guards
8:14
Speaker 1: don't to me, they don't play with enough power. To me,
8:17
Speaker 1: they don't get guys out of the way. Uh, they're
8:20
Speaker 1: not elite athletes. And people say, well, what guards are
8:23
Speaker 1: really elite athletes? But it strikes me that these guards
8:26
Speaker 1: are okay, but they're not good enough for a downhill
8:29
Speaker 1: runner like Leonard for Nett, And it's got to be
8:31
Speaker 1: it has to be addressed. And in fairness, some of it,
8:35
Speaker 1: or a big chunk is still teams are able to
8:39
Speaker 1: put eight in the box. So that's you know, and
8:41
Speaker 1: that's the kind of thing that we're not saying that,
8:45
Speaker 1: but that ain't gonna change. So may put tend people
8:49
Speaker 1: in the box right in the context of that um
8:52
Speaker 1: you know, it's I think you still strive for it,
8:55
Speaker 1: you still go after it, but I don't know that
8:58
Speaker 1: you're going to turn. When the How Boys were running
9:00
Speaker 1: last year, if you watch them, it felt like it
9:03
Speaker 1: was Zeke for five, ze for seven, Zeke for two,
9:05
Speaker 1: and then Zeke for ten. Right now, the Jaguars don't
9:08
Speaker 1: feel like that, and I think they have to get
9:12
Speaker 1: closer to what they want to be. But I don't
9:14
Speaker 1: think they're gonna be a dominant offense in terms of
9:17
Speaker 1: dictating the tempo of a game. Uh. I'd just I'd
9:21
Speaker 1: be surprised if it happens. It's felt the last couple
9:23
Speaker 1: of weeks like it's been for Net for one, for
9:28
Speaker 1: Net for a loss of two, for Net for four,
9:30
Speaker 1: for Net for two. I mean, it's just it's there's
9:34
Speaker 1: been an inability to get very far, to build up
9:37
Speaker 1: a head of steam, which is the way that he runs.
9:40
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to keep after it, though, because the
9:43
Speaker 1: passing game and boy, it just boggles my mind that
9:47
Speaker 1: everyone wants to throw it at at Blake Bortles when
9:50
Speaker 1: you look at Mark Easley. But I think we'd all
9:52
Speaker 1: agree is a good two when you got a solid one.
9:54
Speaker 1: On the field, right, Okay, is last week spectacular three,
9:59
Speaker 1: which is what he'd be playing if Hernson Robinson we're
10:01
Speaker 1: both in okay, so and I agree with you. So
10:05
Speaker 1: you have he him lined up in front of Patrick
10:09
Speaker 1: Peterson and the safety always kind of looking in that direction,
10:12
Speaker 1: which means that you had to lean last week on
10:13
Speaker 1: DD Westbrook, who had played in his second NFL game,
10:17
Speaker 1: and Keelan Cole who a year ago this time was
10:19
Speaker 1: playing against Alfred State. Right, don't underestimate Alfred's date. Okay,
10:28
Speaker 1: I've never heard of him until I looked it up. Right,
10:30
Speaker 1: we can go back and go back forth on Alfred's
10:32
Speaker 1: day there, But you get my point. Um, it's ridiculous
10:38
Speaker 1: right now to expect that they're going to throw for
10:40
Speaker 1: three hundred yards when you don't even have Alan Hearns
10:43
Speaker 1: on the fields there. Now you're down to Jaden Mackens
10:47
Speaker 1: who was off the practice squadish temperatory man. And I
10:51
Speaker 1: you know what I've said, O'Shaughnessy all season. Why don't
10:54
Speaker 1: they get into the ball. I mean, especially since a
10:55
Speaker 1: rob went Nott have been looking for a big target
10:57
Speaker 1: who can replace those jump ball they haven't gone to him, right,
11:01
Speaker 1: I tried to last week a couple of times, you know,
11:03
Speaker 1: But I mean, even if you go to him, I'm
11:06
Speaker 1: not going to discount of Shaughnessy, but he's probably not
11:08
Speaker 1: gonna get you sixty yards. I mean we can changed.
11:11
Speaker 1: Can you keep drives along? Um? And that's right now.
11:17
Speaker 1: I still go back to what I said after the
11:19
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Chargers game. Uh, the key for this offense.
11:24
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna have a couple of weeks where
11:26
Speaker 1: it looks better than it's I think this week it
11:28
Speaker 1: will look better because I think what they're gonna wind
11:30
Speaker 1: up doing is Blake has not thrown the deep ball
11:34
Speaker 1: poorly this year. I would make the case that the
11:37
Speaker 1: receivers have caught it poorly at times. And I think
11:40
Speaker 1: you were well within your rights based on last week.
11:42
Speaker 1: So what I think what happen is they need to
11:44
Speaker 1: continue to do that. Blake has thrown the fade bomb
11:47
Speaker 1: whatever you call it, pretty well. I'm thinking of the
11:50
Speaker 1: past two yelled in last week. It was a good
11:52
Speaker 1: past that was dropped. The past down the middle of
11:54
Speaker 1: the field to Keelan Cole was a good pass that
11:57
Speaker 1: was dropped, could have been caught. Whatever, go make the way. Um,
12:01
Speaker 1: I think you're going to continue to see that play
12:05
Speaker 1: three or four or five times a game on the
12:07
Speaker 1: weeks that they hit it and catch it, which I
12:11
Speaker 1: do believe that catching it into the last three weeks
12:13
Speaker 1: have been a bigger issue than hitting it. On the
12:16
Speaker 1: weeks you catch it, then I think people are gonna go, oh,
12:18
Speaker 1: look at this, and you're gonna have some flip field plays,
12:21
Speaker 1: some touchdowns, et cetera. On the weeks you don't. I
12:23
Speaker 1: think people are gonna say, what in the world is
12:25
Speaker 1: wrong with this offense? From what I hear from you
12:28
Speaker 1: and the conversations that I've had, the defense is going
12:31
Speaker 1: to put this team in the playoffs with short fields
12:34
Speaker 1: for the offense. That's it. You're relying. Are you gonna
12:39
Speaker 1: get Are you gonna get a long drive? Yeah? Here
12:41
Speaker 1: and there. If Hernsey comes back, right, if Marcedes gets involved,
12:45
Speaker 1: you get one or two a game. They've been getting
12:47
Speaker 1: one or two game long drives the last couple of weeks.
12:49
Speaker 1: If you think about they got the one Againt San
12:50
Speaker 1: Diego or La Samas, whatever you want to call him. Uh.
12:54
Speaker 1: I want to point out that on NFL Network on
12:56
Speaker 1: Sunday Morning with San Diego San Diego, San Diego, San Diego.
12:59
Speaker 1: So if it's good some time, it's good enough from um.
13:02
Speaker 1: They did it a couple of times against the Cardinals
13:04
Speaker 1: where it was the drive that scored, where Blake's scored
13:08
Speaker 1: the one yard. On both of them he ran it
13:10
Speaker 1: was well. The second one was sort of a short
13:12
Speaker 1: field ish at after the Corey Grant play, But the
13:15
Speaker 1: first one it was. It was a long drive, but
13:18
Speaker 1: it never felt like continuity. It felt like Blake got
13:21
Speaker 1: the run but but they managed to squeeze it out somehow.
13:23
Speaker 1: I think they'll get one or two of those a game.
13:25
Speaker 1: The rest of them gotta be short fields and maybe
13:27
Speaker 1: a big play something to create. You know, again, we're
13:31
Speaker 1: sort of going over ourselves. But I don't think you're
13:32
Speaker 1: gonna see uh many more games like Baltimore early in
13:36
Speaker 1: the season where it's just boom boom boom, boom boom.
13:38
Speaker 1: It just doesn't feel like that kind of an offense.
13:40
Speaker 1: They looked to me like a ten and six team.
13:43
Speaker 1: I know, people go, whoa WHOA hold on. I mean,
13:45
Speaker 1: there's five winnable games left. I mean, they could be
13:47
Speaker 1: a twelve and four team, can't they? Yeah, But with
13:49
Speaker 1: the offense the way it is, and and you have
13:52
Speaker 1: banged this drum. Close games are in this team's future,
13:56
Speaker 1: and not knowing what the offense can produce, it's tough
13:59
Speaker 1: to go. Hey, they're twelve and four. It feels like
14:01
Speaker 1: you're gonna have three to five games just like the
14:07
Speaker 1: last three. And to me, I've we've talked about this
14:10
Speaker 1: a couple of times already. I felt like the last
14:12
Speaker 1: three games were all the same game. They just lost
14:14
Speaker 1: one on the road in the game where the defense
14:17
Speaker 1: pretty good as always offense, Uh, they won twice, they
14:22
Speaker 1: lost once. If you scrap light that over the last five,
14:25
Speaker 1: you probably get three and two. Uh. That feels if
14:30
Speaker 1: you're looking at it from the outside with no passion
14:33
Speaker 1: involved with the team, that looks like what this team is.
14:36
Speaker 1: By the same token as you said, this defense is
14:38
Speaker 1: good enough. There's not a game they can't win. So
14:41
Speaker 1: you choose which ones. Let's see what happens ten and
14:44
Speaker 1: six again, you take it all day long in August
14:47
Speaker 1: you absolutely, we'll take that instead of ten losses. Give
14:51
Speaker 1: it to me and let's not sit here at the
14:53
Speaker 1: beginning of December and poop who the playoffs. I know
14:56
Speaker 1: you're a big poopoo the playoffs guy, But I just
15:00
Speaker 1: like you're talking about, I just like saying poo and
15:02
Speaker 1: in my hand, like you can't see, you've got five left. Uh,
15:06
Speaker 1: don't discount the need to win some to get in
15:09
Speaker 1: this thing, because getting in it matters and it's not
15:12
Speaker 1: a guarantee. The Jaguars were not running the ball well,
15:17
Speaker 1: and they weren't playing great defense. They were playing okay defense.
15:20
Speaker 1: They're making plays when it matters. They were playing as
15:23
Speaker 1: we went into the playoffs, and they beat Jim Kelly
15:26
Speaker 1: by running the ball and playing very good defense. And
15:30
Speaker 1: they beat John Elway by running the ball and in
15:34
Speaker 1: the second half playing very good defense and shutting them out.
15:37
Speaker 1: So there's no reason why they can't find something and
15:40
Speaker 1: makes something happen. It's just at this point as you
15:42
Speaker 1: sit realistically, they look like attendance six point seeing anybody.
15:46
Speaker 1: I'll tell you if you do whatever you can to
15:48
Speaker 1: get in and then hope you get matchups, hope you
15:52
Speaker 1: getting health, and hope you get hot. Senior Rodger JAS
15:57
Speaker 1: dot Com senior correspondent in your moments, and then there's job.
16:01
Speaker 1: We love your job. See you later.