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Touchdown Jaguars!
Touchdown Jaguars!
Episode 123: Texans/Jaguars Week 3 Analysis - Jags Find a Way to 2-1
The Jaguars secure a gritty 17-10 divisional win against the Texans, improving to 2-1 despite offensive struggles as the defense continues its remarkable transformation under Anthony Campanile.
• Defense has already forced nine turnovers in three games, including seven interceptions (more than their entire 2023 season total)
• Defensive standouts include Jourdan Lewis, Tyson Campbell's crucial strip of Nico Collins, and Josh Hines-Allen who is one of the NFL’s leaders in pressures
• Devin Lloyd has experienced a career revival, showing vastly improved all-around play
• Trevor Lawrence (20/40, 222 yards, INT) showed resilience despite offensive struggles, including a key audible from run to pass for a 40+ yard connection with Brian Thomas Jr.
• Brenton Strange emerging as a consistent threat with 6 catches for 61 yards, becoming Lawrence's most reliable target
• Offensive issues include continued drops from receivers and frustrating penalties that killed drives
• Cultural shift under Liam Coen evident in team unity, transparent communication, and players' refusal to point fingers after mistakes
The team now faces a significant test with a West Coast trip to San Francisco, where they'll look to overcome their historical struggles when playing on the Pacific coast.
James Johnson and Phil Barrera 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 New York City City of the New York City City of the Still running and go. That is right and go. Touchdown Jacksonville 109 yards, incredible, incredible Play action. Portals Upstairs Wide open. Tommy Bohannon Touchdown Jacksonville. Looking for Jimmy in the end zone. Touchdown Jaguars. Touchdown Jaguars. Touchdown Jaguars. Welcome to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. Here are your hosts, james Johnson and Phil Smith. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. I'm your co-host, phil Barrera, and joining us, as always, is your other co-host, james Johnson. And Jay, we have the luxury of recording on yet another Victory Monday. You know we're not coming off the cleanest Sunday, but a win is a win, as they say, right, and not only is a win is a win, a division win is a win. So we're here to talk about that, maybe some things that we liked, some things that we didn't like, but hey, the season's early, right, jay? They are figuring things out, as they say, and you know what I will take 2-1 heading into the final week of September, pretty much anytime.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, man, we are right on track for where I projected us to be at this point in my prediction 2-1. I always have said we got to come out of that first stretch at least two and two, and we, at the very least, will do that. So that's huge, right, um, as you said, not the cleanest game, um, and they left a lot of meat on the bone, so to speak. And, um, you know you, you do come out of a win like this with some concerns, but at the end of the day, as you said, the keys here is that it was a victory in the division right against the former divisional champs. That's huge. You can't overlook that.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, it does look like indy might be the better team in the division right now, but we'll see and time will tell. I've always told people Chris Ballard is a underrated GM and is showing, but we'll talk about the Colts when we get to the Colts right. That's later down the road. We don't want to talk about them right now. It's all about the Jags today. And yeah, man, I'm just glad we got the W in, and we'll talk about all of those things in terms of concerns.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've. We've had like this strange feeling about the Houston Texans. You know, listen like there's no denying what CJ Stroud has done early in his career. We've been fans of D'Amico Ryan's, just kind of, as you know, coaching wise and obviously through his career, a guy that has been very, very successful. But there's just something off about them, right, and we saw that. So neither team really obviously played very well, but somebody luckily had to come out on top and win the game and that was the Jacksonville Jaguars. And, like we said, we will take that basically every time. So, yeah, we're going to break down the game here, what we saw and what we want to look forward to and what they can improve upon, but we'll go over all that here in just a moment.
Speaker 2:Go ahead, jay. Yeah, I mean, you're right, man. That's when we had that preseason. Talk about, like, what direction we were leaning in with the records, and you know those words that I said, man, when you're in doubt, what does history say right, and that that made us do a little bit of digging of. You know the history of a team that always falls out of the playoff slot that they were in right, and you know the one that felt the most like logical was the Texans, kind of you know. And not only that too, man, like. One thing I wanted to say is this goes to show you too, man, like and we're early in the season Like this thing could still turn around for the Texans. But 0-3 is kind of hard to climb out of right, and 0-4, we all seen the statistics of climbing out of 0-4.
Speaker 2:You done, you done, son so we'll see if they can crawl out of this one. But you know, when you look at a lot of what the analysts were saying nationally before the season about the Texans and what have you, this is why we didn't really have faith in the Texas field. This game is a prime example. We didn't play great at all and that offensive line still allowed us to win this game. Essentially that's what you could pin it on is their offensive line allowed us to win this game. That young offensive line and I knew something was up when you know and he used to be a Jaguar, so you know.
Speaker 2:All due respect, but when you're looking for answers like Cam Robinson at left tackle, right, you got a rookie that ended up starting over Cam Robinson at left tackle and you, you, you clean out your OC. I'm forgetting his name. He was with the San Francisco 49ers man. He was high on the head coaching's list. That's escaping me but you get rid of your offensive coordinator. It just felt like and we would know because we watched what a dumpster fire looks like many, many times. It just felt like something was off and I don't want to say it felt like a dumpster fire was brewing in the field, but you could definitely smell some lighter fluid in the bottom of the dumpster. You know, and here we are. It showed up, it reared his head and now you know CJ Stroud is.
Speaker 2:Is the guy that, like, people are all of a sudden questioning? If he's the guy, which, that should have already been a question before this week, particularly, which that should have already been a question before this week particularly but now people are questioning him. You have all of these tweets going out about you know what's going on with him this, that and the other, and it feels like maybe him and Trevor Lawrence might swap places. I don't know. Then again, like we are the Jaguars, so they'll probably continue to like harp on Trevor Lawrence, but it does seem like CJ Stroud is starting to get those questions and, uh, the the eyes of you know these number one quarterbacks that have been drafted um, that could potentially be bust and what have you. It sounds like those whispers are starting to get stronger, for CJ Stroud is the best way to put it, I guess are starting to get stronger, for CJ Stroud is the best way to put it, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I mean, and like you said, you cannot just, you know, wave off to playoff wins. That's not easy to do. Bobby Sloic, by the way, that's the name you're thinking of in terms of the offensive coordinator, but yeah, you can't just like, wave off to playoff wins. That is not easy to do. It's more playoff wins than Trevor Lawrence has. But there's just something about the Houston Texans that's just a little bit off and I think Texans fans will probably tell you the same thing. You know, we'll get a Texans guest in here at some point to kind of confirm that vibe, but I don't know, man, indianapolis, like a lot of people have said, has really always been just a quarterback away and they've had that rotating door and, honestly, like Daniel Jones possibly ending up being the guy could be something that's, like you know, ends up being not disastrous. You know that is a, of course, too strong of a term, but, like one of the worst case scenarios is if the Colts found their quarterback and Daniel Jones, who's still very young and is currently, you know, lighten it up. So we'll see what that, what happens there. Like you said, we'll approach that bridge when we approach the Indy Bridge. But yeah, guys, before we jump fully into the episode, want to thank you so much for checking out Touchdown Jaguars. Checking out touchdown Jaguars. Make sure you click the link tree link in the show notes of this and every single episode to find everything you need social media wise for the podcast, as well as using that SeatGeek link to save $20 on your first purchase through SeatGeek. We appreciate those of you who have already done so.
Speaker 1:But let's get into the recap. The Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Houston Texans 17-10 behind. Once again, another stellar defensive performance, as well as plays on the offensive end at the right time. Is our Trevor and BTJ going to get this thing on the right track? Maybe we saw the beginnings of that here in the past week. Statistically, nothing is really going to stand out too much on the offensive end 20 of 40, 222 yards and an interception for Trevor Lawrence, travis Etienne was held relatively in check, as well as Basial Tootin, but they did score the two touchdowns for the Jaguars in this game.
Speaker 1:Brenton Strange, six carries, 61 yards. But again, like I said, jay, defensively people showing up Tyson Campbell making a play when we needed him to. Devin Lloyd, is he back on the right side of things? Travis Hunter, making plays that weren't necessarily show up on the stat box on the defensive end, but also had a really, really nice play on the offensive end.
Speaker 1:As far as his one catch for 21 yards for a first down conversion, the interceptions came from Jordan. His one catch for 21 yards for a first down conversion. The interceptions came from Jordan Lewis and Antonio Johnson. Boy Jay. What a pick-up Jordan Lewis has been, and I know Dallas Cowboys fans are not happy that he is no longer playing Jerry's World Boy. What an interesting offseason Dallas Cowboys fans have had, as they just got blown out by the Chicago Bears. But yeah, so, jay, wherever you would like to start, what were some takeaways you had from the game? Again, not a very pretty win, but at the end of the day, when you have a new head coach, as he said in his very fiery post-game speech, you've got to learn. You learn to win, win and, even though there are definitely some things you want to clean up, nico Collins had himself a eight catch, 104 yard game and touchdown. But, uh, you know where would you like to start and what?
Speaker 2:what is the first thing you'd like to point out about Sunday's win so the first takeaway that I came away with was just and what you mentioned, man just how night and day different this defense is from where it was last year and look like they're not a perfect defense, but they are pretty good in all the right places. Right, you know, there's still some like concerns about the interior part of it and what we have in defensive tackle, but, as Pete Prisco has said, it feels like we have enough there, right, but maybe that's why you hear all these rumors about us maybe trading for Dexter Lawrence, right, which I don't see happening. But it would be nice. That would be the missing piece that we talked about, that, phil, that would be the Marcel Darius piece to this defense, kind of like it was back then when we got Darius. That was like the missing piece for them. But yeah, man, nine turnovers and shout outs to our buddy, cameron Wolf, who tweeted this nine turnovers out of that defense. In three of their regular season games They've had seven picks. They had only six last year. They've already eclipsed the um, the picks department in terms of where they were, which you know that was. It was, uh, it wouldn't be really exactly hard to overcome that. But yeah, man, like that just shows you the kind of amount of effort and time that Anthony Campanile puts into turnovers and picks, because, like anytime the ball is up in the air, man guys are diving for it, putting it all on the line, and that's another thing I'm noticing, phil too, is the effort man. Like the effort looks night and day different from this defense. It was times where we looked at film last year, remember, and it felt like dudes were loafing. But whatever it is that Anthony Campanile has and it you know it's not a shocker.
Speaker 2:When you hear the stories about Anthony Campanile, we all can remember the big um a whooping is a universal language speech that he gave to the Miami Dolphins. The guys rally around him and you know the guys rally around him and you know they make reference to him often in their press conferences. Where there's Jordan Lewis, joshua Hines, allen, you can tell they love playing for this man and the result is how they fly around to the ball and cause these turnovers and, you know, get their hands up on these passes and, you know, cause all of this havoc that they're causing. And it's a defense that is um kind of havoc based anyway, because he's a disciple of Vic Fangio likes to blitz, you know, so on and so forth. So we kind of expected that.
Speaker 2:But in the past, ophiel, when we've tried to kind of move to this style of a defensive, aggressive, blitzing style of a defense, normally it's a big learning curve and I think that's the difference here is remember we tried it with Joe Cullen we tried to embrace that Baltimore Ravens style that he was going to bring this aggressive, blitzing style of a defense and it kind of it was a slow transition that was under the Urban Meyer days. This transition is happening way quicker and I think that's what's going to be the key to when we look back at the end of the season, if we make it to the playoffs. I think that's going to be the key that gets us into the playoffs is how we started early and why we started as well as we did early, which is probably going to be because of this defense. Earlier in the season I said it myself, right, phil, that I think what could hurt us is that this defense would start slow and they're doing the exact opposite and for that reason they are the reason we won, you know, at least a majority of these games. You know the Panthers game was kind of, you know, a mixture of both. You know we had a good offensive showing there as well, but this game especially is the reason why we were able to overtake the division champions. I think there'll be a big part in overtaking the Colts too, when that again, we'll talk about that when we get there.
Speaker 2:And that being said, man, I just love what Anthony Campanile has brought to this defense. You don't want to speak too early because that's what we've done in the past about these defensive coordinators, but they really rally around this guy. It's really different from the past defensive coordinators we have. They love this guy and you know they'll run through a brick wall for him. So that was my first takeaway. Curious to hear your thoughts on what they've done so far.
Speaker 1:Yeah to see this kind of turnaround, like just so early in the game. And it's not like Saxonville, right that that Saxonville team was obviously getting to the quarterback and getting home in the quarterback. This team is also getting to the quarterback, but not in the necessarily in the same way where it's showing up once again, you know, in the highlight reels, but you know you're talking about Josh Heinz Allen and Trayvon Walker combining for 11 of the 20 pressures. You're seeing, like I said, jordan Lewis be a leader, not only in the locker room but out on the field and just continuing to do his thing. Devin Lloyd, who we had all but essentially written off, you know we're wondering, like how in the hell has Madden rated him this high? Who did he talk to over EA to convince people that he was this good? And look at that. He's making us eat our words, which is something we love to do. We love to be proven wrong here on the podcast when it comes to this team, because we have always called them out and always been extremely honest when it comes to their performance. So when it comes down to a game like that, your offense is struggling, the defense needs to step up, and that is what they have done and that is what they have continued to do here in the early going.
Speaker 1:When you talk about a team that is going to certainly be desperate to get a win here very shortly, you're going to have a really big test coming up of course here in a couple of weeks when you know who knows what the Kansas City Chiefs record is going to be coming into Monday night football Next weekend. You know I circled that game not to look too far ahead. Obviously we're talking about this week, but like we circled this game as one where you know they don't play very well on the West Coast. But now, when you're talking about how Campanile has this defense playing, they should be 100% prepared to play Mac Jones. You know right, and listen, Mac Jones is. Remember a couple years ago this was making rounds over on Twitter.
Speaker 1:Dan Orlovsky said that if Mac Jones were playing in San Francisco, we'd be talking about him the way that we talk about Brock Purdy. Hey, listen, they won. They got to win, right, okay, and the 49ers got to be a little nervous because if Mac Jones plays like Brock Purdy does and they just gave Brock Purdy that big contract people are going to be a little nervous in San Francisco about the money they have tied up in that quarterback, but you know we will see what happens. But yeah, jay, in terms of the defense, you want to. We will see what happens. But yeah, jay, in terms of the defense, like you want to continue to see them do this.
Speaker 1:Now, we've talked about this before in this podcast. Turnovers come and go right. That ebbs and flows, and do I expect them to continue to get three turnovers a game? Maybe not necessarily, but we certainly expect them to continue to put the you know the offense in good positions and also pick up for the slack that maybe the offense is having right now while they continue to figure things out over there. But yeah, jay, I mean a lot of really, really positive and encouraging things from the defense that we have seen thus far. So can't wait to see them continue to grow underneath this play calling and this coaching staff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think the biggest part of the turnovers regardless of how they come in the future and if they come in bunches or continue to come like they are or they come a little bit slower I think was the key part about the turnovers is that they're coming in key moments. Right, the Texans finally are able to pass the 50-yard line and it looks like they might have a chance to score some actual points. And Jordan Lewis intercepts Stroud and puts a fork in that play. You know, they could have maybe even come away with a field goal with a few more yards, right. Um, it looks like the. The momentum was shifting with the Nico Collins play where and and you know we've been hard on this is another guy we've been hard on who redeemed himself. Tyson Campbell comes up with a clutch strip and just, you know and this is another thing too like the, the coaching is different and it's registering Nico Collins leaves the ball available for a split second for Tyson Campbell to strip it and he's on it like a radar right, like it happened so fast, phil, I didn't even notice it, but Nico tried to turn up Phil and as he was turning up Phil, he left the ball open for Tyson to swipe at it just for a split second. It wasn't even that long and Tyson went straight for the ball, despite Nico catching it for a first down, went straight for the ball. It rolls right into Devin Lloyd's hands a waiting hands and you know that puts a fork in a key drive where it looks like the Texans would have had momentum. You know how, like when you're looking on ESPN and they have a little probability graph there, I'm pretty sure the probability graph was going in the Texans' favor until that happened, and then it probably started to shift back into Jaguars' favor. So yeah, man, like I just love what I'm seeing out of this defense and, as you said, I think a unique thing about it too is how they're getting pressure. They're getting it from different people. Dewey is getting pressure at times right on these blitzes I've seen Devin Lloyd up in there and of course, josh Hines Allen, who I believe John Shipley might have put a stat out about this, but he leads edge rushers in pressures this year, if I'm not mistaken, with like 17 or something like that. So Josh Hines-Allen is pressuring the quarterback at an all-time high rate, at a league high rate, which is that's pretty good to see.
Speaker 2:Now, on the second takeaway that I'll take away, we'll go to the offensive side, the resilience on the offensive side. It was an ugly game for the offense and it's no ifs, ands or buts about it, man, these penalties, they have to be cleared up, man. We still got another illegal shift penalty. I think we only got one this time, but still, you hate to see that and it's just repeated. Silly penalties, and not only just the penalties, though. Also, this issue of drops has to get cleared up, man, and it's odd because this has been plaguing the Jaguars for years, not just this regime, but it played the Doug Peterson regime and I feel like it played the regime before that, even Erb and them. It might have been an issue with them as well. But this issue of drops, man, it has to get cleaned up, man, and you know I was thinking about it today.
Speaker 2:You know Trevor Lawrence has his critics right and a big part of his struggles, phil, could be these drops right. Like people say, he'll get cold. But how can you get hot when you're putting the ball right on your receivers for these key third down conversions which Brian Thomas was one of the ones who dropped. Another key third down conversion, parker Washington, who we thought was the most reliable receiver of these guys. He had two drops. How do you warm yourself up from a cold spurt when your receivers don't catch the ball on these key third down positions that we have to have right? And how do you warm yourself up from a cold spurt where you're getting these silly little penalties that you're getting right, so like it's kind of in a way, like you can blame Trevor Lawrence for some of the things he's doing, but it's really hard for him to awaken himself when his teammates have pulled a fork in any momentum that he's gaining. So like that. That has to stop and they have to find a way to help him as he's trying to awaken from these little droughts that he will have. So that's something.
Speaker 2:But going back to what I was saying, the resilience of the offense, despite all of these drops, despite all of the penalties, despite all of that, the offense made a play when it mattered the most and we all have heard the story. I put out the tweet about it, which got a lot of likes and whatnot, and Liam discussed it. But the play where Brian Thomas Jr got his 40-plus yard gain that was initially a run play right and Trevor Lawrence saw that it was cover zero, changed the play from a run to a pass. Had Brian Thomas Jr run the post, it was wide open Hit him in stride Two beautiful pass, by the way, hit him in stride. Kudos for Brian Thomas for getting over his previous drops and catching that on the dime and he was able to run without slowing his momentum after the catch.
Speaker 2:Shout outs to them for still being able to link up on that pass attempt despite all they had been going through. And we even said it in the thread. Man, it's like I'm a little scared to throw to Brian Thomas Jr. But guess who wasn't? Number 16 wasn't, and that play is proof that he still trusts that Brian Thomas Jr is going to get right and that Brian Thomas Jr is going to get right and that Brian Thomas Jr is going to make the plays that need to be made. He did that right after Brian had dropped the key. Third down for him Went to him no hesitation and you got to give 16 and 7 their props for being able to link up when they needed to the most. So the resilience of the offense is my other key takeaway in terms of what they were able to do and, you know, hopefully that one moment sparks this offense to play at a more consistent level, which is kind of what Liam exactly said in his press conference after the game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jay, I was looking at the all 22 of that throw to brian thomas jr and when trevor's throwing it, brian thomas jr is not in the frame. He's not even in the frame. I think it's like maybe the like the tiniest bit of his helmet. But yeah, that is so important for trev to still believe in his guy. He's obviously going to bat for him in the press conferences in front of media and you know, it's just such a nice breath of fresh air with these press conferences. For you know, even after the Bengals loss, you know, liam Cohen is being very fair, but he's also going to bat for his guys. Now, what happens when they, you know, maybe lose two in a row? We'll see what, you know, if that happens, if it comes to that, you know how do those look and how is everybody responding. That's definitely going to be a big part of it as well. But yeah, I mean for him to continue to trust in his guy and you know, I know the Boo Birds were coming down at the stadium and and listen, fans have every right to do so. You know, we've obviously been very critical of what is going on with Brian Thomas Jr. But yeah, that could be the moment, ma'am, that could be the moment in terms of getting him right and getting him a little confidence and just getting past all whatever it is that's going on mentally, because it does appear to be mental, um.
Speaker 1:But yeah, and then we talked about you know very briefly mentioned the, the nice Travis Hunter catch that he had for the first down. You know what was the second and 20. And he, he spins and jukes his way to a first down. I believe he played mostly on defense. I think he played 43 snaps on defense again. Played very well to bring up the defense again.
Speaker 1:But yeah, jay, in the moments where what has been going very well for you early this season, which of course has been the run game, when that is not getting it done, can you make the prerequisite plays to get yourself in position to win Jaguars offense did that? We'll take the win, get out of there and hope to look better next week against San Francisco. But, yeah, a lot, a lot of really good stuff there. And then Brenton Strange, you know being a solid target as well six catches out of seven targets for 61 yards. So yeah, some encouraging things. But uh, they get that cleaned up, jay, and they're firing on all cylinders. Then you know what. You start feeling really good, yeah, and you know firing on all cylinders.
Speaker 2:Then you know what. You start feeling really good, yeah. And you know, knock on wood, they won't have to go through that scenario you mentioned, where you know it's a streak of losses. But what makes me feel good about if they go through that the fact that they didn't finger point right. You're coming off of this putrid loss to the Bengals. It would have been easily, especially in this day and age, how the younger generation like to point fingers at each other. It could have been easy for them in that third and fourth quarter to start pointing fingers at each other Like BT, you need to catch right, tyson, you can't be jumping on double moves right, like they could have easily. You know, not been mature about it is how I would put it. You know, and that's that's a good thing, because this is a young team, this is one of the younger teams in the league. They could have easily not been mature about it and just started finger pointing, but they stood in there together. You know. You see these things like Josh Allen at the end of the the game, um in the interview with Aditi Kikobwala, where he's saying like you know him and Trevorobwala, where he's saying like you know him and Trevor standing there with her and he's saying like man, like I'll put it all on the line for this guy, for Trevor Lawrence. You know like that goes to show you that whatever it is culturally that Liam Cohen and James Gladstone and Tony Bocelli have brought to this team is night and day different from where it was before. Because they probably would have started pointing fingers at each other had it been under the Doug Peterson regime or the Urban Meyer regime. We would have maybe saw some, you know some, some altercations on the sideline, not necessarily hands being thrown at each other, but people yelling at each other. You know how that goes. You see that all the time, players having to be broke up and things like that, but they stayed together, man, and yeah, I really like you kind of hit on it, phil, in these press conferences and these social media presentations, and I think this is something that the organization knew they needed to fix. After coming off the Doug Peterson era, they're so much more transparent, transparent right. We're seeing so much more out of this team. They're now showing pre-game or after the game pep talks from Lee and Cohen. We never seen anything like that. Like that went viral, not just in the Jaguars community but in the NFL community, like lots of retweets for that and what have you. But yeah, we're now seeing these pep talks that happen after the game and then in sounds of the game, you're seeing these interactions between the team. Like you could tell, like Shaq Khan or somebody heard us in terms of our cries, for this team is just too behind the wall, like it's not a lot of transparency. And you know what, now that I'm thinking about it, the person that probably cured this was Tony Bocelli, the EVP, because he's always had his ear to the ground. He's always communicated through the radio, he's always listened to the fans. They're way more transparent and it's showing and it's helping them in a cultural way in terms of you know how they are weathering the storm when things do get rough.
Speaker 2:So the last thing, my last takeaway you hit on it, brenton Strange man. Just what a star he's becoming in the making. Again, the stats won't really stand out, but at times it feels like he's the only reliable target for Trevor right. When we went through that spurt where Parker was dropping the ball, you know, we at the very least thought we had Parker Washington to lean on. He was dropping the ball. Bt was dropping the ball, travis Etienne had a drop right in terms of one that was thrown at him. It felt like Brent Strange would be like the only surefire guy to go to man. And yeah, he is.
Speaker 2:Just in terms of the physicality aspect of it, which we already knew, we praised him for what he brought to the table physically, but also as the pass catcher. He's putting it all together, man. And you know we're coming up on a time where it's clear as day that the top of the mountain, at the tight end position, there's going to be a change there. George Kittle don't look like himself anymore. Travis Kelsey don't look like himself anymore. And this young man, brenton Strange man, somebody who can do a little bit of everything, watch out for him, man. I won't be surprised if Brenton Strange becomes one of those guys that you know can be a pro bowler this year and then, you know, if we win, like we're supposed to, an all pro down the road. It looks like he has the makings and the traits of a player that could be just that yeah, you know you're talking about, of course, brenton Strange.
Speaker 1:you know the, the guy the bears just drafted, uh, colston loveland, brock bowers. You know there's a youth moving at tight end. You know we are moving on from the george kittle, travis kelsey era and, uh, there, there's some new guys here, uh, that are starting to step up. You really, really love to see it. Um, even, I think, uh, harold fannin jr, the guy that we were really high on in the draft, is doing so well, they're talking about David Njoku being on the trade block possibly. So, yeah, the youth movement there, the tight end position, we were a little unsure about Brett and Strange when the pick happened, and then, of course, he sat and learned behind Evan Ingram, who had a historic year last year that no one ever talks about, which is just crazy. Shout out to you know, easy17. But, yeah, you know, it's a lot of solid things that you're seeing.
Speaker 1:I do want to bring this tweet up here, jay, that I saw here recently in terms of Shane Waldron. Did you see this tweet going viral over the weekend? Shane Waldron leaves Seattle. Jsn breaks out. Shane Waldron fired in Chicago. Roma Dunze breaks out. Shane Waldron joins the Jaguars, brian Thomas Jr regresses, and this doesn't even bring up the fact that he was the passing game coordinator for the Rams from 2018 to 2020. After he left, cooper Cup won the triple crown. So what's happening here with Shane Waldron? You might have more of a pulse on that than I do. How does this guy? If this is the track record, what the hell is he doing here?
Speaker 2:you know we had a joke about this in the thread when we were putting together the um, the coaching staff and um. You know we were like, hey, man, we're getting rid of press taylor. Then news broke that like hey, liam cohen's looking at shane waldron.
Speaker 1:That was like, oh god, like not this again, man, we swapped the bears we, they got press taylor, we got shane waldron. It was a crazy swap hilarious.
Speaker 2:Um, but yeah, man, I mean like, I think like people are putting too much into that, because Shane Waldron don't have anything to do with these crazy drops that Brian Thomas Jr is having. Let's say, brian Thomas Jr catches all of these passes that have hit him in the hands. Man, we're looking at Shane Waldron in a different light, if you even want to do that. Right, and he's not even the like, he's not even the head honcho of the operation. It's of course, liam, of course, and Grant Udinski, then Grant Udinski. If we're looking at the pecking order of who has, say, liam, grant Udinski, and then you know, maybe, if you want to rank somebody below him, shane Waldron.
Speaker 2:So I don't put that much into it, because Shane Waldron, just he probably helps with the passing game, pepper like preparation, but I don't think he has like that much. Pull in like the struggles of the Jaguars offense. Again, if Brian Thomas Jr snags the passes that have been thrown to him, nobody's even mentioning Shane Waldron. You know, we're just going about our day as we were, our weeks as we were, and it's not even that big of a deal. So, no, I don't really put that much into it. And dilla kind of talked about it too, man, like they're kind of looking at shane waldron, which I just said, kind of like he's the head honcho man and he's far from that, even though he is a good friend of liam cohen yeah, they have uh worked together in the past.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I just thought that was a a funny coincidence. You know people love uh. You look for what the consistencies are and unfortunately, shane Waldron was has been there for some uh, well, he's been there for some of those things, as far as uh players breaking out and uh, it just happened to coincide with him leaving. But, um, yeah, jay, uh did you have any other takeaways here from the game? We got the first two, of course, on offense and defense. Anything else uh that stood out to you here?
Speaker 2:uh, before we uh start focusing on week four no, well, I kind of just wanted to know your thoughts on um, as I was, I kind of mentioned this a little bit the culture of the team and just how drastically different it feels right and the wins feel even a little bit different, you know like and we're talking about a franchise that was deprived from winning, you know so, winning has always felt good to us when we've been able to do it, but it just feels different because it feels like, culturally. You know it's something that they're instilling into the team and culturally is something that, like, they actually believe in. You see Bocelli dapping everybody up about to throw the labrum that he had surgery on back in the day, about to throw his labrum out of place.
Speaker 1:Mrs Bocelli probably saw that and was like what the hell are you doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he gave Josh Allen a—it's like, bro, Josh Allen's a rock man. Don't do that anymore. I don't want to see Bocelli on the sideline in a sling. Okay, chill out, Tony, but yeah, like. I just wanted to know, man, like, does it feel different culturally to you? Like, as opposed to how it's felt in the past, even when we have been winning in?
Speaker 1:the past, even when we have been winning yeah, 100%. You know we already talked about the post-game pep talks and then also after a loss right, that's something we never would have seen the only thing we would have gotten is Doug Peterson blaming Trevor Lawrence and saying that he wasn't the problem and protecting his son, press Taylor that's all we would have gotten in the years past. And Urban Meyer you know just not what the hell happened to him. That's all we would have gotten in the years past. And Urban Meyer you know just not what the hell happened to him. That's what we would have gotten in years past. And now we're getting a lot of transparency.
Speaker 1:Liam Cohen I can't remember who mentioned I think it might have been a Bold City coach that mentioned it Like no, forced Duvall into the post-game speeches and listen, we all love to yell Duvall, especially when we're at the games, and to make other people irritated, but, like you know, it's a little bit of a gimmick and it's a gimmick that we certainly enjoy, but yeah, it is a total 180. And, you know, it seems like we have the guy. I mean. Listen when you talk about bringing in a new head coach. We're used to not seeing their first win until what Urban got in London in week eight, week nine. It took a while for things to turn around under Doug. We're just so used to seeing these coaching hires get off to slow starts. Look what's going on in Chicago with Ben Johnson. I mean, yeah, it's great that they won a game, but Dallas' defense is going to make anybody look good. So we'll see what happens going forward with Caleb Williams. You know we're not the biggest Caleb Williams believers anyway, so we'll see what happens when they play real defense.
Speaker 1:But yeah, to have a rookie quarterback or rookie coach playing this well, and you know, for when you got a team such as Tampa Bay who you know, people are going to stop disrespecting the Buccaneers and Baker Mayfield man. But when you come from a place where that just continues to win in one of the most stable organizations in football right now, that's a winner. You know that is a, that's a winner and that's a guy you want part of the organization. He seems to have brought in the right guys. And when you're paired with just an absolute sicko at general manager who we don't think he has done wheel and deal, and Jay, we got all these draft picks up and you mentioned about trading for somebody on the defensive line and the interior. I do not put that past him, especially if we are in contention, you know, come a couple of weeks down the road and then the trade deadline comes up. So, yeah, just really nice.
Speaker 1:You know, even after a loss, when you are, you're frustrated with the team for sure, because just something about that bangles game was just so familiar and even when, uh, like you tweeted about you know, um liam cohen getting a little fidgety and antsy about the texans running down the field and then who was it? Campanile, that had to calm him down. It is a a sense of sense of unity that we have not seen in a while. Like even something is like we talked about a couple weeks ago, as it seems as minute and just throw away as James Gladstone and Liam Cohen's family is going to Disney World together. That's crazy. You got to put schedules together. You got to make sure your kids mesh Parents out there know that sometimes kids don't always get along.
Speaker 1:You're talking about bringing everybody to the most sure, the happiest place on earth, but also the busiest place on earth. It's an absolute nightmare. I don't know how Disney adults do it. That's a story for another time. But when you have coaches and players that want to actually spend time together, compare that to what's's going on in Miami right, those guys probably don't can't wait to get out of the facility and do their own thing. So all of that means something. And again, I want to see what happens when there's a little bit of turmoil we saw that a little bit right after the Cincinnati game when there's a little concern and things aren't going great and this was an ugly win, but you still feel good about it. So yeah, jay, jay, it is, it's night and day and it's it just makes you feel good to see those results happening very early yeah, josh Allen even said it in that um post-game presser with Aditi.
Speaker 2:uh, he was like these, these are not just my teammates, this is my family, so that kind of echoes what you were saying about them planning trips to Disney World. And also, yeah, you mentioned that they're doing it with a rookie head coach. Again, we're early in this thing, but they're also doing it with a rookie defensive coordinator that had to calm the head coach down, as you just mentioned, and a rookie offensive coordinator. Grant Udinski is younger than us. Phil, all right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you don't have to mention that. You can lift that out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I could have, I could have. And, yeah, man, yeah, you raise a good point about what we have in Gladstone, who just never stops looking for answers, right, like he is the definition of a sicko, and you know, I think.
Speaker 1:You know what I picture him doing like. Remember when sting used to stand in the rafters. I picture him like watching the game from like the top. You know where. You know where jackson deville jumps off of the light tower, that's, that's where, that's where he watches the games. And then he's gonna come down like sting on the zip line like the crow crow sting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, oh, you brought you a lot Some memories there, man. I used to. I used to climb the ladder to go to the top of my house and just like stand on the top of the house like I was staying back in the day, bro. But yeah, man, I think, now that you mentioned Gladstone man, I think people will really be calling for him to get Dexter Lawrence. The moment we see Dexter Lawrence cussing out dabs on the sideline, it's like, oh, gladstone, go ahead and make it happen, man, make it happen Again. I don't know if it's possible with what they need to do on defense in terms of they got to pay Trayvon. They probably have to pay Devin Lloyd at this point. I didn't even factor that in, but Devin Lloyd is playing like an all-pro. As of week before last Duke was—and we were cooking Devin Lloyd about this field he was at least I ain't checked this week the number one linebacker in coverage, and you could tell.
Speaker 2:He's getting there too in coverage, man, he actually is starting to fill it out in space. I saw one play where he was actually. It was the one where Tyson stripped Nico and he actually felt a route coming behind him and sniffed it out, ran with the defender a little bit and then the ball was coming at him so he didn't even have to worry about covering the guy, so he just scooped it and tried to run with it. So yeah, man, we'll see, in time we'll tell. But yeah, man, culturally man, yeah, something feels different and yeah, we just feel like we are not as dysfunctional, or nowhere near as dysfunctional as we've been in the past.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I agree yeah, man, it's, it's a good feeling, even after an ugly win. And um, you know, I didn't get to watch it live, I was working at hokala comic-con but uh, where I don't know. I'll post it here later on social media. Jay, I don't think I told I showed you the photo. Do you remember the show, the TV show the Good Place, and there was the guy the actor who played him is Manny Jacinto, and there was the guy that was the Bortles the Bortles fan from that TV show. Yeah, I got to meet him and work with him over the weekend at Ocala Comic-Con, took a picture with him. I'll post it over on social media. Actually, by the time you guys get this episode we're recording Monday night, I'll actually post it here right after we get offline. But I got to meet him and yeah, so you know what it was meant to be.
Speaker 1:I helped manifest that win by meeting a Jacksonville Jaguar legend at Ocala Comic-Con. So yeah, jay, we will look ahead to San Francisco a big week in terms of, you know, maybe correcting some or exercising some demons when it comes to the Jacksonville Jaguars playing on the West Coast. We'll be on watch for that in terms of how they play. But yeah, anything else you want to mention before we wrap up the episode? It's good to be back here with you. Sorry, I missed last week guys. I was, uh, I had a um, another um commitment with the wait for it podcast, my other show, we had a an interview set up, so, um, for a new project that will, um, our guest will be announcing very soon, so be on the lookout for that. But yeah, jay, anything else you want to mention before we get out of here?
Speaker 2:no, man, that is it, man. Yeah, excited to see how we look on the west coast. Um, a team that liam's familiar with right, even though he's an offensive coordinator but, you know, used to be in the division over there. He kind of even mentioned that. Um, he's really familiar with the 49ers tree from his time over there. He mentioned that in his press conference when they asked him about about the, the Texas coach as well and their tendencies. So that'll be interesting to see if he can bring us some West coast magic.
Speaker 2:You know, as we mentioned, like they are a little bit injured right now Bosa, they announced that he tore his ACL right. So that would help the offensive line. And again, we'll have to monitor the situation at quarterback, but it looks like Mack Jones is probably going to end up playing. We'll see and time will tell. So yeah, man, I am excited about this game on the West Coast. I don't feel as eerie about it as I once did, probably because of the injuries and what they're dealing with. But that being said, man, as always, you all know where to find the content TouchdownJadwarscom for the website. We are on Amazon Music, itunes or Apple Podcasts, however you refer to it, spotify, you name it, and if we aren't there, let us know. We'll get there as soon as possible. But that's all I got for us, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, everything you need is in the Linktree link in the show notes of this and every single episode. If you are listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, make sure you give us a five-star review. We appreciate it. It's one of the best ways you can support the show. You can also share the content with your friends. Let them know that you have been listening and then use our promo code, touchdown Jaguars, over on SeatGeek to save yourself $20 on that first SeatGeek purchase. Follow us over on social media me and Jay's personal pages, as well as the official page for the podcast Folks. That is my co-host, james Johnson. I am Phil Barrera. Thank you so much for tuning in, and do not forget to tune in to Touchdown Jaguars for each and every Jaguar touchdown. We'll see you next week, guys. Thanks for watching.
