JAGUARS HEAD COACH DOUG MARRONE
(On QB Jake Luton’s performance, especially the last two-minute drive) “We take one thing at a time. I think that I was impressed with a lot of things, just the plays in-and-out, no delays of game. I thought he made some really nice throws. I thought there were some that, obviously, you’re going to want to have back. I think when you’re first-time starting and you’re down by a score and a 2-point conversion and you lead your team down the field to potentially tie the game with a 2-point conversion, I think that’s another checkmark. So, there’s a lot of checkmarks. And everybody’s going to ask me—I got asked on the radio show which I do prior to this—Gardner [Minshew II] right now is not throwing, so there’s no decision, really, to make right now. So, I’m not really looking at the future because it’s going to take me a while to get over this one. I’m kind of pissed.”
(On whether K Josh Lambo had an injury during the onside kick) “Yeah, he did.”
(On whether K Josh Lambo’s injury was on the same hip) “It sounds like the same area that it was before. I don’t know any more about that. What I do, just so you guys know, not like I’m hiding—by the time I do the radio and I come here and do this, when I get back, the doctors get through everyone and then I meet with them. And that’s when I have a better idea of what it is. But it didn’t look good.”
(On the explanation from the officials on the delay of game on the touchdown to Texans WR Will Fuller V) “Yeah, they—nope, none. I mean, they didn’t see it. There’s only one person responsible for it. That’s what he—the back judge is responsible for the play clock. The other officials don’t look at it, it’s only one person.”
(On if that is why he’s upset) “I’m not going to do anything. I’m not going to say anything stupid. I think you guys realize it.”
(On the positives of the team playing well on both sides of the ball) “I mean, these guys have played hard. I mean, and I know, a lot of times in this, that’s what the coaches all say. But I think it’s—you guys are good enough, smart enough, to know. If they weren’t, you’d call me out on it, or call them out, and they are. I hope that you can see that we’re trying a lot of different things. I mean, we tried a lot of different things, different packages today. I think you were able to see that and some of those packages helped us get pressure on the quarterback. At times, we had really good calls and credit to Deshaun Watson, he got out of it and made some plays. So, those things and then Laviska [Shenault Jr.] got injured early in the game, he has a hamstring and you know, we had a lot of things planned for him to do things with. But I thought we did a decent job. I think the thing that you get disappointed with—all of us, I’m not just saying it’s me—it’s 10 points in the first quarter were those drives were penalties. I thought the other one was an uncatchable ball, but it was deemed catchable, so it’s the pass interference on that. I thought [Chris] Claybrooks made the big return. We were able to get points right before the half. Jake [Luton] at least made the play to put us there. So, really, you think about 2-minutes before the half, 2-minutes at the end of the game, the guy made two plays there. Then, I thought the swing on the potential delay of game was big, because now it goes to third-and-really long. And instead, it’s seven points the other way. So, those are the things that happened. And like I said, you’re tested, I feel like I’m tested because you don’t expect those types of things. But it’s hard. I mean, you talk to a football team afterwards, what do you say? I talked to them and I’ve just got to figure out a way and we’ve just got to keep going. But we’ve got eight games left and there are some things, obviously Mark, there were some things that went well and there were some things that we need to clear up. We’ve just got to keep going, keep going forward.”
(On the defensive performance with the changes in the defense this week) “Yeah, I thought we put Doug [Middleton] out there because his production has been high and had a little bit amount of snaps, going in. but the production was high, so we wanted to see if we could increase the snaps where his production level is. I thought he did a couple good things in there. I don’t know the exact counts, you know what I’m saying? Doug’s productivity was high, and we didn’t have a lot of snaps, so we wanted to increase his snaps. And I thought he did a nice job. I mean, I’m going to have to go and really watch it because it’s an interior play. So, I’m looking at the total concept of it. But he was a guy that we felt pretty good about. Think about it, he was a free agent and we put him on the roster of 53 at the start of the season. So, we did that. And then, basically we were trying to play both Josh [Jones] and Daniel [Thomas] down today, more heavy down in the box. So, we felt like, ‘Hey Josh has played well.’ So, I brought Josh in and Josh has done a nice job, he’s made a lot of plays for us. But Daniel is also a guy that’s a playmaker and we just have two guys that are really one position. So, I just wanted to make sure we had Daniel in there. And I thought that playing Daniel every couple series would make—my thought process was to get better production out of that.”
(On his personal assessment of his goal to accomplish ‘some crazy stuff’ this week) “Yeah, I think we did some different things. I think they helped us, so I think we’ll take a good look on whether we’ll expand on it. I think it’s a little bit more difficult to do that stuff on offense. You know, we’ve got a young quarterback, we want to make sure we train him properly and get him off to a good start. So, I think a lot of those things go into play. But I think when Laviska went down early on, like I said earlier, we had some things with him, but that got nixed. So, at the end of the day, we just judge. We’ve got to win. I mean, we’ve got to figure out how we can keep this thing going and keep these guys playing and put them in positions where they can make some plays and we can get a win.”
(On whether giving S Doug Middleton more snaps was part of the ‘crazy stuff’ category) “No, I think that stuff—you know, after I said it, when I said that, I knew I was in trouble. I knew that I was going to get a lot of these types of questions later on. And that’s why earlier in the week I tried to say, ‘Listen, I know what I said,’ but [Associated Press Reporter] Mark [Long], I believe was the one that asked and I’m like, ‘Ugh. Here we go, this is going to be a big thing. We’re going to be judged on it.’ And then, obviously, Gardner had the injury and Jake came in. So, that’s just poor public relations, poor communication on my part. I apologize for that.”
(On QB Jake Luton’s poise and performance) “Yeah, I think you’re going to have that. You’re going to have some of those plays that aren’t going to look good. But there are some of them that are really impressive. I think what I try to do is, or how I’m going to try to explain this is how to give you just the mindset or the—You guys can see body language or you can see them on the field, right? So, there’s not an issue with that. So, for me, all those other things that I talked about – the first time he gets hit or the first time all those pressures come, or someone winds up coming free—which happened early in the game and you see him roll into the right and you see. So, one of the things I was impressed with was his eyes down the field. He missed [Keelan] Cole on that one play down the field that could’ve been a big play. So, when under duress, you see him still working to push the football down the field. And then, at the end of the game, you saw him have the ability to take off and go. So, I think those things go to one of the things that you look for, checking the boxes. I thought communication-wise, just his getting in-and-out, not getting delays of game—a lot of that stuff happens early in someone’s career, you could have those situations. So, being able to spit the plays out, get everybody lined up. And then really, the two two-minute drives, especially the one at the end, he’s a guy that has zero work. We tried to get in some extra work with him on two-minute at the end of the day and I thought he really handled himself well throughout the four quarters. So, there’s a lot of things that you can check; good here, good here, good here. [His] communication on the sideline, what he’s seeing, what’s going on, there’s a lot of that. And I’m sure he wants some throws back, but some of those throws, like you guys were able to see, some of them—you know, the one to [Tyler] Eifert was a heck of a throw and obviously there’s a couple more.”
(On whether he ever envisioned QB Jake Luton having the ability to scramble run from 13-yards out like he did) “On radio I got asked and someone said Jake said he wasn’t that athletic, but he looked athletic on that play. I think when I watched him in college, he was athletic enough. He had pretty good pocket poise, keeping his eyes down the field, which I think is important. I think that run showed that he can move. He looked like he had pretty decent pocket presence as far as left, right, stepping up, all those things. So, I would say, on that play, he made a spin move and scored. So, I mean, it’s hard to say that he’s not athletic, being able to do that. Ball security is one. He was getting ready to throw it, he was about to rip it and the guy knocked it out of his hands. Those things occur. So, there’s a lot of things but I would say it’s impressive when you think about no offseason, just training camp, not receiving any reps and then getting thrown in there. So, there’s a lot of ways to write that story about the kid.”
(On message to the team after a tough, close, frustrating loss) “Yeah, I think it’s the same thing. I mean, I understand. I told the players I understand there’s no moral victories and we’re pros and everybody’s fighting hard and we understand that you don’t need to go there. And I just told them, I said we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing, meaning: hanging in there, playing our [expletive] off, playing hard, finding ways that we can get better and improve as the year goes on. And I just told them, I said, sometimes fortunately or unfortunately, you know, I’ve been through stuff like this before and I think it says a lot. And I told them, we may think how hard it is because we’re in the NFL and we’re playing and we’re trying to get it, but I try to put it beyond. There’s going to be a lot of things, a lot of adversities that we’re dealing with in our lives, and everything that we’re going through right now is going to be part of that foundation that’s going to be able to make us better. And at the end of the day, whatever happens at the end of it, we’ll be better coaches and better players for it.”
JAGUARS QUARTERBACK JAKE LUTON
(On how he would evaluate his first NFL start) “It’ll be good to look at it. Right now, it’s really fresh and new. It felt really good to get out there. I felt like we played really hard and I’m really proud of how we played. I wish we could have finished it off, but it was awesome just getting out there.”
(On the two-minute situation near the end of game and if he felt comfortable going into that situation) “I felt really comfortable. I felt confident. We talked on the sideline when we came out and I just told them ‘hey, just do your job. If all 11 of us do our part every play, we don’t have to press, we don’t have to go super-fast, just do your job and we’ll drive it down field.’ We did. I thought the guys did really well. I felt good. I felt comfortable.”
(On if he felt star-struck at any point during the game) “No, I was more nervous for like my first practice this week. I just wanted to come out and have it run smooth. Once I got out on the field, it’s football. It’s the same 100-yeard field I’ve always played on. We practiced it all week, all the plays and stuff, so I felt confident and comfortable and never felt overwhelmed with the moment.”
(On his comfort level on his touchdown pass to DJ Chark Jr. and how much that helped him get his feet wet) “Yeah, I mean I’m sure it helped a lot. It was awesome. It’s a play we’ve been working on this week and he [Chark Jr.] did a great job. He beat him pretty bad and I just had to give him a good ball that he could run through and make a play, and he finished it off. I was really excited; it was awesome.”
(On if he had any game rust coming into this game since it’s been almost a calendar year since he’s played) “Yeah, I felt good. I didn’t feel too rusty. Like I said, I treated every practice this week like a game. I felt like I needed to go out there and show that if practice can run smooth, with me in there, there wasn’t going to be any drop-off or anything. By the time we got out there on the field, I was comfortable and ready to go.”
(On his 13-yard touchdown run and showing his athleticism) “I wouldn’t say it’s my strength, but I think it’s something I can do that not a lot of people think I can because I’m a bigger guy. I’ve run the ball before and it’s not something I choose to do but when the opportunity arises, I’m going to try and go out and make a play with my feet and I was able to do that. It was fun, it was pretty cool to have that play.”
(On the two-point pass and if there was some obstruction getting the ball to DJ Chark Jr.) “Yeah, it was just a bad ball. Really, no other excuse for it. DJ is our guy and we’re going to try to get the ball to our playmakers and let him win us a game. I didn’t give him a shot, so it’s something I’ll have to keep working on and we’ll come back and get it right.”
(On the kind of advice Gardner [Minshew II] and Mike [Glennon] gave him prior to this game) “I mean Gardner and Mike are awesome. They’ve been really great mentors for me this whole time and today, every time I came off the field, they had something to say to me, something to help me out. Whether it was a blitz they were bringing or the type of coverage they were running, they were really helpful. I haven’t talked to them after the game but I’m sure we will. I’m sure they’ll text or call because that’s the kind of guys they are. They really look out for me and I’m very appreciative of them.”
(On what he’ll remember more on TD run, his stiff arm or spin move) “Probably the stiff arm. I think with the spin move, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was trying to make something happen, so probably the stiff arm.”
(On if there was a moment when he soaked it all in and thought to himself ‘dream accomplished’) “For sure. I think before the game, just going through warmups, and I looked up and my brother is sitting there in the first row. We’re waving and all excited and it’s a really cool moment. A really cool opportunity and something I’ve always worked for. I took a second to appreciate it, I think that’s important.”
(On how many family members he had come to the game today) “Oh man. I think it’s around 30. I think it might be 29, but I think every family member I have pretty much is here. I had a couple of my really good friends make the trip down and tried to surprise me, but I found out. Yeah, ton of great support. I have an awesome system that supports me and this just shows it. I’m as far away from home as I could be and they dropped everything on the drop of a hat to come support me, so I couldn’t be more grateful for my family.”
(On which family member traveled the furthest) “They all did. They’re all up north of Seattle, Washington, so you can’t get much further. South Florida is about the only further place you could go.”
(On if he thinks he did enough this week and today to earn serious consideration to be the quarterback moving forward) “That’s not really my decision. I think I’m going to do everything I can to put this team in a position to win and I think Gardner [Minshew II] and Mike [Glennon] are going to do the same thing. We all prepare really, really hard every single week, regardless of who the guy is going to be out there taking snaps on Sunday. We’re all preparing that way and helping each other be the best we can be so, I’m not sure. We’ll come back tomorrow, watch it, and keep working and supporting each other.”
(On what he and his teammates did to get that comfortability in that short time) “Yeah, I think you just have to go out there and rep it. Get out there with the guys and get a feel for one another. Throughout the week if we missed a pass, we would run it back, we’d get after it after practice, we’d try to hit it and make sure we felt confident going into it. I think DJ [Chark Jr.] is the perfect example. That first touchdown pass, we repped it two or three times and we missed them every time. We come out today and because we repped it and had a good feel for each other, we hit it and were able to capitalize.”
JAGUARS DEFENSIVE END JOSH ALLEN
(On how he thought the Jaguars defense played) “I felt like we had a real good game defensively. There’s a couple stops that we could have prevented. Overall, we get rid of those us-beating-ourselves plays like the penalties, pass interference, jumping offsides. We get rid of those, I feel like we’re in the game. Kudos to everybody, but next week we’ve got to forget about this game, learn from this game and come back next week ready to play against Green Bay.”
(On what Myles Jack does for the defense when he’s healthy) “I mean, him just being a playmaker. He’s obviously, every time he’s out there, he’s making a lot of big plays for us, and he definitely did today. We’re going to need that every week consistently, and we just need everybody else to be on his level. I feel like we’re on that way.”
(On Myles Jack’s forced fumble) “Yeah, he’s nasty. Myles is a ballhawk, man. He’s definitely one of the best linebackers this year, and he’s continued to play like that. When he’s healthy, he’s a bad man. He’s going to continue to show that, and I just love playing with him. Hopefully, he continues to be like that.”
(On if he was surprised defensive lineman Taven Bryan was benched and how he felt defensive lineman Doug Costin played in Bryan’s place) “I think Doug played a really good game. When Taven came in, I think he played really well too. It’s whoever’s doing things right is going to play. I don’t make that call on who gets in and who doesn’t. We’ve just got to play with the cards that we’re dealt. But I think Doug came in and played absolutely well, and then he got hurt, so hopefully he’ll be healthy for next week and we can get him back out there.”
(On if the play clock running out for Houston and not getting called adds to the frustration the team is feeling) “Yeah, it definitely is. That’s something that we can’t control. We can’t control the refs to call that or see that. So that’s most frustrating part about that. It was just a call that needed to be made that they didn’t make and they missed it, but like you said, I think after that series, we came back out and got a three-and-out or we got off the field. So we continued to battle. You can’t sit there and look at the tape and say we didn’t. I’m definitely proud of this defense on all the skills that we had to do, and I think we played a lot better and that we’re just going to continue to grow from here.”
(On what defensive back Tre Herndon blitzing from the secondary allows him to do on the defensive line) “Tre’s a scary blitzer. He’s definitely a guy that can really sneak in there and come in there and hit somebody. Obviously, you saw. When Tre’s coming down and he’s on the blitz, everybody else has to do their part so he can get free because he’s going to make a lot of big plays in that position.”
(On a follow up to what Herndon blitzing does for him and the rest of the defensive line) “Get out of his way. I mean, those blitzes are made for that nickel to come in and be the free hitter. So it’s for us to do our job and occupy the rest of the O-linemen so he can just come in there Scot-free, which we did, and he came in and made the play. I’m just happy that we did and we got to be off that field.”
(On if he felt the Jaguars blitzed enough today) “Yeah. I don’t know. Yeah, I think so.”
(On the talk of the bye week with the defense blitzing even more) “I feel like we could have called anything because when we rush four (players), we were getting pressure. When we blitzed, we were getting pressure. The game plan was definitely swell, and I was liking how everything went. I think we blitzed a lot today, more than what we usually do, and we were getting home. I believe we’ll continue to do that.”
JAGUARS RB JAMES ROBINSON
(On his thoughts on the offense and Jake Luton) “So I think the offense, as a whole, we did pretty well. From all the previous games, I think this was the best game we’ve probably had. From Jake, that was a great game by him. I mean, obviously, you guys saw it, and he just did great.”
(On seeing a fellow rookie like Jake Luton step in and play that well) “It’s just being comfortable and confident in himself. He showed everyone that he can do that, so I like it going forward.”
(On what he has to say to all the teams that passed on him in the draft) “Nothing. I mean, I’m here now, but it doesn’t really matter.”
(On how the Jaguars’ offense got comfortable with Jake Luton) “I think it’s just, when we’re at practice, it’s just, you’re still playing football. An NFL game’s an NFL game, but you still have to go out there and play football. You’re still playing against other guys (like) that. He might have saw things better (today) than he did at practice, but it was just more about being comfortable in practice so he could go out there and be comfortable in a game. We just have to, for us, to protect him. I think he probably got sacked a couple times, but other than that, just help him be comfortable when he goes in there.”
(On if he feels a personal need to put more on his shoulders to open up the offense) “I just go with (what) the game plan is, and when I get the ball, I try to make a play every time. I think that’s just what’s going to help us. What I’m doing is good, but it’s just not enough. We’ve all got to come together and find a way to win and get over that hump. Offense, I felt like we did pretty well today. The defense did pretty well too, but it’s just that hump that we have to get over. We could have come out on top in this game, but we just came up short.”
JAGUARS WR DJ CHARK JR.
(On what he saw out of the Jaguars’ offense and QB Jake Luton) “We were able to move the ball well, but at times, we didn’t move it when we were supposed to. We moved it enough to stay in the game, but we didn’t move it enough to win the game. Jake [Luton], he stepped into a divisional game and he never showed any nerves. He just played football and did what was asked of him. He wasn’t afraid, he was fired up out there, he was excited. It’s good, definitely, for your first start in the NFL and not expecting it to come the way it did. Hats off to him for that.”
(On whether it was QB Jake Luton or the game plan against Houston that made him so productive) “It was more of the game plan. You play a team twice, you see the things that you could have explored in the first game, so you come out and you run it the second game, and that’s what we did. Hats off to Jake [Luton]. I feel like [Offensive Coordinator] Coach [Jay] Gruden tried to make this game plan to take advantage of the things that we missed, but also to cater to him, and I think that they did a good job of communicating and doing that.”
(On his 73-yard touchdown reception) “Yeah, definitely, it’s something that we ran in practice multiple times. Actually, we didn’t hit it at practice. But I feel like their coverage, after that play, the safety tended to stay on my side, shaded my side. But third play of the game, they were playing that honestly, and he didn’t, which left me one-on-one with the corner. Watching film, you see that they are pretty good at not letting you get outside releases so we took an inside release, got back outside and Jake threw a good ball. The safety got over late, something that they changed late in the game, but when a team gives you something that you see that you can attack, you have to get it. You only get one shot at it. We were able to complete it.”
(On what it was like going through a week of preparation with Jake Luton as the starting quarterback) “He came, talked to all the guys, sat on the bench with us, at times, asked us input. Not trying to go out there and do too much, just do what he was capable of doing and not let the moment get too big. I think it was a good transition because Gardner [Minshew III] is a good guy who talked to him the whole way through. They worked on his [Luton’s] strengths and weaknesses, and I feel like he was pretty comfortable out there. I felt like the thing that we pride ourselves on in the receivers’ room is to make the quarterback comfortable, even when he’s uncomfortable. If you put the ball up there, our job is to catch it or make sure nobody else catches it. That was basically my goal every time I ran a route.”
