JAGUARS HEAD COACH URBAN MEYER
Jaguars vs. Falcons
Postgame Media Availability
Sunday, Nov. 28, 2021
URBAN MEYER: Thanks to our Jaguar fans. They keep coming, and we just appreciate that. I know I speak on behalf of our players and our team for bringing the noise, and it really helped us there in the fourth quarter and gave us a chance to win. I appreciate our fans coming out here.
Q. How promising was the comeback there at the end after a pretty inauspicious start? URBAN MEYER: Yeah, they fought their tails off, and 84 [Cordarrelle Patterson] is a really good player for them, and he hurt us early, and then on offense we moved the ball a little bit, just no big plays. Just none. And then all of a sudden we started getting some. Offensive football is a big-play — not many teams can drive the length of a field without a hit here and there, and we had some hits and scored a couple times. I was really proud of Tavon [Austin] who’s been in this league a long time. I love who he is and what he stands for, and he competes. Same with [Laquon] Treadwell. These guys are starting for the Jaguars now and they’re competing their tails off.
Q. What happened on the leverage penalty on Roy Robertson-Harris?
URBAN MEYER: Roy, he put his hands on the center. He can’t do that.
Q. What were your thoughts on what led from that point on in terms of allowing them to keep the ball and get the touchdown?
URBAN MEYER: Devastating. We had a couple drives extended — I can think of three off the top of my head, and those are three turnovers when your defense jogs off the field but they’ve got to stay on.
Q. There was a lot of talk this week about the creativity in the offense. Did you see what you wanted to see today?
URBAN MEYER: A little better today. A lot of it’s who you have, your personnel, and how do you intermingle your personnel with what we can do, so I thought — we’ve got to score down in the red zone. We went down there twice. Yeah, I thought the coaches worked their tails off and we went some tempo, we went some pace a little bit, which I think our quarterback is used to that, and I think you’ll see more of that.
Q. Speaking of tempo, when you’ve done that this year you seemed to have had some success. Do you think that’s got to be more the personality of the offense now?
URBAN MEYER: I think it is. I think it will be even more.
Q. On Trevor’s interception, did he think there was an offside there?
URBAN MEYER: You know, I didn’t grab him. We all did. We all thought it was a free play. I even heard over my headset free play, and then it turned out we covered up a tight end on the play. You’re down on
the 1-yard line, have a chance to stop them and then we did stop them and then we gave them a 1st down. Yeah, that’s what we thought. You’d have to ask Trevor, [what he thought] though. I’m sorry.
Q. When Trevor Lawrence goes into that tempo stuff, does he seem to be playing more free and sort of more loose?
URBAN MEYER: I think so. I think so, and that’s why we’re doing more of it, and I think you can expect some more of it as we move forward.
Q. 86 yards from James Robinson today but obviously he did have that fumble, then he didn’t play the rest of the first half. What was the conversation on the sideline with him?
URBAN MEYER: James is a grown man and I just talked to him about locking the elbow and clamping — that’s our terminology that we use, lock the ball down. Then he came back and ran — had some decent runs in the second half. He still doesn’t look like he’s full speed to me, but yeah, that was just the conversation with him.
Q. How would you assess the sharing of the carries between him and Carlos and the run versus the pass today?
URBAN MEYER: I don’t even know to be honest with you. Sorry about that.
Q. I guess just from the naked eye, did you feel like the run game was effective today? URBAN MEYER: Yeah, I think a lot of the shotgun runs were really good today. I thought Trevor made some good decisions. He protects himself when he gets down. As we move forward that’s going to be more and more who we are. But yeah, I thought we ran the ball pretty decent today. When you get down a little bit, that forces you into, but I thought [Offensive Coordinator Darrell Bevell] Bev did a nice job not starting to play into their hands and just pass, pass, pass. We kept running the ball and as a result we got within striking distance to win the game.
Q. For the second week in a row, multiple penalties to keep the Falcons on the field and extend their drives. How do you fix those sort of errors?
URBAN MEYER: Well, I’ve talked to our defensive staff, and do you replace the player? Do you — what do you do? I agree with you. We all see it. We have to attack those things. There’s three turnovers there. You look at the first drive against the 49ers we had three sacks on one drive. We have to attack it as if it’s a turnover and make some decisions.
Q. What did you think about Tyson Campbell’s play today?
URBAN MEYER: I think he’s going to be a really good player. I really love his attitude. He had a bad shoulder, fought through it, and almost had a second one today. Stepped in front of one — he’s a really good worker. Glad we’ve got him.
Q. James Robinson wasn’t on the field on that red zone drive at the end of the first half; was that because of the fumble and you guys were trying to calm him down a little bit or was that just the rotation with the running backs?
URBAN MEYER: You’d have to ask [Offensive Coordinator Darrell Bevell] Bev and [Running Backs Coach] Bernie [Parmalee] on that one. I don’t micromanage that. But Carlos is a good player, too, so they might have had him in there for that reason.
Q. Could you assess Trevor’s play today as a passer?
URBAN MEYER: I’d rather do that after I watch the film when we can. I’ll talk to you on Monday. I think we meet on Monday or Tuesday or whenever that is. But today I saw him compete his you-know-what off. As far as how accurate was he, that’s so hard to see on the sideline. After we watch the videotape, I’ll be glad to share my thoughts.
Q. Special teams is obviously something you have preached, something that you have said is your forte. Can you describe maybe the drop in play in special teams or how would you assess the play of your special teams over the last three, four weeks?
URBAN MEYER: The last three, four weeks, we had two penalties. Today they extended drives, one on punt return and one on field goal block. Our kicker is doing a decent job. Our coverage units are okay. We don’t have the explosiveness. I thought [Jaydon] Mick [Mickens] came in and did a really good job, hit a couple nice returns. He’s a ball of fire. I love the guy. He’s been on a Super Bowl team, so I love
picking his brain about certain things. Real articulate guy, and I know he was here back in ’17, but he gave us a spark in there. But not good enough.
Q. Why has it taken this long to really kind of form the offense that you guys want and what works the best with Trevor?
URBAN MEYER: Good question. I think so much of it is when you’re not quite sure of what your personnel is capable of. Once again, offensive football is about equating numbers and having some hits in the offense, and we’ve struggled at times, and other times you look against the Arizona Cardinals we ran eight straight plays and hit it. We want to be a run-first with Trevor, and then at times when you don’t score you get behind a little bit and it starts a transition. So no, there’s no stubbornness, it’s just we’re all figuring this thing out, and we should have it figured out by now, and I would say this, that it’s not like we don’t have it figured out. We’re not executing at a high level. We’re putting ourselves in position to win a game and if we eliminate some nonsense then we would go win a game.
Q. With Trevor in particular, wins being rare, touchdown passes being rare, that’s not something he’s really experienced before, and I’m wondering what conversations do you have with him or what do you keep an eye on in particular with him when it comes to helping him navigate a tough spot like that?
URBAN MEYER: Yeah, I’ve had many, many daily conversations with him, and he’s a fighter. He doesn’t look at it that way. He looks, he came here to help lift an organization, and that’s the way he looks at it. He’s very hard on himself, as most great players are, and the whole question even I ask the team, ask myself, ask ourselves, what can we do better to go win that game, and the answer is a multitude of things. That’s never really come up. That’s not a woe-is-me and feel sorry for yourself. What can we do to get better is how he approaches everything. Like I said, he’s very — that cat now works — is very hard on himself, what can he do better, and not just on the field but lead guys. That’s why he’s going to be a great player here.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
JAGUARS QB TREVOR LAWRENCE
Jaguars vs. Falcons
Postgame Media Availability
Sunday, Nov. 28, 2021
Q. Trevor, seemed to be a few more RPOs today and a little bit different looking offense. Do you feel like it was different? How good was it there to rally at the end behind some of that stuff? TREVOR LAWRENCE: Yeah, I thought we had some good wrinkles today. Obviously not the result we wanted. [We] Wanted to come out with a win. But I think offensively we were a lot more efficient. Number one thing is finishing drives. We’ve got to score more touchdowns. So I’d say that’s the main thing. But I did think we took a step as far as productivity today. I thought we did a better job.
Q. It seemed like you found a rhythm when you guys picked up the tempo on the offense. Is that something that you like to do, go up tempo?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: Yeah, I like tempo. I think over the course of the season we’ve started to realize that’s something that we do well. That’s something that I’m pretty used to in college. We did some similar things. I think we did a great job executing our fast tempo plays today, so something we’ll keep working on, and when the time is right we’ll use it when we need it, but I do think we did a good job using it today.
Q. We asked Urban this question earlier. Earlier in the first quarter you threw that interception; did you think that was a free play? Was that kind of why you threw it so deep?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: No, I saw him jump. I wasn’t sure — I wasn’t positive that was a free play, so that wasn’t the reason I threw it. I thought we had a little bit more separation on the guy for the deep ball, and we got kind of held up at the top of the route. Yeah, I mean, I think that — I thought we were going to win over the top, so you’ve got to anticipate those throws, and that’s one we didn’t. Me and Marv already talked about that and kind of cleared all that up. We communicated. But no, I didn’t think it was a free play.
Q. At the end of the game when you were talking with the official, you looked pretty upset. Were you upset about the 3rd down non-PI call you thought you should have?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: Yeah, I mean, you can’t ever leave it in the refs’ hands. That’s never a smart thing to do. So offensively we’ve got to put ourselves in a better situation. But yeah, I was frustrated that obviously 4th down didn’t go the way we wanted it to, the play we had. But yeah, the 3rd down I thought was PI. Obviously, I’ll have to go back and look at it, but I thought it was pretty obvious. That’s why I was so frustrated. At the end of the day, can’t leave it in their hands. You’ve got to go execute and can’t rely on calls. That’s a lesson learned there for sure.
Q. How hard is it 11 weeks in that the offense is still evolving, adding more of the RPOs and tempo stuff, would you have liked it to get to this point quicker than 11 weeks?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: Yeah, I think we’ve all been trying to figure it out. We’ve had some ups and downs offensively and some lulls that we’ve been trying to figure out and there’s a lot of things that go into it. Every week you’re playing different defense, so that affects your scheme and then just — there’s a lot of
things that go into it and we’re trying to figure out what we’re good at. I think today was a step in the right direction. Like I said, I thought we were more efficient, still got a lot of work to do, got to get better. Only scored one touchdown so got to help our defense out. You feel better after this game as an offense compared to last week or the week before. That’s a positive, but yeah, we’ve got to just score some more points at the end of the day.
Q. If you could just kind of walk us through that last drive. I know obviously you guys turned the ball over on downs, what you saw of those four passes that went incomplete.
TREVOR LAWRENCE: Yeah, first play I think we ran a little — threw a flat route to O’Shag [TE James O’Shaughnessy] and then to the two-minute warning, and then after that incomplete on a check-down, I believe, on that one. That just happened. So then we got 3rd down, threw a 3rd down conversion to Marv. Then from there we just — 1st, 2nd down we didn’t get anything going. 3rd down we had I think it was the route across the middle to Tread [WR Laquon Treadwell] that I would have liked a PI call there but tough we didn’t convert that. And then 4th down, they’d been giving us some tough looks all day, and that’s something I can learn from. I didn’t think I diagnosed it great. Just learning from that, going back and watch the film, like what are the tells for this certain defense because that’s what people — it’s a copycat league. People are going to look at that and try to do some similar stuff. Just a lot of stuff I can learn from. As a young player every week there’s been a lot of things to learn from, and there’s definitely some on that last drive, and down in the red zone earlier in the game we need to be more efficient and that starts with me. This will be a good one to watch and learn a lot from and communicate with the guys because we’ve got a lot of things to clear up.
Q. Speaking of that, second time in three weeks the comeback falls short. I know you have been so poised and you’re looking at this as a bigger picture, this is a learning year, but how frustrating is this that it’s the second time in three weeks that you guys had the ball with a chance to tie it at the end? TREVOR LAWRENCE: Yeah, it’s frustrating. Our defense two times has put us in a situation to go win the game and haven’t been able to do it. So we’ve just got to get better and go make those plays in the biggest moments. I know we can do it, but we’ve got to go do it and that starts with me and staying on schedule even in the two-minute. It’s tough when you get in 3rd and 4th and 10. We’ve got to get better at that, but we’re going to get some more opportunities and just keep working for when you do get it to go and execute and win the game.
Q. You mentioned you didn’t think you diagnosed that 4th down play at the end all that great. Is that why the pass was so short of the target? Were you anticipating that the route would be a little bit shorter or could you just kind of take us through that?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: I’ll have to go back and look at it. Obviously we have certain depths for all of our routes and I’ll have to look at where we ran that one at. I think I anticipated that to be a little shorter, but I’ll have to watch it because I’m not saying that the route was too deep yet or not. I haven’t seen it, so it’s hard to tell. I didn’t think it was a great ball on that last play, rushed it a little bit. Need to go back and watch it and communicate like I said. This will be a great one to watch with all the skill guys and really those situations are so critical. It comes down to one play here or there where you need to make a play and you need to be on the same page, and we’ve just got to get there.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
JAGUARS CB TYSON CAMPBELL
Jaguars vs. Falcons
Postgame Media Availability
Sunday, Nov. 28, 2021
Q. Tyson, can you take us through your first career NFL interception, what you saw and how it unfolded? Talk about the way you played since those two inactive games when you were hurt, how much you’ve progressed in the last four or five games.
TYSON CAMPBELL: Yes, on that play, we were playing cover two, so my main focus was to reroute the receiver that I was lined against, and make sure I had width and depth for the safety to be able to play his half. They just so happened to run a seven [route] and I saw the ball and got the ball.
Q. And talk about the progress you’ve made, the work you’ve put in —
TYSON CAMPBELL: Yeah, it’s just working, putting in the work after practice, putting in the work in practice, just learning how to be a pro. With the strength of God and keeping faith, I was able to do all these things.
Q. On the interception, were you reading the quarterback’s eyes a little bit? Is that what compelled you to leave your man and go?
TYSON CAMPBELL: Yeah, we were in a zone coverage, so I was playing my zone, and I did read his eyes, and I saw him take his arm off the ball and saw the ball and got the ball.
Q. I know obviously it’s been a conversation topic, you working on your ball skills. When you look back at six, seven weeks ago, what made the biggest difference that allowed you to make that interception today and have three pass breakups?
TYSON CAMPBELL: Like I said, it’s just putting in the work, having faith in myself and my craft, not paying attention to the outside noise and keeping the main thing the main thing. I think that’s part of this league. I’m learning that’s going to be ups and downs but it’s how you bounce back from it. That’s what I’ve been doing.
Q. You mentioned the zone coverage; how would you assess the secondary’s performance today, especially those intermediate medium quick little stuff underneath?
TYSON CAMPBELL: I think we did pretty well but there’s always room for improvement. As far as zone coverage, we’ve got to get better at getting to our drops and getting in our zones and making plays. But I think overall we’re improving each week, and that’s all we can ask for. I love the guys, the other 10 guys I go out and play with each week, so we’re just going to keep moving and keep getting better.
Q. How do you balance trying to your prove yourself in the first year with the teams struggles in terms of wins and losses? How do you balance that?
TYSON CAMPBELL: You know, we always preach here DYJ, do your job. As long as everyone is focused on doing their job, that’s all we can ask for, and the chips may fall where they go after that. Everyone is just
trying to get better at getting their craft and finding out whether they need to do this more or do this more. It’s just all a matter of everybody doing their job, and I think we’ll improve after that.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
JAGUARS DE/OLB JOSH ALLEN
Jaguars vs. Falcons
Postgame Media Availability
Sunday, Nov. 28, 2021
Q. Josh, how frustrating is it for another game to end close like this with you guys on the losing end? JOSH ALLEN: I mean, any loss is definitely just a bad feeling, especially — it’s not a good feeling right now, man. We’re sick and tired of it. We’re just trying to figure out what the hell (is happening) — know what I mean? I can’t really answer that one. Just tired of it.
Q. How deflating can it be when the defense stops them on 3rd down, the punt team goes out and there’s a penalty and it’s a 1st down and that drive continues?
JOSH ALLEN: Yeah, I mean, I can’t really recall the plays, but yeah, we just — we can’t have those. It’s the same thing every week, you know what I mean? I’m tired of just saying the same thing, tired of giving y’all the same answer. Like I said, we’ve got to correct those mistakes and not let those happen again. That goes on players and coaches. We’ve got to look at each other, look at yourself and okay, we can’t make these mistakes, and we keep making those. Got to find out what the problem is and say move on.
Q. You got banged up I think twice today, shoulder and then something with your leg. Can you take us through those?
JOSH ALLEN: Man, yeah. Just a little shoulder injury first one, and it hurt, but I ended up finishing the game off that. And then towards the end, I just started cramping in both my legs, and that one right there, that was just a bad feeling for me because it was the end of the game. It was a chance for us to make a big play to get the offense closer to scoring the ball. Just to have that right there, man, I have to do something to — I’m going to find a way to never let that happen again. I’ll make sure that never happens again. Got to be on the field.
Q. Obviously (Falcons running back Cordarrelle Patterson) Patterson really gassed you guys early on. What was he doing that you hadn’t expected or seen in recent weeks?
JOSH ALLEN: He was just taking the hole that was open, (with us) like overrunning the block or playing too thick on the block. We just had to figure out what was happening. I feel like once we communicated all, we’ve got to start in our gaps first and foremost, but he did a good job finding those holes and making the best of them. But I feel like towards the game, we started to really settle down, and okay, we know what they’re doing because they were running the same plays it seemed like. Look at the film, and we know we’re going to see that next week. It’s the type of league we play in, and we know that — we saw the same plays from last week. We’ve just got to fix those mistakes, but shout out to (Jaguars cornerback Tyson Campbell) Tyson, man. First career interception. Kudos to him. I felt like he played one of his best games by far. He looked like a real pro out there, and it was just good to see improvement from individual players such as himself, and shout-out to (Jaguars defensive lineman Roy Robertson-Harris) Roy getting a sack too. Still a lot to improve on, but for those two guys, for Tyson, he’s taking the next step, and hopefully he continues to grow.
Q. Not that we want to compare losing streaks but you have been a part of losing streaks here. How is this one different?
JOSH ALLEN: I mean, it’s the same to me. Loss is a loss. Go home and start thinking about what the heck (happened). It’s a good thing for me, I get to go home to a beautiful family like a lot of other guys, and that cheers me up just a smidge bit, and good food. But like it’s — man, I don’t want to be a part of it. I hate losing. It’s just something that we have to change, man. Something that we’re going to change. If not now, it’s tomorrow, next week, whenever. We’ve all got to figure this stuff out, players and coaches and all. We’ve got to figure it out soon because we can’t keep doing this. Tired of it. We all are. We’ve got LA this week, short week, we’re going to go out there Friday, I think. I don’t know the schedule, but stick with what we do, man, and just to get off our feet, get our bodies back right, get healthy. (Jaguars tight end Dan Arnold) Dan, man, that was a big loss and hopefully he gets healthy soon. Just pray for him and his family just to stay healthy.
Q. You mentioned settling in just a minute ago. The past few weeks the defense has settled in and played well down the stretch. How do you guys get it going earlier in the game so you don’t have that settle-in period?
JOSH ALLEN: I mean, just the flow of the game. We have to play complementary football all around. Offense, defense, special teams, we all have to — the defense not doing what they do, we need the offense to come in and do what they do, special teams to fire us up. But we take so much pride and so much emphasis on — we’re going to win this game as a defense, we’re going to win this game up front. We feel like the best players on the defense are up front, and we take pride in that. We take pride in them running the ball. It was just something as a D-line that kind of was just — we felt like it was our fault, know what I mean, so we kind of take this one and we’ve just got to play better. Everybody has to play better, offense has to play better, special teams has to play better. We’ve got to coach better. We’ve got to do everything better. You know what I mean?
Q. On a brighter note, you kind of mentioned Tyson. Have you seen him staying after practice and putting the work in to improve on his craft?
JOSH ALLEN: I mean, it’s just things that you don’t do. It’s things you do when nobody else is around you. I’m out there getting extra work and he is out there getting extra work, but it’s the stuff that what he does when he’s at home. Does he sit around, sleep or whatever, or is he watching film and trying to get better? He could be at home doing steps. Whatever he’s doing, continuing to grow because we definitely need it, and with (Jaguars cornerback Shaquill Griffin) Shaq being down, but man, Tyson, he had a heck of a game, man. Hopefully he continues to grow and continues to lead the charge back there, man, and make some more happen.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
