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Interview: Ian Eagle, CBS Sports · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Jags and the Titans coming up a four oh five
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: kickoff Sunday at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. It's been
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: a house of horrors for the Jacksonville Jaguars over the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: last oh gosh forever. In fact, I am Eagle has
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the call of the game today on CBS Sports. How
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: are you I and what's up? I'm doing well, JP.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: I feel like i've I've been there front and center
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: for a bunch of these Jaguars Titans games, and certainly
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: remember where I was a year ago in Nashville where
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: things went very much awry for the Jaguars. So you're right,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: it's been rough sledding for Jacksonville on the road in
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: this one. But divisional games that unpredictable nature, uh chance
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: for the Jaguars to to maybe turn their season around.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: That's the way they have to view this. Jackson dropped
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: five straight in Nashville, nine of the last eleven years
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: they've lost at Nissan Stadium. Let's start off with the
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: division race, though tonight it's Indie and Houston first place
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: on the line in the a f C South. That
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: will give you an idea of how things will go
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: this weekend or you know, it's a big piece of
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the puzzle, at least in the a f C South.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Who is your favorite in the division right now? Boy,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: that that's the sixty four million dollar question. I've seen
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: both teams very recently. Last week, I had Houston Baltimore.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: There was a huge build up for that game, and
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the Texans laid an egg. It was all Lamar Jackson
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: and the Ravens took control of that game in the
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: second quarter, never looked back and it was the biggest
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: thud of the season for Houston and for Bill O'Brien's team.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: First time that Deshaun Watson has lost the game that
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: he started in by more than two scores, and he
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: didn't look like that Deshaun Watson that we've seen throughout
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: the season that has been mentioned in m v P talk.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Houston is a little tough to figure out right now.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: They've sustained a bunch of injuries, and certainly on the
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: defensive end with no j J. Watt had been banged
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: up in the secondary as well. Offensively, I think they
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: have potential to be dynamic when they have the balance
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: going like we've seen in London and so many Jaguars
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: fans saw, but it's not stable, it's not consistent. Indianapolis
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: has a certain resiliency to them, and I've seen them
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: with Jacoby Brissette. I've seen them without Jacoby Brissette. Obviously,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: with Jacoby bros Said, they're a different team. They've dealt
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: with serious injuries. T Y Hilton, their main playmaker on
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: offense through the year, has not been a part of it.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: He's a game changer and changes the way they run things.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Marlon mack now down they're going to have to do
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: it by committee. Defense is opportunistic. I like their makeup.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: I think there's something about the way they approached the game,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Frank Reich's coaching style, the connectivity of that group. To me,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: when the smoke clears, they should be standing there. But
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Tennessee might have something to say about it as well.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: The Titans have played very well with Bryan Tannehill at quarterback.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: He's given them a little bit of juice, a little
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: bit of life. I think Mike Vrabel brings an edge
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: to things just in the way that that he approaches
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: his coaching style. And I think Tennessee right now still
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: believes that they've got a puncher's chance to to be
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: in this thing to the bitter end. I an Eagle
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: with Us from CBS Sports has the call. This week's
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Jaguars Titans matched up in Nashville, Tennessee. At the start
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: of this month, this was where the season would turn
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: either way for the Jaguars, with three divisional games away
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: from Jacksonville with a bye week in the middle of those. Well,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the first two haven't gone the right way. In fact,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: they've been blown out in both games, and now they're
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: going to Nashville this week. It doesn't feel comfortable around
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: here right now in Jacksonville, would be quite honest with you.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Let's start on defense. They've given up four d eighty
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: rushing yards the last two games. You can't win football
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: games like that. I'm no, no, And it's pre and
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: pain to think about. Considering where they were two years
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: ago defensively and last year defensively, the numbers just keep falling.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: They were the second ranked defense in they were the
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: fifth ranked defense, and here they are now at seventeen
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: overall and team defense they're better than that, and they're
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: just not showing it weekend and week out. It's it's
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: very tough to look at this team and say definitively
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: that they can just stay the course and everything is
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: going to be okay. There have been too many gaps
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: for them in terms of consistency and flashes. Obviously, Minshew
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: brought a lot to the table and people rallied behind that,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: just his whole way, his presence, But I don't know
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: if that was going to be sustainable once Nick Foles
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: got healthy, Considering the money that they're paying him, considering
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: the commitment they made to Nick, and considering the fact
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: that he deserves a chance to come back and start
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: based on his resume, and based on the fact that
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: he was knocked out because of injury and a flukish
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: injury at that in the first game of the season.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: There are pieces in place. There's no duart doubt that
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: this has been a breakout season for d J. Chart.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: It's been nice to see from a national perspective. I
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: think he's getting a lot of credit and his name
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: is growing. The run game, which was such a big
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: key before the season started. Could they get that part
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: of their game cranked up? Well, we've seen it at times.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Leonard Fournett has looked like the player they drafted so high.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: In the two thousand seventeen draft. But then it's been
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: feast or famine, and that's frustrating, I'm sure. And as
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: you alluded to defensively, it just can't happen. If teams
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: know that they can control the ball, control the clock,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: and run it down your throat, they're just gonna keep
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: doing it until you can prove that you can stop it.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: And that still now out there in the equation Tennessee.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: That's the way they're going to approach it. You've got
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: to look at what's happened over the last few weeks
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: and that plays to the Titan style. That's what they
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: want to do. They'd rather do that than ask Ryan
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Tannegal to toss it around the field thirty five times.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: So the the whole philosophy is in place right now,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: and until Jacksonville can disprove it, teams will just keep
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: doing it. We all have nightmares of Mike Keith screaming
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: yards on the commercial every week around here after last
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: year's game in Nashville. How difficult was what Nick Foles
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: did the last two years in Philly, coming off the
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: bench late in the regular season, leading a couple of
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: playoff runs obviously a super Bowl a couple of years ago,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: and they're a catch away from moving on last year.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: You know, people say, hey, they maybe he can equate
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: that kind of magic this year. But it's not that easy.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: You've gotta have parts around you and everything going well,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: a little bit of rhythm. How difficult is it defined
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: that rhythm? Yeah, extremely difficult. Obviously. It's just not something
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: you can do flip a switch. If anybody could do it,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: then there would be teams all over the league that
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: rip off six straight wins to end the season and
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: go into the playoffs as a hot team. I think
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: that was a very unique set of circumstances. That team
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: believed in him. He had something there, some magic that
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: worked for that specific squad, with those specific players in
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: that specific city. That's not to say that he's not
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: capable of doing that, of course he is. Nick has
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: shown that he's he's got that intangible whatever that is.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: He's got it, but it just doesn't mean that you
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: can unleash it at any moment. I think when we
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: look back on it, it's going to stand out as
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: one of the more unlikely stories in NFL history, The
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: fact that Nick Fole stepped in and won a Super Bowl.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: With that group, there will be a brotherhood and a
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: real cohesiveness for those guys forever because of what they
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: went through together. And Nick deserved a chance to go
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: out and be a starter somewhere. And I think Jacksonville
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: made a very good decision in bringing in a proven
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: leader and someone that has on their resume a super
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Bowl title. That's credibility. Uh. The injury certainly set things back,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: and it changed the script here for Jacksonville, but it
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: probably also opened their eyes to the fact that they're
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: gonna need to improve in certain areas moving forward. And
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: I had a chance to call that playoff game against
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Pittsburgh and they nearly went on that kind of run,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: And that was a very similar feel if Lake Bortles
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: led them to the super Bowl, if they get the
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: win over New England, and then who knows, once you
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: get there, we might be talking about something completely different
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: than what we're talking about with Philadelphia and and Nick
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: full Uh. That's the reminder of this game and how
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: rewarding it can be and how humbling it could be.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: In a matter of forty five minutes, everything changed for
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Jacksonville and for Blake Bortles to get to the contract,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: and then the Jaguars realized that they had to move on.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: But major decisions are made based on a play here,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: a play there that can change a person, a team,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: a city's life. I am eagle with us the governments.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: You do enough for you to prove he can start
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: regularly in the NFL. I certainly did enough for me
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: to believe that he can lead in the NFL. UH.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: That is oftentimes the gateway to the next question. When
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: you step in front of the locker room. Is there
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: a belief from those players that you can be the guy?
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: And for some players some qbs that sometimes the hardest
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: part just the present he has that and then some
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: so that's not an issue. The questions moving forward will
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: be opportunity and once defensive coordinators figure out what you're
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: all about, what else you got it? It's not that simple.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: As we know, every year things are changing, the league
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: is changing, and based on who you have around you.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: As you mentioned in regards to the Nick Foles and
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: the Jaguars trying to find a rhythm, that's the same
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt that I would give Gardner Minshew,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: who really did handle himself incredibly well. I know he
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: was upset and frustrated when the decision was made, and
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: that shows that he's a competitor and shows that he's
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: the kind of guy I would want on my team.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: So people take notice. That's the one thing in the NFL.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: You don't operate in a vacuum. It's not just for
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: the local people in your city that see you go
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: out there and do the things you do. It's for
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: everybody that's watching around in the league. It's a constant audition,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: and what you're putting on film is passed around and
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: disseminated by every team in the league. Everybody wants to
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: get an edge, Everybody wants information, everybody wants to figure
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: out who they can build with. So for Gardner Minshew,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: I think he's probably convinced enough talent evaluators now that
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: he could be something in this league. And while he's
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: operated with a chip on his shoulder and trying to
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: prove people wrong probably his whole life, he could personally
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: breathe a little bit of a sigh of relief that
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: now people realize he belongs. I am Eagle has the
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: call of the Jags and the Titans coming up on
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: CBS Sports. Also works on Westwood One Thursday nights with
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: our friend Tony Bosellian From a guy who has to
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: work with Tony most of the week, I feel you
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: you're talking about maybe the nice as human being I've
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: ever been around. J P. Tony is Wait hold on,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: let me read from the rest of the script before
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I say. Tony is a giver, Tony is a great family. Yeah,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: you you get it. Yeah, you have those talking points
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: as well, but you know, yeah, um, it's he'll have
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the biggest bust in Canton one day, hopefully we'll see.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Oh man, if there's anyone that deserves it, it's him
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: on so many levels, but just from his playing career,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: he deserves that. He was a dominant force in the
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: NFL during his time in Jacksonville and that should be
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: duly noted by those making the decisions in Canton. I
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: am great to talk to you. Have a great call
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: this week, all right, JP, if my pleasure, We'll do
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: it again soon.