Chiefs / Jaguars Week 2 Analysis: Dissecting all that went wrong vs. the Super Bowl champs

This week on "Touchdown Jaguars!", Jay dissected not only the pain points but the positives of the Jags' Week 2 loss to the Chiefs. Ultimately, it was a game where the Jags failed to take advantage of several opportunities as the offensive line and Trevor Lawrence struggled. To add on to that, the play-calling was questionable, too, all of which were taking points of episode 64 with the positives (the defense, Christian Kirk, and Walker Little)

With the Jags ultimately letting one get away against the Super Bowl Champions, there was a lot to unpack this week. Additionally, the Jags will have a Houston Texans team coming into town that has won nine of the last 10 games against the Jags. Tune in as Jay expressed his thoughts on how the Jags could bounce back Week 3, as they will have to put their 17-9 loss in the rearview. 

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James Johnson and Phil Smith bring you the best and most up to date Jacksonville Jaguars news. "Touchdown Jaguars!" is a tribute to the prospective ownership group "Touchdown Jacksonville!" In 1991, the NFL announced plans to add two expansion teams and "Touchdown Jacksonville!" announced its bid for a team, and Jacksonville was ultimately chosen as one of five finalists. In November 1993, the NFL owners voted 26–2 in favor of awarding the 30th franchise to Jacksonville. James and Phil have been fans of the franchise ever since and have had the honor (and sometimes dishonor) of covering the team professionally since 2017. The rest as they say, is history.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:18

Welcome to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. Here's your host, james Johnson, and Phil Smith. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode 64 of Touchdown Jaguars. James Johnson here, aka at Sports Grind underscore done, as you know me on Twitter. Alright, nick solo this week, as you all have probably seen through our social media, or at least Phil's social media, he is currently, or was, in Atlanta, so he came through. We all have heard his fandom of Tory Kelly, so he came through to the state of Georgia, headed up to Atlanta to check out Tory Kelly and he also had a convention to do with the Wait for it podcast, his other project. Shout outs to Eric Serna, his other co-host with that project and also friend of the show, who's been on the podcast. But fear not, phil will be back for the next episode and I will hold it down for today's episode as we are coming off of a loss this time.

Speaker 1: 1:35

So not a victory episode like we've been growing accustomed to as of lately in the regular season and even in the postseason, and a lot to break down, of course, with that loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, as the Jaguars fell by a score of 17 to nine to the Kansas City Chiefs, defending Super Bowl champs in a game where it feels like it's the one that got away from us, feels like, in a lot of ways, we we show that we may be closed, that gap a little bit closer than we thought with the Chiefs, but we just couldn't take and seize the opera, take advantage and seize the opportunities that the Kansas City Chiefs gave us and that our defense also gave us. Our defense kept us in that game. We'll talk a little bit about that. As always, we'll look at the good and the bad with the game, and one that is still. It left a bad taste in the fans mouth but we still have to, you know, get over it, move on to the Houston Texans and put that one in the rear view. So it is one that it feels like the Jacksonville Jaguars could have won and could have made a statement in, as they took on the Chiefs at home in one that was also a scorcher. It was, I think it reached like a hundred and tenish, a hundred and twenty on the field, something like that. But yeah, we will get into that, the good and bad of that game. But before we do that, of course we will plug our handles and all of the information or give out all of the information needed to follow this part.

Speaker 1: 3:14

If you are a new listener of the touchdown Jaguars, we welcome you to episode 64. Feel free to check out our archived episodes of the past. Also, you can check out our website, which is touchdown Jaguarscom, which also features articles. Has been a while since I put one up, but it still features some articles that you can go back and read and you know enjoy, as well as the archived episodes of this podcast. And for our listeners who have been here, we appreciate the love and support. Continue to rate, comment, subscribe for us and show us your support in that way, whether it's on Apple podcast or whatever the case may be. And you can also catch this podcast on many, many interfaces. As usual, again, apple podcast is one of them, spotify most notably. Tune in, stitch your, you name it. If we aren't there on your favorite interface, feel free to let us know. We can get on there for you and make sure we're getting everybody the latest in Jaguars news.

Speaker 1: 4:23

Now, of course, as I said in the beginning of the beginning of the podcast, you can follow me at sports grind underscore done on Twitter, at young rusty Ryan on Instagram. I'll really give my Instagram like that, but follow me there if you want to on there as well. You can follow Phil at Phil the Filipino on Twitter. Same applies to IG if you want to do that at TD Jags pod on Twitter. If you want to follow this podcast handle on Twitter. We're kind of creeping up there to that 1000 follower mark we're. I think we're a little bit under 750 right now, so feel free to follow us and help us get up there to that one closer to that 1000 follower mark.

Speaker 1: 5:08

And, lastly, shout outs to our sponsor for this podcast, seat geek, who, as we say every week, is your go to spot for your ticketing needs, whatever that is, whatever event they have it on seat geek, not just sporting events, not just football and NFL events, which we cover through the Jacksonville Jaguars, clearly, but any other sports events that you want to get your tickets to. Feel free to check out seat geek and use our promotion code, which is touchdown Jaguars. We'll have that linked in our description, of course, but whether it's NBA or NFL or MLS or NHL, whatever the case may be, head on over there there, they also have your ticketing needs in terms of events and concerts as well. Again, as we said earlier, phil is off to the Tori Kelly concert. So, yeah, feel free to check them out for that as well. For those of you who are more so concert cert goers instead of sports fans, or whatever the case may be, once again, the promotion code on your first order with seat geek is touchdown Jaguars and they can hook you up with 20% off of your first order on the website, which can help you save a little bit of money and keep a little bit of money in your pocket for whatever event it is that you're going to.

Speaker 1: 6:36

That said, we will get right into the show. It looks like I might be making good time here on the solo episode. That sounds like a good thing for the sake of editing this as well. But, as always, we will look at the good and look at the bad. In terms of Sunday's game against the Kansas City Chiefs, and we, you know, depending on time, we might look a little ahead to the Houston Texans, as the Jaguars will hopefully bounce back against a Houston Texans team that they haven't had a lot of success against, especially, you know, when it comes to Recent history, as the Jaguars have only one, if my knowledge serves me correctly one of the last 10 matches or meetings with the Houston Texans. So there is that. So the Jaguars have to clear a historical hurdle after this loss that they Substained from the Kansas City Chiefs. We'll get more on that later.

Speaker 1: 7:36

Thankfully, we kind of already covered the chiefs in depth, lee, recently through our Preview of the EFC South that we did in the preseason with Cody Davis, who he's with locked on Texans. Shoutouts to him and he's with Texans daily of Sports illustrated, so Feel free to reflect back on that episode. It was only one, two, three episodes ago if I'm not mistaken, so feel free to reflect back on that episode If you want any intel on the Texans. I kind of wanted to get them back on this week but being that we just linked up not too long ago, I just decided to, you know, make this one a solo one. But shoutouts to Cody Davis will be looking forward to that match up with the Houston Texans that they, as they travel to Jacksonville to take on the Jaguars at everbank field, still got to get used to saying that. After years of saying Tia a bank, you would think it will roll off the tongue more naturally because everbank was always Everbank, stated, was always a better name than Tia a bank feel or Tia a bank feel.

Speaker 1: 8:44

But I digress from my point here. Let's take a look at the game as they fell to the Kansas City Chiefs by a score of nine to 17 I think I might have said it was nine to nineteen earlier in the day, but it was nine to seventeen where the Jacksonville Jaguars offense just simply couldn't go get going, obviously based off of the score there, but nonetheless, you look at it, kansas City was held to 17 points, which that's not typical for that offense. I'll be it. You know they were just getting Travis Kelsey back from his knee situation. But you know, when you talk about facing the MVP and Patrick Mahomes, that is not typical of that offense and that was an opportunity of very, very poorly missed opportunity on the Jaguars To not take advantage of that and get that victory and become 2 and 0. But again, you know that was a game in which most people would have had us in terms of season predictions, would have had us as a loss anyway. But that doesn't make this feel any better Because again, the Jaguars could be too, could be 2 and 0 and that could be a very crucial game in regards to getting first place in the AFC, which, you know, the Jaguars kind of need to take advantage of that if they're going to go to the postseason, because they have one of the easier schedules in the AFC and they play in the AFC South, which is kind of, in most people's eyes, the worst division in the conference.

Speaker 1: 10:15

But, that being said, we'll start with the good here before we get into the bad. I guess we'll put the bad at the end of the episode. But in terms of the good, the defense Stacked together another solid game, and this you know. Once again, going back to what I said last week, you know we expected the defense to be more of a problem for the Jaguars, but in these two games they've been the better unit and we need to give Kudos to Mike Caldwell for the strides that this team has made.

Speaker 1: 10:49

They lost a key pass rusher or this unit has made, should I say, but this they've lost a key pass rusher. They've lost a key pass rusher in Arden Key, no pun intended who went to the Tennessee Titans and evidently built the city of Jacksonville, the stadium locker room and all of that. We like to joke about that. But yeah, you know, they lost their key pass rusher in Arden Key, who I saw a stat from next gen stats, I think it was posted on Twitter or something, but he's, um, leading the league or he's one of the league's leaders, should I say, in pressures. So it would be nice if we would have kept them still, but nonetheless, um, he's, they're doing fine without him. You know, and, um, you know, we had big time concerns for this pass rush. Again, they held the chiefs to 17 points, which is the lowest total the chiefs have had Dating all the way back to that week three game against the Indianapolis Colts last year, if my memory serves me, could correctly there. Uh, so I mean certainly nothing to overlook on the Jaguars defense is part for being able to do that and, um, you know, I think they only did end up with one sack, but, um, they still were able to, you know, do enough to hold that chief's unit to the 19 points.

Speaker 1: 12:12

The defensive backs, especially flourish they all had, as you all probably saw on my tweet this week, they all had positive grades from pff, if I'm not mistaken and, as a matter of fact, I'll pull that tweet up right now. So, yeah, it was Darius Williams with a 78.2, andrey Cisco with a 85.6. He led the way defensively in terms of pff grace. This is here Ray Sean Jenkins with a 71.2. The only one that didn't end up in that top five was Tyson Campbell, dewey. We can already even ended up in there with a 71.1, although he only saw 16 snaps. But Tyson Campbell was the only player who didn't end up in the top of the Jaguars defensive top five grades when you look at Uh, a pff grace. And again, that's for people who you know Like PFF and believe in their metrics. If you don't, then it's all good, it's no big deal. But you know pretty impressive performance out of that defensive back group ratio.

Speaker 1: 13:16

And Jenkins was all over the place making plays and Jerry Cisco got a pick and, if I'm not mistaken, last time I checked, the Jaguars were plus three and turnover differential. So I think they're, you know, top five in the league and that care to grow to. So they're causing turnovers and I think that's what's keeping them in games to as well. It's just the ability to cause turnovers and that's huge. So hopefully that trend will continue. As you know, they have been given our offense plenty of opportunities to, you know, win games or stay in games in the case of the Colts game.

Speaker 1: 13:53

But this defense is really, really excited me because you know, as I said, like I'm cautiously optimistic because last week we were talking about the past rushes, which we thought was going to be an issue. But I say that I'm cautiously optimistic because this chiefs unit, in terms of the offensive line, is a little bit better than the one we saw with the Indianapolis Colts. And also, you know they're doing this without their two best defensive linemen, arguably, and the Von Hamilton, who should be back, you know week four, week hope. And then also the one, smooth, who is the veteran of the group, the probably the longest 10 year defensive linemen in that room. He is returning from a Kelly's injury, so they'll get him back, you know, maybe week four or maybe a few weeks after that. So that should help. Now, you know, again, with a player coming off a Kelly's injury, you kind of have to wonder how effective they'll be. So that's one of those time will tell things, but still is exciting just the thought of having to one smooth back in that, you know, in that rotation to help this young group. You know you got to feel like it would make the group a little bit better, but time will tell on that. So shout outs to Mike Caldwell and the job he's been doing and the development and the strides that defense is made under him.

Speaker 1: 15:17

My second takeaway is that Christian Kirk had a bounce back game which we talked about last week. We feel actually like, was it concerning that Christian Kirk, you know, ended up with, I think a catch it was, and very minimal yards. I think he might have had less than 20 yards I would have to go back and look at that but he did end up in this game with 11 catches for 110 yards, much more like the Christian Kirk that we've grown to know and love. Again. You know, with this offense is a matter of figuring out how to distribute the wealth. That's not going to come right off the rip. It's going to take weeks. When you have this many weapons on one offense, that's going to take time. It's going to take weeks to do so and get that chemistry down and just figure out things in terms of how to distribute the wealth. I mean for crying out loud, they have Kirk, they have ETN, they have Zay Jones, they have Calvin Ridley, who is one of the biggest acquisitions in terms of offense overall this whole season. They have Brenton Strange and they have Evan Ingram.

Speaker 1: 16:25

When you're dealing with that type of weaponry, you know the first quarter or two is going to be about, you know, figuring things out. But look, it's as simple as this. Defenses can't stop all of those weapons at the same time and whoever isn't the focal point that weak is, who are the weapons that should be getting the ball that week? That's not overthink this. But that being said, man, just glad to see Christian Kirk back in there. I know he had a drop or two but nonetheless, when you look at you know how he helped them in terms of the big explosive play that he added to the mix where I wish he didn't get ankle tackle and turn that in for a touchdown, but nonetheless he added a key contribution there that the Jaguars just weren't able to capitalize on afterwards. More on that later and he added a key contribution just all over the field in general. So just glad to see him back and you know, hopefully this will be one of many games in which he has over 110 yards Well, it was 110 yards on the dot and you know, hopefully in the future when he registers those types of performances, it'll lead to wins. Typically it should. In most cases the Jaguars would win again where Christian Kirk gets that kind of yardage. But that was not the case again. We'll get more on to that later. So not really much to add there, man, just glad that he got his opportunity to shine after the week he had last week and looking back at it, it was one catch for five yards if I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 1: 18:05

But the next positive to talk about is Walker Little, who was the only bright spot on that offensive line. If we're being honest which we'll talk about offensive line and the negatives, just looking ahead, I'll just throw that hand out there. But Walker Little looked the best out of the offensive line, which I mean when you look at the other four members of it. I guess that went hard to do because they struggled mightily in this game. But at the end of the day Walker Little had the second highest grade on offense per PFF. The first highest grade went to Deirdre Johnson who only got five snaps. So technically, if you want to go by snap volume, it was Walker Little who had the best grade on offense with a 78.8 there.

Speaker 1: 18:54

And you know what's exciting about him and the performance he had is, you know, he kind of was a little bit off week one. Good to see him bounce back from that regard. But also why? Why is important to see him thriving is because not only do he or does he protect Trevor Lawrence is blind side but he makes things exciting from the perspective of when the Jaguars get camp Robinson back and they probably kick him into guard. And I'm talking about little here here. They probably kick little into guard, which would make this offensive linemen much more better. Again, you would have your five best offensive linemen on the field at that time.

Speaker 1: 19:35

Because this unit is really struggling there, especially struggling at the guard position, at the interior. Again, we talked about Luke Fortner last week and we talked about Brandon Scherf. We also talked about Ben Barch guys who you know we kind of just let that country boy strength, as I put it last week, in the interior. But we'll get. We'll get again. We'll get into that later. But you can kick, walk a little into the left guard position, get Ben Barch off the field, which is probably one of your weak links which you know we, a lot of us, had high hopes for Ben Barch. It's just not working out.

Speaker 1: 20:12

Then again, you know he is coming off of offseason where he was mostly focusing on getting back on to the field. Didn't really play into that last preseason game or so. It might have been the second to last but he missed a lot of time. So you know the injury he's coming from. In his defense. It might take a little while to get back playing to or to get to playing at a high level, but still nonetheless, you know just the ability that Walker little has shown. You got to feel like he probably is a better option at guard than Ben Barch. Time will tell him on that. But yeah, he just makes things exciting from the perspective of. You know, once we get Ken Robinson back, you know we can, you know, then make an upgraded move at the left guard position or maybe Well, yeah, it'll probably be left guard, not right guard, but make a, you know, upgrade there at the left guard position, and then the offensive line is a little bit less of an issue than it previously was, hopefully. Again, time will tell on that.

Speaker 1: 21:15

But yeah, walker little had a strong game by PFF standards. I had a 81.5 in the run game, which that's encouraging for my argument of, when getting Cam Robinson back, of kicking him back into the left guard position. We definitely could use some you know, that type of ability. There at the guard position had a 74.8 as a pass, as a pass blocker, played in 100% of the offensive snaps, of course. So yeah, man, exciting things from him on this this past Sunday in a game where it was a little bit hard to find some positives in terms of how the game made you feel afterwards. But make no mistake about it, not only was the game a teaching lesson, there were a lot of good things where you can get over the fact that we squandered a lot of opportunities. There were a lot of good things that came from this game that you can build upon, and the most notable of those things is Walker little's performance, christian Kurtz bounce back and how this defense has played and carried this team and is exceeding the expectations, at least for right now. So in terms of the bad, we'll go to that, just kind of continuing on what I was saying earlier and sticking to the subject of Walker little, the rest of his teammates on the offensive line struggle mightily.

Speaker 1: 22:41

We also Anton Harrison. You know kind of getting whooped out there by Chris Jones, but you know the thing about it is is Chris Jones. Now I will say this you know, I did see the tweet from Demetrius and at times it did look like he was gas, but still a gas. Chris Jones is a pretty good player, I guess is how I would put it. And you know, he has a ton of experience and a ton of snaps under his belt. So for him to beat up on Anton Harrison is certainly nothing for Anton to hang his head on, I mean, and to be fair, a lot of his teammates were getting beat up on on the offensive line. But yeah, chris Jones is, you know, a savvy veteran who people would probably argue is the best defensive player in the league. He surpassed Aaron Donald in some people's eyes in that regard. So I mean, like Doug Peterson said, certainly a teaching moment for him. Certainly not a game where we can look at Anton and say, oh, that kid is a bus, that kid, it wasn't worth the pick that we put into him, like for crying out loud. It was Chris Jones, okay, albeit a Chris Jones that missed training camp, but still a pretty good player nonetheless. So, yep, chris Jones, whooped up on the offensive line, especially Anton Harrison, and then again, man.

Speaker 1: 24:09

Just going back to what I said last week I don't want to sound repetitive here is just that we lack that. You know, that Mahler strength that we need and we've seen this in the past in terms of what it looks like when you have the guy at Garden Center right, when you look back at the days of Fred Taylor and MJD, when we had rest in peace to Vince Manowai right when he was in his prime, brad Meester right, those guys back in the day Now you don't get that vibe that you know we can move many people off the ball from the interior and you know that needs to be there for this offense. And Travis ETN and you got a young running back back during in Tainton Biggsby as well, and maybe some of it is that Fortner is playing her and as well as Brandon Sherr who had his ankle like straight up, like rolled on. A lot of people were surprised to even play. But Brandon Sherr, you know playing injured, playing on that bad ankle. I don't think being barge has an injury, but I could be wrong on that as well, but he's coming off of a major injury, as we said. You know new situation that he was, you know, placed on injured reserve for last year and he didn't get to play in the first or second preseason game. I think he might have came back at the third or if not the third. It was the second, but you know he didn't get the preseason work that you would like out of a starter as well. So that will be a focal point heading forward.

Speaker 1: 25:52

You would have to feel like Phil Rauscher, who is probably the most vocal coach, loudest coach in the Jaguars, within the Jaguar staff. Phil Rauscher is going to make it a point of emphasis to get these guys right. There's probably going to be a lot of yelling and cussing and all of that and practice these next few days to get those guys right. We'll see if it works in time We'll tell how they bounce back against the Houston Texans. But yeah, these two performances, two straight performances from that interior especially, are concerning for this Jacksonville Jaguars offense and it's something that needs to get cleaned up quickly. Again, the good news is in two more weeks or well, three really They'll get Cam Robinson back. That will help them to kick Walker little in. You have to feel like taking Walker little off the field doesn't help this offensive line, so you will most certainly feel he be kicked in the left guard and hopefully that will bolster that unit and help the Jaguars get back on the right track in terms of establishing themselves on the offensive side and the trenches.

Speaker 1: 27:01

So next on the list of bad was Trevor Lawrence. Was off in this game, really never could find their rhythm, had some over throws right, had some situations where you know the receivers. Honestly, you know it was a catch or two that you could argue, maybe they could have gotten his feet down right and those. So you know it varies on who you want to blame on those attempts, but there were times where Trevor was missing, open receivers at times, so that we kind of had brought to our attention on Twitter and what have you and things of that nature. But yeah, he certainly cooled down, to say the least, from the game he had against the Indianapolis Colts and you know, hopefully this doesn't trickle into anything, but I mean, look, it's Trevor Lawrence. By the way, I think one of the luxuries of what happened with Trevor last year in terms of that playoff game is we always have that and he, most importantly, always has that to reflect back on. That shows us the resilience of him. You know, throwing four picks and still being able to win a playoff game.

Speaker 1: 28:11

If Trevor Lawrence can overcome that, I wouldn't be concerned about him overcoming his issues of, you know, the Kansas City Chiefs game. And another thing to look at, man, not to make this a moral victory thing, because I'm not a moral victory person and I'm certainly still upset with this loss and it left a bad taste in my mouth too. But, you know, for a lot of us that's panicking right now. It's not as if the Jacksonville Jaguars lost to a terrible team out here. They left. They lost to the Super Bowl champions. Ok, listen to listen to that statement. They lost to the Super Bowl champions in a game in which they really shot themselves in the foot, to be honest with you, and they are the reasons that they didn't beat the Super Bowl champions, more so than you know anything that the Chiefs did. The Chiefs didn't strike fear to me in this game. I didn't leave this game thinking like, oh there, you can't be beat by this Jacksonville Jaguars team.

Speaker 1: 29:08

So, going back to Trevor Lawrence, though, man, yeah, man, he could never really get in sync during the game and he'll need to clean up a little bit of gun shyness that he had in terms of, you know, some plays he left on the field where he probably could have, you know, hit a receiver for a better game or whatever the case may be. But the good news is there's plenty of time. This is just week two. That's. Another positive here is that it's just week two. He has plenty of time to build momentum and, you know, go into the postseason, which that's what we're expecting, to go into the postseason with the momentum you know we saw him go into the postseason with last year. So I wouldn't say I'm concerned with the game that Trevor Lawrence had, but certainly wish he could have made a lot of the plays that were left on the field, because if he did, we're looking at probably a W for week two.

Speaker 1: 30:03

But you live and you learn. This is a valuable learning lesson for him as well. Just like we were talking about with Anton Harrison getting beat up on by Chris Jones, this is a valuable lesson for Trevor Lawrence as well. You can see it in the press conference afterwards man, like he was ticked off. You know not that he was, was he acted any differently than he would after a loss, but the media kind of brought it to our attention and when you kind of look and evaluate those press conferences, and what specifically his press conference after the game, you can certainly tell he's disappointed. And here you have people questioning if this guy really had football in his heart before he was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars, which was the most preposterous thing that I've ever heard. But that's neither here or neither there. But yeah, man definitely could see Trevor Lawrence I think somebody tweeted this to me putting together a little meeting to huddle everybody up and light a little fire on everybody, which, again, like this team. That's another thing, though, man, this team has the leadership to overcome this and just go back and evaluate what needs to be done and tighten some things up. So, yeah, expect Trevor Lawrence to bounce back next week. We definitely need them to, because it's another divisional game and, yeah, it would be nice to be two and all in the division. It would be nice to go undefeated in the division, for that matter.

Speaker 1: 31:31

But, yep, trevor Lawrence no doubt struggled in this game. He was far from the only issue in this game and there were probably some worse issues in the game. Most notably, the play calling is a little bit off. Admittedly, now last week I kind of defended Press Taylor a little bit and even this week you can kind of find issues on the field that were beyond him. Again, offensive line play, right, trevor Lawrence being gunshot, the two bad things that I mentioned beforehand Trevor Lawrence being a little gunshot and missing out on a few opportunities, leaving a few opportunities on the field and, say Jones, not able to do a little bit of, as they say, toe drag swag and make one of those missed attempts in the red zone a touchdown.

Speaker 1: 32:17

So you know, when you look at Press Taylor and the play calling you could tell it is off. It is a bit different from Doug Peterson's time as a play calling. Now, look, last year they say that Doug would call like the first half of the game and press would call the second half of the game, which I mean I wouldn't doubt that, I could believe that. But if that's the case and we're seeing the discrepancy and play calling now or a little bit of a dip from the offense, what that may tell me is that, you know, doug starting off the game as a play caller might be something that the Jaguars need to go back to if they aren't doing it right now. Right, because he sets the tone, as somebody kind of put out there in a tweet I forgot who it was he sets the tone as a play caller and that makes it a little bit easier for Press to follow up on. But we'll see if, you know, they move back to that format later down the road. I think that's definitely something that they should be open to.

Speaker 1: 33:26

But when it comes to the Press Taylor situation, if he is indeed calling the plays and it does look like he is, because again, something just feels off here but if he is indeed calling the plays and you know Doug Peterson is trying to give him this opportunity to become a play caller, or maybe Doug's trying to take less off of his plate or, you know, whatever the case may be, maybe Doug's trying to get Press out there as an offensive head coach or a future head coach. Is what I'm trying to say Ultimately, as the head coach of this team, right, at some point, if this becomes to become a snowballing issue, right, doug Peterson has to take the pilot seat as the head coach and do as best for the team, because as the head coach, your top priority is to do as best for the team and if that's you calling plays, if that's what gives this team the best opportunity to go to the Super Bowl, and you're putting that opportunity off on Press Taylor for whatever reason, then you're doing this team of this service. So we'll see in time, we'll tell. I think Doug will remain patient with Press Taylor if he is calling the plays. And here's why, because of something I mentioned earlier right, and that is what we've seen Mike Caldwell develop into. Last year we wanted to run Mike Caldwell or not necessarily, but a lot of fans wanted to run what might call well out of the building. And now Mike Caldwell is the key factor in, you know, the Jacksonville Jaguars being able to keep these last two games close and it's the key factor of why the Jacksonville Jaguars should be two and all right. So that patients that Doug Peterson showed with a first time defensive coordinator to, by the way, it might call well in 2022. He might be looking at it, as I need to have that same patients with Press Taylor Again. Now that could put the Jaguars in a sink or float situation and you know, I think with offense is a little bit more delicate than it is with defense and, if need be, you know if things aren't going, you know, as playing. Doug does need a step in there and become the play caller, at least for a half or if not the whole game.

Speaker 1: 35:42

Because, again, you're dealing with a young quarterback and you're also dealing with a situation where offense is king in the lead, all right, and offense will make or break you as a team. If you have it, you are a Super Bowl contender. You know you can even argue. If you have that and your defense is, you know, 20 top 20 type of defense, you can make it to the Super Bowl or deepen the playoffs with that. That's just how important offensive football is, and the rules cater to the offense as well. So, um, you know it's such a crucial part of winning football games to the point where I don't know that he can treat offense like he treated the defense of coordinator situation, where it might call well, but you know, time will tell on that.

Speaker 1: 36:29

But again, another thing that might keep press at that role as an offensive coordinator too, is that Doug Peterson can always have that crutch to lean on of saying and this is what they have done the last two weeks right, well, the offensive line didn't block perfectly, which I agree with, you know they they didn't look all that great. Um, and again, going back to what I said last week, the Jacksonville Jaguars missed out on plays and opportunities that you know the right play was called. They just missed out on the opportunity. A lot of that trickle into this week too, with, you know, some of the missed opportunities that Trevor missed. You know whether it was an overthrow or just not taking a shot that was available for him. With the drops, uh, with the penalties. The penalties didn't help. That's another thing that should have went on the bad list here, the penalties. So he'll always have that argument. At least he's had that in the last two games that you know the plays were there to be made.

Speaker 1: 37:30

It was more so the Jacksonville Jaguars hurt themselves than press Taylor did. Now, when it becomes a factor of, you know we obviously had the players, we obviously had the unit. You know penalties weren't that bad Offensive line block decently. Then you can maybe look at press Taylor, but until then I think what Doug Peterson will do is make that argument, which is a valid argument. Um, but still, you know, if it was me I'd be calling the place If I was Doug Peterson, especially with me doing it To the highest level, to the point where I was able to get a team to the Super Bowl in 2017. That's my take on it. I would be calling the place, and this is my thing.

Speaker 1: 38:13

If I'm Doug Peterson, you know I don't make that call in terms of, you know, handing the reins over to press Taylor until I went to Super Bowl, right? So I think that should have been the goal here. It's like you know, press, let me handle that until you know, and you don't have to tell press this, cause you're the head coach. You can do whatever you want, but I will handle this until we went to Super Bowl. And then, once we achieve that, then we could find the next understudy for me, or the next you know many Doug Peterson, or whatever the case may be, which is another thing too, by the way, though, we get caught up. I, and I get caught up in this a lot myself.

Speaker 1: 38:50

Admittedly, I do get caught up in this when I talk about coaching trees and coaching disciples, but we get a lot. We get heavily caught up into this whole element of finding the next you know whoever is, you know, finding the next Andy Reed, which, in this case, we're actually on a on a the path to getting that in Doug Peterson. So, um, but in a lot of cases, when you're trying to make a duplicate copy of the top of the tree, a lot of times if you look at history it doesn't work. They've been looking for the next Bill Belichick for the last what Decade in some change, right, for example, they've tried all of these Bill Belichick disciples. They tried, uh, I think Romeo Cronell learned on the Bill Belichick, um, obviously, bill O'Brien, josh McDaniels how many of those guys have been successful? Right, they've been looking for the next Vic Fangio. You know one of, you know whoever has studied under Vic Fangio and trying to make one of his disciples or his understudy the next Vic Fangio on defense, and it has yet to come into fruition. They tried to take and this is from the Andy Reed tree once again, except for in this case, unlike Doug Peterson, it didn't work. They tried to take Mac Nagy, move him up to a head coach position, and at that with the Chicago Bears, and that wasn't a success. So one thing that, if you're Doug, I hope that he doesn't get too caught up in this into trying to find the next him, because chances are, history says, when you look around the league and trying to pick the next disciple for the top play callers or defensive minds in the. In the case of the defense, a lot of times it does not work out well and you end up with a person that you thought was head coach material getting fired. So we'll see in time, we'll tell you know on the situation, but there's certainly some things that the Jaguars players can clean up offensively that would help press Taylor Still.

Speaker 1: 40:56

Nonetheless, despite that, I guess what I would say is that I'm not sold on them. So we'll see. They have a Houston Texans team that we are more talented than that we should be. I don't know if I would say it's a must win. It would be great to win it because it's a divisional game and we need to bounce back from the Chief's loss. But we have a, you know, a Texas team or Houston Texans team that press Taylor, you know, should be able to bring or bear better results with and the offense. You know, again, they have to do their part. They have to. You know, travel insurance has to make the throws that are there to be made. The receivers have to catch, you know, the balls that are there to be caught. But if that happens, I think we'll be looking at a victory. We'll be looking at a bounce back game and, you know, everybody would then be able to decompress after the performance that we saw from the Kansas City Chief. So, that being said, that's a good place to cut it off right there.

Speaker 1: 41:57

In terms of this episode, looked at three positives and then three negatives. In terms of the Houston Texans, as we all know, they're 0-2. But a team that you know has some pieces on defense. Of course they got a you know young quarterback in Stroud that they're still trying to groom and who is coming off a pretty good game where he threw for 384 yards, had a QB rating of 103.5, no interceptions, two touchdowns. So you know he's got some momentum for him and hopefully the Jaguars can cool him off. The Jaguars defense, which has played well these last two games, can cool him off and, you know, aid the Jacksonville Jaguars to a win here. But, yeah, a pesky Houston Texans team nonetheless.

Speaker 1: 42:43

For the Jacksonville Jaguars, damian Pierce ran through tackles on that defensive side, so that concerns me. Last year when we met him, he ran through tackles like it was paper mache at times and we will never forget that angry run that he put up on us in the first meeting we had. So you know he scares me from that perspective. Cody kind of bragged on their secondary. So you know that's something to monitor, as well as their secondary and they're just their defense overall which has the. You know they're the better unit in terms of the overall players on that unit. So you know, we'll see, time will tell on that. But you know this is a game where the Jacksonville Jaguars are more talented than them, have more experience than them, have the more experienced coached against a rookie coach in D'Amico Ryan's when you compare him to Doug Peterson. So there's that this is a game.

Speaker 1: 43:34

On paper the Jacksonville Jaguars should win but we always put an asterisk by it because it's the Houston Texans and this team. Traditionally, when you look at history and historically they traditionally struggle against this Houston Texans team, albeit now. We did beat them one time last year. That was in that last meeting we had with them where we beat them like 31 to six or something like that. So in our last meeting that's something that we do have to, you know, hang our hat on is that last meeting we had with them. We beat them handily and, you know, even took out the starters at some point because we were at the end of the season trying to, you know, preserve the starters and avoid injuries. So if they could play like that, you know and we're hoping that this Jaguar team comes out pretty angry, especially that offense hangs a 40 burger on them All will be well in the county of Duval and in the city of Jacksonville. So I will end it there.

Speaker 1: 44:33

Once again, I am James Johnson. My cohost is Phil Smith. You can follow me at sportsgrond, underscore done on Twitter. Phil at Phil the Filipino on Twitter. He'll be back joining me next week and hopefully we'll be able to talk about a victory at that point. You can find this podcast on any major podcast outlet, whether that's Apple Music or Apple Podcast. Excuse me, I say that all the time but Apple Podcasts, spotify for our Android users, tunein Stitcher, amazon Music as well. We're on Amazon for those of you who have Alexa devices Also again. Once again, shout out to our sponsor for this podcast, that's SeatGeek. Use our promotion code touchdownjadwars to get 20% off of your first order with SeatGeek. We appreciate them for sponsoring this podcast and keeping the lights on, but, that being said, we'll go ahead and sign out for episode 64. Once again, I am James Johnson and until next time, everybody take care of each other, and I am signing out.