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Press Pass | Liam Coen Reflects on Jaguars' Progress Through Week 16 · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:00
Speaker 1: And we have head coach Liam Cohen available. Please raise
0:03
Speaker 1: your hand if you have a question.
0:07
Speaker 2: We can start off with Jamaluz coach.
0:11
Speaker 1: You know good, Thank you? How are you pretty good?
0:15
Speaker 2: Can you think back a little bit for me maybe
0:17
Speaker 2: during the off season early in the season, was there
0:19
Speaker 2: a point when you thought to yourself something happening, You said,
0:24
Speaker 2: I might have something special here with this group.
0:30
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of anything specific. I would say
0:38
Speaker 1: in training camp, you.
0:42
Speaker 3: Know, we had some pretty physical practices throughout training camp
0:46
Speaker 3: where you know, we got after each other pretty good
0:51
Speaker 3: and a few because we only had the one joint right,
0:54
Speaker 3: so we did have some more physical practices against each other.
1:00
Speaker 3: You know, wasn't you're It was probably one of the
1:03
Speaker 3: more physical training camps I've been a part of in
1:06
Speaker 3: terms of being in the NFL. And that was something
1:10
Speaker 3: that I looked at at the time that nobody was
1:13
Speaker 3: complaining or you know, like why are we hitting?
1:16
Speaker 1: Why are we doing this? Why are we doing that?
1:19
Speaker 3: The guys just kept coming to work every day and
1:22
Speaker 3: practicing their tails off, and I remember at that time thinking,
1:27
Speaker 3: all right, I think this group's going to be tough, right,
1:31
Speaker 3: Like I think this group's going to have a mindset.
1:35
Speaker 3: You know, you're eager to see it against another opponent.
1:38
Speaker 3: But there was a time during training camp that I
1:42
Speaker 3: think as a coaching staff, we appreciated how hard these
1:47
Speaker 3: guys practiced, how intentional they were about the work every day,
1:53
Speaker 3: and the energy they brought to practice, right, Like, it's
1:56
Speaker 3: hard to go against each other for that many days
2:00
Speaker 3: in the heat in Jacksonville, with very limited ops against
2:06
Speaker 3: going against somebody else, right, Like, you're not your only
2:09
Speaker 3: preseason games. They didn't nobody complained about playing in preseason games.
2:15
Speaker 1: It was just a group at a very early stage.
2:18
Speaker 3: I think that just didn't question it, just kept playing
2:22
Speaker 3: and just kept competing. And you don't know too much
2:25
Speaker 3: about your team at that point, but I do recall
2:28
Speaker 3: thinking that this is going to be a tough team.
2:31
Speaker 2: Gotcha coach, your motivational style. I don't know that there's
2:34
Speaker 2: a lot of coaches around the league that gets their
2:36
Speaker 2: team going quite like you do. Was there a coach
2:39
Speaker 2: that influenced you along the way? Was it the way
2:42
Speaker 2: your dad coach watching him? I mean, was there is
2:44
Speaker 2: there someone that influenced the way I guess you deal
2:47
Speaker 2: with the team, relate to the locker room or is
2:49
Speaker 2: that just your personality coming.
2:51
Speaker 3: Through you know, I think I've been very fortunate to
2:57
Speaker 3: have worked with or under some really good football coaches. That, yeah,
3:03
Speaker 3: it all started with my dad first and foremost, you know,
3:06
Speaker 3: just growing up at a young age seeing tough Division
3:11
Speaker 3: three Northeast football where you know, they didn't have lights
3:16
Speaker 3: at their field. They parked cars and put the lights
3:20
Speaker 3: on the cars so that they could practice, you know,
3:23
Speaker 3: in the evening. And you know, our family was getting
3:28
Speaker 3: cold cuts for their travel for games to go on
3:31
Speaker 3: the road and eat sandwiches, and they were getting dressed
3:35
Speaker 3: in their dorms for games, and so it was just
3:39
Speaker 3: you know, that was really where it all probably started.
3:43
Speaker 3: And then coaching in the Northeast for Phil Estes, Mark
3:47
Speaker 3: Whipple and Don Brown, playing for Don Brown. A lot
3:52
Speaker 3: of these are tough, hard nosed football coaches that you know, resilience, toughness, effort,
4:02
Speaker 3: all those things.
4:03
Speaker 1: Kind of matter.
4:04
Speaker 3: And we were never overly talented or more talented maybe
4:09
Speaker 3: than some of the teams were always playing and our
4:12
Speaker 3: edge needed to be you know, toughness and mentality. And
4:16
Speaker 3: so I think just being fortunate enough to grow up
4:20
Speaker 3: in that atmosphere and and have that be my early
4:24
Speaker 3: years in coaching, having a lot of great mentors and.
4:28
Speaker 1: Leaders that I was able to work for. Thank Liam,
4:31
Speaker 1: Thank you.
4:33
Speaker 2: We'll go to Mark Long than to me.
4:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, Hey, Liam, Parker had five of his six catches
4:42
Speaker 4: came on third down, and you alluded to yesterday that
4:44
Speaker 4: was part of the game plan, was that it was
4:47
Speaker 4: all match up. You knew who he was gonna be
4:49
Speaker 4: on coming out of the slot and then go from there.
4:52
Speaker 3: That's right, Yeah, okay, figured you know that it was
4:56
Speaker 3: a great opportunity from from some of the matchups that
4:59
Speaker 3: we felt like that was beneficial for us, and that
5:03
Speaker 3: he was really feeling better coming off the injury a
5:07
Speaker 3: couple of weeks back or whatever it was, that he
5:08
Speaker 3: was getting back to full strength and feeling a lot better.
5:13
Speaker 3: He had a great week of practice and it showed
5:16
Speaker 3: out yesterday, right a lot. So much of the the
5:18
Speaker 3: run after catch, We've all seen that numerous times this season,
5:23
Speaker 3: whether it be on offense or in the punt return game.
5:26
Speaker 3: So that was a matchup thought process going into the game.
5:30
Speaker 4: Cool, and then you know, when is this the the
5:34
Speaker 4: identity right of the team? Is this you taking on
5:37
Speaker 4: the identity of the franchise or are they the players
5:41
Speaker 4: taking on kind of your identity in terms of this
5:44
Speaker 4: underdog role and this us against the world mentality.
5:48
Speaker 3: I think it's probably a shared thought process, maybe in
5:53
Speaker 3: a lot of ways where I've voiced this before, where
5:57
Speaker 3: when we got together here, you know, almost a year
6:00
Speaker 3: from now, whatever it's been with a lot of these players,
6:04
Speaker 3: they they voiced some of this stuff right, Like they voiced,
6:09
Speaker 3: you know, their their desire to take the next step,
6:13
Speaker 3: and that they did feel like that there was a
6:17
Speaker 3: group of guys that had a chip on their shoulder,
6:19
Speaker 3: that that needed an edge, that wanted to play with
6:21
Speaker 3: an edge. And and look, you know so many people
6:26
Speaker 3: here do want to prove something, right.
6:28
Speaker 1: There's a lot of first timers and roles.
6:30
Speaker 3: There's a lot of players that you know, whether it
6:34
Speaker 3: came in via free agency, the draft, whether they were
6:38
Speaker 3: here already, whatever that case is.
6:40
Speaker 1: I think it's a group of guys that.
6:43
Speaker 3: You know, are proving something, whether it's for a contract,
6:46
Speaker 3: whether it's for wins, whether whatever it is, all those
6:51
Speaker 3: reasons make up our edge. And that's something that we've
6:56
Speaker 3: talked about a lot from the moment we got together
7:00
Speaker 3: is having an edge as a team, and yeah, not
7:05
Speaker 3: really caring too much about the outside noise.
7:09
Speaker 5: Hayley, as far as the offensive line goes, Now that
7:12
Speaker 5: you've had a chance to watch back the tape, what
7:14
Speaker 5: did you think of Walker stepping in at right guard?
7:16
Speaker 5: But then additionally, was the plan all week that Cole
7:19
Speaker 5: would start at left and Walker would be able to
7:21
Speaker 5: play at any position or what kind of went on
7:23
Speaker 5: on the sideline when that happened in real time?
7:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, Cole was going into the game at left tackle,
7:30
Speaker 3: and yeah, that was a testament to Walker's preparation. How
7:34
Speaker 3: smart a football player he is for him to be
7:37
Speaker 3: able to go in at guard without any you know,
7:39
Speaker 3: I mean, I think he may have taken a few
7:41
Speaker 3: and I don't even know if he did take any
7:43
Speaker 3: reps at guard last week. You know, he was just
7:46
Speaker 3: getting acclimated back in And so look very proud of
7:52
Speaker 3: Walker because that's not easy to do. He's been a
7:55
Speaker 3: left tackle, been playing on the left side, and then
7:57
Speaker 3: to go in at right guard and you know, the guys,
8:01
Speaker 3: nobody flinched, nobody blinked. Very proud of him for stepping
8:06
Speaker 3: up in a major way in a huge game. That's
8:09
Speaker 3: gonna that's gonna help us moving forward as a team
8:12
Speaker 3: so much that you have guys that have the ability
8:15
Speaker 3: to move around from the front and look nobody. You know,
8:19
Speaker 3: Sean got on the headset and said, you know, hey,
8:21
Speaker 3: Walker's going in at guard and I'm like, all right,
8:23
Speaker 3: let's go, and we just ran with it, you know,
8:27
Speaker 3: really proud of him and and also the group for
8:31
Speaker 3: their continuity, the chemistry, the connection that they have. Uh,
8:35
Speaker 3: there's a trust level of all those guys that are
8:38
Speaker 3: able to go and help us.
8:39
Speaker 1: Win and contribute to the team.
8:41
Speaker 3: And so many of them have, right if you look
8:44
Speaker 3: at that group that that started that game. But Walker
8:48
Speaker 3: obviously being a guy that's played so many good snaps
8:50
Speaker 3: for us this year, why Jonah Tuma, I mean, that's
8:55
Speaker 3: you can't have enough offensive linemen. And that was something
8:59
Speaker 3: that depth part about that group is something we wanted
9:02
Speaker 3: to make sure.
9:03
Speaker 1: We had when we got here together as a franchise.
9:07
Speaker 5: And then last one for me, just on the defensive
9:09
Speaker 5: side of the ball, was noted by a couple of
9:10
Speaker 5: people that it felt like you were rotating those guys
9:13
Speaker 5: in along the defensive line a little bit more. Was
9:16
Speaker 5: that just a basis of altitude, maybe forty one coming
9:19
Speaker 5: off of illness, no, Danny, Yeah, okay, the altitude.
9:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a little bit of keeping the guys
9:26
Speaker 3: fresh and not overwhelming them a little bit early on,
9:31
Speaker 3: especially knowing what some of the teams had done in
9:35
Speaker 3: the fourth quarter right against Denver and what Denver had
9:39
Speaker 3: done to teams in the fourth quarter of games. That
9:42
Speaker 3: was something that we wanted to make sure we were
9:44
Speaker 3: on the fresher side going into the fourth quarter. Awesome,
9:48
Speaker 3: thank you, thank you, do you Rock, followed by Shipley Aleiam.
9:55
Speaker 6: We've all kind of made a big deal of Trevor
9:57
Speaker 6: surge and the offensive surge in the sixth game streak,
10:00
Speaker 6: but the defense has been arguably just as good. What
10:03
Speaker 6: has been sort of well, first of all, how good
10:06
Speaker 6: has it been and what has sort of really kind
10:08
Speaker 6: of sparked that?
10:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you know, CAMPI will be the first
10:12
Speaker 3: one to tell you if you know, there's probably too
10:14
Speaker 3: many explosives.
10:15
Speaker 1: Given up yesterday at times. But we ran and hit.
10:19
Speaker 1: I mean, we played physical.
10:21
Speaker 3: We didn't tackle our best, but we did have some
10:27
Speaker 3: very opportunistic plays. Buster Brown on the on the double
10:30
Speaker 3: pad on the reverse pass was a huge play. I
10:34
Speaker 3: think just that group. There's so many guys that have
10:37
Speaker 3: played this season on defense. And I don't mean just
10:40
Speaker 3: like a snap or two here and there, right, like
10:43
Speaker 3: meaningful snaps, meaningful games. Jarian Joes stepping up again in
10:49
Speaker 3: a huge way, Antonio Johnson continuing to ascend. You know,
10:55
Speaker 3: guys just keep stepping up, and I think that it's
10:59
Speaker 3: really a testament the leadership. Foyer, Josh, you know, Jordan Lewis,
11:06
Speaker 3: those guys, Eric Murray, Dewey in the back end. We've
11:09
Speaker 3: got some leadership on the defensive side we've had for
11:12
Speaker 3: a while now. And I thought tray Von played very
11:16
Speaker 3: well yesterday. Matt Dickerson continues to ascend, smooth made. I mean,
11:20
Speaker 3: it's just it's a group of dudes that has one vision.
11:25
Speaker 3: Camping knows what he wants to get it with these guys,
11:28
Speaker 3: I think they're very well prepared. And you know, look
11:33
Speaker 3: at Dennis Garter. He just keeps making plays, right, he
11:35
Speaker 3: just keeps fighting his tail off, and you know it
11:39
Speaker 3: says a lot Greg News and like, all these guys
11:42
Speaker 3: have made plays, so there's confidence and there's real.
11:48
Speaker 1: Time played like these guys have.
11:50
Speaker 3: Played in meaningful snaps and meaningful games, and when everybody's
11:55
Speaker 3: in it's just like, hey, trust the next man up
11:57
Speaker 3: and somebody else is going to make a play. And
11:59
Speaker 3: I think that's huge for depth, for development, and for
12:04
Speaker 3: confidence going into the you know, December and January football.
12:09
Speaker 6: It seems like the more games you guys win, the
12:12
Speaker 6: angrier the players get. You get a sense of that too,
12:17
Speaker 6: And is there a point where they can get two as.
12:21
Speaker 5: I don't know.
12:21
Speaker 3: I hope not, you know, I hope it keeps coming.
12:25
Speaker 3: And look, they they understand that we we really only
12:34
Speaker 3: truly care about what's going on in our building and
12:37
Speaker 3: in each other. It's a group I mentioned this the
12:40
Speaker 3: other night that cares about each other. They get along,
12:45
Speaker 3: the players, the staff, the coaches, we all you know,
12:49
Speaker 3: get along pretty well. And yeah, we've gone through some
12:52
Speaker 3: stuff together. But the resilience, the ability to respond each
12:56
Speaker 3: week has been impressive. And you know, I think that
13:01
Speaker 3: they know they're not going to get too much respect
13:03
Speaker 3: in general from the league. And so look, these guys
13:07
Speaker 3: are competitive, right Like they're competitive against each other and
13:10
Speaker 3: with each other. They're competitive with their peers that play
13:13
Speaker 3: on other teams and around the league. And so I
13:16
Speaker 3: think that's ultimately what fuels them.
13:19
Speaker 1: I want more for me real quick.
13:21
Speaker 6: Do you have a favorite of all the eleven winning
13:25
Speaker 6: post game locker room celebration speeches?
13:28
Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite of any of them at
13:30
Speaker 1: this point?
13:31
Speaker 2: Oh?
13:31
Speaker 1: Man, honestly, you.
13:39
Speaker 3: Know, the first one was was it Carolina who shot?
13:43
Speaker 1: That was cool.
13:46
Speaker 3: Just to see you know, shot pumped up and excited,
13:48
Speaker 3: and but honestly, you really look at I'll keep going
13:55
Speaker 3: back to Houston. It's a loss, to be honest, Like
14:00
Speaker 3: post Houston, that was a tough locker room. That was
14:05
Speaker 3: a tough feeling, and that was a really uh that
14:09
Speaker 3: was gut wrenching at the time. But I do recall
14:13
Speaker 3: Josh heinz Allen speaking very briefly.
14:18
Speaker 1: You know, I think Eric Armstead said a few.
14:20
Speaker 3: Things, and then we ended it. Like I didn't go
14:25
Speaker 3: on for on and on. We didn't have a lot
14:27
Speaker 3: lengthy post game. We said a few things. It was
14:33
Speaker 3: it was from the heart, it was real.
14:34
Speaker 1: But also I think the guys knew in that moment.
14:40
Speaker 3: Some things needed to change and we had to operate
14:44
Speaker 3: differently in terms of sixty minutes mindset football game. And
14:48
Speaker 3: so I'll continue to look back to that game as
14:53
Speaker 3: something that has helped us and fueled us moving forward.
14:57
Speaker 1: Thanks much, Thank you.
15:00
Speaker 7: Shipley Aley, and thanks for doing this. It seemed like
15:04
Speaker 7: Trayvon yesterday had a lot of you know, production when
15:07
Speaker 7: rushing from inside, just as an offensive mine if you
15:10
Speaker 7: had to, you know, kind of plan for a guy
15:12
Speaker 7: like that.
15:12
Speaker 1: What makes him so dangerous there? Yeah, it's the matchups, right.
15:16
Speaker 1: This is such a matchup.
15:17
Speaker 3: League, and you're constantly trying to find different ways of
15:22
Speaker 3: putting your players in positions to be successful. And I
15:25
Speaker 3: thought Trayvon played very well. He played with his hair
15:28
Speaker 3: on fire. He was relentless, made some critical stops for us,
15:34
Speaker 3: both from the end and from inside, rushing on the guards,
15:37
Speaker 3: rushing on the tackles. So yeah, that's just excuse me,
15:42
Speaker 3: more so matchup based than where you're trying to get
15:44
Speaker 3: him one on ones. Just try to do the same
15:47
Speaker 3: thing with with Eric and with Josh and with all
15:50
Speaker 3: those guys to be able to find the way to
15:53
Speaker 3: get to the quarterback and affect the game. And I
15:56
Speaker 3: think Trey had a really nice game. I was very
15:59
Speaker 3: proud of his ability to continue doing this throughout this
16:03
Speaker 3: end of the end of season push and We're gonna
16:06
Speaker 3: need them to continue to do that.
16:09
Speaker 1: Thanks, thanks, thank you. With time for just one more
16:13
Speaker 1: quick one.
16:14
Speaker 8: Sam, Liam you mentioned a couple of minutes ago about
16:19
Speaker 8: how this team likes each other, and you mentioned that
16:21
Speaker 8: in the post game yesterday, and that's that's an underrated
16:25
Speaker 8: thing when teams go on the road and they hang
16:27
Speaker 8: out together and they get to know each other. Did
16:31
Speaker 8: that happen gradually with this team or did it happen
16:33
Speaker 8: after San franc So you made three trips to the
16:35
Speaker 8: West coast, San Francisco, Arizona, you know, Las Vegas. Did
16:39
Speaker 8: you see that grow or is coming flying home one night?
16:43
Speaker 8: Did you did you see it happen on the airplane?
16:45
Speaker 6: Yeah?
16:45
Speaker 3: I think coming back from like being out in San
16:50
Speaker 3: fran I definitely felt it. When we got there and
16:53
Speaker 3: we were hanging out at the hotel. You got a
16:57
Speaker 3: cool vibe from the players all hanging out together. And
17:00
Speaker 3: then on that flight back, you know, I'll go back
17:04
Speaker 3: and hang out with some of the guys and we'll
17:06
Speaker 3: talk about the game and laugh and joke and bust
17:10
Speaker 3: chops and you know it's usually the quarterback, you know,
17:13
Speaker 3: Trevor and the O line and a bunch of guys,
17:15
Speaker 3: and I'll go hang out with some of those guys
17:18
Speaker 3: and then come back up front. And but even the
17:21
Speaker 3: other night, everybody was in the meal room watching the
17:25
Speaker 3: Chicago Green Bay game together towards the end of that game.
17:29
Speaker 3: I mean, the meal room was full of dudes just
17:32
Speaker 3: watching that game, hanging out, getting to know each other more.
17:37
Speaker 1: I mean, Robert Hainsey.
17:38
Speaker 3: Last week had a party at a restaurant downtown Jacksonville,
17:44
Speaker 3: an appreciation party for our support staff and our building.
17:50
Speaker 3: I mean, I'd never heard of many players doing that.
17:53
Speaker 3: I mean that it wasn't for coaches, it wasn't for players,
17:56
Speaker 3: it was for the building, and it was open bar,
18:00
Speaker 3: open food. Come on over and show our appreciation, show
18:05
Speaker 3: his appreciation, our players, appreciation for the people in this building.
18:09
Speaker 3: So it's yeah, the players are definitely close to coaches,
18:13
Speaker 3: and players and each other are close. But I do
18:16
Speaker 3: believe that this building appreciates one another. And ultimately, when
18:21
Speaker 3: you have everybody going towards the same thing, everybody's got
18:26
Speaker 3: the same goal and vision and understands what the standards are,
18:30
Speaker 3: I think that's when you usually get success.
18:33
Speaker 1: You've been a.
18:33
Speaker 8: Player on teams and of course you've been a coach
18:35
Speaker 8: for a long time too, But I mean, you know
18:38
Speaker 8: that's something special that you got going. I mean, that
18:41
Speaker 8: doesn't happen every year.
18:43
Speaker 1: No, you know, it definitely doesn't.
18:46
Speaker 3: Been very fortunate to be able to be on a
18:48
Speaker 3: lot of really talented football teams and very well coached teams,
18:52
Speaker 3: and you know, this group is definitely a combination of talent,
19:00
Speaker 3: great character, a group of dudes that are trying to
19:04
Speaker 3: prove something every week. I mean, that's the fun part
19:07
Speaker 3: about this group is, Yeah, we've won the last x
19:11
Speaker 3: amount of games in a row, and that's fun, but
19:14
Speaker 3: they continuously want to try to get better. There's intentional
19:18
Speaker 3: work going on when they're out at practice, when we're
19:22
Speaker 3: in the meeting rooms, when we're at the walkthroughs, the
19:25
Speaker 3: guys aren't just kind of getting through the day. I
19:28
Speaker 3: think that's the most fun part about the group is
19:32
Speaker 3: when we're here, when we're in the building together, they
19:34
Speaker 3: are present and they're being where their feet are. And
19:39
Speaker 3: that's all you can really ask, right, is that you
19:42
Speaker 3: want people to You want the staff, the players, the
19:44
Speaker 3: coaches to want to come back in the building every
19:48
Speaker 3: day right work for all of us, no matter what.
19:50
Speaker 1: We're doing is it's hard. It's work, or else it
19:53
Speaker 1: wouldn't be so. But you want it to be enjoyable.
19:56
Speaker 3: You want these guys to enjoy coming to work every
19:59
Speaker 3: day and enjoy being around each.
20:02
Speaker 1: Other, and so yeah, it is. It's been a fun
20:04
Speaker 1: group to be around so far.
20:07
Speaker 8: Thank you.