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Jags Drive Time: Monday, November 5 · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:01
Speaker 1: Jeffu Wars did you don't check what Jack Warris? Did
0:03
Speaker 1: you don Jaguarris drive Time? Brian Sex steps to John. Actually,
0:12
Speaker 1: Jaguarris Drive Time starts right now. Here we go Monday morning,
0:19
Speaker 1: out of the bye, raring and ready to go. John Osier,
0:23
Speaker 1: Ashlyn Sullivan me, Brian, Hi, good morning. Uh this is
0:28
Speaker 1: this is kind of a tough Monday to get going,
0:31
Speaker 1: just because we spent most of usterday watching and not working. Yeah,
0:35
Speaker 1: it's kind of nice. Actually I didn't mind it. Do
0:38
Speaker 1: you realize why people every week? I don't think that's
0:42
Speaker 1: allowed to do that. You sign up for the off season,
0:46
Speaker 1: which is still half a season away. So we'll take
0:50
Speaker 1: whatever focus you can give us over the next couple
0:51
Speaker 1: of weeks, John, the next couple of weeks. I'm not
0:54
Speaker 1: gonna focus for two weeks? What No, we need eight?
0:58
Speaker 1: All right, well I'll give it world, Okay, good nice um.
1:03
Speaker 1: Brought to you by Jet Homelands this morning. Sure that.
1:05
Speaker 1: In a couple of things to reflect upon. The first
1:08
Speaker 1: is the death of Vinnie Manawai, the Jaguars former. He
1:12
Speaker 1: wasn't an All Pro or a Pro Bowl player, but
1:15
Speaker 1: he was a tempo setter. He was the guy. If
1:19
Speaker 1: you go back to his career here with Maurice Jones,
1:22
Speaker 1: Drew and Fred Taylor in tandem. He was that guy
1:25
Speaker 1: on the front line who set the tempo, set the tone.
1:30
Speaker 1: He was an absolute road grading offensive lineman and died
1:35
Speaker 1: at age thirty eight over the weekend at his home
1:39
Speaker 1: in Hawaii, where he leaves six children behind. Um then
1:45
Speaker 1: he was not a guy of many words. In fact,
1:48
Speaker 1: he would rather talk about his tattoos than football. Uh.
1:51
Speaker 1: He would rather talk about his home state of Hawaii
1:54
Speaker 1: with Chris Naoli. Um then he would talk about football
1:59
Speaker 1: or Tyson Lawala when he showed up a few years later.
2:02
Speaker 1: But a huge personality behind a very quiet exterior. One
2:07
Speaker 1: of my favorite Vinnie Mona Wi stories is in two
2:09
Speaker 1: thousand and seven, my wife Jennifer and I went on
2:12
Speaker 1: vacation to Maui and it was one of the very
2:16
Speaker 1: first vacations we had had since we started having kids,
2:18
Speaker 1: and we were excited to get away. We went into
2:20
Speaker 1: a little sushi restaurant called sanse and there is a
2:24
Speaker 1: sushi chef wearing a Jaguars had and I said, where
2:29
Speaker 1: did you get that? And he said, oh, Manni monimized
2:31
Speaker 1: a cousin and all we did in a very small
2:35
Speaker 1: sushi restaurant was tell Vinny stories. Um. I tried to
2:38
Speaker 1: do a sit down with him early in his career,
2:42
Speaker 1: and it was about thirty seconds long. I think I
2:44
Speaker 1: asked fifteen questions. But when the microphone went off, you
2:48
Speaker 1: could ask Vinnie absolutely anything. He would talk about Naoli,
2:51
Speaker 1: he would talk about football, he would talk about his kids,
2:54
Speaker 1: woul talk about growing up in Hawaii. UM, I just
2:58
Speaker 1: didn't wasn't the biggest speakers. So there's a lot of
3:00
Speaker 1: people out there who watched him playing who don't know
3:04
Speaker 1: him because he wasn't the guy that let you tell
3:06
Speaker 1: his story. Um. But if you look at the tweets
3:08
Speaker 1: from his teammates, the social media messages, the texts and
3:12
Speaker 1: things that you will undoubtedly read today tomorrow before sadly
3:17
Speaker 1: it fades, is how many people loved and cared about
3:21
Speaker 1: Vinni Mono way during his career. Here, I think we
3:23
Speaker 1: have one from Fred Taylor, who obviously benefited from playing
3:27
Speaker 1: behind a three pound road grader. That was Vinny. And
3:31
Speaker 1: there you go. I don't have my glasses, ash, can
3:32
Speaker 1: you read that one of my favorite teammates I've ever
3:35
Speaker 1: had the pleasure of getting to battle with. I'd have
3:38
Speaker 1: to pull it up now because it's too small for
3:40
Speaker 1: me as well. You can read, but she had Fred
3:43
Speaker 1: and Jack del Rio as well, and a lot of
3:45
Speaker 1: teammates chiming in about the loss of him, So you
3:48
Speaker 1: can tell that it meant a lot to the sword.
3:50
Speaker 1: Big vents never complain and he was always down for
3:56
Speaker 1: He was ready to rumble on Sundays. He was the
4:00
Speaker 1: I'm sure we can't say that, Yeah he was. He
4:02
Speaker 1: was the guy that stood there and said, all right,
4:04
Speaker 1: let's go, you know, kind of like Brandon Linder does now.
4:07
Speaker 1: Um played a really good offensive line. I mean that
4:10
Speaker 1: Brad Meester and Chris Naoli, Um, Clif Barnes, Mo Williams.
4:17
Speaker 1: I mean that was a good, hard nosed group that
4:18
Speaker 1: led the league in rushing in two thousand and seven
4:20
Speaker 1: that year that they they went up to New England
4:22
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, so it would beat Pittsburgh twice in
4:24
Speaker 1: the final month of the season, and then he was
4:26
Speaker 1: a big part of it. Um one of those guys.
4:28
Speaker 1: He plays in an anonymous position. But those of us
4:31
Speaker 1: who knew him, uh, were sating yesterday when we heard
4:34
Speaker 1: of the News. Yeah, and I didn't. I was gone
4:37
Speaker 1: during his time here, and I interviewed him once when
4:41
Speaker 1: he was resigned very briefly in two thousand and eleven
4:44
Speaker 1: and then released very shortly thereafter. So I was I
4:49
Speaker 1: was impressed during that brief meeting by what I imagined
4:54
Speaker 1: was probably a pretty good guy to be around. UM.
4:56
Speaker 1: And you said earlier that maybe fans really get to
5:00
Speaker 1: know him. UM, I got a lot of tweets, or
5:04
Speaker 1: saw a lot of tweets, and a lot of people
5:07
Speaker 1: Facebook and Jaguars and groups that I'm loosely connected to. UM.
5:12
Speaker 1: They may not have known him through the media, but
5:14
Speaker 1: it sounds as if a lot of fans in town,
5:19
Speaker 1: if you approached Vinnie in town, Oh, he was a
5:22
Speaker 1: lot of fans knew him. And there's a a very
5:27
Speaker 1: real connection among fans who followed the team at that
5:31
Speaker 1: time to him. He was a warm Gus felt that
5:35
Speaker 1: he was a warm guy. You could go to him
5:36
Speaker 1: in the locker room. Now, the problem was was that
5:39
Speaker 1: you could put the microphone out, but you weren't going
5:41
Speaker 1: to get much UM. But you could approach him, and
5:44
Speaker 1: there were fans that routinely did for autographs. I mean,
5:46
Speaker 1: he just he was a big kid. That's probably the
5:48
Speaker 1: best way to describe him. He was a big gut.
5:51
Speaker 1: He wasn't goofy, he wasn't childlike, but he was just
5:54
Speaker 1: one of those guys that, hey, you want to play,
5:57
Speaker 1: let's go. He would play. And it's not coincidental. They
5:59
Speaker 1: were a good team from They started getting better in
6:03
Speaker 1: you know, three under Jack in Vinnie's rookie year, and
6:07
Speaker 1: uh faded a little bit or a lot after after
6:11
Speaker 1: he left. Obviously it wasn't all on him, but he
6:15
Speaker 1: was the core of a of a time in Jaguars
6:19
Speaker 1: history that's sort of forgotten a little bit. But some
6:21
Speaker 1: good teams when he played, and he was obviously a
6:24
Speaker 1: big reason when I covered the Colts, Uh, they had
6:27
Speaker 1: to count for the running game, and he was a
6:29
Speaker 1: reason why there are um their NFL football players with
6:33
Speaker 1: calves this big. Right then he were like that Vinny.
6:38
Speaker 1: Vinny was that classic Smoan football player that we all know.
6:43
Speaker 1: Uh that was load to the ground, wide and powerful
6:48
Speaker 1: and um. One of the one of the stories that
6:51
Speaker 1: that endurs about Vinnie is and is that when I
6:55
Speaker 1: get to go back there, when Tyson Alulo showed up
6:58
Speaker 1: as a first round draft pick after his holdout, they
7:01
Speaker 1: put Aloualu in against Vinnie Manawai to Hawaiian's to samoans
7:07
Speaker 1: uh in an impromptu let's do this thing and alap
7:12
Speaker 1: his pcl and was never the same and that Oklahoma
7:16
Speaker 1: drill um. But it was something to see. It was
7:19
Speaker 1: something to see to watch those two guys square off.
7:21
Speaker 1: So we can talk all about it. You'll hear all
7:24
Speaker 1: about it. Reached out to Brad Meester and we'll find
7:27
Speaker 1: some guys and throughout the week we'll have some stories
7:29
Speaker 1: on Benny Manaway, a good player for a long time
7:32
Speaker 1: in Jacksonville, gone too soon at age eight. Alright, have
7:36
Speaker 1: a big things, Alright, big things. We're wrapping up the
7:38
Speaker 1: first half of the season and looking forward to the
7:40
Speaker 1: second half. Big thing one is back to your identity.
7:43
Speaker 1: The only way that this offense is going to get
7:45
Speaker 1: rolling the way we saw it last year's Get Back
7:47
Speaker 1: to the Running Game Carlos High discussed what have you've
7:49
Speaker 1: seen from the running games so far and what it
7:51
Speaker 1: has to do to get better. Before I even came
7:55
Speaker 1: in here, I thought that's you know what it was about.
7:58
Speaker 1: You know here friend and run the ball um. You know.
8:02
Speaker 1: Then yesterday, Um, you know, we had different outcomes. You know,
8:06
Speaker 1: I don't know that was part of the plan or not.
8:08
Speaker 1: But on the passing games, our game and um, you know,
8:11
Speaker 1: the run game wasn't wasn't going on this plan though,
8:14
Speaker 1: So I understand why we were strolling the ball a
8:15
Speaker 1: lot more though things won't go on his plan. And
8:18
Speaker 1: you know, I'm a new guy still learning his offense,
8:21
Speaker 1: so I understand. But you know, the next opponent or
8:27
Speaker 1: you know, I expect to see more runs. So so
8:30
Speaker 1: that was obviously last Monday, the only day that the
8:32
Speaker 1: players talked after the Eagles game, and Carlos said, but
8:36
Speaker 1: all of us have been talking about and that is
8:38
Speaker 1: the team's personality is its ability to run. And you
8:41
Speaker 1: can see right there they have not. Blake Bortles has
8:43
Speaker 1: been the leading rush of the last two games, and
8:45
Speaker 1: they have averaged just under seventy yards rushing per game
8:49
Speaker 1: over the last three. It's just, now, here's the here's
8:52
Speaker 1: the big question. Is Leonard for net practicing this week?
8:55
Speaker 1: Do you expect to see him on the field and
8:57
Speaker 1: can he and Carlos hide and t J yelled in
9:02
Speaker 1: reconstitute the type of running game that will set up
9:05
Speaker 1: the play action and rest the defense. Can they with
9:08
Speaker 1: eight games left to play, can they find a way
9:10
Speaker 1: to put it back together? Well? They better um. And
9:13
Speaker 1: I was asked that a lot over the bye h
9:18
Speaker 1: is for not going to play, And the only answer
9:21
Speaker 1: I have is, with this type of injury, if not
9:25
Speaker 1: now went and it's a it's a go test it, um,
9:33
Speaker 1: see if you can trust it. And this is you know,
9:36
Speaker 1: everybody who's involved with it. I'm not just speaking to Leonard,
9:39
Speaker 1: but with a hamstring injury, it's okay, we've rested it,
9:44
Speaker 1: we've rested, we've rested it. At some point you gotta
9:46
Speaker 1: go see if it's gonna hold up. Um. And it's
9:50
Speaker 1: sort of the question I have the same answer to
9:52
Speaker 1: people who ask me, is Eric Flower is going to play? Well?
9:57
Speaker 1: If not now went? Right? So this is the time,
10:00
Speaker 1: I'm you're three and five. If you lose Sunday, it's over.
10:04
Speaker 1: Uh So put him in there. I think he's gonna
10:06
Speaker 1: play because I don't see why he wouldn't at this point. Well,
10:09
Speaker 1: practice this morning is opening the media that Brian looking
10:12
Speaker 1: forward to you, may well, fine, we'll just stake out
10:16
Speaker 1: in your little corner over there and get out of
10:18
Speaker 1: the sun. Although I don't think this sunds out today. Um,
10:21
Speaker 1: we'll find out. And obviously how much your practice is.
10:24
Speaker 1: I imagine that he'll be limited on the the injury
10:26
Speaker 1: report no matter what. But I'm sorry, go ahead. Limiting
10:31
Speaker 1: and practice makes perfect sense. Still, you know, fine, but
10:37
Speaker 1: play right. Remember when he first was injured, everyone, all
10:40
Speaker 1: of us were saying, well, you'll probably see him after
10:42
Speaker 1: the bye week. It is after the bye week, so
10:44
Speaker 1: I agree with John that you're going to test it.
10:46
Speaker 1: You might as well test it now. What do you
10:47
Speaker 1: have to lose? And at the same time, you're exactly right, Ashton.
10:51
Speaker 1: We all said that, And at the end when I
10:55
Speaker 1: was saying it, I was thinking to myself, well, you know,
10:58
Speaker 1: if he's gonna play for the boy, I don't know.
11:01
Speaker 1: I'm assuming I'm saying that, why not because you have
11:04
Speaker 1: eight games left and your three and five. But you know,
11:09
Speaker 1: at this rate, I don't know that. I mean, I
11:12
Speaker 1: like my house, I'm not gonna bet it that he's
11:15
Speaker 1: gonna play something because at at this point it's gone
11:17
Speaker 1: on so long with somebody twists and turns, we just
11:20
Speaker 1: don't know by the time he gets to And this
11:23
Speaker 1: is the assumption right from here. I'm assuming he's there
11:25
Speaker 1: Sunday because he traveled to Philadelphia. I'm sorry, traveled to
11:28
Speaker 1: London to play Philadelphia, which is kind of a step
11:30
Speaker 1: in that rehab getting back on the sidelines. Um, he
11:34
Speaker 1: will not have played in six weeks. That's six weeks
11:38
Speaker 1: of rest. Now they he he didn't play against the Patriots,
11:42
Speaker 1: and then he didn't play against the Titans, and then
11:44
Speaker 1: he did play in the first half against the Jets.
11:47
Speaker 1: So they gave him some rests didn't work. Now they
11:50
Speaker 1: give him a lot of rest. If rest is the
11:51
Speaker 1: only way, if not, now when to quote John, Yeah,
11:56
Speaker 1: I mean if if it if you play, hamstrings are
12:01
Speaker 1: not a career threatening. If if you play and it
12:06
Speaker 1: doesn't go and you're sitting down for the rest of
12:07
Speaker 1: the season, Yeah, here's the good news, so be it.
12:11
Speaker 1: In terms of you know, the good news is is
12:14
Speaker 1: that if you can get him back, you have the
12:16
Speaker 1: ability to rest him somewhat. You don't have to have
12:18
Speaker 1: him come in and carry the ball twenty five times.
12:20
Speaker 1: You traded for Carlos Hide. You feel like with more
12:24
Speaker 1: rest and a more defined role, t j Yelden can
12:27
Speaker 1: be a contributed for you. So you've got some things.
12:30
Speaker 1: It's not like Leonard has to come back and drag
12:32
Speaker 1: this led all by himself. But it doesn't look like
12:36
Speaker 1: without him that Hide and yelled In and this rebuilt
12:40
Speaker 1: offensive line are going to get it done. You're going
12:42
Speaker 1: to have to get it done with him. Against the Eagles,
12:45
Speaker 1: the running backs only rushed for eight times. And I
12:47
Speaker 1: remember when he first got hurt. It seems so far
12:49
Speaker 1: away that after the bye week, remember how far away
12:51
Speaker 1: that scene, and we thought, oh, maybe we'll see him
12:53
Speaker 1: back before then. It's crazy that it's here and he's
12:55
Speaker 1: still isn't back. There's eight games. There's still an opportunity
12:58
Speaker 1: for him to do something. I'll tell how far away
13:00
Speaker 1: was five losses away? Um and uh, if if he
13:05
Speaker 1: can get back healthy, what I wonder is Hide yelled
13:13
Speaker 1: in and for Net become automatically clearly your most talented
13:19
Speaker 1: offensive skill position in terms of guys available. Can they
13:24
Speaker 1: not only get back for Net yelled in in single back,
13:31
Speaker 1: but can they use that talent? Can they use those
13:34
Speaker 1: players somehow to become maybe a little more dynamic. And
13:38
Speaker 1: I'm not thinking we're ever going to see what they
13:40
Speaker 1: thought the offense was gonna be, But is there some
13:44
Speaker 1: sort of wrinkle that they can show where they're harder
13:47
Speaker 1: to figure out, where there's a little bit of misdirection,
13:50
Speaker 1: where there's something that makes you feel like they can
13:53
Speaker 1: start going up tempo, they can get this going. Um,
13:57
Speaker 1: I'm skeptical because I've I've seen three or six first
14:02
Speaker 1: half points in the last month. But that's your hope, right,
14:07
Speaker 1: big thing too, all right, big thing too is what
14:09
Speaker 1: to fix. So we discussed a little bit. What to
14:10
Speaker 1: fix is obviously the running game, but head coach Dug
14:13
Speaker 1: Myround discussed the physicality of the offensive line as well
14:16
Speaker 1: as the defensive line. A. J. Can said, the physicality,
14:19
Speaker 1: that's the change of mentality, and that's what it starts with.
14:23
Speaker 1: I guess we gotta come together as a unit and
14:25
Speaker 1: uh figure out how we can make that, you know, uh,
14:30
Speaker 1: part of our mentality as an offense. How do you
14:32
Speaker 1: do that? You know? Just I guess it all starts
14:36
Speaker 1: starts mentally, you know, going into games and having that
14:39
Speaker 1: mindset of going out then uh damn more dominant than
14:42
Speaker 1: our opponent. You know. That's a guy in particular that
14:45
Speaker 1: we were all looking at when training camp started because
14:49
Speaker 1: he wasn't known for his nastiness. He wasn't you know,
14:52
Speaker 1: he wasn't the drive blocker. Somewhat of a disappointment is
14:55
Speaker 1: the third round pick, as they thought he would evolve. Uh,
14:57
Speaker 1: and he had a tremendous camp and so in order
15:01
Speaker 1: for him, in order that offensive line to reignite, they
15:07
Speaker 1: got to go back to the way they were playing
15:09
Speaker 1: a training camp when we were all so excited about
15:11
Speaker 1: this team. And I think it's tough. Um. It takes
15:17
Speaker 1: a group on the offensive line. And I really think
15:20
Speaker 1: the absence of a any sort of a run blocking
15:24
Speaker 1: tight end. Not a knock on Grantage, but when he's
15:27
Speaker 1: in the game, you know they're going to run. With
15:29
Speaker 1: the loss of a s J, you take away any
15:33
Speaker 1: sort of versatility you have at the tight end position
15:35
Speaker 1: in terms of when their personnel is in. Now you
15:39
Speaker 1: pretty much know what they're gonna do. Um. You put
15:42
Speaker 1: Tyler Shatley and you know, and he's playing tight end,
15:45
Speaker 1: you don't. It's pretty good indication they're not gonna you know,
15:48
Speaker 1: you're not gonna go run and shoot with him. Um.
15:52
Speaker 1: But the loss of Marquise Lee, the loss of two
15:56
Speaker 1: left tackles, Um, it's been that's a big chunk of
16:02
Speaker 1: what you want to do running the ball. Even in
16:04
Speaker 1: addition to healthy guys, I am intrigued to see can
16:08
Speaker 1: Norwell Lender can be the dominant interior that we thought,
16:17
Speaker 1: can you get something going there? Uh? Again, I keep
16:20
Speaker 1: saying that's the hope. There's no reason to think it
16:23
Speaker 1: will except that that's all you've got, alright, Big thing three,
16:30
Speaker 1: Big thing three is how to do it. So we
16:31
Speaker 1: talked a lot about the offense and the problems there
16:34
Speaker 1: right now, your defense against the run allowing a hundred
16:37
Speaker 1: and twenty three yards per game, your in the league,
16:40
Speaker 1: and turnover differential. Khlias Campbell had some honest words to
16:43
Speaker 1: recap the first half of the season. Good enough, you know, uh,
16:48
Speaker 1: you know, uh, we didn't play up to our centers.
16:51
Speaker 1: We're under achievers right now currently, you know, even in
16:55
Speaker 1: the three ones that we we have, you know, we
16:57
Speaker 1: didn't play up to our standards, you know, but we
17:00
Speaker 1: are able to have got him out and find a
17:01
Speaker 1: way to win. But I mean, you know, I don't
17:04
Speaker 1: know what our turnover margin is, but it's not pretty.
17:08
Speaker 1: That's ridiculous. I mean, you know, I mean, you know,
17:11
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to win ball games when you do that,
17:12
Speaker 1: you know. So I first of all, I found his
17:17
Speaker 1: absolute candor to be the right thing at the right
17:21
Speaker 1: moment last week when he said we're underachievers. Um, so
17:26
Speaker 1: you talk about about your hope is that you can
17:29
Speaker 1: get for net back on the offense and somehow, you know,
17:32
Speaker 1: reconstitute that group on defense. You're fairly healthy. I mean,
17:36
Speaker 1: you don't have Dante Fowler any longer, but you you
17:39
Speaker 1: still have a compliment of defensive players who have shown
17:43
Speaker 1: the ability to play at a high level. So the
17:45
Speaker 1: question here is want to write I want him to Yeah, um, okay,
17:53
Speaker 1: let's take a break. Yeah. Well, I still believe that
17:59
Speaker 1: in any deficiencies they have on defense, start with the
18:04
Speaker 1: deficiencies on offense, no doubt, League and rushing in in
18:07
Speaker 1: our rushing defense, that's the stat they were. I think
18:11
Speaker 1: they finished right aside the top ten last year. They
18:16
Speaker 1: led last year. When you're trailing, teams are going to
18:20
Speaker 1: run throughout the first throughout the fourth quarter on. They
18:23
Speaker 1: have not been good enough against the run, particularly Telvin
18:26
Speaker 1: Smith and Miles Jack have struggled more in that area
18:29
Speaker 1: than I thought they would. But they are not a
18:31
Speaker 1: bad run defending team. Uh, when you are trailing, you
18:36
Speaker 1: were going to give up more yards at the end
18:38
Speaker 1: of games. So again, if this offense can get to
18:42
Speaker 1: the point where it's functional, this defense is good enough
18:46
Speaker 1: to win six out of the last eight games. I
18:48
Speaker 1: just don't know if the offense can do it all right,
18:50
Speaker 1: Let's take a break when we come back. Some highlights
18:52
Speaker 1: from the first half of the season, plus ozone snapshot
18:56
Speaker 1: and top tweets still ahead on Jack's Drive Time, brought
18:59
Speaker 1: to you by jet Homelow Only in Jacksonville, can you
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Speaker 1: to learn more. All right, Welcome back to Jack's Drive Time.
20:47
Speaker 1: Brought to you by Jed Home Loans, Brian Ashland, John Um.
20:52
Speaker 1: I thought on the mentality in that locker room right now.
20:56
Speaker 1: They started the season thinking they were a really good team.
20:59
Speaker 1: UM to this point, they're not. Uh, there are three
21:02
Speaker 1: and five. They're one of the not good teams in
21:04
Speaker 1: this league right now. Where do you suppose their confidence
21:07
Speaker 1: is as they come back after a bye weekend. I
21:10
Speaker 1: gotta asked about that and I got about it. I
21:13
Speaker 1: asked a lot about is the team's confidence in in
21:17
Speaker 1: Blake Bortles is still what it was? And I think
21:20
Speaker 1: the answers are sort of one and the same NFL players.
21:23
Speaker 1: They're human too. I you don't lose four in a row,
21:28
Speaker 1: you don't play as bad offensively as they have without
21:32
Speaker 1: some faith being lost or else you're delusional. Um. They
21:37
Speaker 1: seem to me to be at a point where the key.
21:43
Speaker 1: I was impressed against Philadelphia that they got down turn
21:48
Speaker 1: into a landslide. They fought, and I'm not saying fighting
21:52
Speaker 1: is good enough in the NFL, but sometimes you see
21:55
Speaker 1: teams that they play you tight. You've seen plenty of these, Brian,
21:59
Speaker 1: they play tight, they play it tight, and then as
22:01
Speaker 1: soon as one bad thing happens, if things have gone
22:03
Speaker 1: bad early gone, well, that wasn't the case. He AND's Phillip.
22:06
Speaker 1: So I do think that there is a confidence that
22:09
Speaker 1: they can still be good. Uh. And I think there's
22:12
Speaker 1: a confidence in the locker room that they can still
22:14
Speaker 1: get it done with Blake. But it does feel to me,
22:17
Speaker 1: and I'll let you comment on it as well, it
22:20
Speaker 1: feels to me like the Colts game is key because
22:24
Speaker 1: they need something to prove themselves right that they're still good.
22:28
Speaker 1: And I'll be anxious to see if how the team
22:34
Speaker 1: responds when adversity hits on Sunday coming out of the bye.
22:37
Speaker 1: Do they respond to it and come back and win it?
22:40
Speaker 1: If if if you let it slide, if it goes
22:43
Speaker 1: bad Sunday, then I think it's gonna be a bad
22:45
Speaker 1: second half of season. Well, this is a game that
22:46
Speaker 1: I looked at on the schedule as a win for
22:48
Speaker 1: the Jaguars when the season started. I mean, I knew
22:51
Speaker 1: Andrew Luck was coming back, but they were young on defense,
22:55
Speaker 1: they didn't that much of a running game. They were
22:57
Speaker 1: too in my mind, depending on t Y Hilton in
23:00
Speaker 1: the passing game and Jack Doyle. I thought the Jaguars
23:02
Speaker 1: matched up well with the Colts when I looked at it.
23:05
Speaker 1: You know, from the outset of the season. Well, defensively,
23:08
Speaker 1: I can still make a lot of the same cases. Offensively, though,
23:11
Speaker 1: you you've got to score points, and this team doesn't
23:14
Speaker 1: score points. And think about what I just said. This
23:16
Speaker 1: team doesn't score points. Well, and you're not exaggerating, No, no,
23:20
Speaker 1: they don't. They don't score points. Usually people say you
23:23
Speaker 1: don't score points. But it's very true. So you know
23:27
Speaker 1: you've got a quarterback. What did you just say that
23:28
Speaker 1: Andrew Luck has twenty three touchdown passes in eight games. Uh,
23:32
Speaker 1: they scored forty two against the Raiders. I get it.
23:34
Speaker 1: The Raiders are not a very good team. They pounded Buffalo.
23:37
Speaker 1: Not a very good team. Um, but they're playing with
23:40
Speaker 1: some momentum right now. So the confidence question is in
23:44
Speaker 1: this locker room, not that locker room. And you go
23:47
Speaker 1: into their place with their quarterback. Um. I think it's
23:51
Speaker 1: a big one also because they've got their quarterback and
23:54
Speaker 1: they've got salary cap room, and there their arrow is
23:57
Speaker 1: pointing absolutely up. This Jaguars group. They don't have salary
24:02
Speaker 1: cap room next year, and they appear to still not
24:07
Speaker 1: know if they've got their quarterback or not. Um, And
24:10
Speaker 1: that might be being kind. Um, there are teams that opposite.
24:16
Speaker 1: I mean, they're completely You would not change the Jaguars
24:19
Speaker 1: as a team being where you want to be for
24:21
Speaker 1: the future. No, no, no, that doesn't mean that can't
24:24
Speaker 1: change because stories get written all the time in this league.
24:28
Speaker 1: But right now that's how it looks. Uh. Interesting, say
24:30
Speaker 1: on the Colts and uh, they've given up ten sacks
24:33
Speaker 1: this year, maybe up ten in one game last year
24:38
Speaker 1: and this team, So that's where they're better. That's what
24:41
Speaker 1: you know. And I know we've got a lot of
24:42
Speaker 1: time to talk about the Colts, but that's where they're better.
24:45
Speaker 1: He's getting the ball out quicker. They're dangerous. Um. It's
24:50
Speaker 1: it's a huge game and not nearly the game and
24:54
Speaker 1: the and the pregame talking without was going to be
24:56
Speaker 1: coming in going back to the conference. It was promising
24:59
Speaker 1: to meet last week month. Malik Jackson said, one win
25:02
Speaker 1: will solve any doubts that they have. I think if
25:04
Speaker 1: they win against the Colts on Sunday, we're not talking
25:06
Speaker 1: about the confidence of this team any longer. Against the Eagles,
25:09
Speaker 1: they thought they were going to win well. So if
25:11
Speaker 1: you get a win on Sunday on the road in
25:13
Speaker 1: the division against the team that's playing well, then you
25:16
Speaker 1: come home and you have some momentum for Ben Roethlisberger
25:22
Speaker 1: and the Steelers right Sunday night, Sunday night football against
25:26
Speaker 1: the team that you beat twice at their place last year.
25:29
Speaker 1: If you come in as opposed to if you come
25:30
Speaker 1: in on on five consecutive losses, my goodness, that's it's
25:36
Speaker 1: really a difficult road for them to find a way. Well,
25:39
Speaker 1: then the Pittsburgh games becomes just about I do know
25:44
Speaker 1: what it's about. It it's more a team, uh, you know,
25:48
Speaker 1: taking its one Mike Tyson punch, you know, and swinging
25:51
Speaker 1: for the fences and trying to get one on on
25:55
Speaker 1: what I assume will still be a national t V.
25:58
Speaker 1: I don'tink it's gonna get flights at this point, but
25:59
Speaker 1: we'll say NDC wants this team. So it's if you're
26:04
Speaker 1: four and five going into that, then you can at
26:07
Speaker 1: least make the argument, Hey, if you win your five hundred,
26:09
Speaker 1: you're right back to where you're close to where you
26:11
Speaker 1: were last year. All that stuff. So before we go
26:14
Speaker 1: to Buffalo the week after Thanksgiving, So I mean, there's
26:16
Speaker 1: some you gotta running the table, don't you. I've got
26:20
Speaker 1: him playing. How about highlights from the first half. Yes,
26:23
Speaker 1: let's look at the first half of the season and
26:25
Speaker 1: look at some key moments. So let's go all the
26:27
Speaker 1: way back to the Giants game. Right now, your team
26:29
Speaker 1: is thirty in the league turnover margin minus eleven. But
26:32
Speaker 1: it started off this defense like the way we thought
26:34
Speaker 1: it was going to start off, by forcing turnovers to
26:38
Speaker 1: the NFC Championship game. Off check check, We'll check it
26:45
Speaker 1: all the way eight touchdown. I remember thinking as you
26:49
Speaker 1: crossed the goal line, they can't play this way again, right,
26:52
Speaker 1: They scored seven defensive touchdowns last year. And you know
26:55
Speaker 1: throughout the off season we talked about you can't lean
26:58
Speaker 1: on that. That's and normally you don't it. Well, first
27:00
Speaker 1: game of two thousand eighteen, here we go. Now they
27:02
Speaker 1: haven't done it since, but they had to lead in
27:05
Speaker 1: that game. At that time, they had played to their
27:07
Speaker 1: formula for net, had been heavy, had played in the
27:11
Speaker 1: first half, they had an impressive drive. They still felt
27:14
Speaker 1: like the team that again at four point lead, they
27:19
Speaker 1: knew the Giants had to throw in that point. That's
27:22
Speaker 1: what they haven't played with enough of last year, where
27:27
Speaker 1: this year where you had to make the opposing team
27:30
Speaker 1: had to make plays and situations that they weren't comfortable in.
27:34
Speaker 1: Dead enough anyone can tell you this, but you need
27:37
Speaker 1: a couple more of those in the second half of
27:38
Speaker 1: the season comple game change. And I remember thinking that
27:41
Speaker 1: first game, well, all right, well, let's just keep on
27:43
Speaker 1: going from two thousand and seventeen. That's what worked last season.
27:45
Speaker 1: Just keep it going. It doesn't work that way, not
27:48
Speaker 1: the case Lesson learned. All right, let's go to the
27:50
Speaker 1: paid striots game to a guy who haven't seen as
27:52
Speaker 1: much as we thought we were going to see Donte Moncrief.
27:56
Speaker 1: Let's grant then back touchdown creep. You know we saw
28:06
Speaker 1: him there. Uh, and then we saw him against the
28:08
Speaker 1: Jets with the sixty seven yard touchdown that opened that
28:11
Speaker 1: game up. Um, but he has not been a consistent
28:16
Speaker 1: performer for this football team. He wasn't the game changing
28:20
Speaker 1: player that we thought we were going to see when
28:21
Speaker 1: he first came here. But still eight games to go,
28:24
Speaker 1: you never know. He's um. He gets numbers, but doesn't
28:30
Speaker 1: seem two get plays when they matter enough. And I
28:37
Speaker 1: don't know if that's him, if it's the offense, but uh,
28:43
Speaker 1: the the catches that he's made have seemed to have
28:46
Speaker 1: been a result of what's going on around him rather
28:49
Speaker 1: than stepping up. And they need somebody and alpha dog
28:55
Speaker 1: whatever that is, I don't. I don't know him well
28:57
Speaker 1: enough to know if that's his personality, but don't either.
29:00
Speaker 1: But it doesn't seem That's what you haven't gotten is
29:02
Speaker 1: that we have to have a play now, who are
29:05
Speaker 1: we going to We're going to that, and that's really
29:09
Speaker 1: what you don't have in the receiver right now. And
29:11
Speaker 1: we said it all offseason. It was gonna be four
29:13
Speaker 1: or five number two receivers. But more than anything, that's
29:16
Speaker 1: what they missed with Marquis not being there. And whatever
29:19
Speaker 1: Marquise wasn't he was a guy who you know, the
29:23
Speaker 1: ball seemed to go to him on third down. He
29:25
Speaker 1: was going after well. And for complete perspective on Dante,
29:28
Speaker 1: I mean, the thought was was that you were gonna
29:30
Speaker 1: be able to run the ball and set up play action.
29:32
Speaker 1: You were going to be able to create for him
29:35
Speaker 1: with the running game that hasn't been there and the
29:37
Speaker 1: quarterback has not had a lot of time because the
29:38
Speaker 1: offensive line is not held up as well as you
29:41
Speaker 1: would expect them too because there has been a running
29:43
Speaker 1: game and the injuries that left tackle have hurt them.
29:46
Speaker 1: So I get it part of it. You paid him
29:49
Speaker 1: nine bucks, nine million bucks. You expect him to come
29:50
Speaker 1: through and make plays, um, but you didn't. If your
29:53
Speaker 1: eyes were wide open, he wasn't that guy in Indianapolis.
29:57
Speaker 1: So you were hoping that he was going to come
29:58
Speaker 1: into be a part of your system and find a
30:00
Speaker 1: way to get right. Marquise and Austin's Farion Jenkins were
30:02
Speaker 1: supposed to be those gaps. There go two guys. Yeah, absolutely,
30:05
Speaker 1: all right, let's go to a positive from the Chiefs game.
30:08
Speaker 1: Not the outcome that the Jaguars wanted. But Blake Bortles
30:11
Speaker 1: for two d and sixty one yards so far this season.
30:13
Speaker 1: And we say a lot about Blake Bortles. The one
30:15
Speaker 1: thing we always compliment is his will to win. Here's
30:21
Speaker 1: sports and strade portals to drive it toward the goal
30:28
Speaker 1: line and it's a touchdown. So he wasn't going down there. No,
30:33
Speaker 1: say what you want. You can say a lot about
30:35
Speaker 1: the way it's gone for him, especially the last month, UM,
30:39
Speaker 1: but his legs and his toughness have prevailed. They've still
30:43
Speaker 1: been there and his desire to win. So is he limited? Yeah,
30:47
Speaker 1: he's limited. He's not Drew Brees and Jared Goff that
30:50
Speaker 1: we saw duel it out yesterday. Uh, you know, for
30:53
Speaker 1: more than eighty points in UM in New Orleans. Yet
30:58
Speaker 1: he fits what the team built itself to be. And
31:03
Speaker 1: if he gets a running game, I've said it his
31:05
Speaker 1: entire career. He is good at play action. He can
31:08
Speaker 1: give you something like he did last year against the Colts,
31:12
Speaker 1: the Seahawks and the Cardinals. Here, I'm not sorry the Cardinals,
31:15
Speaker 1: the Texans. He can give you something, he can help
31:18
Speaker 1: you win, but he's not gonna he's not gonna carry
31:21
Speaker 1: the team like he carried that Chief's defender. Yeah. He
31:25
Speaker 1: he's a complimentary quarterback and a lot of the complimented
31:27
Speaker 1: pieces aren't there. So can they get there? Uh? Big
31:34
Speaker 1: thing one? Yeah, I mean that's yes. Rewind show all right,
31:38
Speaker 1: last one. So we talked about the very first highlight
31:40
Speaker 1: this defense getting takeaways and being the dominant defense. It
31:44
Speaker 1: was one once was we saw some promise against the Eagles,
31:47
Speaker 1: some aggressive playmaking from Marcel Darius once again, lots of time,
31:52
Speaker 1: but he runs out all of a sudden, fallless, loose
31:55
Speaker 1: and they're letting it talk, they're letting it. It's sniffs,
31:59
Speaker 1: honestly the other way. So Marcel Darius, you know, I
32:04
Speaker 1: made a comment before the season began that I thought
32:07
Speaker 1: this defense could rival the two thousand Ravens, and I
32:10
Speaker 1: had two players upon whom it rested. One was Leonard
32:14
Speaker 1: for Nette. I said he had to get four yards,
32:16
Speaker 1: which was what Jamal Lewis did that rested that great
32:19
Speaker 1: Ravens defense in two thousand and the other was Marcel Darius. Well,
32:23
Speaker 1: obviously Leonard hasn't played, but Darius has played, and there
32:27
Speaker 1: haven't been a lot of those kinds of plays. But
32:29
Speaker 1: if you watch closely, and Jeff Lockman was in and
32:32
Speaker 1: we talked about it last Tuesday here on the show, Uh,
32:35
Speaker 1: Darius is playing at incredibly high level, a dominant interior defender,
32:40
Speaker 1: and right there you just saw what he's capable of doing.
32:42
Speaker 1: By the way, there are two Pro Bowl defensive linemen
32:46
Speaker 1: on that Eagle's offensive line and he beat both of them.
32:52
Speaker 1: He's one of the few bright spots of this season. Yeah,
32:55
Speaker 1: and it shows you how difficult it is to jay
33:00
Speaker 1: j I got some emails from fans last week after
33:04
Speaker 1: the Eagles ran well saying, well, I guess Marcel Darius
33:07
Speaker 1: didn't good huh, Well, you know so, because they gave
33:11
Speaker 1: yours in the running game. He's playing it. M