Your Jacksonville Jaguars are now in front of the AFC South after defeating the Indianapolis Colts in a Week 6 divisional showdown. Jay dissected the keys that led the Jags to their first win of the season, starting with the performance of Travis Etienne. He also discussed the under-the-radar day that Anton Harrison had as he led the Jags with the highest PFF grade on offense.
After examining the offense's performance, Jay concluded the podcast on an even higher note by looking at the defense, which led the way. The unit snagged three picks from Gardner Minshew thanks to the efforts of the secondary (most notably Darius Williams, Andre Cisco, and Rayshawn Jenkins) and Josh Allen.
All this and more in episode 68 of "Touchdown Jaguars!".
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.
Your Jacksonville Jaguars are now in front of the AFC South after defeating the Indianapolis Colts in a Week 6 divisional showdown. Jay dissected the keys that led the Jags to their first win of the season, starting with the performance of Travis Etienne. He also discussed the under-the-radar day that Anton Harrison had as he led the Jags with the highest PFF grade on offense.
After examining the offense's performance, Jay concluded the podcast on an even higher note by looking at the defense, which led the way. The unit snagged three picks from Gardner Minshew thanks to the efforts of the secondary (most notably Darius Williams, Andre Cisco, and Rayshawn Jenkins) and Josh Allen.
All this and more in episode 68 of "Touchdown Jaguars!".
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. Here's your host, james Johnson, and Bill Smith. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, good people of Duval County and Jaguars fans around the world, welcome to episode 68. If my math is right, here of Touchdown Jaguars, I am your host one half of your hosting panel here, at least, james Johnson, ryan Soto for this episode. Shout out to Phil, who we beat back on episode 69. He's been rather busy with the wait for it pod, so I told him. You know, as always, fear not, my man, I can handle a solo episode. You do your thing over there with Eric. Shout out to Eric Serner as well. But we are here for another victory episode. I don't want to say victory Monday, because I am recording this on a Tuesday, burning the late night oil, as we say. So excuse me if I sound a little tired on this one, and then also excuse me if I make this one a little bit shorter than usual. It's been a busy week for me as well Now. So just wrapped up doing a podcast with BS and beer media who we talked about.
Speaker 1:The Jags and Saints upcoming matchup. As you all know, the Jaguars will be taking on the New Orleans Saints in New Orleans, in the Bayou baby, as they said today on today's Jaguars YouTube content video or the Jaguars video before they went to the practice field today. But we'll be taking on the New Orleans Saints for our first primetime game of three, if I'm not mistaken, so we'll get a little bit of national exposure on Thursday night football on Amazon there, on Amazon TV. So, that being said, should be a fun game coming up. Hopefully the injury report looks a little bit better than it did, tomorrow being Wednesday. Of course the big question mark, which we'll get into this later, is the status of Trevor Lawrence, which it looks like he's trending upwards just looking at all of the news that came from the building itself today. But time will tell on that. But we are here for a victory episode.
Speaker 1:We are coming off a second win on week six here, and when I say a second win I mean a second one against the Indianapolis Colts, which we acquired on week six, as we defeated the Colts by a score of 37 to 20 at home for our first home victory, at least at TIA Bankfield or, excuse me, I'm still saying that Everbank Field, in a game where the Jaguars got contributions out of all three sides of the ball, despite how the ending left a little bit to be desired, which we'll get into that. But overall, you know there were some good things to come out of the game and the Jaguar showed their dominance against backup quarterback Gardner miss you. As we all know, anthony Richardson soon to be on IR, it looks like, according to the reports, as he's dealing with, I think it's a shoulder issue. So the Jaguars looked for the most part, for 75 percent of the game or maybe a little bit more look like they should against a backup quarterback. And Gardner miss you was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguar, so he got quite the homecoming, if you will, going up against Trevor Lawrence who eventually replaced him as the starter of the Jacksonville Jaguars. So we'll talk about the game.
Speaker 1:As usual, I always say that I want to make these podcasts shorter when it's just me, especially when we running on fumes right now and being a little tired. But who knows, I might get into this thing and it might go on a little bit longer than usual. But my plan is to try and make this close, as close to 30 minutes as I can. Time will tell on that. But before we get into the actual analysis of the game itself, the Jaguars victory, who are now four and two and now hold sold on soul ownership of the number one spot in the AFC South.
Speaker 1:But before we get into that, of course we have to plug our handles. You can follow me at sportsground underscore Don on Twitter, of course, and you can follow Phil at Phil the Filipino. That's P H I L T H E, f I L I, p I N? O. You can follow the podcast handle, of course, on Twitter, and I will never be calling it X, but you can follow us on Twitter at TD Jaguars pod and, of course, as I always plug, you can follow our touchdown Jaguars website at touchdownjaguarscom, which has archived episodes and some old articles there as well, which we need to step our game up and get some more written content on there as well, which could be coming. When you look at the fact of you know, it looks like Don Deegan spoke on the stadium negotiations, so that'll be something to Talk about, you know, and her basically saying she wants to get it done as soon as possible, but a lot of you know they haven't their early in talks, but you're not hearing a lot of negative things, so that's a good sign. So maybe I should get some up on the website on that.
Speaker 1:But I digress from the point and of course I cannot Go past this segment of the show without shouting out our longtime sponsor For much of this podcast. Ever since it's been a podcast for the most part I think our first few episodes we didn't have the sponsor, but a seat geek when you can use our code on your first ticket order, which is touchdown Jaguars. By the way, you can get $20 off of your first ticket order and for those of you who haven't heard of seat geek in Exactly what it is, it is your go-to place for your ticket and needs, whether that is to a Sporting events, to your favorite Jaguar game or a Jaguar game of your choice, should I say or Any other NFL game out there. We might have some other fans of other teams that listen to this podcast, don't know why, but we appreciate your ears, of course. But any of you know the NFL game of your choice, the NBA game of your choice, the MLB game of your choice. I know we're in the MLB playoffs right now and the Braves have Very, very much so disappointed me after how they exited the first round of the playoffs, after just having a phenomenal season and earning first place and earning the best record in baseball, but this is not a baseball podcast, so I won't get too too much into that. But also, they have you covered in regards to Any ticket and needs you would need in terms of concert tickets a lot of big-time concerts out there right now.
Speaker 1:I know everybody's been going crazy for Beyoncé's Renaissance tour and what have you. So you know, whatever your favorite Musician may be, or whoever your favorite musician may be or band, feel free to go to seat geek. And also, you know, fulfill your ticket and needs in that regard as well. So shout outs to the good people at seat geek, long-time sponsors of the touchdown Jaguars podcast, and we would appreciate it if you used our code. Save yourself some money the next time you're on the website. Also, I forgot, of course, the places you can follow this podcast. We're on various platforms, of course, most notably Apple Podcast and Spotify as well. We're also on Amazon as well. Shout-outs to Amazon, because of course, thursday night football is gonna be on prime, so Gotta shout them out. Holler at us if y'all want to sponsor us, but any pretty much any major interface we are on if we are not on one of your favorite interfaces. As I have always said, feel free to reach out to us, let us know, and we will do our best to get on that interface so we can get you your Jaguars fix and your weekly Jaguars news on our end.
Speaker 1:Alright, so that said, we'll get into the analysis of the game Again. If this ends up being a shorter Analysis than normal, please forgive me, but again, when I get into these topics sometimes I have the tendency to go on a little bit, so it might go a little longer than I expected. But I mean, we'll just follow the format that me and Phil have been following the last few weeks of just, you know, just starting Anywhere. That we felt like was a key talking point for the game. So why not start from the beginning? Because the beginning started well for the Jacksonville Jaguars. They ended up scoring two touchdowns and their two first offensive Possessions, and thanks to some help from the defense will, who will talk on Later in this podcast as well. But the defense really, really put this offense and the team in general in good position To win the game again. It was a all-around complimentary game, but we just got to continue to give our Kudos and just continue to hat tip that defense who has been an X factor for the Jaguars and these four wins.
Speaker 1:Again, the only bad game they really had was the Texans game and if it, you know, had it not been for them, just in general this season the Jacksonville Jaguars would be, you know, in a worse predicament than they are, and when I say worse, I mean I guess that would be not in first place. So they have see South, so they're just really playing lights out and we'll get more into them later. But we'll talk about this fast start as the Jacksonville Jaguars, on their first offensive drive, we're able to answer the Colts first offensive drive, the Colts had the ball first in the game. Well, they ended up with three points where it was garden a mission, kind of nickel and dime this way Up the field on that drive, and that was kind of the moral of the story for the whole game.
Speaker 1:For him, the Jacksonville Jaguars, you know kind of the way I would put it is, you know they made him earn his way up the field, I guess, kind of you know long drives that a lot of which you know either came up with a, you know ended with an interception or A turnover of some sort or just three points. So you know when you got an offense traveling at that pace, I'll be it. They are getting first downs and they are easing their way up the field at a slow pace. Still, when you have an offense like the Jacksonville Jaguars, you're kind of playing into the Jaguars game when you look at how high-powered and quick their offense is, because you know a lot of your time you're spending on the field Offensively. You're not moving the ball, I guess, in an explosive way as the Jaguars are, and before you know it You're just getting outpaced offensively. So that's kind of I guess that was kind of the moral of this story.
Speaker 1:When you look at the Colts offense, but they came away with three points on that first offensive drive and then the Jaguars answered on their first offensive drive with a 13 play, 75 yard drive with a Travis Etn touchdown and a drive where they used a mix of Etn and Evan Ingram, brent and strange, who had kind of a wake-up game offensively. We've kind of been talking about him a little bit in terms of the physicality that he's brought and sometimes the penalties and the Ricky mistakes that he's brought to the table, but he helped the Jaguars in a tremendous way as well in that first drive in In the game in general in terms of offensively, but it ended with a Travis Etn touchdown. Who that's gonna be my first talking point is Travis Etn and the day that he had, and just not even the day he had, but also just how well he's played these last three games or so and just the fact of how he has been kind of the most consistent weapon, if you will, for this offense. And you know again, like I said this in the the podcast that I was on earlier with BS and beer that you know the Jaguar's on necessarily go to Travis the Etn a lot early, but when they start going to him and you know when he starts to get more and more snaps or catches, he makes them count. He's very explosive with them and you know when you look at the last two weeks or so, like what would you rather? You know who would be a better runner back to Travis the Etn to have and just his ability lately. Man, he's always had this ability but he's really making things count when it comes to after contact situations, making situations count in terms of what he can bring as a past catcher and yeah, man, like he is another unsung hero, like much like we've talked about, for that defense and the respect that we've given that defense. He's an unsung hero for this team and what they have been able to do offensively because, as we all know, like you know, it hasn't been perfect offensively. But you know, had it not been for the impact plays that he's made, you know, this offense will be in a world of trouble Probably. We look at it.
Speaker 1:But Etn, he ended the game with 18 carries for 55 yards. His longest carry was for 22 yards, so nothing crazy. And that's the kind of the trend you'll notice with this game offensively is a lot of the offensive players didn't have these eye popping games in terms of statistics. When you look at the offense, that's what kind of made this game weird too and we'll get into that more so later too. But the, the Jaguars, often started hiding, you know, at the end they didn't start as hot as they were and were helped out a lot by the defense, but that resulted in just a weird game where they just didn't get a lot of eye popping stats in the box score individually, um, in terms of, uh, the statistics there. But when you look at the 18 carries that he had for 55 yards, you know they were very impactful, um, a lot of which helped the Jaguars, you know, kind of in third down situations and, of course, helped them when it came to scoring. And he had two of their scores, um, one of which was in the wildcat situation which came at the next drive, offensive drive for the Jaguars after that. Um, but yeah, just Travis ET and just making a big impact.
Speaker 1:And I just wanted to bring his name up because you know, in our preseason predictions, you know he was a big topic and you know, one of the things I critiqued about him was hanging on to the ball and we kind of question you know what do you would look like statistically and how he how many touchdowns he would end the season with when you factor in the addition of Tink big speed. And here he is. He's already proven us mostly wrong in terms of those predictions this early into the season and into week six of the season. And it looks like I forgot what I said is over and under would be for touchdowns, but he looks, it looks like he's well on the way to that. I think he has four touchdowns at this point, if my math is right. I will have to check on that to be sure. As a matter of fact, I'll look here on ESPN five touchdowns. So I think we talked about over under being at five and I might have taken the under. Maybe I will have to go back and listen to that episode I forgot.
Speaker 1:But he's well on his way to exceeding expectations is what I'm trying to say in terms of what me and Phil predicted out of him. He's taking care of the ball, which is something I critiqued him for, and it looks like the tank big speed addition isn't really affecting him, and part of that is like the Jaguars don't use tank big speed as much as they should and maybe you know they should start to ease him in there a little bit more. But you know he is rookie and you know he had some rookie moments earlier in the season. That's another story for another time. But Travis ETN is looking like the best player on this team, really not named Trevor Lawrence, and that's crazy because you know the the conversation coming into the season was what we see out of Calvin. Really, you know he would be the second best player on this offense which he you know he's been fine for the most part. That's not to say Calvin really has been unimpressive or anything. Or you know we talked a lot about Christian Kirk and Evan Ingram.
Speaker 1:But here we are, six weeks into it and Calvin excuse me, travis ETN looks like the most consistent and effective skilled player not named Trevor Lawrence on the team, and that is kind of shocking when when you look at all of the weapons they have. But look, we are certainly not mad at that. So Travis ETN right now is of. His total on the season is 113 carries for 451 yards, it looks like, according to ESPN. So yeah, he's well on his way to a good season. At the rate he's going, you know, he will hit a thousand yards and who knows man he'll, he can hit 10 touchdowns at the rate he's going. And when you factor in where he can add it to the mix in terms of a pass catcher, he can get some, some touchdowns in that capacity as well. So shout out to Travis ETN, man, really, really glad. He is ahead of where we thought he would be this year and I can't wait to see, you know, how he improves as the season goes on.
Speaker 1:And I guess the next talking point that I'll go to here, and you know I mostly just want to talk about the positives here because it was a overall good game again, you know didn't end how we wanted to and you know we always will have things that we can critique. But also one of the positives of the game that I noticed when I was just looking at the statistics and whatnot, and you all know like I posted the PFF grades and what have you on Twitter every week for the most part I think I might have missed one week because I was super busy at work that day but for the most part I posted the PFF, the top five PFF grades on offense and defense for the Jaguars for each week, aside from that week. And one of the standouts this week for the Jacksonville Jaguars and it was kind of easy to find the standouts on PFF this week for the Jaguars are offensively, because only two players scored or graded over 70 or higher and of course one of them was ETN, who I've just talked about, talked about, and the other who is going to be my second talking point is Anton Harrison, who came away with the highest score, by the way, offensively for the team with a 74.4. He had a past blocking grade of 83.5, which is what you love out of your perimeter tackle on the right side and run blocking grade of 66.0. So he didn't hit 70 there, but he wasn't terrible there or anything by any means. But I mean, the reason I just wanted to highlight him is because of just the growth he's showing. And we've kind of talked about this, how the staff is good with development and coaching, and we're starting to see that a little bit, because it wasn't that long ago that we were talking about Anton getting his behind kicked by Chris Jones who had missed training camp and it is Chris Jones after all. So we all gave him a little bit of a run runway with that.
Speaker 1:But there were some people wanting to just say, oh man, that was a buzz, which is like come on, man, it's a little too early for that. You know, even though Chris Jones didn't go to training camp, he still is a darn good player. And not only that, like you know, we're four games into this young man's career. Man. But Anton Harrison proven to be another rare bulky draft selection, outside of that first class for bulky, which was the Trevor Lawrence class, of course, a rare draft selection for the Jaguars. That is panning out for them, which is great, because our offensive line is not that great and we need some of these young players to play as good as as good as they possibly can.
Speaker 1:When you look at the interior and how they're playing, wish that you know that Anton's development would kind of go over to Luke Fortner or rub off on Luke Fortner a little bit, because he's just been struggling but just felt like Anton Harrison would be a great talking point in terms of not just because of just his performance and what PFF graded him this particular week, but another reason I wanted to mention Harrison and his development again because we were just talking about his struggles not too long ago and you know he's had a few penalties here and there throughout the season, but the promise has shown and it really came in for wishing in this game, at least when you look at PFF's metrics. But a reason I wanted to talk about him is because now, like if you go on Twitter, there's a lot of talk of like now people are starting to look at with him improving, they're starting to like the thought is start to be thrown out there that you know the Jaguars are in the early stages and well on their way to being right when it came to moving on from John Taylor and replacing them with Harrison. And here's a tweet from John Shippley. I saw a shout out to John Shippley where he, you know, he just compared some statistics, some key statistic, between Taylor and Harrison. Do you want Taylor?
Speaker 1:Throughout six games in KC, 15 pressures, allowed time for 16, most among 76 offensive tackles, a 96.8 Pass pro, block and efficiency grade. Anton Harrison, in six game, or through six games, nine pressures. So you know that is what, six less than Taylor, if my math is right. I was never good at math, by the way y'all funny that I'm in the business that involves a lot of statistics. But I digress. And he is tied for 47th among 76 offensive tackles and his past blocking or past pro efficiency is 97.2. So you know, that was just kind of a comparison of where you know he is in comparison to Taylor and Especially when you look at that statistic right there with the pressures, of where he is in comparison to Taylor. That just kind of made a lot of good conversation there and that'll be something I guess like, now that we're mentioning it, we'll kind of monitor heading forward. How'd you want Taylor is doing over there with the chief side. He's making a lot of money, by the way, way more money than Anton Harrison. So the Jaguars you know, we all know what that thought process was. There was saving money and we all know who our GM is. Again, I already have had a conversation many, many times.
Speaker 1:But Pete Prisco also, you know he put out a tweet out there, so this kind of thing is kind of gaining some steam, if you will. Like Prisco's tweets said Anton Harrison is playing Better than Juwan Taylor. So it appears that move is panning out for Jacksonville. And I don't watch a lot of chiefs games, admittedly, but what I have seen from Taylor because the chiefs do, now that I'm thinking about it they have played in a few prime time games and they played us. So I have seen more of their games probably than any other team in NFL. That's not the Jaguars, yeah, they. They are on to something there that you know Harrison is looking better than Taylor at this point and you know we can only imagine how Taylor or, excuse me, harrison would be looking, if you know one, for the shoulder situation. So I just thought that was something worth mentioning there and the Taylor or the Harrison pick, excuse me was one that I did want to monitor throughout the season. I really liked his tape.
Speaker 1:After I got a chance to evaluate his tape in terms of his college tape, admittedly, as me and Phil said on the draft podcast, he wasn't a guy we looked at a lot in terms of our draft analysis because the Jaguars traded back and you know they traded back multiple times and they ended up taking a guy that we didn't really look at. We didn't really look at those prospects in the back of the first round. But yeah, man, I'm excited about what Taylor brings to the table To the table in regards of this, this young core. You know he's another name to watch, a young alongside all of these guys we mentioned from that first class, alongside a Trevalor and Tyson Campbell and Walker little, who is the other young piece of that Offensive line that you know should be a long-term piece if we can keep him and also, you know, pay him whenever the time is right. But Walker little and Andre Cisco you know Anton Harrison is in the early stages of maybe start being mentioned in that conversation. Of course, it's plenty more games to be played and it's a few more tough opponents out there that we, you know we have to see him against. But right now I like his development of where he was and where he is now in terms of improving on a week-to-week basis and Getting over that Chris Jones situation. And you know, at this rate we could see him face off against Chris Jones again a little bit more later in the postseason and That'll be a good test or a good gauge to see of how far Harrison has come. But right now you got to be happy with what you're getting out of your first round pick, which you can never take that for granted because this team has fumbled tremendously on first round picks and Balkie is not great at drafting first round selection. So if this could be one of his first round picks, that paying out great, because that's what we need, especially when you talking about Protecting your franchise quarterback who did get hurt in this game and I guess that would be my next talking point of the Trevor Lawrence situation and it does look like again, as I said earlier, all of the talk coming out of the building, from those who report out of the Building, should I say yeah, it does look like Trevor Lawrence is trending towards playing. We'll see on the next injury report, which will come out Wednesday, where he is in terms of that need, but a lot of people upset with the press.
Speaker 1:Taylor play, after having some time to think on it, I'm still not a Play that I would go to, that late in the game. I mean, I was looking at it at that. At that point in the game I think the Jaguars were up 17. I think the score might have been what the end result was, if I'm not mistaken. Let me check on that. I want to make sure I'm right on that. Okay, so yep, after looking at it here, the Jaguars had 34 at that point. So it's 20, 34 at that point. And then, of course, when Trevor got sacked, they kicked the field goal to make it 37.
Speaker 1:That so, that being said, anyway, still, you two touchdowns ahead at that point. Still probably not a situation when you think about it. You probably don't want to put your quarterback in that situation when you're two touchdowns ahead and it's only three minutes left, just based off of what I was seeing here on a play by play analysis, if I'm correct. Let me check that again. I want to be accurate on that. Yeah, three minutes in some change. Three minutes nine seconds, something like that left at that point you probably want to see it and to me, like, after seeing back and thinking about it, it's like why not be getting tank, big speed, some snaps at that point? Because he hasn't been getting a lot of snaps and you know he's a guy that can get you to rough the tough yardage that you need at that point in the game to just kind of, you know, make the clay clock wind down and what have you. But also, you know, when you look at that play call From the perspective and Doug kind of even talked about this of most times is used Most times you come out of that play, your quarterback comes out of that play unscathed.
Speaker 1:For some reason, this time it went terribly wrong. Nobody was fooled and it was some mistakes there where it was too offensive or, excuse me, defensive line and chasing them. So that was a Occurrence where a play that normally doesn't end with at least your quarterback getting injured ended up going all wrong and everything that went wrong could go wrong. And you know Trevor was injured as a result. Now, luckily, you know, he Didn't sustain anything too seriously. It looks like a small sprain, if you will. He was wearing the knee brace, of course, in practice and you know he said he's gonna do everything in his power to play.
Speaker 1:But still, man, like at that point in the game and I Don't care if we get stuff or a few runs that come up with that resulted negative yardage at that point, the games out of hand and you still gonna end up with a field goal. Man, it's really no purpose in I guess what I would say is really no purpose in trying to get the touchdown there at that point, because I want to say the game was like terribly out of hand but it wasn't much that the Colts could do to to close that deficit at that point in the game. So, with that being the case, you can be a little bit conservative at that point. I know you don't like to do that as a play caller and you like to put your you know you foot on the gas when you're ahead. But again, it's three minutes left in the game.
Speaker 1:Look at it from this standpoint If you do get a touchdown on that drive, okay, the score is. Then what did I say? It was 34 at the time. So you, looking at, seven more points, so 41. So you in the game 41 to 20, which isn't that much different than 37 to 20 like what do you really achieve by Trying to, you know, push and get a touchdown or get more, more first downs? There is what I'm saying, especially when it comes out of console, you know, just putting your quarterback I'll be a play that normally he wouldn't get injured in, but put your quarterback in a situation where he can get injured but luckily again, a Trevor wasn't seriously injured. This should be a learning lesson.
Speaker 1:And another thing I do want to say too, and in addition to it being a teaching lesson as well, is the press tailor play calling not just that play itself but in general, is kind of annoyed me and has been it's starting to annoy me, just like it's annoying people at it. First, you know, I gave him a little bit more of a runway than others, but now I'm starting to get there with everybody else. And here's why, like when you look at that second quarter, or, excuse me, that second half from the jump, trevor Lawrence really wasn't in sync in terms of the passing game. You know, he was selling balls over the heads of his receivers. The only thing he was really able to hit on is like the short stuff, maybe the ETN or others, and you know the out routes, which is like his thing to Calvin Ridley or anything short, the Calvin Ridley where he could take advantage of his route running and off coverage, especially when you're playing the Gus Bradley defense that likes to play cover three. But aside from those kind of things like the deep stuff and and what have, you Wasn't working for Trevor Lawrence. So, like I feel, like you know, if you press Taylor, just kind of read the energy of what have been going on the last two drives in terms of travel or struggles with passing the ball, it's just kind of dial it down at that point with three minutes left. Like I say, you know, take the conservative route at that point at three minutes, run the ball a little bit. Maybe, like I said, get tank bigs being there. But if you want ETN out there, still, you know, utilize him and Avoid the situation that you know that we ended up in. But yeah, the just a lack of Understanding, and just kind of reading the room, if you will, of where Trevor was at that point, three minutes into the game. What I'm thinking is, hey, let's take this field goal, let's go home. Let's get as many people Back in that locker room without injuries as possible at this point. So it'll be interesting to see, you know, if they learn their lesson from that.
Speaker 1:And another thing I'll touch on real quick in regards to this press Taylor situation in the play calling as well is and it's some T-Way kind of talked on to. You know, if you're Doug Peterson, why not stop that play? Because of course, press is calling the plays, but you get the plays downstairs as well and you, you know, as the head coach, you have the ability to say, ah, nah, we're not gonna do that. Let's just, you know, let's run the ball a few times, let's get up out of here With the. You know a score of 37 to 20. It's not that Not that significant or that much more important to come away with. You know a 41 to 20 score. At this point let's tone it down, let's get everybody into the locker room healthy.
Speaker 1:So you know, I want to see more of Doug Peterson intervening in these situations in terms of just the wacky play calling that we've seen On the press Taylor, as that continues to be a story for this Jacksonville Jaguar team. But I am definitely gonna be watching press Taylor heading forward especially if they have another game where they have that kind of a lead and and kind of monitor the play calling, because he, I mean it just felt like he kind of Didn't know what to do and he was lost in regards to what do you do when you have that kind of a lead? You know, like what do I call? Like you just kind of felt a sense of of I don't know what the heck to do With. A lead is big and you know a lot of us felt like they should have been running the ball a little bit more with that kind of Elite. But you know I spent enough time on that.
Speaker 1:Again, trevor Lawrence didn't come out with a major injury. It could have been much worse than it was and thank God, thank the football gods, that he Came out of it Okay and hopefully, you know, we can see him pick up where he left off Aside from in that second half, but more so in the first half, pick up where he left off from, where he was in that first half, and Apply that in the New Orleans same game that will be in New Orleans on Thursday, and then we'll go over to the defensive side. Again, I wanted to make this mostly about positive. It was a, not negative and then. But we'll go to the defensive side and and just talk about this defense that I praised earlier in the podcast.
Speaker 1:These guys are takeaway Kings and again, like it's crazy, because we had so many concerns about this defense, especially the past Russian, when you have concerns about the past rush going into the season, you don't expect these kind of results. But when you look at this defense, overall they have 15 takeaways, which is good for the most in the league. So that is, you know, something that I didn't think we would be associated with this team. Again, going back to the Preseason podcast where we were predicting you know how, how the jack wars, the over unders for the jack war, statistically, takeaways was one of the things that we discussed here and they are seven plus seven in a turnover differential differential and I think we actually said in terms of where the jack would jacks would finish in terms of turnover differential, the over and under, we put it at seven or eight and here they are at plus seven, second in the league, only under the forty nineers who have plus eight there at plus seven in the turnover differential. And again, a big part of that is takeaways.
Speaker 1:With the 15 they have, they came away from this game in particular with three interceptions and those three interceptions came from three starting members of their secondary, both for their starting safeties. Ray, sean, jenkins and Andre Cisco had picks and if I'm not mistaken, this is Andre Cisco second consecutive game with a pick. He's just playing lights out, by the way, man. He's kind of showing us why. There were a few people, a few, not many, but I saw a few people in that, in that draft that had Andre Cisco, you know, going as a late first round pick. Now, I get it. You know, I felt like he was more along the lines of the second round pick. But the Jaguars, they stole him at this rate, looking at how he's playing at a pro bowl level, they stole him when it comes to. They got him in the third round that year.
Speaker 1:So Jenkins and Cisco came away with picks, shout outs to them and again, just kind of going back on what we were saying last week, this secondary feels like a top 10 secondary. They certainly, after this game, they certainly feel that way. I guess, like you, kind of want to put too much stock into it because they play gardener issue. But still it feels like this secondary is a top 10 secondary or better, maybe eight to 10 somewhere. And then you factor in the pick that Williams got as well. And who knows, heck Tyson Campbell might have got one if he didn't leave the game early. He was dealing with a hamstring issue and it looks like he won't play against New Orleans. So that'll be something to watch.
Speaker 1:But Darius Williams, the Jacksonville kid, comes away with another pick as well. He's been a straight up ballhawk, like Andre Cisco as well. We all seen the PFF grades. At one point he was grading at like a ninety one in terms of coverage, and I think he's. Last time I checked he's at like eighty four point five in coverage, which is still pretty darn good for a defensive back. Eighty three point four, actually. I just looked it up, so still pretty darn good. And he is playing at a pro bowl level as well too. And you know he's kind of flashing. You know it was times where he kind of flashed this kind of stuff when he was with the Rams, but he didn't flash it enough for them to, you know, resign them. And you know, here we are, we can great value, you know, again, I don't like to give Baki too much praise, but we can great value out of you know that signing and what Baki paid him and you know he's playing like a top 10 corner and he's not making top 10 corner salary, so that's, that's great value there.
Speaker 1:But there was also a stat from PFF and shot off the start to actually mention this on Twitter as well, this actual tweet that was put out there that said that he has the most snaps in the league right now. Darius Williams, that is, has the most snaps in the league without a touch down. He has 257 snaps right now without allowing the touchdown. And of course Stodge was like now you jinxed him. So hopefully that doesn't come to an end against the Saints. But that just kind of goes to show you the reason I mentioned that. That just kind of goes to show you the kind of football he's playing and the high level he's playing. And just imagine if we had a pass rush man, how, or more consistent or a better pass rush, how much more improved these guys would be. We'll be talking about a top five secondary at that point. So all the more reason to get a guy like the Neil Hunter and get a guy or a guy like Aaron Donald. We'll see in time We'll tell as the trade deadline winds down here. But that's for another whole, another podcast.
Speaker 1:And then also I wanted to talk about the linebackers, who had a superb day, aside from Devin Lloyd not being able to catch anything that came his way. It felt like he dropped three picks or something, one of which we were kind of happy he dropped because it helped us feel position wise. But I mean he is coming off of hand surgery and you know he's probably, you know, got the cast going and you know hand is heavily taped, so I guess we can give him a little bit out there. But I mean he had a pretty good game. When you look at his statistics on PFF had a 76.8 grade, which is great, and that's even better when you look at how foyer played beside him. So when you come, you look at their efforts together, phenomenal day for the linebackers. For you, a lewitt can with a 91.2.
Speaker 1:And you want to talk about unsung heroes? We talk about how unsung this, this defense, has been and how unsung and how much of an expert of Mike Caldwell has been as a defensive coordinator. But for a lewitt can does not get the respect he deserves in terms of what he does for this defense and being the quarterback of this defense. But he came away out of the game with a 91.2 was all over the place. If you watch the film, man, whether it was impacting the past or you know, stopping to run along the line and screaming, running from sideline to sideline, you know you just couldn't help but see him on the film. But yeah, what a great day for the linebackers.
Speaker 1:When you look at him and Devon Lloyd and they kind of look like what we were hoping for when we first got foyer in free agency and then went ahead and drafted Lloyd afterwards. And if they keep up at this rate, man, you know that's just another layer to this Jaguar's defense, in addition to the secondary, in addition to what Josh Allen is doing that we can rely on consistently again with Lloyd. He's young, so you know he does need to become a more consistent player, but it's good for him to come out of surgery you know he missed two games to come out of his surgery situation and be able to, you know, make that kind of impact again. We'd like to see him clutch the ball and come away with some more pics there. But again, gotta shoot him some bail with when considering the situation he's coming out of with his hands. So I mean that's pretty much all I would say about the secondary. Josh Allen got the force fumble again. Just continues to show us why he needs to be paid. Doug Peterson consider him called him the heart and soul of the defense after the game in his presser, which you all saw the tweet and retweeted. That shout out to everybody who checks out my post game tweets and what have you. So he contributed in a big way.
Speaker 1:When you look at all of these PFF grades as a whole from the defense, it was pretty impressive. I think I tweeted is that it was seven players. Let me make sure my math is right. When you two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight players who graded with a 70 or higher on PFF, starting with Andre Cisco with a 71.7, he had the closest grade to a 70. And then from there all of the grades went up Josh Allen 72.6,. Ray Sean Jenkins. Darius Williams I already mentioned him as well 73.6. Devin Lloyd I already mentioned him 76.8.
Speaker 1:Tyson Campbell, who again left the game early but the snaps that he did take 77.2. Good game for him, andrew Wingard, who didn't get the snap amount that these the snap count that these other players got. As a matter of fact, he got 24 snaps. He had a 77.2, so or excuse me a 82.2. So good game for him, but of course I didn't include him in the tweet because he just didn't register a lot of offensive or excuse me defensive snaps. And of course, again as I said, 4 year Lua can lean away with a 91.2, making his case to be a pro bowler as well.
Speaker 1:So we will need that performance and these grades to carry over into this big time game that we're going to be going to against the New Orleans Saints, especially with our offense banged up, branded. Sure, we don't know if he's going to play because he didn't practice today. Again, a travel on situation. It feels like he'll play, but you know you kind of wonder how effective the offense will be with him coming off in situation and sure, if he doesn't play, that doesn't put travel on in the best situation in terms of the offensive line. So there's some concern in terms of that offensive line going into the Saints game. And not only that without sure flight, how effectively can you run the ball as well, so that's a concern too.
Speaker 1:So what I'm saying is we need that defense to transfer their performance that we saw here against the Indianapolis Colts over to the Bayou and hopefully come away with our fourth straight win. That'll be huge, especially when considering how the injury report is looking right now. So still, nonetheless, we still got a lot to be happy about. The Jaguars are your first place team for the AFC South. Still got a long way to go, but they do have a winnable game ahead of them, despite the circumstances when you look at the injury report. So I think that'll be a good point to stop this podcast, of course, before we end it once again, just to reiterate, as I said earlier in the podcast, in terms of our social media handles, you can follow me at sportsgrime, underscore Don, on Twitter, at Phil the Filipino for Phil on Twitter. We'll be back next week, so shout out to him again.
Speaker 1:The podcast handle itself at TD Jaguars pot touchdown Jaguarscom is our official site where you can find archive episodes as well. You can find, you know, you can listen to this episode and many, many others also on iTunes, apple podcast Stitcher, spotify, of course for our Android and Apple users, amazon. Anywhere you can find a podcast. We're pretty much there again. If we aren't there, feel free to let me know and we'll get there so we can get you your weekly dose of Jacksonville Jaguars. New shout outs to SeatGeek. Once again, touchdown Jaguars is the promotion code that'll get you $20 off of your first SeatGeek order. We appreciate them in helping us keep the lights on for the podcast, so to speak, and hopefully, when I return and when we return, should I say we will have another victory episode, our fourth consecutive victory episode, to discuss. On our next episode, which would be what? Episode 69 again, I'm tired. If my math is right, episode 69. So, that being said, I am James Johnson. This is the Touchdown Jaguars podcast and I am signing out.