AGUARS HEAD COACH URBAN MEYER
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2021
(On his assessment of the two aggressive hits on QB Trevor Lawrence and reporting them to the league) “It may be different in the NFL but you used to call or raise one if you really thought so. But now, it’s just you send it in, they send it back and move on.”
(On whether the two calls could be defined as egregious hits that didn’t get called) “I thought they should have been called.”
(On the concern about RB James Robinson’s injury and why he was still on the field with two minutes left in the game) “That’s a good question. I know that there’s a running back rotation. We’re worried about his load and how many carries—and they track that. Obviously, at that point in the game, they must’ve wanted to get him a few more carries, [Jaguars Running Backs Coach] Bernie [Parmalee] did.”
(On the concern of RB James Robinson’s health and it not being wise to keep him in the game at that point) “I’d agree.”
(On the input that he has as a head coach in the player rotation decisions) “I’m aware of it, I’m not in charge of it but I’ll watch it and say, ‘What are thoughts are here? What are our thoughts there?’ Obviously, I didn’t do it there, with James [Robinson].”
(On whether he’ll be more involved in player rotations moving forward) “Yeah, I am. I am because I have just got to make sure we do it the way I want it done.”
(On the fumble by RB James Robinson) “Yeah, you have got to clamp the ball, that’s part of it. It wasn’t clamped at the end and he pulled it out of him.”
(On whether that fumble recovery by the opposition was a great play as well) “It was a great play. Yeah.”
(On whether it’s true that RB James Robinson is being judged more harshly for his mistakes more than other players) “I don’t believe it’s true, no, it’s not. On my end, it’s not true at all.”
(On DT DaVon Hamilton’s injury) “Knee bruised. He just was unable to practice and they were worried and they wanted to get [Jay] Tufele in there a little bit. Tufele played hard but it was—he [DaVon Hamilton] was day-to-day all last week. We kind of thought he could go, but he just didn’t practice.”
(On whether he would like to see more of the rookies now with five games left) “Yeah, I’d like to win some games, that’s number one and then certainly. [Andre] Cisco got some playing time yesterday, Walker [Little] is a guy that played one game but played pretty well. But we’re not [giving up], if they can help us win a game, they’re going to be in there.”
(On OL Ben Bartch’s back injury) “Yeah, just muscular [injury], he should be fine.”
(On the opening kickoff and the depth of K Matthew Wright’s kick) “Hang time and depth of the kick are critical. We’d like to smack it out of the end zone, we just haven’t be able to do that. But that was just— we did a heck of a job after that one, which we still had that one. And our punter [Logan Cooke] had a career day, he had a heck of a day. But yeah, you’d like to be able to nuke it out of the end zone at times.”
(On whether P Logan Cooke will handle kickoffs) “It’s not good for him. He has had some issues with his legs when you do that. He could do it, but [it isn’t good for him].”
(On his evaluation of the offense when he watched the film) “Yeah, I saw a great [drive] … You hand them seven points and you are down 10 to zero, but I really loved that drive. That drive was outstanding. Went down the field against the very talented defense, Trevor [Lawrence] scrambled, making plays, competing, other guys competing. And you get it to 10-7, you are feeling pretty good about yourself. I thought our defense in the first half was outstanding. Keeping guys, a really talented group, in front of us. It was 10-7 and then it’s 13-7 and then the really critical moments to me were when we got the ball at the 40-[yard line], got the ball at the 50-yard line and we’re going to get the ball in the second half. And that’s where we struck out three times. One when we had 2nd-and-1.”
(On it being tough to judge the defense when they are the on the field as much as they are) “Certainly, it is an issue. Defenses were not made for there to be three and outs on the other side, the best defenses are getting a nice 14-play drive [by the offense]. That is an issue right now.”
(On the defenses third down performance) “I thought they were great, I felt it. You felt, 0-6, the punt return team goes out there and we get the ball back and let’s go. The other interesting thing is other than the two gimmies – we gave them 10 points. The next six possessions started inside the 10-yard line or inside the 13 yard-line or maybe the 15-yard line. I do not have it in front of me, but we were playing complimentary football there against a really good team on the road and then we were just not able to get first downs and the defense wore down.”
(On CB Tyson Campbell’s injury) “Should be okay, day-to-day. Should be okay, he came back into the game.”
(On CB Tyson Campbell guarding WR Cooper Kupp) “He did good. Another good game and [Cooper] Kupp is a hell of a player. He made some really good plays there in the second half.”
(On CB Tyson Campbell getting better every game) “Oh yeah, I am sure you guys see it. Yeah, we are happy with that guy and his physicality too and his size, length and speed. Yeah, he is what we want.”
(On taking more shots down the field) “I just had that meeting, you cannot score without doing it.
(On forcing a few down the field to “loosen” up the offense) “That just goes against the turnover mode. Those are – you can walk right with me and we can chat. Something has to happen. I am not saying they were not there. You can not just [blame] the wideouts, wideouts, wideouts. Not the wideouts, it is all of us. That is a point of emphasis.”
(On ever experiencing a scoring rut like this before) “No.”
(On it being hard to fathom the offense’s lack of scoring) “It is hard, but I do not want to worry about me. It is hard for the guys that do the work. You have a quarterback working his tail off in harms way. Yeah, it is frustrating for everyone. I get asked ‘Well coach, what about you?’ Do not worry about me. Yeah, it is frustrating. It is frustrating for the people that do all the work and that is players that go out
there every day and bust their tail. You have receivers working their butts off. Yeah, we have had some injuries, but we have good enough talent to go stretch the field. We just have to do it. All of the sudden you’re doing it and quarterback gets hit. You will hear that over and over again, Mike [DiRocco] has heard it over and over again. When you have a great day, boy Trevor [Lawrence] was fantastic. The first thing [you say] is boy the offensive line played well, boy the wideouts played well. Boy Trevor is really struggling, wait a minute, we all struggle. Coaches included, we are all in this together.”
