Jaguars Media Availability (1-16-23)

JAGUARS HEAD COACH DOUG PEDERSON
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 2023

(On if the RB Travis Etienne play on the last drive of the game was made up on the spot) “No, we did not
draw that up in the dirt. I spoke with Peter (reporter Peter King) after the game over the phone, and
maybe that’s the way it came across. Phil (Offensive Line Coach Phil Rauscher) actually had that play. It
was in a short yardage situation for us during the game. We obviously didn’t need it until at the end. It
gave the appearance of a QB sneak with the way everybody lined up tight behind the quarterback.
You’re starting to see some of the push technique around the league and stuff with the quarterbacks, so
we sort of simulated that with the formation, but it was more of an off-tackle type play. Guys executed
it really well, and it kind of won the game for us.”
(On if they repped that play in practice during the week) “Oh yeah. Plays like that that are that specific
are kind of one and done because it’s a unique formation, so you probably won’t see that one again the
rest of the year.”
(On Offensive Line Coach Phil Rauscher’s work with the offensive line this year) “I can’t say enough great
things about Phil. Prior to me hiring him, I didn’t know much about him, just talked to some people
around the league. I didn’t have any personal experience with him, but he came highly recommended,
and I knew that from the moment I met him in the building that he and I were going to have a great
connection, not only personally in the office but also on the football field as well. The way he has
coached these guys, he’s hard on him, he’s demanding on them, but he’s fair and honest, and he really
gets the most out of them, then on top of that, he’s a great schemer and puts great run plans together
and really does a nice job even in-game making adjustments for us when we need them. Again, just
can’t say enough good things about him.”
(On whose recommendations really resonate with him) “I’m not going to get into a bunch of that, but
just guys around the league that really speak highly. When you become a head coach or at any level,
your phone just starts blowing up with text messages and phone calls of guys, and you have to sift
through everything. It’s like you get 150 text messages after a game the other night, it’s the same way
when you’re hiring a staff, so you can’t go back through every name and contact to figure out who they
are, but I’m glad I did it.”
(On what they can learn from the first game against the Chiefs to prepare for this week’s game) “We
have to execute better than we did in the first matchup. That’s one of the things going back and
watching that game again. I just thought our execution was a little off. Again, you’re playing a good
football team, a well-coached team. Coach Spagnuolo (Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) on
defense, who I know. Those guys, again, it’s a scheme that teams that don’t do a lot of stuff
schematically, but they do it well, and they’ve got great players over there. We just have to execute
better. We’ve got to take care of the football. We can’t do what we did the other night and expect to
win, not against this team. We’ll take a look at it and make some adjustments for the week.”

(On not being able to afford getting behind to the Chiefs) “You can’t spot anybody. When you get this
far into the postseason now, everything matters. Every mistake is magnified, every turnover is
magnified, every point you can get. You’re playing an explosive offense, you better score touchdowns.
That goes without saying because you know they’re going to score, and you’ve just got to try to
minimize as much as possible but maximize your opportunities.”
(On if it seems like this team has to do it the hard way) “It seems that way, but I’ll take it as long as we
keep winning. That’s the thing. Sometimes we make it hard because we make it hard on ourselves.
Those are the things we’re trying to kind of work through and grow through with this football team. It’s
just a matter of taking care of our business, and we’ve got to hang onto the football. Trevor (QB Trevor
Lawrence) knows that. Some of it is out of our control when the ball is tipped and things like that. Those
are out of your hands, but at the same time, we can’t keep doing that. We can’t put ourselves in these
types of holes, not now, and really not ever and expect to sustain winning for the long haul.”
(On if it can be a positive that the team has been winning so much the hard way) “The positive is the fact
that we have dug ourselves out of those holes, and we’ve been able to hang in there and keep chipping
away as we say, sticking to the game plan, and don’t panic, some of the things we talk about. You never
want to spot a team 27, especially a good team, and expect to come back and win.”
(On if there were a few different plays on hand for the late-game 4th

-and-1 play) “The original play we
wanted, I wasn’t necessarily thrilled with the look we got defensively, so that’s why I used the timeout. I
think we had three at the time, so I used a timeout there. He (QB Trevor Lawrence) liked the play, so he
wanted to keep it on; I didn’t. That’s fine. That’s the back and forth. I get the final say with things like
that, but we talked about the next play, and of course we were all on board with it, and again, just great
execution.”
(On if QB Trevor Lawrence could have had to check out of the play after the timeout) “He wouldn’t have.

There’s nothing to check to. What are you going to check to? On the play we ran? We were in a T-
formation, what are you going to check to (joking)?

(On if that play was designed specifically to take advantage of a smaller corner) “It’s not designed to
necessarily get to the corner, it’s designed against that type of defensive structure, the front structure. It
happened to bounce to the corner. That was TJ’s (RB Travis Etienne Jr.) gift. That was his opportunity to
bounce it to the edge, so he did. Not necessarily designed to get all the way out there, but it just so
happened that it worked because they crowded the box, they pinched, they thought we might, looking
at it, they thought maybe QB sneak or some sort of dive play right there, and it just so happened to go
around the edge. It’s kind of a one-and-done built for that particular structure.”
(On what Sundays have been like the past two weeks having a Saturday night game) “I was talking with
Press (Offensive Coordinator Press Taylor) yesterday, we just don’t have time to enjoy wins. You’re
playing 8:15, and you’re getting done 11:30, and you’re right back in the office the next day, and you’re
deciding who you’re going to play. I’d rather be doing this and coaching our football team this time of
year. It’s part of it. We go through it, all the teams now that are continuing on, coaching staffs are going
through it. That’s why you like having a bye if you get a chance to be one of the two teams in the league
that get byes. The rest of us are grinding away.”
(On the importance of everything going in their way in the last game) “As much as I’d like to say it went
our way, I’d like to flip it the other way and say we executed better in the second half. Our guys, again,
there was no panic, there was no pointing fingers. We just kept chipping away at what we needed to do,

really. You look up at halftime, you’ve got 30 minutes of ball left. You’re either going to win or you’re
going to lose. You’re going to keep playing or you’re going to go home. What else are you going to do?
Our guys just did a nice job of hanging in there, hanging together. Things we talked about at halftime if
we could just get some stops defensively and offense knew, hey listen, we’re going to have to score
every time we touch the ball. We were able to pull it out.”
(On if this win taught him anything new about this team) “I mean, not a whole lot, because we’ve been
in that situation before. I will say that being 27 down, you’re scratching your head going, ‘Okay, can we
do this?’ There was a lot of belief at halftime that we could. The guys felt it and it just showed me again
how close this group is, how tight this group is. No matter what adversity or challenges that face us,
we’re willing to take them on, to tackle them and overcome them.”
(On if he agrees with S Andrew Wingard that it is easy to play from behind in the NFL) “It’s not. It’s not,
no. You definitely want to play with a lead. I think and I get what he’s (S Andrew Wingard) saying,
sometimes you get down and maybe now your attention, focus, everything is heightened. As coaches,
we say all the time we need to start fast and finish faster. I would much rather coach with a lead than
being 27 down. Again, listen, it’s just one play at a time, right? That’s the mentality. Ball has to go your
way just a little bit in moments like that and we were fortunate they did.”
(On performance of OL Walker Little) “I thought he played really well, and he seems to improve each
week. Really kind of solidified him. It’s not perfect, it’s not one hundred percent, but I think overall he’s
getting more comfortable. The more he plays, the better he gets. Those are two, really three, if you
throw Van Noy (Chargers OLB Kyle Van Noy) in that mix, two to three really good edge rushers that they
have. He did a nice job.”
(On tackles in the last game with Chargers OLB Joey Bosa and OLB Khalil Mack) “It did. I don’t know if
Bosa [Chargers OLB Joey Bosa] was necessarily one hundred percent because he was in and out a little
bit from time-to-time, so they kept rotating their guys in there. Mack (Chargers OLB Khalil Mack) was
bouncing back and forth, but listen, he did a nice job whoever was over there. We knew in the second
half we got in a situation where we were going to have to throw the ball a little bit more, and he did a
nice job keeping and helping keep Trevor (QB Trevor Lawrence) clean.”
(On if Chargers OLB Joey Bosa should have been ejected) “Oh, I don’t know about that, no. The rule
states that it has to be at an opponent or an official, not necessarily what he did at that time. No, it was
okay.”
(On how many of his friends and family members complain about stress during the game) “Oh, there
were a few. There were a few, yeah. A lot.”
(On what changes progressed through the season to execute in the second half better) “I just think at
some point, your team kind of gets to a spot where it’s like, enough is enough. We’ve got to do this
better. We’ve got to handle our business better. We’ve got to block and tackle. We’ve got to do simple
better. We’ve been able to do that. You just stay consistent, you push through it, you learn how to

finish. You finish a game then you’ve got to go finish the next one. Much of our business is routine-
based. We talk a lot about Wednesday is a Wednesday, Thursday id Thursday, you don’t change the

schedule much. You learn how to just finish that particular day and those all carry over to the games on
Sundays, and that’s just something our team has worked through.”

(On if the officials have an emphasis on not letting kickers get a kick off if there is a timeout called) “The
explanation is they don’t want that to happen, it’s like a practice kick, which they don’t want you to do
and can’t do. Then they don’t want what happened in Green Bay to take place, things like that. Players
taking it into their own hands. We know coaches are going to, I’ve done it, where you take a timeout in
that situation and you do it right before the snap, right? It’s just trying to eliminate or at least minimize
any kind of situation where a team can get a practice kick in.”
(On being okay with officials grabbing the holder) “Yeah, I mean, yeah. Obviously, that will probably be
addressed this week with the officials. It would be nice to just run in and stand in front of the ball or
something, but yeah, I don’t know. I’ve never seen that one before. I think his (P Logan Cooke) body
language might’ve been [angry], yeah.”
(On players stepping up to deliver messages at halftime) “Where? (In the locker room) Maybe, I don’t
know. I had already addressed the team and I was out, so I didn’t hear anything after that.”
(On if players addressing each other at halftime is common) “I think it’s common. Once the coach, they
probably forget what the coach said and do what we say. If it happened I think it’s great they do that
and take it upon themselves after I come in, say my comments, whatever I need to say. Then, I usually
head out and head to the field. It’s great; it’s good leadership.”
(On S Rayshawn Jenkins comparing the resiliency of the team to a cockroach) “I mean, cockroaches are
kind of disgusting. Maybe that’s what we are, I don’t know. They are, I probably would’ve used a
different analogy there but, players and coaches, we all see it differently but the same. Right now, our
team is, we’re a tough football team, we’re a physical football team. Those are some of the things we
pride ourselves in. We’re not perfect, we still make mistakes. It was evident Saturday night. The one
thing our team is going to do, is they’re going to battle. They’re going to keep fighting, scratching, and
clawing. We’re going to give ourselves a chance in the fourth quarter and I hope that’s what he meant
by us being cockroaches.”
(On S Rayshawn Jenkins stating they play for four quarters) “That’s learned. That’s something that is
learned. This team had to learn that. I think a year ago maybe we only played for two quarters or two
and a half. This year you’re seeing it more and more, where we get behind in football games and they
keep battling. They’re right there at the end and they put themselves in a position. That is definitely
something learned.”