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Press Pass | Doug Pederson: "We’re just taking it one game at a time." · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:03
Speaker 1: Well, the bye week is it's kind of twofold one.
0:05
Speaker 1: It's a chance to get away and get healthy and
0:08
Speaker 1: kind of recharge. And the second part of that is
0:11
Speaker 1: to kind of reflect and and go back and either
0:14
Speaker 1: rewatch or go back through your performance right as a player,
0:18
Speaker 1: as a coach, and and and evaluate and and then
0:21
Speaker 1: as we get into this week, obviously we're back into
0:24
Speaker 1: a normal week, um, you know, as far as preparation goes.
0:28
Speaker 1: And and really it's you know, it's it's my job
0:31
Speaker 1: as the head coach to really make sure the guys
0:33
Speaker 1: stay stay focused and locked in. You know, having some
0:35
Speaker 1: time away, um is good. But at the same time,
0:39
Speaker 1: now it's it's time you know, obviously to to get
0:41
Speaker 1: our working and watching the tape back. What is the
0:44
Speaker 1: situation as you see it at linebacker with Devon and Chad, Well,
0:48
Speaker 1: I think both guys have uh, you know, show, they've
0:52
Speaker 1: shown us enough that they can both play and play
0:54
Speaker 1: in there and play well. And and I think now
0:57
Speaker 1: that's back you know, third of the season here, half
1:00
Speaker 1: of the season. Um, you know, I think you'll see
1:03
Speaker 1: more of a rotation with those two guys, and and
1:06
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's a great opportunity for both of them,
1:08
Speaker 1: and this week in particular, because of the unique style
1:12
Speaker 1: of Baltimore's you know, run offense. Um, Um, you know
1:17
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to probably use as many of those
1:19
Speaker 1: linebackers as possible. Players, Mark, what's that the players? The
1:24
Speaker 1: Mark Jackson is a really really good one. How do
1:27
Speaker 1: you contain a guy like that? You know, it's it's
1:30
Speaker 1: you just hope to slow him down, honestly, Um, have
1:34
Speaker 1: gone against him before and and you know he definitely
1:37
Speaker 1: can beat you both running and throwing. And you just
1:40
Speaker 1: gotta be you know, you gotta be committed to the
1:43
Speaker 1: discipline of your job. And and you know it just
1:46
Speaker 1: comes down to that. And obviously you gotta win your matchups,
1:49
Speaker 1: you know on defense, and um, you can't let uh,
1:53
Speaker 1: you know, you can't let your eyes wander. You gotta
1:55
Speaker 1: be disciplined there. And and you just like I said,
1:57
Speaker 1: you just hope to contain. You know, he's gonna his plays,
2:00
Speaker 1: He's he's that good and and um, but you know,
2:04
Speaker 1: when you get a chance to tackle him, you gotta
2:06
Speaker 1: make sure you wrap him up because he's strong enough
2:08
Speaker 1: to get out of that too. What's your year going back?
2:12
Speaker 1: Part of the season. What was two year days away
2:15
Speaker 1: issues that you got a chance to days in the
2:18
Speaker 1: last I think, you know, um, we've got it. On defense,
2:23
Speaker 1: you know, show up the past defense, you know obviously
2:25
Speaker 1: the past rush and and some of the you know,
2:27
Speaker 1: assignments in the back end, and you know some of
2:30
Speaker 1: the sometimes too. It it comes down to maybe just
2:32
Speaker 1: simplifying some things, you know, UM on defense, and and
2:38
Speaker 1: just just making sure that we kind of hone in
2:40
Speaker 1: UM each week on a game plan as far as
2:42
Speaker 1: you know, the players go and coaches are presenting it
2:45
Speaker 1: in a in a manner that they can understand it,
2:47
Speaker 1: you know obviously. And I think offensively, you look at
2:50
Speaker 1: you know, you look at the red zone, he's a
2:52
Speaker 1: glaring you know, the turnovers in the red zone. UM,
2:55
Speaker 1: it takes points off the board. And you know, even
2:59
Speaker 1: though number eyes offensively we're in a good spot and
3:02
Speaker 1: we've been playing playing well there, UM, those things really
3:06
Speaker 1: hurt you and and and they can not only take
3:10
Speaker 1: points off off the off the board, but they can
3:13
Speaker 1: you know, lead to losing football games. You know that.
3:16
Speaker 1: And UM, third down has been a little inconsistent, you know,
3:20
Speaker 1: the first first ten weeks, and so those are those
3:22
Speaker 1: are areas that we've we've got to improve and kind
3:25
Speaker 1: of be more more consistent in those areas. Yeah, I mean,
3:32
Speaker 1: I've just got to continue to work. I mean, the
3:34
Speaker 1: coach has got to put them in a position to
3:36
Speaker 1: to be successful. If that's uh, you know, if that's
3:40
Speaker 1: you know, more more games and stunts, if that's just
3:42
Speaker 1: straight rush whatever that is. You know, uh again, it
3:46
Speaker 1: goes back to winning your your matchups, right, and that's
3:49
Speaker 1: that's something that you know that that the guys have
3:52
Speaker 1: to really focus in on. And then of course the
3:55
Speaker 1: coaches have to do a great job of putting them
3:57
Speaker 1: in position to do that. You've ast, uh my mind
4:01
Speaker 1: got three times and maybe more a really good mobile
4:04
Speaker 1: quarterback and a really good tight end. I think of
4:08
Speaker 1: the Eagles Chiefs in this week. If you could give
4:12
Speaker 1: any offensive minded coach, uh that mobile quarterback like that
4:17
Speaker 1: and a tight end like those, would those be like?
4:22
Speaker 1: Maybe there too much valuable weapons on an offense the
4:24
Speaker 1: way the game is played, and doesnet a lot of
4:26
Speaker 1: that go back to what you did it with the Eagles?
4:29
Speaker 1: It does? I mean, you know, I've always said this
4:32
Speaker 1: that the quarterback's best friend is a tight end. You
4:35
Speaker 1: know and um, I think you know, those three teams
4:39
Speaker 1: you mentioned all have the quarterback end, the tight end
4:42
Speaker 1: and those those dynamic guys and and there's some there's
4:48
Speaker 1: not only familiarity, but there's there's comfort and knowing where
4:51
Speaker 1: where that tight end is going to be in the
4:52
Speaker 1: passing game, you know, for the quarterback. And you know,
4:55
Speaker 1: it goes all the way back to my days in
4:57
Speaker 1: Green Bay. We've had great tight ends and we've had
5:00
Speaker 1: at him in Philly and you know places I've been
5:02
Speaker 1: and um and and and even here. I mean, I
5:06
Speaker 1: really enjoy this room and making sure that you know,
5:09
Speaker 1: we're all on the same page. But but having that
5:12
Speaker 1: dynamic becomes um, it becomes hard because again it goes
5:17
Speaker 1: back to you know, winning your matchup right, whoever's assigned
5:21
Speaker 1: to guard the tight end and whoever is assigned to
5:24
Speaker 1: rush the passer. You know, we've got to be able
5:26
Speaker 1: to do both at the same time and and and
5:29
Speaker 1: do it well. And a lot of current systems don't
5:31
Speaker 1: utilize I mean, if you look at Elite system and
5:34
Speaker 1: that coaching treaty came in, and those guys aren't using
5:36
Speaker 1: that type of tight end if if at all, So
5:39
Speaker 1: are those kind of tight ends like Kelsey and Goddard
5:42
Speaker 1: and and Andrews are they harder to find it these days,
5:47
Speaker 1: they are. But but you know, there's there's enough, there's
5:50
Speaker 1: enough of those guys out there that you can bring
5:52
Speaker 1: in and develop. Um, there's a lot of good athletes
5:56
Speaker 1: who are playing tight end. They're they're not as big
5:59
Speaker 1: as maybe the Andrews is. You know, Um, godd It
6:03
Speaker 1: and Kelsey aren't aren't big guys, but they know how
6:05
Speaker 1: to run routes. They're smart, they're savvy, and you know,
6:08
Speaker 1: they spend a lot of time with their quarterbacks. And um,
6:12
Speaker 1: you can find those guys out there, you know, and
6:14
Speaker 1: and develop them and um, you know, hopefully hopefully turn
6:20
Speaker 1: you know, an offense into into that. It seems strange
6:23
Speaker 1: to you to have nearly half a season to play
6:26
Speaker 1: at Thanksgiving time. When you came into the league, it
6:28
Speaker 1: ended before Christmas, to be given before Christmas. Well, I
6:32
Speaker 1: am too, I've been around and only sixteen games, But
6:36
Speaker 1: here you are and Thanksgiving we're you know, you grew
6:39
Speaker 1: up thinking, you know, here's the tail end, but you
6:41
Speaker 1: have almost half of season left. How does that impact
6:44
Speaker 1: you as a coach? It encourages me as a coach
6:47
Speaker 1: because I still think, I see, I still believe everything
6:50
Speaker 1: is right in front of us. Our goals are still obtainable.
6:52
Speaker 1: You know, we've got to Yes, we've put ourselves in
6:54
Speaker 1: a in a hole a little bit, and and we're
6:57
Speaker 1: climbing out of that hole. But you know, we've just
6:59
Speaker 1: got to We've got a seven game schedule, and seven
7:02
Speaker 1: games it's a new season for us, and and um,
7:06
Speaker 1: you know, it's an opportunistic year, and we've got to
7:09
Speaker 1: just clean up some of the things that that you know,
7:12
Speaker 1: sort of plagued us in that in the first half
7:15
Speaker 1: you know, of the year, and and just focus on
7:18
Speaker 1: us and and um, you know, keep keep doing the
7:21
Speaker 1: things that have have given us success. Go back and
7:24
Speaker 1: look at the games we've won and and see what
7:26
Speaker 1: we can take from that. But yeah, you're right, I mean,
7:29
Speaker 1: it's it's a little different, um having seven you know,
7:33
Speaker 1: seven games left, and and and too with a young
7:35
Speaker 1: football team. It's still we've got to keep keep pushing, right,
7:39
Speaker 1: We've got to keep keep the guys and sort of
7:40
Speaker 1: the hammer down to let these young guys know that.
7:43
Speaker 1: You know, most colleges are wrapping up this coming weekend
7:46
Speaker 1: and and then both season, right, but you know, we
7:49
Speaker 1: still have a month and a half of football is
7:53
Speaker 1: probably losing confidence and player losing comments or guy who
7:57
Speaker 1: has a lot of ball commons. H Yeah, going deep here. Um,
8:08
Speaker 1: I mean they're both kind of that's interesting. You know,
8:16
Speaker 1: I would say that the one that's probably the harder,
8:20
Speaker 1: it's probably the player that is losing confidence, you know, um,
8:26
Speaker 1: because then they just there's so much self doubt, right,
8:29
Speaker 1: and it just starts creeping into their thinking a little bit,
8:31
Speaker 1: and and sometimes that's hard to recover. Um. You know.
8:36
Speaker 1: But you know, I was in a situation at Philly
8:40
Speaker 1: where you know, I took a receiver and and you know,
8:42
Speaker 1: he was the first round pick and had to had
8:45
Speaker 1: to put him on the bench for a week, you know,
8:47
Speaker 1: because that doubt was creeping in and you know, he struggled,
8:51
Speaker 1: you know, catching the football, and the media was on
8:53
Speaker 1: him and fans were on him, and it was just
8:55
Speaker 1: just tough. And so all that self doubt and the
8:58
Speaker 1: confidence started could see it right each each week, and
9:02
Speaker 1: you know, you feel bad for the player, but at
9:04
Speaker 1: the same time, you gotta do it's best for the
9:06
Speaker 1: football team. And and so by putting him down you
9:10
Speaker 1: know for a week or two there. Um, I think
9:15
Speaker 1: allows the player to sort of free his mind a
9:18
Speaker 1: little bit and and start building confidence back, you know, slowly.
9:24
Speaker 1: And when he came back, he was he was one
9:30
Speaker 1: of our better one of our better players, know the
9:32
Speaker 1: back half of the year. And you know, so there's
9:36
Speaker 1: ways of coping with that and dealing with that and
9:38
Speaker 1: helping helping players who might have a little bit of
9:44
Speaker 1: that self doubt, you know. Um, and it is tough.
9:47
Speaker 1: It's tough for for young guys. You know, this is
9:50
Speaker 1: a this is a tough business, you know, and it's
9:53
Speaker 1: a performance based business. And um, we just get coaches.
9:57
Speaker 1: We just got to keep encouraging and keep coaching and
9:59
Speaker 1: teaching and helping them, you know, kind of work through it.
10:03
Speaker 1: Three years, but now you're fifteen for him, but he's
10:09
Speaker 1: big and long, I mean, this guy, um unbelievable players
10:13
Speaker 1: still can you know, still can get after the past
10:16
Speaker 1: or you know, and I think of all the Ravens,
10:19
Speaker 1: I mean, there's this a long, tall, defensive group. I
10:23
Speaker 1: mean I think they're about sixteen batter or tip passes
10:26
Speaker 1: this year is about you know, I think the league
10:28
Speaker 1: average about eight and a half, right, now, so they're
10:30
Speaker 1: they're doing a tremendous job of that. But he's I
10:33
Speaker 1: would say he's he's a he's one of the leaders
10:35
Speaker 1: of that defense. You know, he's sort of the heart
10:37
Speaker 1: and soul and and um there's a great, great person
10:42
Speaker 1: um on top of that, and he plays the game
10:44
Speaker 1: the right way. And um, I've always had a lot
10:47
Speaker 1: of respectful you guys struggled to run the ball against
10:49
Speaker 1: the Chiefs and t J said they had no problem.
10:52
Speaker 1: But t J said, a big thing that they took
10:53
Speaker 1: away was the perimeter. And obviously, knowing the athletes that
10:56
Speaker 1: Baltimore possesses, how do you avoid that situation happening again? Yeah,
11:00
Speaker 1: I thought the last two ball games, you know, the
11:02
Speaker 1: teams that we played did that, you know, took away
11:05
Speaker 1: some of them because that was early on, that was
11:07
Speaker 1: kind of our strength, right, that was a perimeter game.
11:09
Speaker 1: And and then it forces us to adjust and make
11:12
Speaker 1: some make some uh decisions that way. But you know,
11:16
Speaker 1: that's just that's just the that's just game planning. That's
11:19
Speaker 1: just the game. And and we've got to get back
11:21
Speaker 1: on track. You know, this week we gotta try to
11:24
Speaker 1: run the football. I mean that just open so many
11:26
Speaker 1: things up, just like it does for Baltimore. You know,
11:28
Speaker 1: in the run game, and um, you know, you dabble
11:32
Speaker 1: in a little bit of everything in the run game,
11:35
Speaker 1: just kind of see what works, you know, throughout the
11:36
Speaker 1: course of the game, and and then you stick to it.
11:39
Speaker 1: But um, I think this is the you know, there
11:43
Speaker 1: are top three run defense and and haven't given up
11:47
Speaker 1: a hundred yard you know game to a team this year.
11:50
Speaker 1: It's it's a tremendous group and they present a lot
11:53
Speaker 1: of problems because of you know, these guys what you understand,
11:57
Speaker 1: These guys have played a lot of football together. Right,
11:59
Speaker 1: It's a vet group played together. Even though it's a
12:01
Speaker 1: new coordinator, scheme wise is the same, right, and um,
12:06
Speaker 1: they've played a lot of football together. There's a lot
12:07
Speaker 1: of confidence there. Mixed fronts, mixed personnel, um blitz at
12:13
Speaker 1: any time, you know, and they create create you know,
12:15
Speaker 1: some havoc that way. So, um, it's a challenge. It's
12:18
Speaker 1: a challenge to run the ball, but you still have
12:20
Speaker 1: to try. They struggled early on in the stack department.
12:23
Speaker 1: They were kind of similar, I think in some ways
12:26
Speaker 1: to some of the groups, some of the pass rushers here.
12:28
Speaker 1: They were getting pressures, but they weren't necessarily getting home.
12:30
Speaker 1: What have they changed in the last few weeks, But
12:32
Speaker 1: now they've seen that sack number rise. I think what
12:36
Speaker 1: they're what is shown up is there their teams are
12:39
Speaker 1: falling behind on first and second down. There's a lot
12:42
Speaker 1: of second logs, there's a lot of third logs. And
12:44
Speaker 1: that's what any defense would want to get you into
12:46
Speaker 1: as an offense. And that's what they've done. And they've
12:49
Speaker 1: been able to just cut, you know, cut their guys loose.
12:51
Speaker 1: And again it's it's an active group, um. And and
12:56
Speaker 1: they are they're getting after you know, they're getting after
12:58
Speaker 1: passer and they create any more sacks that way more opportunities.
13:01
Speaker 1: What do you svor this week? Just in terms of
13:03
Speaker 1: decision making when they have so many guys in the secondary,
13:06
Speaker 1: you're kind of known as ball hawks. I mean, you know,
13:09
Speaker 1: you just gotta be disciplined. You really got to study
13:10
Speaker 1: the film, um, you know, and understand understand coverage because
13:15
Speaker 1: it's gonna be different every snap. You know, It's it's
13:17
Speaker 1: not like Indie where you kind of knew where the
13:19
Speaker 1: guys were gonna be or something like that. These guys
13:23
Speaker 1: are you know, he's gonna mix coverage. Um, and you
13:26
Speaker 1: just gotta be on point. Ball has gotta come out,
13:28
Speaker 1: and you gotta make great decisions pre snap, um, you know,
13:32
Speaker 1: and then trust that, trust the read, trust your eyes
13:34
Speaker 1: and and uh be accurate with your throws. And then
13:37
Speaker 1: this is a bit off topic, but thoughts on Fred
13:39
Speaker 1: Taylor being named to send my finalist for the Hall
13:41
Speaker 1: of Fame. Yeah, excited for him. I mean, um, I
13:44
Speaker 1: remember him you know as a player, tremendous player and
13:48
Speaker 1: and you know for for the Jags, and and uh
13:51
Speaker 1: a tough, tough one to bring down and and just
13:53
Speaker 1: excited for him and pulling for him and hopefully it
13:55
Speaker 1: hopefully it works out. Um yeah, it's I mean, we've
14:07
Speaker 1: got to be better in the first quarter. Um. I
14:10
Speaker 1: thought the first you know, eight weeks we've we did
14:12
Speaker 1: a nice job in at first quarter score points and
14:15
Speaker 1: kind of having leads. But that's you know, that's something
14:18
Speaker 1: we've got to get back to, you know. Um, you know,
14:21
Speaker 1: try to keep it. You don't ever want to be
14:23
Speaker 1: down seventeen nothing, especially a team like this. It's it's
14:26
Speaker 1: playing well right now and and um, you know, it
14:29
Speaker 1: just opens up a lot of stuff for them, But yeah,
14:31
Speaker 1: it's it's crucial that you come out and try to score. Really,
14:34
Speaker 1: you guys struggled the zone read with Daniel Jones Jalen
14:38
Speaker 1: Hurd's earlier in the year. How do you change that?
14:40
Speaker 1: I know is very different than different. It's a different guy.
14:44
Speaker 1: It's a different style of run games trying to stop.
14:48
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's different. It's a little different. I
14:50
Speaker 1: mean some of the principles are the same, but you
14:53
Speaker 1: see some er scheme. You know, offensively, there is some
14:57
Speaker 1: zone you know, read zone stuff, and you know there's
15:01
Speaker 1: obviously just quarterback runs, design quarterback runs, and you know,
15:04
Speaker 1: I think you know, Greg Roman does a good job
15:07
Speaker 1: of designing you know plays and and um, you know
15:11
Speaker 1: for for Lamar, and it should again it comes down
15:15
Speaker 1: to just all eleven on defense, just locking in on
15:18
Speaker 1: that particular play and and stay discipline and um, you know,
15:21
Speaker 1: trust their trust their technique, and trust the scheme and
15:24
Speaker 1: and try to corral as best they can. I know,
15:26
Speaker 1: you guys talked about contain with Patrick Mahomes and I
15:30
Speaker 1: know he's more of a scrambler per se. Like you said,
15:32
Speaker 1: more of the design runs for Lamar. Is that the
15:34
Speaker 1: approach is it more of a container? Is it you
15:36
Speaker 1: need to have somebody just on the quarterback the entire time.
15:40
Speaker 1: I believe you gotta you can mix it up. I
15:42
Speaker 1: don't think you just constantly have to spy the guy
15:45
Speaker 1: all the time. But you know, I think you gotta
15:47
Speaker 1: mix it up, and you gotta you gotta just keep
15:49
Speaker 1: throwing you know, different pitches right and and um somehow
15:54
Speaker 1: keep them off balance the best you can. And and
15:56
Speaker 1: you know, attack, attack when you can, you know, and
16:02
Speaker 1: again it's um, you know, that's the that's the that's
16:04
Speaker 1: the beauty of you know football. Obviously, it's the chess
16:07
Speaker 1: match of you know, the two teams and the game
16:10
Speaker 1: plan and how how you know either team wants to um,
16:16
Speaker 1: you know, play the game. And and again it's just
16:19
Speaker 1: the more you can. The thing is too with with
16:21
Speaker 1: the guy, like the more is if you can get
16:24
Speaker 1: him on the ground, You got to get him on
16:25
Speaker 1: the ground, right, and you just can't let him run
16:27
Speaker 1: in space and that's where he gets extremely you know,
16:29
Speaker 1: extremely dangerous. You mentioned the team's goal was still being
16:33
Speaker 1: in front of them, and on Monday in the locker room,
16:35
Speaker 1: guys kept using the word playoffs. Do you think this
16:38
Speaker 1: team has what it takes to make or make that
16:40
Speaker 1: run late in the season to kind of get into
16:42
Speaker 1: the postseason. You know, I'm encouraged by the attitude of
16:45
Speaker 1: the team. Um, I think they're in the right frame
16:47
Speaker 1: of mind and anything's possible. You know, I've seen it,
16:50
Speaker 1: I've experienced it in this league. You know, you get
16:52
Speaker 1: a little you get a little luck on your side.
16:55
Speaker 1: You know, the ball bounces your way, and anything's possible,
16:58
Speaker 1: you know. But we're just taking it one game of
17:00
Speaker 1: time right now, and we're focused on Baltimore. Thank you,
17:04
Speaker 1: all right, guess h