Ever wonder what makes a young quarterback like Trevor Lawrence stand tall amid the pressure? What transpired between him and Calvin Ridley to make their partnership so dynamic? On today's episode, we dissect the Jacksonville Jaguars' victory over the Titans, emphasizing the phenomenal performances that defined the game. We share our excitement about Lawrence's impressive bounce-back and how he made history as the third youngest player to reach 10,000 passing yards.
Come with us as we delve into the significance of this win for the Jaguars and the potential offensive line switch between Walker Little and Ezra Cleveland. We also delve into the critical role of a robust run game, not forgetting how it serves to open up passing opportunities.
Finally, we turn our gaze to the upcoming power clash against the Houston Texans, as we envisage a strong finish to the season for the Jaguars. We highlight the defense's commendable performance and the importance of maintaining this momentum moving forward. Join us in this exhilarating discussion as we celebrate the team's successes and anticipate their upcoming encounters. If you're a Jaguars' fan or just a football enthusiast, there's something here for you. Tune in now - this is one episode you won't want to miss!
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.
Ever wonder what makes a young quarterback like Trevor Lawrence stand tall amid the pressure? What transpired between him and Calvin Ridley to make their partnership so dynamic? On today's episode, we dissect the Jacksonville Jaguars' victory over the Titans, emphasizing the phenomenal performances that defined the game. We share our excitement about Lawrence's impressive bounce-back and how he made history as the third youngest player to reach 10,000 passing yards.
Come with us as we delve into the significance of this win for the Jaguars and the potential offensive line switch between Walker Little and Ezra Cleveland. We also delve into the critical role of a robust run game, not forgetting how it serves to open up passing opportunities.
Finally, we turn our gaze to the upcoming power clash against the Houston Texans, as we envisage a strong finish to the season for the Jaguars. We highlight the defense's commendable performance and the importance of maintaining this momentum moving forward. Join us in this exhilarating discussion as we celebrate the team's successes and anticipate their upcoming encounters. If you're a Jaguars' fan or just a football enthusiast, there's something here for you. Tune in now - this is one episode you won't want to miss!
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, as always, is your other cohost, james Johnson. And Jay, what a difference a week makes. You know. A lot of people were understandably pretty down on the team and just was a run. The San Francisco 49ers came in and did what they did, but a win over a division rival who they have been playing very well against, as of late, a team that obviously sparks a lot of bad memories.
Speaker 1:It's always nice to come back home in front of your fans and put on a performance like the Jacksonville Jaguars did today, jay.
Speaker 1:We're going to be talking about that here tonight, as we record here on the evening of November 19th, a few hours removed from the game. I wanted to get this one taken care of as it's still fresh in our minds. Not only are we going to talk about what happened and what right in today's game, jay, we are also going to probably spend a little bit of time focusing on next week's huge matchup against the Houston Texans. We know what happened earlier in the year when Houston visited Jacksonville, and now Jacksonville will hope to return that favor in a Houston home game. I actually got confirmation from a friend who is a Texans fan that they will be wearing those battle reds. So that crowd is certainly going to be hyped for that matchup as the Texans obviously one of those big surprises in the NFL. Jay, how are you doing here this evening, excited to talk about, once again, another victory, which has been mostly the case this season. So it's nice to get back on the winning side of things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, feeling good Felt like a lot of things that I mentioned in the last podcast. Trevor People may be being down on him at the moment, but him having the ability to bounce back, he showed us that clearly in this game. So, you know, feeling good about that. You know you always want your quarterback to have some momentum going into these divisional games, especially when Stroud is playing the way that he's playing as well. So you know you might be in a quarterback to quarterback shootout, which will you know more on that later.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, man, feeling good about how not just Trevor played but the team played overall, you know the defense for the most part gave us another good effort, which is that was kind of one of the things that we spoke on on the podcast is that this performance, or the performance they had against the 49ers, was kind of, you know, not typical of them to albeit they've been a surprise for us in terms of what they've done this season. But yeah, man, glad to have another victory episode. Man, again, like we say this all the time, these never get old because we've been doing this since what? 2012,? Not necessarily a Jaguars podcast, but talking about football, which would oftentimes a lot of times involve the Jaguars.
Speaker 2:And then, you know, a few years after we started, we just went strictly Jaguars in the podcasting world. So you know we've talked about a lot of losses way more losses than wins in our careers are doing it. So you know I could never get used to winning the amount of games we won these last two seasons, and not only that, though, man, like you know, being playoff bound the last two seasons, then hopefully we could continue that Can't wait to talk about this beatdown that we put on the Titans, who that's another thing that'll never get old, because the Titans have kind of been a thorn in our sides, if you will, for many, many years. Always feel good to beat the Titans, our most, you know, hated rival, depending on who you ask, most people would say so yeah, can't wait to break this game down where we pretty much steamrolled them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Titans, hate weak. Always a good time when you can get a victory over those Tennessee Titans. I know a lot of people on over on Twitter chirping back and forth between the two fan bases and I will leave, Jay, and I will leave that to y'all. It takes a lot more mental fortitude that you know we just don't have at this point in our lives. But hey, good for y'all for sticking up for the team. And yeah, Jay, I mean the Jaguar seven and three approaching their win total from last year, of course, finishing nine and eight. I do want to ask, before we get started you had the team at 10 and seven in your preseason predictions. Are you still sticking with that 10 and seven or is that changing here at this point as, again, in heading into week 12, they've got seven already.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's possible. Looking at it, how many games they have left here? 1234567 more games. Yeah, I mean like it's possible. They surpassed that because of the circumstances. Right, we, you know, this weekend, and you know we hope that he, everything goes well for him and, if you know, surgery is required, that goes well for him too. But Joe Burrow was deemed out for the season with the risk injury.
Speaker 2:So you know that affects the Jaguar schedule because, of course, like Baltimore is one of the teams we were playing, and even more so which. This is aside from the point. It also helps the Jaguars from the standpoint of, you know, those teams they can see in the postseason. So, sticking to the regular season, though, you know that was one of those games we had marked possibly as a loss. I can't remember if I put it as a loss or a win for us during the preview episode, but that feels like it probably be a win now. So that's, you know, that's one that a lot of people probably were feeling like we wouldn't get, that we would. And then you look at the rest of the schedule, I mean the stretch of the schedule, if the Jaguars, you know, do what they have to do against the Texans and they have been a better away team than home team. So that's something to consider here. But if the Jaguars, you know, can control CJ Stroud next week and don't let him go ballistic as he has, you know, the last few weeks, we came back to earth a little bit more this week but still had a great first half, as me and you kind of talked about before the podcast. But when you look at the string of quarterbacks the Jaguars are going to be playing aside from Stroud, you know they're going to get a man from UCLA His name is escaping me right now with the Browns, right, they'll get the backup, joe Burroughs, back up against the Bengals.
Speaker 2:The Ravens, of course that's still a big one on the schedule. Who the Ravens, for the most part have been playing good football. And you know Lamar Jackson is Lamar Jackson right, a former league VP. So you always got to be on your, your P's and Q's against him. But you know after that they play Baker Mayfield, right, they play Bryshung, the first overall pick, who you know hasn't been like super impressive as well.
Speaker 2:I watched a few of his games because, you know, for Falcon reasons, but you know he hasn't been super impressive. And then you know the end of season. We played a Titans which that game, depending on what we are at that point you know, because a lot of times, like sometimes we already have one AFC South and you know it might not be anything to play for, it might not be any seeding to play for, but if we do have to play for seeding or anything like that, we're a little bit more comfortable with that game as well. Looking at what we did against Will Levitz, who you know up until this week, the few stars that he had, titans fans were kind of hyping him up and to see our defense which we'll talk about that later as well To see our defense respond the way they did against him, gives me more comfort against about the game that we have against them in the future, if we are playing for anything at that point in the season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as we talked about last week, a really big stretch of games coming up for the team and you know that starts next week against Houston, which we'll talk about in the latter portion of this episode. Really quick. Do want to welcome in any brand new listeners to Touchdown Jaguars. Thank you so much for joining us here today and make sure you check out the Linktree link of the show notes to find everything you need all of our social media links, as well as the website touchdownjaguarscom, and you will find a link to download the SeatGeek app so you can use our promo code Touchdown Jaguars. Save yourself some money. Get yourself some tickets for one of these remaining home games and save $20 on your first purchase with SeatGeek. As always, thank you so much to SeatGeek for continuing to sponsor the show. But, jay, let's go ahead and jump right into this here. The Jaguars, as you mentioned, steam, role the Tennessee Titans 34 and 14 to move to 7 and 3 on the year. The Tennessee Titans are now 3 and 7 as their rebuilding season continues to kind of unravel.
Speaker 1:Jacksonville looked pretty much unstoppable from beginning until end. They got off to a little bit of a rough start, probably on that first drive or two. But then they found their footing and even though it was only 13-0 at halftime, they were able to extend that lead and never really looked back. Trevor Lawrence 24 of 32, 262 yards, two touchdowns through the air and then added two touchdowns on the ground as well. It's nice to see that that knee is looking pretty good as we get to the final stretch of the season. His health is obviously going to be big and him being able to use his athleticism obviously was huge down the stretch last year, so it's nice to see that hopefully he is continuing to get healthier as the season goes on.
Speaker 1:So, jay, they did a lot of things here that we were kind of looking for. Of course, last week Calvin Ridley had a huge game, ended up with seven catches, 103 yards and two touchdowns, and they were just in sync throughout the entire day. So plenty to talk about when it comes to the offense and the defense. So what would you like to highlight first? I think maybe we should start with the supposed townfall of Trevor Lawrence seems to. I think some of that talk is going to dissipate this week. What do you think?
Speaker 2:Hey man, did I not tell everybody last week that he hit these lows and lows in his career, and oftentimes even before today, which is why I was expecting him to bounce back today? But he's always bounced back in a magnificent form from these situations where he might not start a game playing well or have playing well, Like we saw against the Chargers in the playoffs, so he might not start the season playing as at the level you would like, kind of like in the beginning of the last year, and then he just went like into this pro bowl caliber player literally a pro bowl player played so well during the back stretch that he went to the pro bowl and played so well in the back stretch of the Chargers game where they ended up winning the game, and that was the third biggest comeback in playoff history in the NFL, so I was more than confident that he would bounce back.
Speaker 2:It also helps that the Titans defenses and what it used to be, albeit Arden Key did start off at a hot start. He was like one of the next gen stats top players in terms of pressures and what have you earlier in?
Speaker 1:this season.
Speaker 2:Not sure where he is now, but he was pretty much, from what I saw when, really an X factor in this game. By the way, shout out to Arden Key, the mayor of Jacksonville. Right got a front row seat of how we look without him. I still I know we joke on Arden Key and all of that stuff I still would take Arden Key back to this day if the Titans were willing to make an end division trade. Good luck with that, right. But yeah, I mean, trevor's ability to bounce back is something that I've grown to just kind of respect in terms of that.
Speaker 2:So we clearly saw that he could do that. He had a record setting day for crying out loud too, so he's not just bouncing back from the 49ers game in any kind of fashion. He bounced back and had a record setting day where he's the first I think Jack Wars quarterback, if I'm not mistaken somebody put this stat out there to throw for two pass and touchdowns and rush for two pass and touchdowns in a game. So like that was kind of actually surprising for you Put out the tweet in our thread and he was like I'm shocked Nobody has done that yet. But lo and behold, trevor Lawrence is the first to do it. You would think maybe Blake Bortles, as mobile as he was, may have done it, or David Garard. Shockingly, that was not the case.
Speaker 1:I thought even maybe Brunel might have done it. That too.
Speaker 2:He was a great scrambler as well, too. You know I mean better than people give him credit for. Should I say so, yeah, I mean he had more than enough ability to do that as well. And I also saw this tweet earlier from Clay Harbor Phil, where he put Trevor Lawrence is the third youngest quarterback, or the third youngest player in NFL history to reach 10,000 passing yards. Elite is how he put the tweet.
Speaker 2:Now, look, some of that's helped by horrendous Urban Meyers season right, where he probably dropped back more than he should have, but still, that's another little statistic that I felt like was worth mentioning here. And then, in terms of, like, what's was really significant about Trevor Lawrence his performance is more so who he was connecting with to have that type of a game that he did, and that was Calvin Ridley man. Like you know, I can recall you text me, and it might have been just in our thread with Stodge and Boogie Shouse or them, where you like, does Ridley, at the rate he's playing, does he get a extension and or not extension? But you know, get a new deal with us, whatever the case may be. And my reply was like hey, man, it's early, and like he can turn it on. You know, like these next few games or so will have to see. It was just kind of too early to make that call and that's exactly why I said that is you know the performance Ridley had and he helped the Jaguars in all kinds of aspects. I tweeted the graphic out there from next gen stats that somebody put out of like every route he ran that they connected on and, man, it's a beautiful, beautiful graphic to look at in terms of what he did against this Titans defense. Now, look, you can't do this against every defense. Obviously we're going to play some more talented defenses than the Titans, but it was still just good to see.
Speaker 2:The point I'm making is just the connection between Ridley and Lawrence, which is going to be huge heading forward. That is the connection that can help him get back to Trevor Lawrence, get back to what we saw him do last year, in the back half of last year, and how they went on. That magnificent run they went on last year is getting Calvin Ridley involved and also something that probably helped was having Zay Jones back. So that kind of opens up things for Ridley, which Doug Peterson kind of mentioned that in the press conference. He didn't say any names. But he said having Zay open some things up for the team schematically. But Ridley ended the day with seven catches for 103 yards, two touchdowns. They were using him in any way possible. You know whether it was hitches, hitch routes to convert on third down, whether it was for the deep ball, whether it was in the red zone.
Speaker 2:he was using a variety of ways. That makes this offense that much more dangerous when you factor in what we're getting out of the others around him at times, like Calvin Ridley excuse me like Travis ETN, evan Ingram, so on and so forth. And Zay is going to only help them from the standpoint of making the difficult catches. That's his thing, that's what he asked him to make. The more he gets antiquated and gets more reps, he's going to help them in terms of making those difficult catches. So the Jacksonville Jaguars are on a high in terms of offensively. This is the kind of game we needed from them. Offensively is, you know, beaten up on a team that they should defensively and believe it or not, those kind of things do trickle into an offense getting momentum and also being able to do that against better defenses, like we'll see, obviously, with the, you know, the Browns and Ravens and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, talking about Calvin Ridley, I saw this stat on Twitter the other day. I can't remember who tweeted it out, but it was a stat saying Calvin Ridley, or when the Jaguars target Calvin Ridley eight or more times. Therefore, no, now five and no, as he got nine targets today. Like you said, the return of Zay Jones back in the lineup has been whenever those two lineup together or whenever they're playing at the same time. Ridley has had his best game.
Speaker 1:So, like you said, zay Jones being there really, really opens things up, and I said the exact same thing to our buddy, eric, when we were at the game. Like this is exactly the kind of performance not only this team needed, but also the fan base. You know, get everybody calm down, beat a team that you were supposed to beat and also, with it being the Tennessee Titans, that just makes it even better. So, you know, seven and three heading into a very, very important stretch and, like you said, with the quarterback situation being the way that it is in the NFL, all of a sudden this thing changes up a little bit as you head into this next stretch. Go ahead, jay.
Speaker 2:Now I just wanted you to I just sent it to you to open up that text. I just sent you. Look at how beautiful that route tree and how much better this offense was vertically when looking at all of those routes. And the tweet was by Josh Norris. Shout out to Josh Norris, who has been doing great work for many, many years. He was with NBC at one time point in time. Now is with underdog. But the beauty of you know, what we're seeing here on the next gen stats and next gen stats is like awesome. I appreciate the way I appreciate the work they do, but what we're seeing here is just how much really helped us vertically. Man, like whether it was. You know he had one of fade up the sideline. That was the most notable one that I can remember was the fade, but one of his touchdowns were one of the longer routes he helped the team out with in terms of vertically.
Speaker 2:And he had like maybe a post here that is showing in the graphic post corner route that he was able to get deep. That is what's been one of the issues with this offense field and we've seen it is a lot of their stuff is beyond the states and they rely on and they do have a lot of good guys that are good at this getting yards after the catch, but they were relying a lot on yards after the catch type situations and if anything more than that, you know a lot of hits, routes and so on and so forth. So to get this performance out of Calvin Ridley in terms of what he did vertically is especially huge and it's going to open up things offensively for this team, as I already said, heading forward. And yeah, I can't wait to see how we look, or if we look significantly better than we did against the Texans, now that we have you know the game he's coming off of and now that is a Jones is back to help as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah that that Routery, like you said, beautiful, saw a couple throws downfield to Christian Kirk as well, even though he only had three catches, but he did have six targets. The also Christian Kirk was the last leg of my parlay that I needed. I needed the Calvin Ridley, deandre Hopkins and Christian Kirk touchdown and got so close Jay to glory. But I could not lock that in here today but nonetheless I much rather have a Jaguar victory. I'm going to ask you about this here, as you know, because we talked about him so much and going into the buy, and rightfully so was having an excellent season top five in rushing.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about Travis Etn. People were kind of talking about his, obviously last week again. So when you get behind he's going to get less carries. And then here today, 14 carries, 52 yards his longest was. You know he got off that 11 yard run a little bit later in the day. Any concern there? Or do you think it's just them adjusting their game plan accordingly, based on what is working and what is not working? But are you concerned that maybe Travis Etn is, you know, slowing down a little bit or, you know, starting to respond to that, that high usage we highlighted going into the buy week, but also, as we have been clamoring for, dearness Johnson has been getting significant touches. You know he's been in for entire drives at times. We saw that a couple of instances here today. So any concern there. With Travis Etn again, is it just the play calling being adjusted or do you think maybe there is a little bit of you know wear and tear at this point of the season with Etn?
Speaker 2:Well, I'll say this, phil, one of the significant things about you, know what Travis? Etn and even Dearness did, and Doug talked about this at the presser is he was mentioning how he felt like the run game opened up those opportunities for the team and pass protection. So the game that Travis Etn had, albeit it wasn't great statistically- wasn't in vain like it helped them in terms of opening up things in the passing game and that's how we see the game that Ridley had and Kirk, as you mentioned, had as well now.
Speaker 2:No, I'm not concerned in terms of answering that part of the question and here is why, like in terms of the run game, as much as it did help them set up the past, our guards and interior linemen just aren't it, and we mean you have been saying this for weeks and weeks and weeks, but now people are really starting to like see it, our interior line play hasn't been there. I mean, justin Simmons was owning people on offense and defense. He caught a touchdown pass. Didn't know the man could play offense. Somehow after doing a scouting report on him, I think I missed that. You know he had offensive playmaking ability. Don't know if he played high school tight end or something like that, but yeah, when I saw him out, that was like what in God's name is going on here? But yeah, simmons had a, simmons had himself a day and it just felt like we couldn't block anybody from the interior standpoint. You know, vez even excuse me, stodge even put it in the tweet the our tech story as well. Luke Fortner just continues to not like get any movement as well. I think at times brandish shirt for showing his age to some.
Speaker 2:You know, I just think is more so the interior play more than anything, I think what has helped ETN in terms of why it's becoming noticeable now in terms of his struggles, is because the Jaguars would start the game early, early in the season, running the ball, and they wouldn't have the success that we're seeing now. Right, but the thing was it by the end of the game second excuse me a third, fourth quarter we would start to see those you know yards come out of ETN and like he would start to break away more as he wore on the defense. We're not seeing that this part of the season, and that's what you know is bringing more attention to him, but I think they should still stick with that approach. You know, get him some touches early, it'll wear on the defense, it'll show. Typically it does show more. So in the you know third and fourth quarter, I think you know eventually he will get those explosive plays that we've come to know and love him for for making.
Speaker 2:But right now, and especially, like you see this, typically in divisional games, right, divisional opponents do make it hard to run on. So that's another thing that's probably factoring into the performance he had, at least today, is just divisional opponents just know you so well in terms of you know the play, making the run game and what have you like. It was times where, like, simmons was in the backfield within a second of the play, which, again, as part of that, is a testament of like us not blocking and moving anybody, but also is just him just having familiarity with the job, or is that the plan for years and years? So I think we'll see a better performance out of ETN, you know, heading forward. I wouldn't be concerned about him right now, but it's a it's kind of a mixture of things going on there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean working in tandem. That's what we've seen from the offense on the days that they have really been clicking. You know, running game helping out the passing game, passing game helping out the running game. You know you're talking about the offensive line. We did see that switch early on in the game. I know you haven't really gotten a chance to go back and really look at it. What do you think that significance is? You know, with between pulling Walker little and then putting Ezra Cleveland in there? Was that just something they they absolutely had to do, or what was your analysis there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, before I get on that one off, one other thing to mention to is you could tell how much the run game kind of going back to what I was saying before how much the run game like Wade on the Titans defense is mine. Look at that Trevor Lawrence play where he was going to it looks like he was going to take off and run and I think it was the cornerback was it fooling? That came up, left the flats open behind him and Trevor went over his head and hit the earnings for one of the biggest games Of the game, if not the biggest game of the game. So like that just kind of shows you like how you know the Jaguars threat of a run game opened up things for the passing game. That's just one example of that and I think like that's one of the better examples to use.
Speaker 2:In terms of the Ezra Cleveland thing, I did watch Doug's pressure. Of course, as I said earlier, Doug did mention that he he does see where the Jaguars can potentially be, when the Jaguars can potentially work out somewhere. They're rotating Cleveland and little. My thing is you probably want to put Cleveland in there because Walker little just gardens in his thing. I do think Walker little should be starting on his team in some capacity as a as a tackle though, but not more so as an interior lineman. But Doug did mention that you know we could see some rotation there, kind of you know that I'm paraphrasing here, he didn't say it that way, but we can see some rotation there heading forward. I would just make the move and put Cleveland there. But I get it. I understand like it's not that easy.
Speaker 2:The man just was, you know, traded to the team not too long ago. So I know a lot of people said on Twitter and I have a, you know, I'll go back and look at it but they felt like the run game or, you know, the line looked significantly better with Cleveland at left guard. I'll go see that. I just hope that you know they don't play this game of rotating Cleveland. If they're going to do it and walk a little for a couple of weeks and then make a decision, Just go ahead and be decisive with it.
Speaker 2:I don't think this is a situation where it'll take a long evaluation to make, despite Cleveland just, you know, arriving to the team just some few weeks ago. Again, like there are some things we talked about in that episode where we talked about the trade. He's familiar with the offensive line coach. He has some familiarity with the scheme as a result. So I don't think it'll be. It should be that long of an evaluation process because Walker Little just hasn't been in at guard. I'll be it. I would love him on this team as their, you know, left tackle of the future or right tackle of the future, whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll be very interested to see you know kind of what the tape says, also what the PFF numbers say while Cleveland was in there, because it definitely seemed to be flowing a lot better once they did make that change. I think that was in the very, the very next drive, their second drive of the game. So you know things look solid there. Obviously, again, defensively, a stellar performance. Will Leviss has come crashing down to earth as rookie quarterback Some typically do after a really, really hot start. Derek Henry was basically absent the entire game 10 carries, 38 yards and 16 of those came on one play. So they had to reach deep in their back to get that first score of the game, the reverse pass from Will Leviss to DeAndre Hopkins. But other than that, jay, I mean Jacksonville was able to hold this team, as they have quite a few teams this year to very, very little success. And you know a lot of people concerned after the San Francisco game. But like I mentioned this before the game even started, you know like one of those things had to give, like they just ran into an absolute beast of a team in the San Francisco 49ers who needed a victory. You know they had come off three losses in a row. They got. They got healthy just in time, and that's what good football teams do, and fortunately it just happened to us.
Speaker 1:Defensively, another solid day. I was really waiting for that Will Leviss interception. We did not get it. But not only defense, but also special teams doing great work. Shout out to Ross Matisse. That's our our long snapper. Right, that guy is had a had himself quite a day. But yeah, jay, I mean talk about the defense, anything you want to highlight there, because they sure got themselves right here this week in a big way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean the game defensively really went a lot better than it looks on the box score, because one of those plays were a trick, fluky play. And then you know what led to that play was Cheson actually doing, you know, the best, to the best of his ability, actually, you know, doing a good job. You know we don't really talk about Cheson making positive plays, but you know that play where Cheson made it win a sack but he hit Will Leviss and he landed on the quarterback but Roy Robertson Harris was on his back. So it's like, you know, roy Robertson Harris is like 310 pounds, like, of course you're going to land on the quarterback. I think they call that flag actually on Cheson, which that made no sense. And I think if you're Roy Robertson, you probably let Cheson make the hit and don't go over the top of him as well, not just for the sake of like, not landing on the quarterback but protecting one of your own players too.
Speaker 2:But I get it. You know it was a heat of the moment play. It probably shouldn't have been called anyway regardless. But the point I'm trying to make is, like you know, maybe landing on Cheson ain't the best idea either, but again, it's a fast game and, like sometimes when you're trying to get to the quarterback, you just got one thing in mind and that's getting the quarterback to the quarterback or making him get the ball out of his hands. But I said all of that to say this that play led to the drive getting extended and then it came up with the. I think it was some kind of like trick, tall sweep or something. I have to go back and look at it, but I guess you could still. If you want to be super critical of the defense, you still can knock them for that, because that shows a lack of discipline when you get beat on one of those plays. But that drive should have been canceled, basically from the Will Levitts the mid, the incompletion Will Levitts had prior to that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, man, like again.
Speaker 2:Man, as I was saying last week, I think you know what we saw out of them last week.
Speaker 2:This defense is actually starting to earn my respect from the standpoint of I looked at, I looked at what we saw last week, right, and I was, like you know, like I had my skepticism about this defense. But everything they've shown me, aside from that San Francisco game, was proof that they can play better. And I was expecting a bounce back against the Titans, especially when playing a rookie quarterback and, you know, playing against the circumstances of the Titans, to who you know, they aren't what they used to be offensively or defensively, and, yeah, they proved me right. So, like me, I'm really more so looking at it as if the Titans really only scored one touchdown, although the box score says 1714 on their end. But yeah, man, it was a good game from, you know, devon Lloyd and a young player who we've continued to, you know, praise and you know said he had to be one of those players, one of those X factors of X factor like players who needed to step from where he was.
Speaker 2:Last year to this year he led the team in tackles that they had 11 total tackles. So that's good, that's what you'd like to see. And he tackled so well. It kind of, you know, leaked into foyer stats who I have him on fantasy, but foyer wasn't the you know tackling machine that he was. He still had six tackles overall. But normally we're used to seeing foyer with the double digits and we're used to seeing Lloyd with the single digit tackles. But yeah, you know he was pretty active today.
Speaker 2:Of course there were some concerns with Tyson Campbell being outright, who a lot of people were saying like maybe you know we brought him back a little sooner than you should have. But yeah, I mean I had to go back and look at the film but I only saw one time where my terror got beat badly, you know, but a k buster for those who were wondering who my terror kids. So you know he stepped in. For the most part, from what I seen so far, again, we'll have to go back and look at the game again, but he was fine.
Speaker 2:And you know, the secondary was much better than they were. That was a key part to the loss of last week to as well. Secondary just kind of look out of whack in that second half especially, which you can't blame them, because they did what they could for their first half in the floodgates just kind of open on them afterwards. But secondary look much better even despite being without Tyson Campbell. Overall, I'm impressed with the game they had and, yeah, man, I'm glad they were able to bounce back again. That's what we need is, you know, that defensive side of the ball leading the way as they have, because that's good reason why we're seven and three right now.
Speaker 1:We need them to have momentum going into this Texas game because you know, as we all know, the last Texas game was ugly yeah they're going to be playing a much better quarterback in CJ Stroud and you know, even though, again, sometimes these, some of these runs that rookies go on can be a bit inflated, there is no denying that he is a good quarterback, but, yeah, I mean, will Leviss just couldn't get anything going. You know, watching it in person, jay, I can't imagine how frustrating it would be if you were rooting for the Tennessee Titans because, again, just nothing there. They tried Tajaispears, they tried getting it to. You know, they did have. I think it was an ender. No, it was a some sort of trick play to Chris Moore. He had a big run that was a 49 yard catch, but that was his only contribution throughout the entire day.
Speaker 1:So, again, this is the type of performance you want to see against a team You're supposed to be significantly better than, and that's what the Jaguars are right now. They are the much better football team and my hope is and you know Eric and I actually talked about this while we were at the game, you know, while the Titans had sustained success for, you know, a good run, you know, during the prime Derek Henry years, they never did anything with it, right, jay? And you know I'd love to talk to Stoney about this in the future and what he thinks about it, because they were never a legitimate threat. Right, I think that you know they made an AFC Championship game but nobody thought they were going to beat I think it was the Tom Brady Patriots at the time. Nobody ever thought they were as good as, like, the Steelers of that time.
Speaker 1:You know those teams that we were consistently seeing in the AFC Championship games, like Tennessee would maybe host a playoff game Like remember that one year they were the one seed but were immediately out in that divisional round. Like I want Jacksonville to obviously have that sustained run of success that Tennessee did, but also be a legitimate threat and Tennessee just never felt that way, you know. And then that's obviously you know we are extremely biased and the Titans are our most hated rival. You want to make sure that you are building something that is going to be legitimate. Like I don't want to be sorry to point this out, jay Like I don't want to be that. Remember that Hawks team that won like 65 games, one seed, and nobody nobody thought they were getting past LeBron, but they had a hell of a regular season, but they were a real threat. Sorry to bring that up, buddy.
Speaker 2:Oh, I remember that Hawks team with Al Horford and all those guys Like yeah, they were, like they went crazy that you know that regular season. But I think we all knew, like I don't know, what they're going really doing to play out.
Speaker 1:Like Jeff Teague and Kyle Corver were all stars that year or something. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Dennis Schroeder was on that team, if I can recall as well, and like they sent like what four all stars to the all star game that year. Because I can remember, because like it was all for them on the ball court or on the court with LeBron at one point in time at the all star game I was like damn man like it made me think of, like just wish LeBron could join the Hawks and just wreck havoc on the league that year.
Speaker 2:But of course LeBron wouldn't want any parts of the Hawks no big free agents really do for that matter. But yeah, I remember that year. It was fun from the standpoint of the regular season but, yeah, very disappointing from the standpoint of the postseason. And you're right, you know I don't want to be one of those teams too, especially like this is my thing, like if you're one of those teams like the Titans where you are excellent in the regular season and just running through your division but you get to the postseason and do nothing with it. It would be a little different from us from the standpoint of it would feel like we're wasting a good quarterbacks prime right. Trevellance has made the postseason you know whatever X amount of times and he hasn't. You know we haven't been able to get him a Super Bowl. That would feel terrible to me, you know. It would feel much worse than Titans fans probably feel about their run as well. But the luxury and all of that is is different from us and I think we'll have more believers than the Titans did because we do have Trevor Lawrence. Then again, trevor Lawrence is more hated than I thought, or he's we've talked about this in podcasts that he's more hated than he should be, which is just odd, and we're just talking about people outside of the fan base, writing and casuals that don't even include the ones within the fan base. But yeah, that would feel terrible for me and you know I hate to say it, but you know that all falls on Trent Baalke in terms of if they are a team that continues to make the postseason, can he put enough around? And that's why I don't like Trent Baalke, because I don't know if he can or can put enough around Trevor Lawrence in terms of making us much better than a team that performs well in the regular season, if that makes sense. Then again, you know Bill Polian, who I compare Trent Baalke to at least, is one Super Bowl. So maybe with Trent Baalke they can win one Super Bowl.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure on that, but I would certainly say I would feel more comfortable in us being able to be more than a regular season team or a regular season darling, if we had another GM. So that's where the, you know, that's the X factor to me. Maybe I should start pushing my Chris Ballard to Jacksonville agenda. And for those of you who don't know who Chris Ballard is, that's the coach GM right now, who he probably won't get Fire this year because Richardson got hurt and like, hey, what can you do? But you know, maybe I should start pushing my Chris Ballard to Jacksonville agenda, getting him back in here with Doug Peterson, who he knew from you know his days with the Chiefs, and then I feel like we can make some noise. But that's, that's for a whole nother podcast. I don't even want to go down that road.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have about had it with the bulky masterclass here on our side, but hey, again, that is a conversation for a later time. Jay, is there anything you also want to mention here on this? As far as this game goes, before we talk a little bit about what they need to do to play much better than they did the first time around against the Houston Texans. As you know, they'll be one of the few teams that does get to match up with CJ Stroud twice, so hopefully they will have some takeaways from their first meeting. But anything else you want to highlight from this game before we move on and wrap up the episode?
Speaker 2:No, man, I mean nothing really to add or complain about. Pretty good all around game for us that we needed, as we said earlier in the podcast. And yeah, this, this Texas game, is a huge one and we didn't know that it would be this huge right beforehand in the season. But here we are. So, yeah, I can't wait to, you know, see how we look against them Because, again, they are a much better team than expected and also just for the sake of, like the division wins right, I think we're at what?
Speaker 2:three and one division wise, I would love to finish with just one division loss and I would love to not get swept by the Texans as well to. That would be a blemish that you know we hear about for a long time as well. So yeah, man, I can't wait, man, and look forward to another Victory Sunday or Monday or Tuesday episode whenever we record it for that win as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, listen, like we said, you know what CJ Stroud is doing cannot be ignored, right? But I mean, arizona is not a good football team. All right, yeah, they got Kyla Murray back, but 21 to 16, you know the Cardinals were in position to win that game. Cj Stroud I mean people talking about him being the MVP, I think we should certainly pump the brakes on that. But I mean, listen, we, we totally get it. And it's tough because he does play for a division rival. It's tough being fans of specific players when they can, you know, obviously directly affect the success of your team.
Speaker 1:So, you know, jay, what do you think are going to be the kind of the keys to victory there? Just really quick, you know, to kind of wrap this thing up, because last time Houston came in, and you know they, they certainly took care of business. You know the obviously early, very, very early in the season, early on into the Press Taylor play calling experiment, early on, before the defense kind of found its footing. You know, obviously it was a while back. What kind of things do they need to do differently to ensure they don't get swept because you got to split with Houston here, especially if this division is going to come down to the wire unexpectedly right.
Speaker 1:A lot of people expected Jacksonville to run away with this thing and, in true NFL fashion, there's always that one team right that kind of sneaks up on you, and Houston has been that team this year. So what kind of things are you going to be circling and going to be looking for as far as the Jaguars, for them to make sure that they don't get swept, and what do they have to do? Much better this time around than their first meeting.
Speaker 2:Well, me and you have been doing podcasting for years and we're so good at our job that we already mentioned it and didn't even know like this was going to be part of the end of segment. But for me well, I guess I mentioned it was establishing the run game and here's why that's important to me and getting Travis ETM back going and, you know, the earnings picking up where he left off. But that's important to me because the games that I've watched Against the Texans, I always lead those games, not necessarily the game we played against the Texas, but the wins that they've had. I've left some of those games wondering like man, like I wish the team would have controlled the clock a little bit more. Specifically, that Tampa Bay game right, where you know they scored at the end of the game and you know you're looking at the clock it's like I don't know if they got enough time to come back from that. And then the Texas, you know, throw some explosive daggers down the field, like, and march back within three plays. It was insane. I was like what in God's name is going on here? But Tank Dell, who was Boogie's dude, shout out to Boogie. But Tank Dell, you know, was able to help them get down the fast, down to feel faster than you typically would be.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that's why clock management and clock control is kind of important and I know that's not Doug Peterson's forte but it needs to be his thing in this game is, you know, especially late in the game we need Travis ETN to, you know, break off some of those explosive plays that I mentioned earlier that he was able to do, and break off late in games in the past or earlier in the season. And we need to, you know, control the clock, especially heading into that last you know, if it's close, heading into them last five minutes, whatever the case may be, because, make no mistake about it, with how defenses play late in games these days, cj Shroud is going to eat that up right, and we've seen it many, many times. So clock management is one, and I think just physicality almost mean to sound like a coach here and give you all like typical coach speak, but I do think physicality in this game means it's going to mean a lot because if you have these young you know this young Texas team that's probably the youngest in the division who you know they're on their high horse right now. They believe they have a chance to win this division.
Speaker 2:And sometimes those type of teams need to be brought back to reality. And a prime example of what I'm talking about, one of those humbling moments where you know somebody has to put you in your seat and tell you like, no, no, you're not, you're not that good yet Is the game we just which witness last week, right Us against the 49ers. That's a prime example of what I'm talking about. And the Jacksonville Jaguars on paper are the better team.
Speaker 2:The Jacksonville Jaguars on paper should be the Houston Texans and they need to go on the field and be physical with this team, especially how with the last game went, where they handedly beat us. But they need that punch back in the mouth to say, like, not just that, hey, we are the Jacksonville Jaguars, this is our division. But also you guys are much further off than you believe. You are Like, we are much better than the team that you saw some weeks ago that you beat up on. Y'all caught us slipping and we need to establish that and not just win. But for me, I think we need to win in convincing fashion, because that team is really, really, really you know, they're on the high horse.
Speaker 2:They're rightfully feeling themselves after what they've done, and you need to humble those teams because if you don't, in this opportunity that we get against them on Sunday, they'll keep rolling and that'll lead into them having the kind of season we had last year where we rolled off a bunch of wins at the end of the season. So the Jaguars got an opportunity to humble the. Houston Texans and they need to take advantage of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not only a rookie quarterback but a rookie head coach.
Speaker 1:You know and listen, what D'Amico Ryan's has done is is outstanding and we kind of expected him to have a lot of success as well, coming from that 49ers tree.
Speaker 1:But this is where Doug Peterson and that staff you know you got Mike McCoy, we talk about him all the time. This is where the staff has to put together a game plan and look at that tape, see what they did wrong, see where they the mistakes were made and adjust those and, like you said, kind of show, make this a little brother game, show Houston, show the rest of the division, show the league that the AFC South belongs to Jacksonville, that this is a huge game and it was probably one on our calendar that we weren't marking down. We were looking at all the rest of the games around this time, you know again Niners, bengals, ravens those are the games we were focusing on and didn't expect the game on November 26 against Houston to be this important and it needs to be a statement game. They need to come out on top, obviously, and and continue this momentum heading into this stretch. Go ahead, jay.
Speaker 2:You're absolutely right and you mentioned something a key reason why we need to make it a little brother game is because the Miko Ryan's, who is a defensive coach, you know he's the reason why they're.
Speaker 2:You know they have the momentum they have Not.
Speaker 2:I mean, obviously the players play into that as well. But I'm saying, like he's probably a big reason as to the psyche of this team and the mentality of this team too, and nothing is more humbling than, you know, a defensive coach like, hey, you know, I got this physical team, this, that and the other getting humble and out physical, basically in a game. You know, that kind of is a statement game from the standpoint it shows you, yeah, y'all, you know, y'all tough, Y'all got some haymakers, but we're with them a lot of hominale Lord bless his soul with a Muhammad Ali of this division. So yeah, like it also sends a statement to like them from the standpoint of how the Miko Ryan's have them mentally wired. I guess is what I'm trying to say as a defensive coach. Those are the kind of teams you do need to humble because, again, like he's gotten them this far, they're at five wins, they have a positive win record and it could, even they can roll off five more with the way that he has them wired as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of the line. Hopefully the Jaguars will send us into the holiday season with a lot to look forward to as again really really big divisional matchup against Houston. It's been a They've had a little bit of a checkered past playing in that stadium but again, if you want to establish yourself as the Kings of the South, this is that time to do so. But, jay, very much looking forward to this matchup here next weekend, excited to eat some food, hang out with the family. We'll get to hang out here on Thanksgiving. You know we'll all be together. It'll be a good time but we will enjoy our food, enjoy our company and then hopefully look forward to another Jacksonville Jaguar win. Jay, anything else you want to mention here on this episode for our audience before we wrap it up and again start focusing on Houston?
Speaker 2:Nope, that's it, man. Of course, always feel free to check us out on the website Touchdown Jaguars I forgot to mention that earlier, and you know you can find archive episodes on there as well too and feel free to rate, comment, subscribe, interact with us on Twitter at sportsground underscore done at feel the Filipino. But yeah, that's it, man. Great episode and can't wait to come back and do it again next week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, everything you need is in that link tree link here in the show notes of this episode. Everybody, you have a fun and safe Thanksgiving, enjoy time with your family and enjoy shopping, I guess, if that's still what you're into here this weekend. But we appreciate everybody checking out Touchdown Jaguars. Once again, I am Phil Smith. That's your co-host. James Johnson, don't forget to tune in to Touchdown Jaguars for every Jaguar touchdown and we'll see you next week.