JAGUARS HEAD COACH DOUG MARRONE
September 18, 2020
(opening comments)
You know, we made some mistakes early in this game. We made some mistakes throughout. We did some good things, but at the end of the day we fell short. There’s some things I think that we can improve upon, obviously, and we will, and we don’t have a lot of time because we’ve got this quick turnaround. Credit to Tennessee. They were able to make some plays, and at the end of the day we weren’t able to make a play to get us over the top or stop a play. That’s where we are.
Q. How did you see Myles’ coverage on the pass interference from your vantage point and any replay you saw?
They told me that it was a hold, that when the ball went in the air it turned into a defensive pass interference. I couldn’t see early on in the route, and I had a bad view of it from where I was. But the back judge should have a great view of it.
Q. What did you learn about your team today?
I mean, I know this team. Like I said, I feel close to this team. I know — I think I look at this game and say, hey, I know things we’ve all got to do a better job of that we can really help them out, and they can — we can all come together, coaches and players, and work our butts off and play football and make plays that are able to win games. I think that’s what’s going on.
I think as far as all the other stuff, all the clichés that you might want to say, hey, they came back, they worked hard. I never question that from this team. I really don’t. You know, the unselfishness that they have, it just doesn’t matter. They’re trying to celebrate with each other and trying to get somebody to make a play every time. Like I said, we’ve got to just clean a couple things up and on a quick turnaround.
Q. Could you walk us through what the intention was on Josh’s squib quick at the end of the first half and what he might have told you or Joe on the sideline?
I didn’t see him on the sideline because I was more concerned about how we were going to manage the defense and knowing that they’ve got great field position. But there’s a lot of things — it was going to be a desperate play at the end. There’s a lot of things that can go on, and we just felt comfortable during that week that we have it in every week that we just power kick it through and we knew we were going to power kick it, which way we were going to go, and there’s distance between those two players, and you’ve just got to in between it. He’s a guy that works his butt off. We have confidence in him, and it’s just one of those things that it just wasn’t executed right. It wasn’t like trying to make something happen or anything like that. Just didn’t get into the right area.
Q. Just a quick comment on James Robinson; that second half he was really a spark for you guys.
Yeah, I thought even in the first half, a couple of those runs, they almost came out. You know, and he was getting positive yardage and he had a really good catch. I think what you guys are seeing now is probably what I’ve been seeing all camp, just a real steady, good football player. If something is there he’s going to find it. He’s not going to make mistakes and lose yardage for you or things of that nature and try to keep the chains going. He’s a tough runner. He’s got a little burst getting through to the second level. I was happy to see him take that one obviously to the end zone.
But he’s solid, and you look at what Chris did on the route, that was an unbelievable catch by our other running back. That was outstanding. To score a touchdown there, it was a great throw. Those are just some of the good things that we need to try to create more of that and just do a better job.
Q. Obviously not the ending that you wanted, but this is a young team that was down early. Did you learn anything about your team’s resiliency? You have to be happy with the way they fought back throughout the game.
Yeah, I think I mentioned it before. I really feel close to this football team, and you can see the chemistry on the team. You can see the way they work with each other and bring each other up and keep a mindset about themselves. You know, it’s just — like I said before, I knew this in camp. I think we’ve got to do a better job, us as coaches, to get them off to a good start, get them in position. So we’ll work on that because the one thing I don’t think — I know I don’t worry about is how hard they play.
Q. The batted pass at the end, Minshew is a shorter quarterback; do you work a lot on making sure he doesn’t have those passes batted at the line?
It’s a combination of being able to throw through windows, throw through arms. I think what happened, I think Tyler got held and he fell on the play, and then we’re going to Cole, I believe, and the guy got off the line, off the block, and sometimes you can press a guy a little bit more, but sometimes you’ve got to get through it. So it’s a combination of a lot of things to try to not get those things to happen and then try to create them to happen on our side.
Q. Some of the issues you guys had, especially early, Claybrooks with a couple of his muffs and then Collin Johnson with the tip that ended up as an interception, Wingard coverage, those are just growing pains by young players? Are you just going to have to deal with a little bit of that early on here?
You know, I don’t know with Chris. That’s the first time that I’ve really seen that from him, so I still have confidence, and we’ll work a ton on it going into the week.
I think with Adam, I think some of the — he was free of man coverage, guy is running across. He’s at full speed, so that’s going to be tough. The first one, the touchdown, I thought that we gave him too much time back there. That’s difficult to cover. I think with Collin, I think we could have gotten that ball maybe a little bit up for him. I think that he made a great effort in the end zone.
So I think that these guys that are playing are going to continue to get better. I don’t want to say growing pains because I really feel like these guys can do it. I mean, even though there might be plays where they may lose, and that’s part of football. You just don’t — everyone on that field, anyone that’s ever played, you know, is not going to win every single down that they play, and they’re going to keep coming back and creating better angles and putting them in better position and learning from it. So I think overall, I think as our team, as we grow, we’ve got to learn from these things and continue to push to get better and get our side get back on this winning side of things.
Q. On that 3rd down play where Clowney nearly got the sack and was incomplete, was it just designed to have Clowney come free off of the edge?
Yeah, I mean, did you see the pressure? It’s not designed — they design it for us. You know, so I mean, you’re talking about the touchdown pass or the last one that was incomplete? Which one?
Q. The 3rd down that was incomplete where Clowney nearly got the sack on Minshew —
Well, the same thing on the touchdown; you know what I’m saying? We only have a certain amount of guys to block. When they bring more, we’ve got to go ahead and take care of the inside guy, so we just choose the shortest path to the quarterback is the guy we’re going to take, and he’s on the outside so he has the longest way to go. Gardner knows what’s going on, he knows the protection. We know we’ve got to get rid of it, but that’s the whole — the challenge or the chess game, whatever you want to say, when they bring more guys than you have blocking.
Q. Obviously the injury to Brandon played a factor, but you’ve been saying now for months that you hoped the offensive line of any group would be the one that took a jump this year. Just curious your thoughts on their performance, both in the running game and in pass defense.
Yeah, I felt good. I think that, like I said, those guys, they were battling. I think we talked about Tennessee having a real good strong front seven, were able to get some runs, get some positive yardage. There was two or three plays late where guys were getting off blocks or coming through. I think those are things that you need to improve on. But overall, I think those guys — I think after you lose it’s kind of tough. I don’t think a position group is going to walk out of here and say, gosh, I feel great about ourselves right now. You know, like I said, there’s a lot of good. There’s some things to clean up. But I have — I mean, those guys were battling their butts off, and I thought they — I thought at times they did a really nice job. When we had time to throw, we had some good running lanes, and it’s just like anything else, we’d like to take some of those inconsistent plays back but just keep working on consistency.
But they’re a good group. They’ll keep going. Tyler Shatley, we’ll find out about Brandon’s injury during the week, and we’ll see where he’s at. But you’re talking about we have good depth there and a guy like Shat goes in there and we expect him to play at a high level and a winning level, and I believe he did a nice job. He got beat early on just around — they put Clowney on the inside and went after him early, but after that he settled down, and I thought he did a nice job.
JAGUARS QUARTERBACK GARDNER MINSHEW II
Q. Gardner, can you walk us through just the final drive and what your vantage point was on the pass deflection?
GARDNER MINSHEW: Yeah, we felt really good going into that last drive. Got a few completions, that’s always good to get it started the right way. You know, that last one, it sucks. I feel like I had a – coming underneath, and ball got tipped up in the air, just a bad way to lose. But you know, there’s a lot of good and we’re going to learn from it and move forward.
Q. What did you learn about your teammates today?
GARDNER MINSHEW: Yeah, I mean, you see their resilience when we’re in there. But we also learned that we’ve got to start faster. We don’t need to be getting down 13 in the first place. I think if we jump out and play every quarter like we played that fourth, we’re going to be a really, really good football team.
Q. You guys have said resilience and that there’s no quit in the locker room a lot of times, and today you guys kind of put that on the field. Obviously it didn’t end the way you wanted it to, but did you guys talk at all about that? When you got down a couple of scores did you tell the guys on the offense anything?
GARDNER MINSHEW: No, I mean, it’s one of those things that we know that’s something we’ve built for a while. I think any time we get in those situations we don’t hit panic mode, we don’t start pointing fingers. We’re just going to try to step up, do our job and support the team as best we can. I feel like we did a lot of that on both sides of the ball today, and it should only get better.
Q. I know you want to get off to a faster start on Thursday; when do you start looking ahead to that Thursday game?
GARDNER MINSHEW: Probably watch this game on the plane ride home and then we’ll be on after that.
Q. I know it’s kind of a loaded question, but it’s exactly one year after that last-minute Texans loss week 2 last year. What did you learn — what was your approach in the days following that, the weeks, the months that maybe you learned something last year that you’re going to try to do differently this time?
GARDNER MINSHEW: Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing, any time you go through something like this is you remember that feeling, how bad it feels, how close you were, and you kind of channel that and use that when you’re out at practice, when you don’t really feel like practicing and you channel that when you’re in games. You know you can come back and you know you can win and how good that winning feeling is.
Q. I’m curious, for you and Jay, when you sat down and you watched last week, what was there on offense that you said we need to do differently this week so that we can have 300 plus passing yards like you did today?
GARDNER MINSHEW: Yeah, last week I think on some of the plays it didn’t work, got out of the pocket a little early, was pretty accurate with the ball but they didn’t really give us many opportunities to take shots. We were able to get a few more off today, so that was good. It’s a week-by-week. We’re going to take what they give us. As long as we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot, we could be a really, really good offense.
Q. Kind of piggy-backing off that, was today a really good example of what Jay Gruden can do calling a game?
GARDNER MINSHEW: Yeah, he’s great. He’s going to put us in a situation to win. We had a lot of guys around the offense get the ball, step up, make plays with the ball in their hands. We’re very excited to have Coach Gruden and just to build on the things we’ve done well so far.
Q. In particular the touchdown pass to Chris Thompson, how far down your progression was he? I think you started with Laviska and Robinson in the backfield with you?
GARDNER MINSHEW: Yeah, it was kind of an alert right there. I knew they were hitting me up, had a good matchup with him on a linebacker, and that’s a matchup we expect to win any time we get Chris (Thompson) on a linebacker.
Q. Just kind of walk us through that first interception where Collin and I think James was kind of right in the area. What did you see there and sort of what happened?
GARDNER MINSHEW: Yeah, I was throwing James on that corner kind of flattening him off, and I don’t blame Collin at all. He went up, he was trying to make a play. Just super unlucky, man. Felt good with the ball, felt good with the decision. It’s one of those deals sometimes the balls don’t bounce your way.
JAGUARS DEFENSIVE TACKLE ABRY JONES
Q. Clearly stopping Derrick Henry was priority one for the defense. Can you break down what you guys did today to get that done?
ABRY JONES: We just committed to the game plan. I mean, coming up here, you know what Tennessee is going to do. You know who their bell cow is, and it really just comes down to a commitment by every player on this team that’s going to say we want to stop the run, and I feel like we came out here and tried to accomplish that.
Q. Can you talk about some of the issues — you guys looked like you had a little issue getting pressure on Tannehill but you buckled down a lot better in the second half. What was the game plan as far as putting so much concentration on the running game, and they kind of did some things. Did it do anything different today for you guys?
ABRY JONES: For us personally, I feel like every game you go in, you always want to try and make a team one-dimensional, so we know we want to stop the run with Derrick Henry, but we want to stop the run with every team to get on the pass. As far as the pressure on Tannehill, I think we’ve just got to do better getting off the play action blocks and things like that.
I think this game we was probably a little locked in a little bit too into the run, kind of bared our eyes and kind of worked out late to work against the pass. But I think that’s just how it is with every game. I think moving forward we’re going to try to focus on that more because I really think that was a real big part of the game. I think our DBs do a good job but we just can’t leave them out there covering for about six to ten seconds, so we’ve got to do a better job getting off those blocks.
Q. Any comment you can make about being in the locker room for the second week for the anthem?
ABRY JONES: This is a decision we made as a team. We talked together, we had the leaders and captains come up and pretty much just speak about how we want our voice to be heard, then we took it to the team to see if they agreed about what the ideas we came up with. We did it week one, everyone said it was okay. We have some people who say they wanted to do some things different, talked again as a team, decided to stay in this week and probably moving forward we might do a little bit of things to make sure everyone is comfortable moving forward. But everything we do as far as staying in for the anthem or anything against social injustice we’re doing as a team.
Q. The defense seemed to kind of get into a groove a little bit late and you got a couple of stops in crunch time when you needed them. How does this defense get started a little bit early? You guys found your way in the Colts game a little bit later on after giving up a few drives. How do you start earlier playing like that?
ABRY JONES: I think it just has to be a mindset. I think the two weeks have gone by have been a little bit of a trend. What I’ve been noticing that teams come out to us is going to be tempo, it’s going to be run, it’s going to be boot. As long as we get the mindset that we know this is how teams are going to attack us and go out there and make the right plays and get off the field, that’s going to continue what we’re going to see those first 15 plays.
But I mean, other than that, we’ve just got to come out ready. I feel like if we come out competing from the very beginning, we’ll do a lot better for our offense and we won’t have to put so much pressure on them.
Q. Do you feel like the defense as a group has that mindset to be ready to go?
ABRY JONES: Yes, I definitely think we do. I think it’s just having it and doing it is two different things; know what I mean?
One of the things I’m proud about the defense is that when we have these slow starts there’s no pointing fingers, there’s nobody turning on each other. We’re just trying to lock in, make the coaching adjustments and we’re just trying to make sure we make enough plays to give us a chance to win the game.
Q. Did you notice any sense of frustration at all on the part of Myles Jack after he was called for what appeared to be a pretty controversial pass interference call on the game-winning field goal drive?
ABRY JONES: Yeah, of course. I mean, a lot of us don’t believe that was really a pass interference, but the ref is going to make his call. Myles is, I wouldn’t say emotional, but he’s very passionate about this team and about this game, so definitely he’s going to let it show after an important play like that, especially with the game on the line.
Q. I’m just curious, obviously Jonnu Smith really got off to a fast start. The tight end position wasn’t necessarily something the Colts used to exploit you guys in last week’s game. What did you guys change in the second half and why do you think he was able to be as explosive as he was early on?
ABRY JONES: I think just with that first play just having it be the first play of the game, definitely thinking of setting the tone early and them showing run, I think we just kind of all downhill, wanted to stop Derrick Henry, wanted to stop the run, and I think it was just a good play call because he was two play side. I mean, you can run down and play side to stop the run, then you see the boot, everyone is moving towards the quarterback, all he has to do is really hide out and come out late and get the play.
I think that was a pretty good first play call by them, but I think as the game went on, we just made sure that everyone on the back end communicated and made sure we was on the same page so we wouldn’t just have any easy bombs come and hurt us.
Q. As the longest tenured player on this team, you’ve been through some losses, you’ve been in the locker room after them. How does this one compare?
ABRY JONES: This one is a lot better than past years. I mean, this is a team that’s come in, that wasn’t really expected to do much today by outside forces, but we didn’t really buy into that, stayed as a team and kept fighting. Then afterwards we didn’t really take — what’s the word I’m thinking of? Pleasure, I guess, and try to get moral victories and saying we only lost by three and things like that. We looked at ourselves and kind of said, what was the problem, like what made us lose this game, and then we just came down to it, it was really just assignments and penalties. I think if we cut out half of those penalties I think it would have been a much better game. The offense was doing a tremendous job, and then defense was starting to lock it down even more in that second half when we needed it.
JAGUARS WIDE RECEIVER DJ CHARK JR.
Q. DJ, what has Jay Gruden meant for you guys?
DJ CHARK: He’s a cool guy. You know, he don’t get on to people. He knows everyone’s strengths and weaknesses and he plays to them, and he has confidence in us, and we have confidence in him. He’s been obviously helping us out a lot. This is the first time in a while that we’ve been able to move the ball efficiently, and I think it’s due to a lot of different just changes and mindsets on the team.
Q. Does it seem like he fools the defense more than what you were accustomed to your first couple years in the league?
DJ CHARK: Yeah, I wouldn’t necessarily say fool. I think he just knows — he understands the coverages. He understands what they’re trying to do, so he counteracts that. So if they’re in cover-two, running the ball, things like that. Or if they’re jumping outside, inside routes, things like that, just taking what they give us. Sometimes he puts some — I don’t want to say “trickeration” but misdirection, make their eyes go one way and go back the other way. He does that.
Q. You guys were down 30-17; can you just talk a little bit about the resiliency on this football team, particularly in a situation like that? Years ago you guys might not have played the way you played today; it might have been over. What’s different?
DJ CHARK: I think honestly we feel like we can go toe to toe with anybody. It doesn’t matter. Our offensive line is going to move people off the ball. James is going to run hard. Our receivers are all capable of making plays, and they understand that we expect plays to be made every time the ball is in the air. It’s our ball or nobody’s ball, and Gardner is out there making great decisions. I think it’s just the mentality that we have, whether it’s 30-17 or it’s a tie game. We understand that we only control what we can control when we’re out there on the field, and I think that helps the offensive line but it also helps the defense to know that in years past when we’d get down, it’s kind of like a snowball effect, but they know even if the team does score, we as an offense have the potential to go score, too. So you just go out there and keep playing like every drive is a new drive.
Q. You’ve been with the Jags for a few years now; do you feel like this is the most explosive offense you’ve been a part of in Jacksonville?
DJ CHARK: Oh, definitely. We have a lot of guys that’s capable of making plays, like I said. You can have the rookie Laviska come in and run the ball as well as go out there and catch the ball, that makes the defensive coordinator have to prepare for that, and then you add guys like Cole, Chris, you also have Collin that comes in and makes big plays and has the potential to make big plays. It takes a lot of stress off of me for sure, and it just feels good because if I’m out there and I’m not — if it’s not my game, if I’m just not having a good game, I know that my receivers are going to make plays, the running back is definitely going to make plays. He’s running through the hole. My linemen are moving people. It gives you more confidence and takes a load off everyone’s shoulder because it’s teamwork now.
Q. How do you guys get off to a quicker start? You guys were getting off to some slow starts last season and then now they’ve kind of carried over into this year. You’ve got a game coming up Thursday; how do you go out there on that first drive and find a way to put up points?
DJ CHARK: Execute. Just run our routes, run my protections and execute. I don’t really know any other way to start off fast. I don’t think it’s the play calling or anything like that. We just have to execute. But you know, it’s week two of not having an off-season. This is our first time as a team really getting to compete against people, and we’re the youngest team in the NFL. So it’s going to be some slow starts. I expect that. But now I think the more we play and the way that we’ve been finishing, it gives us confidence to start better because we know we can do it.
Q. You were on the field last year, you caught the touchdown that would have been the game-tying one if the two-point conversion worked last year, week 2, against the Texans. Gardner leads a comeback there. Describe for me as that game-winning drive happens what you saw from your quarterback, one year later what you saw from your quarterback down the stretch today.
DJ CHARK: Last year we was just out there competing. I think the difference now is we have a method to what we’re doing because we’re all a year older, and so I think that’s the same with him. He has the ideal of what we’re trying to do. He understands the defense, which is why those last — the last two quarters we was able to move the ball. We understood what we could do to get open. We understood — and I also feel like he has more help now, so he don’t have to go out there and scramble to make every play. He knows he can drop back and deliver the ball and we’re going to run our route at the right depth, get open, catch the ball. So it’s trying to take just a little bit off of his plate so he can play with more confidence, and I think that’s what he’s doing.
Q. Speaking of growth, week one to week two, James Robinson, what did you see from him?
DJ CHARK: Oh, he’s our running back. He’s running the ball between the tackles, and you have to respect it. As long as he’s doing that, we’re going to be on the outside blocking, and he makes blocking fun because you’re blocking for two, three seconds, then you see him running by you. It makes you want to go out there and get you a pancake or something.
