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Press Pass | Lawrence: "Everyone starts to play better because of the guy next to them." · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Uh, not a little I don't know a little bit.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I'd say I get tired earlier in the day because
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the five hours had him waking up earlier, which isn't
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: a bad thing. I kind of like went to bed
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: at like nine o'clock last night, so it's not it's
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: not not the worst thing. But yeah, we're kind of
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: getting adjusted still, but feeling pretty good.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: I know you didn't spend the most time in the
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: world with him, but Gardner is obviously starting from the coach.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Did you just talk a little bit about that a
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: few months of the start of your career while he
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: was here and you were here, and what you remember about.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Him, Yeah, Garner Gardner was awesome. Obviously we you know,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: didn't play season together, but having the offseason, got to
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: know him pretty well. Really. I mean a good guy
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: for one, but he's a good player, smart player. Learned
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: learned some things from him for sure, especially being a
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: young player coming to this league. Guy that played, you know,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: a lot of football and played honestly really well in
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: his career and even up until this point. So he's
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: a guy that is is really smart. You know, I
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: think that just the way he plays, he he makes
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: a lot of plays. He's a he's a good athlete.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: It's just kind of savvy like that. And yeah, I
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: mean he treated me well when he was here, and
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: you know, I saw him when he was in I
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: guess it was Philly my rookie year after, you know,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: and the in last year too when we played him,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: saw them so and it was trying to loosely keep
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: up with him. We text back and forth. We have
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: it in a while now, but got a lot of
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: respect for him and obviously good opportunity and he's he's
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: been playing well this season.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: You guys talk about bonding a lot when you went
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: over to London.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: How good was that exactly and how much of that
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: can sort of carry over through the rest of the
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: season for you guys.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: I think it was really good. You know, you're you're
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: away from home, you don't have you know, I mean,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: some people's families were there, but you're s still staying
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: really far away. So it's not like you're everybody's doing
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: their own thing necessarily. We're kind of just all together.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: And so when practice was over, you know, like being here,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: everybody just goes home. You know, you got your families
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: and you got stuff going on to kind of get
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: out of here and have your own personal time. But
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: there it was. You know, when practice was over, for
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: the most part, you're kind of hanging around each other
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: finding something to do. You know that it's hitting a
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: couple of balls on the golf course or just kind
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: of hanging around playing cards or whatever. I mean, you're
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: just always around each other. So I think it was
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: good just for you know, continue to build the chemistry
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: of our team. I think it was really strong anyways.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: But that was I think good for us and just
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: to be you know, kind of locked away together for
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: ten days. You know, obviously we weren't playing great, and
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: I think we kind of kind of helped us and
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: we grew closer. And I think the way we've played
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the last two weeks has been, you know, closer to
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: what we want to put out there on Sundays. And
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: we're just gonna try to keep getting better every week.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: That's the main thing.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: The days you were away or was it truly like
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: kind of.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Doug said this morning, just keeping at it and getting
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: it time to job. I mean, there's always gonna be
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: adjustment you make every week. You know, you're gonna see
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: things that you didn't do well, that you did do well,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: and you're gonna, you know, pair that with the game
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: plan for the next opponent and what you think will
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: work against that team. So of course there's some changes,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: but no, I mean, I would you know, I would
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: be lying if I said we just changed a lot
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: of things. It was really just we did we did
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: our stuff better, and I think you look at both
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: of the games, they still weren't even close to perfect.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: That's not what this game is about. It's about just
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: making the plays at the right time, playing the next play,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: even if you know you've had a couple of bad
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: plays or you're not on track, just continuing to play
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: the next play. I think we've been the last two weeks,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: we've played really complimentary. That's something that we weren't doing
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: really the first three weeks at least the you know
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: week two and three especially of the season, we weren't
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: doing that. So I think that's something that also has
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: helped us too, is you know, when the defense gets
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: a stop, we go score, you know, we get points
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: off of it, or if we're backed up, we get
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: out of that situation and either flip the field or
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: we go on along drive and get points. I think
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: that's something that we've done a better job of. Is
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: instead of us all being off at the same time,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: we're kind of we're kind of covering for each other
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: at times, and we need to end when we have
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: a big play on one side of the ball, I
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: think we're capitalizing on the other side of the ball.
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  Speaker 1: So that's a big part of this game too.
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: Evin as a player before, but how did your guys'
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: relationship really kind of develop, especially over the second half
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: of last season, and what kind of change if you've seen,
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: you know, confidence wise from the beginning of last year.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think he's just he's a guy.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: He's really a spark for us. You know, he's brings
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: a lot of energy. You get the ball in his hands,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, he can make he can make a lot
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  Speaker 1: of plays. He's great. He's really really great after the catch.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's something that is definitely a strong suit
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: of his. He's great. And then honestly too, he's a
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: great route runner. I think we have so many guys
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: we want to get the ball to, and you see
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: the receivers and those guys obviously they flash and but
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Evan is a great route runner. I think he's a
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  Speaker 1: mismatch for a lot of you know, safeties and linebackers
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  Speaker 1: on him, So that's something that you know, you always
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: try to take advantage of. And then just I think
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: off the field, or not necessarily off the field, but
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: just not talking about him with the ball, but just
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: his leadership and the way he works. He's one of
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: our hardest workers. You know, he's one of the first
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: ones out there every day, last one's off the field.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: He stays pretty much every Wednesday with us and sometimes
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Thursday with the quarterbacks and watch his tape, you know,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: third downs and all that. And I think that's a
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: big part of our relationship as well, is we talk
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: through a bunch of stuff when we're watching tape together,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: and whether it's a coverage or a play that we
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: have in and on third down and if they play
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: this coverage, how we're going to attack it, all those things.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, just continuing to conversate and talk about everything.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: I think that's where you build the chemistry, especially with
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: the tight ends and receivers and those guys. And he's
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: he's done a great job of that and really just
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: worked super hard. And I've seen his confidence just keep
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: growing and growing. I think that's kind of the story
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: for a lot of us on offense and over the
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: past year and a half of how we're kind of
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: working alongside each other and it's kind of brought us
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: all up and elevated everyone. So I think that's that's
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: a cool thing to see, is when everyone starts to
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: play better because the guy next to him. I think
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  Speaker 1: that's kind of the ultimate goal.
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: Seemed like a I don't want to say like happier guy,
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: but you know, he comes here or approve a deal,
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: and you know he's got a lot of stuff going
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: through his head and he has you know, especially in
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: the second part of last season, he has a really
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: really good run and now he's got the contract and
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: seems like everything's just form right now.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, I think, uh, he's he's really a focused guy,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: you know, on the field, he's he's not uh, he's
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: not a big you know. I mean, we have we
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: have a good time. He's not overly serious, but he's
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: not a big like cut up, like he's locked in
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: and he's he's dialed in. He's got that look in
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: his eye I think even in practice. So I mean
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  Speaker 1: he's he really is takes a lot of pride on
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: his in his job and doing doing his job the
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: right way, So you know that's something I respect. But yeah,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: I mean he's I think he's as as our relationship's
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: grown to get to see the other side of them
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  Speaker 1: that will cut up and have a good time. And
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: you know, I think all of us have a really
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: good rapport and good relationship, and I think he's just
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: to go along with what you're saying. That confidence piece
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: has been big, and we're all kind of feeding off
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: each other, and I think that's that's the cool thing
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: is we all we all have a lot of faith
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  Speaker 1: in each other and that's what that's what really makes
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  Speaker 1: it go. You gotta trust the guy next to you,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: and and that's where we're getting I think now at
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: this point in the season, with even with Calvin now
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: getting introduced to the team, and I think he's coming
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  Speaker 1: along great. And then the guys that we're here, we're
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: just we're just rolling. So I think it's it's cool
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: to see kind of everybody's confidence growing every day. And
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: at the right time too. You know, we're going into
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: week six, it's it's about the right time.
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: This week chance to sweep the division and take soul
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  Speaker 4: possessions first.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: It's a big, big week. I mean, anytime you play
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: a division opponent, it's big, especially a team right now
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: and it's only week six. There's a lot that can
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: happen as the season goes on, but a team where
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: you know, we're tied for first in the division, so
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: obviously that's you know, I think they're two and one,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: we're one and one in the division. So this is
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: a big game. I mean, you look at it. We
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: can go two and one or they can. They can
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: go three in one, and that's a big that's a
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: big swing. So for us, we understand the importance of it.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Obviously they do too. There's no secrets. You're not gonna
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: surprise anyone in games like this, but uh yeah, it's
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: a it's a great opportunity for us and just to
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: continue to go the way we want to go this season.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: This is the next step and we got to take
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: it one week at a time, and this is a
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: really good team that's playing really well right now.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: The offense was a little more vertical this week than
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: than in prior with was that for soon Was that
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: a point of emphasis pushed the field, the ball down
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: the field more, or the opportunities just presented themselves.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: You know. I think every week there's there's a plan,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: there's some sort of plan to you have your shots
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: in there. So I wouldn't say it was necessarily a
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: more of an emphasis last week than it was prior weeks.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, maybe a little bit just because of the
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: defense you're playing, But I just think that's kind of
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: how the game went. There were some opportunities that are
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: presented to us. You know, they played a little bit
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: of man coverage. They you know, pressed a couple of
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: times where we got a we got a one on
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: one opportunity, you know, obviously, like the one to Calvin
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: at the end of the game. It's like a it's
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: a man zero look like stuff like that. That doesn't
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: always happen every game, and you try to take advantage
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: of it when you see it. So but I'd say,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: you know, we always have shots. I think we you know,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: were able to run them at the right time. We
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: were able to get them against the right looks, and
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: we were able to capitalize on them. So I think
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: that was what showed up is more of the execution
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: and maybe past games. Maybe the coverage dictated that the
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: ball didn't go there, or maybe there was pressure. We're
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: whatever it may be. You know, sometimes the shots don't
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: work out, but it seems like we were able to
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: get more of them off last week, which is obviously
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: good when you can have those explosives, that's what we
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: try to do, and our offense is be consistently efficient
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: and explosive, and that's I think a big key to
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: being a good offense is those two things.
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: Starting fast. You've talked about it a lot. First three games,
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: seven points in the first quarter in one to eighteen
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: in both first quarters, so I mean around here, leads
• 9:28
  Speaker 5: have been you know, they haven't happened. What's it like
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: to have a lead, to crush your defense and be
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: able to get things started the way you have the
• 9:37
  Speaker 5: last couple of games.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: It's a lot better than trying to play from behind
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: all the time. Obviously, it's I mean this league, even
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: if you have a lead, it's going to be a
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: four quarter game. Very rarely do you see games just
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: you know, a team gets blown out. Doesn't happen much
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: in this league. So you still understand the sense of
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: urgency that you got to keep executing and playing well,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: and you got to play the whole game. But to
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: have that to get out to a lead early and start,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I think that takes pressure off of the defense, takes
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: pressure off of us. You know, we can play more
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: on our terms. So I think that that is obviously
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: a positive. And then you're not finding yourself, you know,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: in the second half, trying to trying to come up
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: with all these points late in the game when you're
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: limited on possessions. I think that's the biggest thing is
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: when you fall behind and you're down by a couple scores,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: then you're trying to you're trying to score fast. You're
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out how can we get the ball
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: back fast, And there's just a lot that you got
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: to you got to do right to win those games.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: And I mean, we've had success in the past, but
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: you can't live off that. So definitely, that's how we
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: want to play, is to jump out early and get
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: a lead.
• 10:36
  Speaker 6: NICs trying to set in for a long time the
• 10:39
  Speaker 6: league forced miss tackles right now. Yeah, it just seems
• 10:43
  Speaker 6: like he's taking a different step because this is as
• 10:45
  Speaker 6: good as you've seen him play football.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean definitely, especially at this level. I mean
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: obviously college is it's just harder to judge. You know,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: you're not playing the same you're not playing the same
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: defenses every week in college. So I would say yes,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: I mean he's he's playing great right now. I think
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: just his game as a whole, not just carrying the ball,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: you know, breaking tackles and and doing his thing in
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: the running game, I think, in the passing game, protections
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: all those things. I think he's just doing a great job.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: He's playing really smart. He's trusting the guys up front.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: I think that's something that we worked a lot this offseason,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: is you know, gap integrity and talking about our schemes
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: and where we want the ball to hit and all
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: those things. And he's just really really doing a great
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: job of staying disciplined and trusting those guys. And then
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: of course he's gonna go and make some plays that
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: not a lot of guys can make, and that's what
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: makes them special. But it's every play where he's he's
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: doing his job, he's trusting it, he's trusting the guys
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: up front to clear a path for him, and then
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: he's hitting it. I think that's where I've seen him
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: take some huge steps and it's been impressive to watch.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: And obviously he's getting more and more involved in the
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: passing game and that's been good for us. I think
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: that opens up our offense even more when he can
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: be a threat out of the backfield. So he's playing great,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: you know, so we gotta we got to just continue
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: to put him in good positions and and and help
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: him out and he's gonna keep playing great. Thank you
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: such Jor