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Fred Taylor on Running Game 5 Weeks in | Countdown to Kickoff · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's time for our weekly conversation with Pride of the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Jaguars running back Fred Taylor and the Jags are back
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: stateside after wins in London. Unprecedented first off to play
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: games in London, but to win two games in London
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: in the same season. So the Jags team, Fred, that
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: was one and two and trying to figure it out.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Did they figure it out in London?
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  Speaker 2: You know what, JPI, I can't answer that question if
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: they figured it out, But what I can say is
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: we've both said that London has been kind to the team,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: and you know, I don't know what it is, but
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: they went there and they found their stride. Have they
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: figured it out? You know, they have an opportunity to
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: play the division leaguing Coats, so that'll be another good
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: test for them and then we'll be closer to that answer.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: But again, salute to those guys for you know, going
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: across the pond, refocusing after losing two in a row,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: and they just refocused and played like they look like
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: a totally different team in both ball games. So yeah,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: definitely got a big salute to them.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Brett really was defensive minded. They held the Falcons down
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: obviously in the Wembley game, and then they were facing
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: the second best scoring offense in the NFL and the
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  Speaker 1: Bills at Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium, a team that had beaten
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the last three opponents they played by twenty eight points
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: or more. I mean, this Bills team was rolling. So
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the Jags defense has found a way and they've been
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: a really steady group this season overall, especially against the run.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: That's where it starts. If they can stop the run,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: then they can maybe affect a quarterback, even if they
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: aren't getting sacks and numbers. It's an effective group.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, that's the theme has definitely pivoted since
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: the start of the season. The offseason expectations were that
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: the offense was just gonna come out and just light
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: it up and carried his team. Yet the defense said, no, wait,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: you can't forget about us. We're not the little other
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: in this thing. We're gonna do our part. And they've
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: done that each and every week, well minus the Houston game.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: You know, we can toss that one out. That one
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: is behind them. I'm sure they're ready for the next
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: matchup versus the Texans. But they played very well against
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: high level opponents. They battled against the Chiefs. There the
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: offense couldn't execute it in the red zone. This time around,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: against a high powered Bills team, they battled just in
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: total opposite fashion the offense. They were able to really
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  Speaker 2: pound the ball and keep the ball away from Josh
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Allen in the Bills offense and slow him down.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 2: So the defense certainly made it a business trip, and
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I think we'll continue to see a lot more of
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: that as the season progresses.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Bret Taylor with us. They'll need to bring it this
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: week against the running game of the Indianapolis Colts. Of course,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Zach Moss last week went off for a big number
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: on the ground and their win. And Jonathan Taylor is back,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: and he's got a contract and he's coming off with
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: the ankle issue, so they do have two running backs
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  Speaker 1: back there. Fred, So this is priority number one for
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: the Jags defense.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Oh, without a doubt. You know, that's certainly without a doubt.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Zach Moss, he had a monstrous day. I'm happy to
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: see Taylor twenty eight back, irregardless of the outcome, I'm
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  Speaker 2: just glad he's back. In his contract situation hopefully is
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: completely behind him. The Jags do have a big test.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: But what I've learned from my playing career is that
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: you know, one week you can have these big numbers
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  Speaker 2: and then the next week you think, Okay, I'm gonna
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  Speaker 2: do it again. It doesn't always work that way, you know,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: no matter what, it doesn't work that way. And I
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  Speaker 2: think Zack Moss he probably you know, shot his shot
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: a week too soon. You know, he hadn't played a
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  Speaker 2: defense like the Jaguars defense. The Jaguar has been really
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: out against the running every game this year. I mean,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: they've been so good against the run, and I think
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: they'll continue to trend. So I'd expect the coaches to
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: be held under one hundred yards rushing and that that'll
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: in turn helped the Jaguars get the win.
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  Speaker 1: Right of the Jaguars running back Fred Taylor with us
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: And speaking of running backs, Travis et In Jr. Went
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  Speaker 1: off on the Bills at Spurs last week, especially in
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  Speaker 1: the second half fourth quarter when the game was really
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: kind of tight back and forth in the fourth quarter.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, Travis etn Really stepped up big and I
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  Speaker 1: don't think he ever wants to leave London. He had
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  Speaker 1: his career best game last year in London, and then
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  Speaker 1: he had his second best career game in the second
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  Speaker 1: game this year in London. So he is the all
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  Speaker 1: time London leading rusher in NFL history. He passed Frank
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  Speaker 1: Gore in the game against the Bills last week. Go aside,
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  Speaker 1: what style? What is it about Travis's style, the way
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  Speaker 1: he's run this year that's made him so effective. He's
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  Speaker 1: now fifth in the league in rushing.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: You know, Travis, he's patient. You know, he's patient.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: The run game didn't start out, you know, quite like
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: any of us expected it too to start the season.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: And also, you know, the team has a new toy
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: and Calvin Ridley, so they've sort of leaned a lot
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: more on the past game. But now they understand, you
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: know what a new play caller. I think he gets it.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: You know, I think he understands that. You know, in
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  Speaker 2: the run game, you can have a two yard game,
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  Speaker 2: a six yard game, four to three yard games in
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  Speaker 2: a row, and then boom, you got a forty yarder.
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  Speaker 3: Travis Etn is that type of back.
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  Speaker 2: You know, he understands the run game, He understands run
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  Speaker 2: game efficiency. He just continues to grind away. You know,
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  Speaker 2: he gets he understands the efficiency and that you have
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: to get the tough four, you know, and then from
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: that some some bigger moments will happen, and you can't
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: get frustrated. No matter what, you can't get frustrated. And
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  Speaker 2: that's a part of the patients I'm talking about. You know,
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: he's a team player. You know, they brought in a
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  Speaker 2: young running back in Tank Bigsby, and you know, Travis
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  Speaker 2: could easily, you know, start to kind of peek over
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  Speaker 2: and you know when he see his carries start to
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: go the other way. That can also cause frustration because
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: he's a guy who's quite naturally. He's only in his
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: true second season, you know, so he wants the ball.
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  Speaker 2: He's still a young player, but this guy is the
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: limit for him. We talked about when he came back
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: to make his return off the injury season last year.
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  Speaker 3: We talked about his power.
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  Speaker 2: Comes through his pad level and his quick decision making
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  Speaker 2: and when he sees those holes, he has an extreme
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: burst and he gets through it and the team they're
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: gonna fall in love with it.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: You know. I think he's readiest at.
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  Speaker 2: The point in the season when it starts to get
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: a little cooler, you know, and you can carry, you
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  Speaker 2: can hand the ball off a little bit more to
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: these backs. And I think with the expectations of the
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: coaches coming in to run the ball, I think the
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Jaguars are going to outrush them simply because I believe
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: they've found a nice niche and they put it on films.
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  Speaker 2: Other teams see it now. Other teams have to find
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  Speaker 2: a way to stop it, and is not going to
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  Speaker 2: be easy.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Bret Taylor with us. You know, last year Travis would
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: get hit and just blasted, like head over heels. He's
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: getting crushed, you know, And now this year he leads
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: the league in forced mistackles, so he's running through tackles.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: And you said, at the pad level and things and
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: the vision are just improving as it goes along.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 1: It also helps when you have a quarterback who's playing
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: at a high level on top of that running game. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, yeah, they had two sack fumbles last week.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: One of those not his fault. The second one you
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: could argue, yeah, you got to just throw it away
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: or whatever there. Either way, they were able to overcome
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: that and Trevor Lawrence making timely throws really good un
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: third down and holding onto the football for the most part,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: that's really what you want and make a big taking hits.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: The Zay Jones touchdown last week, I mean, driver got
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: smoked on that player.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: You stood in there.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: I mean that's something that can carry a team and
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: carry them even further than they might by themselves.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe in that same play, the touchdown play,
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: didn't they call a personal a file versus the Bills defender.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: So yeah, he's standing in the pocket. But Trevor's been
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: having a good season. You know, he's been questioned here
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: and there. But if you look at the accumulation of
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: drops that have surrounded the offense, if you give those
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: back and count them as catchers, I mean his statistics
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: would be somewhat through the roof, you know. And those
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: little whispers, And I think those whispers come through expectations
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  Speaker 2: from the fan base a lot of times from you
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: know myself.
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  Speaker 3: Former players. But I get it.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: So I would never ever bash or trash Trevor because
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  Speaker 2: I think he has what it takes to be the
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: franchise quarterback and lead the team deep in the playoffs
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: and hopefully to a super Bowl here and in their future.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: But I think he's having a good season. And I
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: think the more we see from Travis etn the more
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: we're gonna see from the quarterback and vice versa. And
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: when you get that mix and teams don't know, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I can't cheat the run game because we got a
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: dynamic passing threat that we have to deal with and
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: vice versa. Then the Jaguars offense guy is the limit.
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  Speaker 2: And you couple that with the way the defense is playing.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Jacksonville should rightfully get back in the lead in this
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: division and hopefully win it all, you know, by the
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: time the season expires, and then make it to a playoff,
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: get some good home field advantage throughout, and hopefully they
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: can be the team playing in Vegas.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: Man and I will be their front row.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Fred, let's not put the carto.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: I get it, you know, but I do know they
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: say you got to speak things into existence, and you know,
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: that's just the optimism in me and just kind of
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: looking at what the possibilities are because it is a possibility.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: You know, you hit your stride at certain points of
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: the season.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: I saw one of those NFL ranking things JP they
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: still got the Bills ranked number one. Huh, like you
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: just got beat. I wanted to say something else, but
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: you just got your butts beat. And the team that
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: beat you that ranked number ten on the PFI NFL rankings.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: I don't understand all of that nonsense, you know, but yeah,
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: I think the optimism says, and my experience also shows
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: that when teams have a good running game and a
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: good passing game and a good defense.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: Then you win. You win. So I think their position
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: to start bringing along multiple.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Wins back to back to back to back to back
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: to back to back, and all of that good stuff
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: until we backed up in you know, backing up the
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: big buses in Vegas.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: Pret Taylor.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: You know, the only place rankings matter is college football.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: So the rankings don't matter.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: They just bait.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Sinker in clickbait.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: That is certainly clickbait. I just look at it.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: I don't even come in JP because I'm like this football,
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: it's it's this. This is the age of football, the
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: technology and analytics, and you know the statistic that you
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: just mentioned that Travis is better in this year versus
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: last year. When I was there, we just ran the
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: damn ball like whatever it was, that's what it was.
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: And if we led in this and led in that.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: At the end of the day we were like, oh
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: he leads in Russian or receiving for running backs or whatever.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: It wasn't yards have to contact and this. After that,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: maybe I'm ana throwback. Channing and Ryan like to say
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: I played with Dick Bucket's Rest in Peace and a
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: few other guys back in the early fifties and stuff.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: But I digress. It's pretty simple, wins. I just want
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: to see wins. I don't care about stats.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: I want to see wins because if I cared about stats,
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: then now I can have another argument about this Pro
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: Bowl and all this other stuff where the top three
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: should be the ones voted in and not the beauty queens.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: But I digress again. And that's that.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: A good way to wrap it up this week. I
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: think I got you going. We could go for another
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: hour on this.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: Oh, we can definitely go. You ready, Let's go.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you the post game, Fred, have a
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: good one, all right, be ready.