The Jaguars squandered the opportunity for a bounce back game & found themselves on the end of an AFC South blowout at the hands of the Texans, 37-17. It was a poor performance on all three levels and it has left the Jags a 1-2 heading to London.
This week we discuss fan overreaction, how Trent Baalke's team building continues to be an issue, and the overall play on the field this past Sunday.
Touchdown Jaguars Linktree
Download the SeatGeek app & use code " TOUCHDOWNJAGUARS " for $20 off your first SeatGeek order!
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.
The Jaguars squandered the opportunity for a bounce back game & found themselves on the end of an AFC South blowout at the hands of the Texans, 37-17. It was a poor performance on all three levels and it has left the Jags a 1-2 heading to London.
This week we discuss fan overreaction, how Trent Baalke's team building continues to be an issue, and the overall play on the field this past Sunday.
Touchdown Jaguars Linktree
Download the SeatGeek app & use code " TOUCHDOWNJAGUARS " for $20 off your first SeatGeek order!
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.
Welcome to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. I am your cohost, phil Smith, and joining me is your other cohost, james Johnson. And Jay, good to be back here with you this week after I had a weekend off as I was traveling and missed the chief's game, and I appreciate you holding it down, as always. But we are back here today and boy do we have a game to break down for you guys this week. Week three is in the books and the Jaguars are heading in the wrong direction. So, jay, we have plenty to talk about, but nonetheless, it is good to be back here with you. And how are you doing this evening? The second straight non victory Monday.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I could be better after that performance, but nonetheless, man, eventually will have to stop using this excuse. But you know it is still early and I guess you know that's kind of the benefit of having 17 years or 17 game seasons, you know, as opposed to what we used to 16. So it's still early on. The team will get to get away from Jacksonville. Maybe that'll help them from a team building perspective. More on that later, possibly. But yeah, man, glad to be back in the booth with you as a, you know, as a duo. That's the positive to come out of this, and I kicked ass in fantasy, so that's another positive. But yeah, man, as always, we appreciate everybody for listening and rating, commenting, subscribing.
Speaker 2:Check us out touchdown jaguarscom. Again, I need to do a better job against some articles, some new articles up there, but we have articles, old articles, archive episodes, all of that good stuff on there. So check it out and feel free to interact with us on social media too if you want to think a little bit more. Actually, no, I don't want to sign up to be a psychiatrist forget, I said that part. But yeah, feel free to hit us up and talk some football if you want to talk some football and about the game on Twitter at sports ground. Underscore done for me at sportsground At sports ground. Underscore done for me at field. The Filipino for field.
Speaker 1:Jay, I don't want to talk about fantasy football. My team is so bad and you know I'm going to blame myself, but also all these analysts that kept telling me in the preseason Kenny Pickett was going to make this amazing leap this season and he's been terrible. Not to mention the rest of my roster just has not been performing. I mean, I am set to lose now. Granted, I'll just to give you guys a little insight into the touchdown Jaguars fantasy football league.
Speaker 1:I really went crazy with the point sliders this year. We have extremely high scoring games. Just to kind of give you an example, right now I am set to lose, actually, to you, jay, now that I look at it, by over 100 points. I feel like I'm the Denver Broncos here playing the Miami Dolphins. I am about to get waxed by over 100 points just because of how poorly my team has performed. Honestly, even with normal point sliders, jay, you would have definitely blown me out. So fantasy football is not going well for me. This is definitely going to be my worst year yet. To give you guys an idea how it's how it's going for me, just three weeks in I had to pick up Gardner Minshew, so not a great start for myself in fantasy football. But we'll see how the rest of the season goes. But, jay, I don't appreciate you bringing it up.
Speaker 2:No man, you don't have me. I think I'm playing Sarah who just looking at her roster? Oh, I'm playing Boogie. Even worse, great Boogie is up there in the top four, but as of now, boogie would go to the playoffs. Look at, look at my nephew learning from the best right. He actually is ahead of me in the rankings somehow.
Speaker 1:Yeah it only took him four years, so yeah, good for him.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I have Sarah. The reason I remember is because I looked at her roster. I was like this looks like somebody who had the first overall pick, type of roster. I was a little nervous like that meme of the dude, the kid in high school that plays for a high school that is the Patriots. But yeah, I was kind of like that guy in that meme, like I ain't gonna lie, man, I thought she had me in the beginning type of thing. But yeah, I think me and you'll play each other within the next two weeks. So we'll see about that. But yeah, man, it's a weird fantasy season with how you set up the points, man, and it's probably going to get even weirder as we get down to stretching. You know we don't want anybody getting injured, but injuries start playing into effect and you know crazy stuff like that. So we'll see man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we also play two quarterbacks in our league. Defense gets a lot of points as well. So I mean to be fair like I have. I mean after this week I won't, but I have going into week three. I had the fifth most points in the league, so I just wasn't winning so bad match ups. But you know, whatever it was, it's not a great start for me.
Speaker 1:Regardless, as Jay mentioned, you can find the links to all of our content, including the website, social media, everything you need, in the link tree link of this episode. You can also find a link to download that seekie. Take advantage of our promo code touchdown Jaguars for your first seekie purchase. Save yourself some money. Go watch the Jaguars play or, if you don't want to do that, go get tickets for something else like a concert. You know, just treat yourself to $20 saved, a courtesy of us, and it also helps us around here at the touchdown Jaguars podcast.
Speaker 1:But, jay, we're gonna try a little bit of a different format here this week in terms of not doing positives or negatives. We're just gonna talk specific bullet points and it's gonna be positive and negative all mixed in together. So you know, just want to see how that goes. It seems like our conversations kind of just flow naturally anyway. So I'm sure we'll get to everything and you know, if we miss anything, make sure to follow us over on social media because I'm sure we will cover it there.
Speaker 1:But the Jacksonville Jaguars took a tough loss to division rival Houston. Thirty seven to seventeen. Cj Stroud came in, jay, and certainly looked the part of a franchise quarterback, as he had in the first two weeks of the season as well. And you know, obviously we have a lot to talk about. But I want to start with that because, cj Stroud, it seems like Houston has selected the best quarterback In the draft and that certainly bodes not well for our future here in Jacksonville. But I wanted to see what you thought about CJ's performance because, man, that guy is gonna be really, really good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you remember it might have been a text thread, it might have been in Twitter or a bit of both, but you remember when we were going through the draft process it was probably in the text thread at first and then eventually, just like all our other football conversations, they might have leaked in the Twitter. You know, when we were having this conversation me, you, josh and Boogie of the quarterback to take, you know, first in this draft I said it was CJ Stroud. I can remember very clearly when he played Georgia and gave us a run for our money. You know we, low key, should have probably lost that game. They missed the kick at the end of the game.
Speaker 2:So that's what ended up helping us in that process. And then we went on to win the national, our second national. But yeah, you know, stroud just showed up against a very good historically good Georgia defense, by the way which sent more people to the NFL than I can count at the moment. But yeah, I said it, he would be the quarterback I would take first. In that text thread we had, and I can recall when we were in the press box for the draft and we were looking at Houston make all these moves and me and you looked at each other like Houston is on to something, when they got Anderson and Stroud. And then they went on and got Tank Dell too, who also beat up on us today or, excuse me, on Sunday as well. That's Boogie's guy, but they went and got Tank Dell as well and I don't even think that it's a matter of just what they got. And Stroud, who carved us up and was grilling burgers in the pocket.
Speaker 2:But you know, will Anderson has the potential to be very good. You know they have a pretty decent secondary with Nelson and all of them they have. You know, I probably already said it's Anderson, you know, on the other side to be the quarterback of that side of the ball, while CJ Stroud is the quarterback. On the offensive side they have Tank Dell who has been flashing every since training camp and well dating back to before that at the senior bowling flashing in college. He's going to be a problem.
Speaker 2:So just in general, when you look at a class that could be a really dangerous class for the Jacksonville Jack Wars, especially when you have somebody who is not great at scouting like Trent Boogie. So you know that can counter each other or offset each other is their ability to maybe scout and we'll see with them too. It's just one class. They'll have to put more classes together with those fellows that we just mentioned. But if they continue to draft like that and if Trent Boogie is continuing to draft like the Trent Boogie we see draft outside of the Trevor Lawrence class, then eventually they can catch us eventually. But we hope it don't come to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I saw a tweet earlier in the day Will Anderson is third or tied for. He's tied for second in the league for most pass rush wins, tied with with Javon Hargrave, and they only trail Micah Parsons. And remember, leading up to week three Micah Parsons was getting MVP talk. So yeah, will Anderson also going to be very, very good. Also, not really surprised that Dmytro Ryan says kind of hit the ground running Now. Granted, I mean, this is a one and two football team when we talk about Houston, but they didn't play like a one and two football team yesterday. They definitely played like they were the better coached and better prepared team in week three. So not surprising that they have kind of found some early success here. But again, long season, but you can only say that for so much longer.
Speaker 1:As far as the start, jay, I think you can agree that they have to come out of Buffalo. I'm sorry they have to come out of this London trip three and two and obviously you know Atlanta is kind of in a influx right now. Buffalo consistent AFC championship contender. So they have to come out and win these next two games and, like you said, maybe a little bit of time away from Jacksonville will help that. But, jay, wherever you'd like to start, I know you did have everything broken down into positives and negatives, but I mean there's so much to talk about here I'm just going to hand it over to you and see where you want to start, because there is a lot to discuss and a lot of concerns. I think that a lot of people have heading into this London trip. So, wherever you want to start, I just want to hand it off to you Because, again, we could really begin anywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I guess we could start with the offense right, because that's the most important side of the ball and that's what we thought. We thought that was going to be the strongest unit of the two and we could get back on a defense later who might have been a little bit of fools goal, which is why in week one and week two I was saying I was kind of cautiously optimistic about them but not ready to like jump on the wagon just yet. But we'll start with the offense man and me and you talked about this beforehand the first thing I want to address and get off my chest is I'm just baffled by and this is not to say he played this flawless game or anything like that but I'm just baffled by the amount of fingers that could get pointed at Trevor Lawrence or a doubt that could get pointed in Trevor Lawrence direction, after all of the negatives we saw on the field. That wasn't him, or wasn't nearly as much as a, you know, as a negative. I can't even say he was a negative because he made plays that were there to be made. You know. He can't make Calvin Ridley catch that touchdown pass right. He can't make Trent bulky, you know, put more emphasis into getting the right offensive linemen. You know, on this unit he did those. Things are out of his power. But I'm kind of just baffled by how much of the blame fell on Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 2:Now, look that pick. Yeah, probably shouldn't have thrown that, but it was only a matter of time before they jumped on one because it was a lot of quick. You know out type of plays, you know three-step drop type of play. So eventually they were going to jump one. That's not to say that he shouldn't have thrown it, but the linebacker made an athletic play there. But aside from that play, that interception, he did his part. You know we've seen the stats on PFF. He's grading positively, just not having a lot of time to throw the ball down field as he should, and when he's throwing it down field they're not catching it. So I guess I'll hand that off to you in terms of your thoughts of his performance, since he you know he is the most important part of this organization and your thoughts on how they looked around him as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, listen, and I'm not going to sit here and say that someone who was, you know, most likely partaking in some adult beverages, you know, yesterday at the game, is, you know, someone's opinion that should be 100% taken seriously. But in the moment, you know, just hearing it, it was a little frustrating because I don't know who it was, but it's just somebody behind me. I could hear them saying Trevor's not the guy we thought he was, he's not good dude, we should. You know all this kind of crap and just a bunch of nonsense. And again, when you're in that state, as a lot of us that partake in said adult beverages, you sometimes you say stupid things. But also, I know I saw some stupid things over on Twitter, like you're kind of talking about Jay, you know. I know from last year, when I started to doubt Trevor, that I shouldn't do that because there are only so many things that are within his control. Now are there some decision making that maybe still needs to be addressed? Sure, we're talking about a third year quarterback here, but he is still making some incredible throws that I literally look over to Eric while we're watching the game. I'm like how in the hell did he do that. So Trevor is not the problem.
Speaker 1:I think again, it was our buddy Troll Will talked about, I think he has he's second in PFF as far as his passer rating goes. And you know, again, as we talk about all the time, probably every week, jay, whether or not you believe in PFF is another conversation for another day, but still he's right up there. He's only trailing to Atang of Aloha, I believe, when Calvin Ridley is dropping passes and Christian Kirk is dropping passes and Evan Ingram is not getting the blocking that he needs. I mean, we got to get Evan Ingram involved more. That's a whole another talking point, but Trev is not the problem.
Speaker 1:You guys, and if you think that this is something that needs to be addressed, or if Trevor needs to be replaced, I implore you to go look at the quarterback play for 20 of the other teams in this league. Right, you guys want Desmond Ritter as your quarterback? Do you want Justin Fields, who was almost a possibility at some point? Do you want Zach Wilson to be your quarterback? Okay, so before you send out some of these tweets that state that Trevor is the problem and he needs to go, maybe watch some of the other quarterback play around the league and then come back, and if you still have that opinion, we'll know that you cannot be trusted. That's, that's how I feel, jay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I'm with you on that man, but, um, yeah, in terms of the other things that went on on the field Another thing that I wanted to mention while we're on the offensive side of the ball I honestly don't think press Taylor is one of the the worst issues on this team. Now is he a issue for the team? A little bit, yes, I do agree, but I think the most important point when you look at press Taylor is that he's not again, he's not the best play caller in that staff and, at the end of the day, we all know who is. That's Doug Peterson. That being said, doug Peterson has done it at a level so high that it won him a Super Bowl ring and he should be calling the place for that ring. That reason because, as I said last week, if you're a Super Bowl Calibre play caller and you're not calling the place for this team, then you're doing this team of this service. Not only are you doing them a disservice for your ability, from your ability standpoint, but you're also the head coach. You know. So you have to be the guy for this team, not necessarily saying all head coaches should call plays that's not what I'm saying but when you do it as good as Doug Peterson and you handed you handed off to somebody who doesn't have any head coaching experience. You know, and it's a, you know, relatively young guy. Now I get exact Taylor, his brother, press Taylor's brother is pretty good at his job to and like coaching runs in their family.
Speaker 2:But me and you were talking about this too, phil is even if you, you know, saw press as your, basically as a disciple for you, right, you could argue that press Taylor might not even be the best play caller and we don't know this for sure yet but you can argue he might not be the second best play caller in that staff. When you look at Mike McCoy I brought this up when you look at Mike McCoy, who was a former head coach, like Doug and also Coach Phillip Rivers, you look at that situation and say like, why not maybe even Mike McCoy? I know that. You know press Taylor has been with Doug Peterson for a long time, dating back to their time. You know with the Eagles. But why not Mike McCoy, another former head coach? You know somebody who knows Trevor Lawrence like the back of his hand why not him?
Speaker 2:But I said all of that to say this no, press Taylor is not the worst issue on that team. There have been times where he's called the right plays and they've been brought back by a flag or there's a now screen that didn't get blocked as you mentioned earlier Phil a now screen that it didn't block properly for Evan Ingram on fourth and one that he could have went up the field for 10, 15, 20 yards. It's a lot of those plays that have hurt press Taylor and if they they went his way and the play was made as they they were supposed to be made, calvin really catches that touchdown. The Evan Ingram now screen, the third down that they converted this Sunday against the Texas that got brought back because of a brand and sure you know penalty. I think it was hands to the face if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2:Correct me if I'm wrong somebody. But if those plays are made, we're having a whole different conversation here and saying that you know press Taylor is not that bad at his job. Is he as good as Doug? No, but he is certainly. In my opinion, the calls that have been made, he's done enough For the Jacksonville Jaguars to win and for it's not to be pointing the finger at him as one of the top issues on this team but nonetheless, that's probably Doug's biggest mistake so far in terms of his you know, his short tenure with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know this kind of happened with Mike Caldwell last year as well and yeah, I mean, and that continues to happen because the defense is struggling, but that's we can talk about that later. But you know it's easy to to blame the coordinator right, especially in this instance because, like you said, they're probably to. Well, there's definitely at least one and probably two better play callers on this staff right now and when the team comes out and especially in the preseason, looks the way that it does, you bring in a guy like Calvin Rindley. You add weapons like tank bigsby Granted Parker Washington hasn't seen the field yet. Elijah cooks flashed I haven't seen him yet.
Speaker 1:You add the weapons to the offense and Everybody and Luke Fortner talked about this right, everybody expects you to be a top 10 offense in the league and for your quarterback to make these incredible strides. You get two games within the division out of your first three that are, I Wouldn't say gimmies, because again, any given Sunday and also divisional games are tough, but two games people expect you to win and you also get an opportunity to make a statement Against the Kansas City Chiefs and to out of those three games, you fall flat on your face. Then this is what's going to happen early on. I've been doing this podcast with you long enough, james, to know that you just have to wait it out and see. And Last year is the perfect example of that.
Speaker 1:Now listen, eric and I, yesterday we had a concert to go to down in Orlando and we told ourselves, okay, if the Jaguars are up, you know three scores in the third quarter, we're gonna leave a little bit early. But obviously it was the exact opposite. We said, okay, if the Jaguar score in, this drive will stick around and you know we'll see what happens. Because of that belief from last year, because of what happened, you know Chargers, ravens, cowboys, countless other examples of the team rallying and Coming back from what seemed like unbeatable odds. That's why we stuck around a little bit longer than we expected to yesterday. But when the expectations are tied to the team I mean, j, you and I couldn't put this team in the Super Bowl because of the pass rush but when people in town are probably the most excited they've ever been about the team, then you're gonna get these overall reactions, because I think people are and understandably so Expecting more and we're just not getting that right now.
Speaker 2:And to add on to the dub Peterson thing as well, another reason real quick feel why he should have been calling the plays from the jump is because he knows better than anybody how to probably distribute the wealth the best and Get that offense flowing like a well oil machine the fastest. Because a lot of things, a lot of times, what you'll see with a young play caller, if they have that many weapons, they just don't know how to utilize them. And we kind of saw that that was one of the issues with press. Again, I think he did a good enough job to the point where you know we should have won the games that we should have won. But that being said, though, when you look at Young play callers and giving them that abundance of riches, you know that could Put the the you know the play caller, the, the offensive coordinator, in a situation where you know he's not sure what to do because you know this guy's not getting the ball and that guy's not getting the ball. So that was another reason that just popped in my head of why they probably should have let Doug do this from the beginning, hopefully heading for it. They will Looking back at it in hindsight, man.
Speaker 2:It looks like this is kind of what people talked about with Doug in Philadelphia, right, and I can remember I think I don't want to, you know, tell a fib on them, but I think it was Glenn Irby of the Eagles wire who I had on a podcast I think it was last year or a year before last but I can remember him and others have said this to on Twitter saying right, doug is a Pretty great offensive mind.
Speaker 2:The only thing he has to worry about is not getting in trouble when it comes to Holding on or or giving his assistance Way more power than they should, or something along the lines.
Speaker 2:I'm just paraphrasing there. And now I see what they're talking about in terms of Doug trust his core, at which you should. You know you shouldn't have anybody on your staff that you don't trust, but I guess what they were getting at is that Doug trust his coordinators a little too much. And then going back to what you were saying about the Excitement at the expectations, yeah, I mean like doing what they did last year will make the expectations high, will make you know the expectations for you know the following year a little bit exciting, but at the end of the day, is on the team to go out there and put together the performance and, you know, match their Abilities from last year and just weed out all of the distractions or whatever the case may be, to play to the same level they were playing on the previous year. So we'll see if they can get back to that in the UK.
Speaker 1:Well, j, I'd be remiss if we went any longer before discussing the kickoff return by Andrew Beck, the fullback, I think, at this time when this play happened. What was the score here? 17 10, about four minutes left in the third quarter. And Listen, I understand why the fan base had this infatuation with Dewey Wingard last year. Right, look, I mean, it was always the Jags. All his energy, I'll, you know, run through a brick wall for Doug Peterson or I would die for Doug Peterson, whatever it was. You know, I totally get that in, even, and I even let go of the fact that just a few Months prior, everyone was ready to Jettison Andrew Wingard into the Sun. Okay, you need guys like that to shore up your roster and and bring morale to the team, and sometimes it's good to just have a fan favorite on the team, right, okay, we get that. What happened?
Speaker 1:And J, I don't think, really think people are really were really over exaggerating on Twitter what happened. That was one of the most embarrassing plays I think I've seen in Jaguar history and we've been going to games our entire lives, right, a Lot of us have been fans for the, the teams entire existence and there are very few plays that come to mind, that I can think of that were more embarrassing. Then that kickoff return and listen, you broke down special teams for me prior to getting started and it was just a complete lack of execution from top to bottom by the special teams there. But I single out Dewey because when you see the lack of effort on that play, I mean hell, brandon McManus almost tackled him, almost tackled the full back and you see Dewey basically doing a light jog is incredibly frustrating and Listen, what's going on with the team is not all on him.
Speaker 1:But I'm just kind of baffled at the continued romanticization of of Andrew Winger, because he came up with a cool catchphrase and Is a funny guy. Listen, dewey Winger, it is a person, is seems great. You know, I haven't met him personally as a football player. He's not good. So Just talk about that play in general, I guess, and and how it made you feel and and what exactly went wrong. You know, as you kind of explained to me before we got started here tonight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so before getting on Dewey, like the first thing that you know that.
Speaker 2:That stood out to me and the announcers went straight to it when they saw the like, the all 22 of it. You know the overhead of it, because a lot of things you can't see on the like, the regular view that they show the game on a majority of the time. But when you look at it from the like, the overhead, and saw like the feeling, this entirety, they pointed right to it. And you know this is something like I learned at an early age because I played a, you know, a lot of special teams in high school and got my share being cussed out, and all of that, of course, for special team situations. But yeah, like that, in a nutshell, to me that play was a lack of fundamentals and you know, for a fullback, to be able to get one on them definitely shows how much of a lack of fundamentals it was. But in the overhead you can see like way too many guys got bogged down into one wall. That is a disaster waiting to happen in special teams. Because what you're looking at at that point, as I was explaining to you, like before the podcast, is, you know, in special teams is. You know so much. I mean well in general and football in general, but there's so much football feel out there for somebody to take advantage of. If you know people get misplaced and to have Multiple people in one spot on a special teams return is probably a disaster waiting to happen, because you got a lot of feel with a lot of bodies that ain't there to cover it basically, and that's what happened. A lot of people got bogged down into like one wall. It appears. One of the announcers even mentioned that Trey Herndon, who's supposed to like be the safety valve as well again, something I would know about Shoutouts to coach playlock for teaching me about this back in the day. But yeah, you have a safety valve on special teams who, it appears Trey might have gotten a little too sucked in into the, into the mix as well and you kind of want to stay back a little bit, kind of be a little reserved, if you will, because you kind of like one of the last lines of defense, or if not even like the last line of defense, one of the, the last lines of defense that has speed, because you don't want to bank on your kicker or anybody like that, like to, or a linebacker or anything like that, to have to chase down somebody or you know, whatever the case may be. So that was another key thing, which that Kudos to the announcers. They did point that out.
Speaker 2:I've made my share of mistakes of getting too bogged down into the mix as the safety valve to. When I learned at a early age that you want to, you kind of want to be reserved and stay back, so that was another mistake. I think I can't remember who it was, but the first person to touch the ball carrier might have been Brent and strange. Another you know kind of lack of fundamentals that went on In that situation was Brent and strange, or whoever it was that tackled them first, came in full freaking speed and we all know that you have to break down when it comes to hitting the ball carrier. You have to break down and basically the fundamentals of tackling boils down to this feeling, the nutshell in its simplest form In most cases you want to make as much body to body contact with a person as you can, as opposed to arm contact.
Speaker 2:Arm tackles get broken all the time and NFL All right. And the reason for that is because when you factor in your momentum and you factor in the momentum of the player you're tackling, you're not going to be able to bring them down with an arm, and somebody I don't know I think it was Brent and strange came in at full speed, didn't break down. And what I mean by break down is slowing your speed so you can get as good of a body to body tackle on a player as possible, but came in full speed. And this might bring back some memories, because we've seen this before right. Prime example Caleb on chase sign coming in on block on Teddy Bridgewater in the preseason. Mr Tackle completely because he didn't break down. That's a prime example of what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:And yeah, that being said, when you factor in again I think it was Brent and strange momentum with the momentum of the full back, arm tackle isn't going to cut it and that was the first miss tackle on that whole debacle of a play. So that was another, like another red flag in terms of all of the things that you can look at on a field that was just going fundamentally wrong. That's how you get in a situation where a full back is able to take one back on you. It's just a lack of like pure fundamentals that you learn in high school. And then, as you pointed out, you know, that was one of the things I mentioned when we first started putting together the script, and what we were going to talk about was do we wing guards effort? And to me and I guess I'm not alone on this, because you obviously, you know you brought it up first before me do we wing guards effort on that play did not look and shout outs to you know Stodge as well, who you know. He kind of mentioned it in our thread as well.
Speaker 2:But you look at his effort on that play and, yeah, sure, maybe he wouldn't have caught the full back, maybe he could have, but his effort in that play, right, there was just like that. That's the kind of effort that I'm not even a coach, but that's the kind of effort it feels like. And somebody correct me if I'm wrong, you know if I'm wrong on this if do we wing guard was running more than three quarter speed, correct me if I'm wrong on this. But you know, that's the kind of effort that a driver, coach or up the wall man like, and I'm sure it did with that staff as well. But then again, I don't know, but that's the kind of effort that a driver coach up the wall man, like you know, even if you can't get the angle, even if you don't think you can, you know catch him, you know you gotta, as a special teams and this is just hitting me now feel a special teams captain, by the way, who, as I mentioned you know beforehand when we put together the script, the script, not just a special teams captain, feel not showing the effort that you would like, but also a player who just told us last year he run through a wall for Doug Peterson.
Speaker 2:Well, you certainly didn't look like you were giving Doug Peterson you all in that play and that's just me. That's how I saw it again. Again, none against the man personally. The man can play. He has more football ability than I have in my body, for sure. But that was something that stood out to me that I wanted to bring up on this podcast. I just want to make sure it's not like just me. It was I see in things, but I definitely think the effort could have been better and you know you would like to see better out of the special teams captain on that particular play.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know some people were also calling out Andre Sisko on that as well. I'm as far as his effort, but I mean just from top to bottom a complete breakdown when it came to execution and, like I said, pretty embarrassing moment for the team as the day just continued to get worse. I mean it was another incredibly hot day. It was funny because we were talking about if this game had taken place on Saturday. For those of us that live in town it would have been perfect. It would have been a beautiful day of football. But Sunday it was just. You know, we were, I guess, overdue for one of those extremely hot days again, and that's what happened. So it didn't contribute to everybody's mood. There was also a guy in my section that was getting on to people for booing as well. And listen, if I'm paying my X amount of dollars for my season tickets, I'm going to boo if I want to. I just wanted to get that out of the way as well, and everyone else has the right to boo, cheer whatever they want to do. So don't try and police that if you find yourself doing that in whatever section you are sitting in. But that's neither here nor there.
Speaker 1:Jay, I want to kind of get into also the pass rush or the lack thereof. That continues to be a point of contention for the team. You know, and this is something that we, like I said I just mentioned a little bit earlier, it's prevented us from saying that this team could get to the Super Bowl and it continues to rear its ugly head. You know, I know Josh Allen filled up the stats sheet week one against Indianapolis, but you know we need to kind of go back and look at those. Those seem kind of at least a couple of them seem like empty sacks as far as just Anthony Richardson playing his very first NFL game.
Speaker 1:What's going on here as far, not even just the pass rush, but also defensively. You know everyone talks about loves to throw out the bulky masterclass, bulky masterclass, all that nonsense, you know we keep hearing, listen. We have acknowledged on this podcast how great of a draft class a couple of years ago might turn out to be and this, can you know, continues to play pretty well for the most part. But we had opportunities to bring in veteran pass rushers during the preseason or in the offseason whether it be trade rumors or veteran signings and they didn't happen right. They were confident that what they had was going to work, and it is simply not working. So, whether it be pass rush or just defensive, general Jay, I wanted to get your feelings on how things are going and what you're seeing out there three weeks in, because what we have right now doesn't seem like it's going to work. The team is going to make a deep playoff run.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, you know what it boils down to is, you know, Trent bulky, and we said this when you know he drafted Trayvon Walker who, again, I'm a Georgia fan. So you know I like Trayvon Walker as a player. But, as we said then and I would have to, you know, dig up the episode again. But if I get recalled, like my, you know, my biggest thing was like he's extremely raw, you know, and when you're dealing with a number one overall pick, sometimes that's not the route to go and we, you know we might be seeing that now and you know a lot of people would say, you know they need to put them, you know, in a more natural position. You know for himself as well. So you know there's that. But, that being said, you know that was a big gamble there. That you know, again, that if you had a owner that knew what they were looking at, they have to look at them and say, like, you know, like that could lose you your job. You know like, and you know a lot of people go say, well, you know, the year before he got Trevor Lawrence in an immaculate draft class. Well, again, the thing about it with the Trevor Lawrence draft class, everybody knew, and their mama knew, what to do with the first overall pick. It wasn't rocket science, you know. It wasn't this whole you know handbook on what you should do with the first overall pick, especially in a deep class which you know. That kind of helped them. After getting Trevor Lawrence, you got a deep class and you got the first pick in every round after that, pretty much every round after that. So that kind of helped them. But aside from that class and I've always felt this way, that one class is really keeping Trent Baalke afloat is what's keeping his job in there. And you know the free agency class he had last year to his help to. So don't want to discredit him for that, but you know, as I said, man shout outs to Billy for pulling up this tweet that I tweeted out some months ago, I think.
Speaker 2:But for the Jacksonville Jaguars to take the approach that they did this offseason at the past Russian position, not paying Arden Key right and letting the Tennessee Titans get him and not doing as much, as I mean the only thing that really did was got Yusuf Dula who, admittedly, in my predictions and this is what we do here at this podcast we don't, you know, we don't shy away from when we're wrong and we'll admit when we're wrong. I thought you know he was the guy that could maybe get the Jaguars eight sacks this year, maybe kind of replicate what James Houston did, but so far, you know, that's not the case. Again, as early as we've said a lot in this podcast, that's not been the case. But still for you to you know, think, or just put as little as that of what fifth round pick, fourth round pick, into this pass rush after losing Arden Key, after you know what the situation is with the one smooth, which is another point I want to bring up to, by the way, if Trent Baalke is sitting here hinging on the one smooth, who's coming off a tourney kill killies to be the force that this team needs to, you know, turn things around in terms of a pass rush, then he's putting a lot of chips into a situation that might not go that well for him.
Speaker 2:And this is not a knock on the one smooth, by the way, because I love him, Great player, by the way but what I'm saying is he's coming off an injury that you just don't really know what you're going to get. Simply put, achilles injuries are more unpredictable than ACL injuries Like now. Acl injuries you can almost say like a player in most cases will come back within you know it'll be that one year when they come back and then a year after they're almost back to themselves with Achilles injury. You just don't know. So if I hope Trent Baalke isn't looking at it as that's the savior or that's the answer as much as I like the ones smooth, but he's coming off a catastrophic or I don't want to say catastrophic we don't know how he'll come back, but an injury that hit or miss in terms of predicting it.
Speaker 2:But for them to like put as little as they did into the past rush, and now Doug is out there and a lot of you know things that have happened these last three weeks falls on Doug too. But have Doug out there, you know, basically speechless in terms of what they need to do in terms of fixing this past rush. We all know what it. I know exactly why Doug was speechless. Let's not overthink this. It's because Trent Baalke didn't give him the resources he needed at the past rush or position.
Speaker 2:That part is not Doug's fault. There's some other things that's Doug's fault, but that part is not Doug's fault and he can't say that. You know he can't say you know Trent didn't do enough. You know Trent lost art and key and then you know he can't say that a good coach wouldn't do that.
Speaker 2:But that's what this boils down to in terms of that past rush is, you know, they should have put a lot more effort into fixing it, whether it was getting what. You still can maybe do this again, the Neil Hunter trading for somebody. But you know, come this trade deadline, eyes need to be on Trent Baalke to fix that Because again albeit we've lost two games that we should not have we could be in a position come November where we're in it and all we need is that past rush and all the eyes need to be on Trent Baalke to fix it because of his lack of ability or his willingness to fix it in the off season. But that's what this boils down to is a terrible offseason in terms of fixing the second most important position on the field.
Speaker 1:Right, you know, you're seeing exactly what we were concerned about play out right in front of your eyes. You know, I think a lot of people were again in the moment a little optimistic about what we're going to get out of Josh Allen. But again, if you go back and kind of look at that tape not necessarily as much Josh Allen as it is Anthony Richardson he still might be the most concerned and is actually the most consistent pass rush you got. But with Trayvon Walker not developing the way that you want him to. Yeah, like you said, jay, those are decisions that should get people fired, that those are decisions that should have people, you know, looking for work.
Speaker 1:And listen, we have been adamant defenders of Trayvon Walker and believers in Trayvon Walker. But you know a conversation needs to be had. And listen, we're not saying that Aidan Hutchinson would fix everything here right now. That's not going to be the case either. But in a draft where there was no clear cut, number one you rely on a general manager and a staff that knows what they are looking at. You know and listen, it would have been really hard to. I think people in the moment may have been hard for people to justify taking a sauce gardener at number one, taking, you know, a defensive back. But when you look at that class, there may have been positions they could have gone to or players they could have gone with. That would be better benefiting the team right now. Go ahead, jay.
Speaker 2:Well now, one thing I will say about Josh Allen. I don't know that he's like the answer, but one thing I will say to is he's kind of battling the shoulder injury to like where he landed hard on his shoulder, not Sunday but the Sunday before, and when I, when I saw that you know how he landed, I was like, oh man, like that, you know, that might cause most people to be out for some weeks. So I don't know if Josh Allen is I mean, he was obviously on the injury report is 100%. But you know, even you know that being said, even if you think Josh Allen was going to play like to his potential, to his 100% potential, that still shouldn't have stopped them from fixing that pass for us, your position, or putting more into it, especially when you look at, like, what's behind them. You know that would that should have been a concern as well.
Speaker 2:Not just you know starters, but what about you know your second string guys? What about Kayla one? Chase on should not be past Russia, number three on his team and again, like we're not taking personal shots at these people, kayla one probably is a good person, but you know, when it comes to his, his ability on the field. How many rosters is he on as the third? How many top tier rosters is he on as the third pass for us? And you know the fact that you know Trent bulky thought that was okay is extremely concerning. You better believe again. All eyes should be on him come this trade deadline to do something that he's never done and possibly put in some resources that he's never done. He's going to have to be untrend bulky like come to trade that line if he wants to fix that pass for us. That's even if it's an offer out there that he could take advantage of. We'll see in time.
Speaker 1:we'll tell yeah we mentioned that in our season preview episode. You know, something we have to monitor as the trade deadline gets a little bit closer and closer every week, it's clear that we need some assistance and we'll see if bulky has a masterclass that you guys like to talk about up his sleeve, you know, puts the everyone loses their mind because he puts a clown on his desk or whatever, and you guys don't remember that just a few short years ago we were calling for his job. So I don't know, I don't get it, man, but anyway, jay, the other thing I want to talk about here is we kind of very briefly discussed it as far as when we're talking about Trevor, you know what are they going to do when it comes to these drops? I mean, calvin really leads the league in drops. I think I saw Christian Kirk is five or six. I posed this question to Eric on Sunday on our way home from the game and I wanted to run it by you.
Speaker 1:Do you think there is a and I guess I kind of touched on this in week one two because of the lack of targets for Christian Kirk or the lack of ability to get him involved?
Speaker 1:Do you feel like this offense is pressing too hard to get Calvin going early on, to the point that it is becoming detrimental to the remainder of the offense. I mean, again, we didn't see Evan Ingram really getting involved more until the second half and he is clearly one of the best skill position players that we have. I mean, yeah, he had the one drop yesterday but snagging literally everything that went his way and also getting yards after the catch. We saw Christian Kirk obviously have a big game against Kansas City, but he also had the touchdown yesterday. Do you feel like they're maybe trying to force the ball to Calvin a little bit? I mean, we've seen even instances this season where other receivers are running wide open and Trevor is throwing the ball up to Calvin and some 50-50 opportunities for him. So I just want to get your take on the drops, but also you know that question that I posed to our buddy Eric on Sunday and see what you think.
Speaker 2:First of all, I don't like the term our buddy because I don't like Eric young too, that's fair.
Speaker 1:Not even my buddy either, so that's fair.
Speaker 2:No man. We got to get Eric back on man. He makes the podcast a lot more lively when he's here. Shout out to Eric. That's a good question.
Speaker 2:Actually, with the drops, I would say this like I think drops are something, for the most part, a lot of teams suffer from, but I think what's hurting the JR is the most is that they're having drops in the most crucial moments, right Touchdown drops, and not just this year. We've seen it previously and they're having, you know, crucial fumbles as well. It's not just drops to like. You know, agnew can't hold on to the ball and it might be because he's not a natural receiver what Agnew with the fumbles as well. But they're coming at the most crucial moments, key third downs that need to be converted, key momentum shifters and I saw you tweet about you know, like momentum shift type of plays. You know Calvin really catches that touchdown. It's no telling what kind of energy that injects into that. That offense is on right, but I don't think they are necessarily going to him. I, you know and I could be wrong on this going to him too much, because when they've gone to him it's been in situations that are supposed to be game changes, since situations or momentum situations, again on key third downs, where you know he was open and you know in one case it was Brandon Scherft that had a penalty, that called it back. That wasn't necessarily the wrong play to go to Calvin, really. There they converted but Brandon Scherft didn't do his thing, you know going to him for that touchdown Again I keep bringing that up where he dropped it. So it's not like as if they're going to him and failing when they go to him. So that's why I kind of hesitate to say like they're going to him too much.
Speaker 2:But I will say this, and this kind of goes back what we said with Press Taylor too as well If you were going to have that many weapons on offense, it would have been better to have Doug Peterson be the primary play caller, if not the you know flat out play caller for this team from the jump, because he probably understands a little bit better that, hey, we don't have to necessarily go to Calvin on this place.
Speaker 2:Plenty of other options out there Travis, etn, evan Ingram, christian Kirk. So I think that's what kind of has caused that question of do they go to Calvin a little bit too much? You have a young play caller, impress Taylor, who probably has it in his mind. Like I got to get this guy to ball as much as possible when they, you know, had Doug I guess is how I would put it had Doug started being a primary play caller from week one. I don't even think that'll be a question, because I think like they would have been able to distribute the ball a little bit better than they, you know, have as of lately.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know. I also want to go back to what you said. You know, Tramul Agnew, I think you said I saw he's now had four fumbles in his last five games, something along those lines. And then you know, I think that's part of the reason you're bringing a guy like a Parker Washington, who is a more natural offensive weapon and a receiver, but he has been inactive thus far. So, you know, you're seeing those drops and, jay, I got to tell you and I'm sure you noticed this as well Look, calvin really dropped.
Speaker 1:And then the following field goal miss by Brandon McManus sets us tone for the whole game. You know, like you said, who knows how things could have gone the rest of the day if they had just scored in that drive. But they didn't, and the rest is history as Houston really laid into them. You know, in a day that was, I know, frustrating for a lot of people watching, but also those of us in attendance that are just extremely uncomfortable in that heat and those September games, man, I'm getting to the point where it's getting more and more difficult to sit through those games, not only because of the product in the field, but just because of the environment, as far as the weather and everything like that. So I know you had something to add. Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, phil, I was about to say I bet you you want that roof now. I bet you, you want that roof now I'll take a so far roof right now.
Speaker 1:You know what? You're absolutely right. Give me the so far. I don't. I don't care, man it is. It is tough out there. I'm glad the next one isn't until October. Hopefully it's a little bit cooler.
Speaker 2:Right, right, no, I get where you're coming from because you know I'm the one who, the leading force in the, build a dome and not, you know, a canopy. But yeah, like at this point, I think everybody's at the point now where it's like, ok, maybe we won't. You know, we won't have to have a dome, we just want a roof over our head.
Speaker 1:Jay, we, we were creeping up here over an hour or anything else you want to mention. Obviously they have the Atlanta Falcons next and then the Buffalo Bills. As they'll make a, they'll make London their home for the next couple of weeks. As we, we have to get up. I mean, listen, the one thing that's good about them playing early these next couple of weeks is that you get your the rest. You know you get it out of the way and you can do whatever else you want for the rest of the day. You go have some brunch, you take a nap and then the rest of your Sunday is open to watch Red Zone or wherever it is you want to do. But, jay, do you want to anything else you want to mention on this episode before we move on and start focusing on Atlanta?
Speaker 2:No man, Just Calvin Ridley. Revenge game, baby. So there we go. If that can get Calvin flowing back in the right direction. Also, I mean, we get to, you know, watch a Toy Story game again, as we kind of talk about before, so I forgot about that. Yeah, it'll be fine. Yeah, we'll start the next episode with you. Got a friend in me. Please don't sue us, disney.
Speaker 1:Yeah no, I don't think we can afford that. We need more people to use our promo code and then maybe we can. We can use the Randy Travis, Maybe just maybe right right.
Speaker 2:But yeah man, this was a fun episode again. Man, the team does have the ability to get themselves out of this, so that's the good news. But it's on them to seize the opportunity of getting away, you know, from America and having a team building two weeks down there in the UK.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you this though, jay, this will. This will wrap up the episode. To go back to what I was saying in the beginning, if they don't win these next two games, is, I mean, in granted? We saw them go on a run last year, but is it a wrap on the season? If they come out of this thing either one and four or, I guess, two and three, would be a little bit better. But if you come out of London and you're one and four, two and three, I mean, how are you feeling?
Speaker 2:Not necessarily, and I honestly don't like the chances to win the bills game. I do think the bills having to travel to there while the Jaguars have been there for a week could help. We'll see. I mean, then again, we beat a bills team under Urban Meyer that we had no business beating, so you never know what you're getting with the bills like.
Speaker 1:Josh Allen loves to play.
Speaker 2:Josh Allen, so, yeah, yeah, so you never know, but I wouldn't say no, they're out of it, because this division is just terrible. I think the Titans lost again, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they got blown out by the brown.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the Colts have to come to Jacksonville. We all know the Colts can't play in Jacksonville, just like we can't beat the Texans in Jacksonville. So you know there's that. So, no, I don't, I don't want to say like they definitely need to win one of the two. For sure they win two of them. Then like that, you know that obviously is a good thing. But, yeah, I wouldn't say the sky is falling after that. But they do really have to turn it on. If they do lose to the bills and beat the Falcons, they do have to like kind of treat treated from that point on like they did last year, and just kind of win out or win as many as possible to, you know, throughout the rest of the season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, these next couple of weeks are going to be big and you know you only get 17 shots, as they as they say, but we will be watching intently and hope that they can turn things around over the overseas. So, jay, another great episode, as you mentioned. It was good to be back here with you and getting this episode done here together, but we want to thank you all for checking us out. As a reminder, everything you need for the podcast is in the link tree link of the show notes, so you will find a link to the website, all of our social media pages. We are most active over on our Twitter page throughout the entire week.
Speaker 1:Jay is constantly breaking down quotes from pressers as well, as you know, film and everything like that. We get the status updates for, you know, injury reports and all that stuff through the, through our Twitter pages as well, so make sure you follow us over there. And one more reminder you can use that promo code Touchdown Jaguars at SeatGeek. Save $20 on your very first purchase with them and we very much appreciate it. And then maybe you'll hear Toy Story sound bites on the podcast one day. But everybody, thanks so much for joining us this week. As for my co-host, james Johnson. I am Phil Smith. Don't forget to tune in Touchdown Jaguars for every Jaguar Touchdown. See you next week.