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Touchdown Jaguars!
Touchdown Jaguars!
Episode 130: Chagers/Jaguars Week 11 Analysis - Lawrence and Co. Take Another Victory vs. Herbert
We bounce back from a brutal Texans collapse with a 35–6 statement over the Chargers, powered by clean football, a surging run game and a defense that set the tone on the first snap. One penalty, zero punts and a renewed Trevor Lawrence rhythm point to a clear identity shift.
In this week's episode, James covered the following takeaways while discussing Week 11's huge win:
• One-penalty performance and why discipline unlocked the offense
• Trevor Lawrence’s second-half reset and interior timing with Jacoby Myers
• Defensive line depth sparks: Josh Allen record, Walker surge, Green and Striggow provides a shot in the arm
• Ezra Cleveland’s impact on the run game
• Etienne and Tuten punishing the second level and extending drives
• Coaching staff’s response after Houston and culture holding firm
• Why this template can carry through November and December
Use code Touchdown Jaguars for $20 off your first order on SeatGeek
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 Touchdown Jaguars podcast. Here are your hosts, James Johnson and Phil Smith.
SPEAKER_00:All right, all right, all right, all right, good people, Jags fans and Duval supporters across the globe. We are back for yet another episode of the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. I am your host for today, James Johnson, as you could tell, riding this one solo. Um, shout outs to Phil. He had some um obligations to take care of as a father, which you always love, man. So yeah, I told him to enjoy himself and enjoy uh his time with his uh little one, and I will hold it down until he gets back. We'll get him back on the next episode. This is episode 129, by the way. So we'll get him back on 130 and uh we'll briefly get his takes on this game. If he was able to see the game, you know, I know he was in again, he was enjoying his um his younger ones. So um all of that being said, man, the vibes are high here, as you can tell. And um, as you all have witnessed, right? Because you were there, you all saw the game or saw it on TV or live, whatever the case may be, as the Jacksonville Jaguars bounced back after hitting a low moment, one of the lowest moments in franchise history, at least in recent history, probably overall in the Jags history, where they had a 19-point lead of race by the Texans, right? Um, and uh the vibes were low at that time. Uh, but they went back to the facility, regrouped, and man, did they show up and show out on Sunday after beating the Los Angeles Chargers. I I have a hard time saying that too. I'm so used to saying San Diego for many, many years. But beating the Los Angeles Chargers in a home game. Um I think this was our first home game in what, three games, four games, something like that. Um, but they gave the home crowd something to go home and be happy about as they put a beatdown on the Los Angeles Chargers by a score of 35 to 6. So with the vibes being high, plenty to talk about. I do want to make this one short and sweet um because of editing purposes, right? Editing is kicking my behind. But um, as you all know, it normally doesn't go that way, even though even with it being a solo episode, somehow I I figure out a way to make it a whole 50-minute episode or whatever the case may be, an hour episode. But all of that said, I hope to make it short and sweet. But when you're talking about a victory, sometimes it's not that easy, right? Especially um when you talk about the improvements they made from the Texans loss to this win. But before we get into all of that, I want to plug our handles and where you can find us. Of course, you can follow me at sportsgrind underscore done on Twitter, um, the platform that we're most engaged with, I guess you could say. Um, you can find Phil at Phil the Filipino on Twitter and the Touchdown Jaguars handle at TD Jags Pod. And of course, you can find our website, touchdownjads.com, on the world wide web, where archived episodes are placed on, and we put written content on there. Um, so that being said, that's where you can find us, most notably in terms of where you can find this podcast. We are on every major platform, whether that's Apple Podcasts or iTunes, whatever you want to call it, Spotify, um, we are on Amazon music as well for those of you who have Alexa devices. And if we aren't on one of your favorite platforms, let us know and we'll get there because we want to be heard on all corners of the world, and we want to be able to give you your weekly fix of Jacksonville Jaguars News. Any new people that are listening to us, we welcome you. Feel free to rate, comment, subscribe, let us know how we're doing. And to our listeners who have been here, thank you for returning. Lastly, I want to give a shout-out to SeatGeek, our sponsor for this podcast. Um, your go-to place for your ticketing needs, whether it's uh sporting events, which uh that's what we cover here, right? Um, whether it's NFL, NBA, you name it. They also got you covered for your concert events or just events in general. They are your go-to place for your ticketing needs. So if you want to catch the NBA and catch the magic, I know that's the closest team to Jacksonville in proximity in the NBA, right? Feel free to go there and use our code. Um, you can also use it on the Jaguars or anywhere for that matter, which it is touchdown jaguars. You'll get$20 off of your first order with SeatGeek. So you can save yourself some money, put that towards gas or whatever the case may be. So head on over to SeatGeek or download the app. Use our promotion code again as touchdown jaguars to save yourself$20 on your first order. But with all of that out of the way, without further ado, let's get into the game. Of course, we always start with a box score, and um then we'll go to some takeaways that I wrote down here. I watched the game two well 1.75 times. I watched it initially live. I rewatched it again today, and this wasn't all 22, it was just the live version again, uh, condensed version on the second time. And um, I got into the Jaguars scored their uh last touchdown. So in the second watch. So I've seen it a decent amount of times. Um that being said, we'll just go through the statistics here. Trevor Lawrence was 14 of 22. We'll talk about him. He's involved in the takeaways uh for 153 yards, one touchdown, he had one pick. The stat line in that regard doesn't look all that great. Um, but we'll talk about the game that he had overall, and um, you know, just just kind of tell you how the the stats don't tell the story with him there. And I'm sure you already all know that because you all have seen the game. Um, that being said, moving on to Russian, Bachel Tootin had a heck of a game. Again, you know, the stats don't necessarily show that he went crazy, but um he had a heck of a game, 15 carries for 74 yards and one touchdown. We'll talk about him a little bit probably as well. Um Travis Etienne Jr., he had two touchdowns, 19 carries, 73 yards. And look, Quentin Allen even got involved in the mix uh with eight carries for 36 yards. Uh Trevor Lawrence had a um touchdown himself on the ground, had five carries as well for nine yards. In the receiving end, we'll just go through the top two receivers because it, you know, the statistics there weren't too crazy. But while the statistics weren't plentiful there, um they came at big-time moments for the team. But Jacoby Myers with five uh receptions for 64 yards made an impact for the team um in terms of possession downs and um just you know being there for Trevor Lawrence when he needed him the most. Johnny Munt was second in um terms of yards. He had two receptions for 25 yards. So uh we'll go on to the defense here, real quick. Four years Aluken led the way with tackles with five total tackles, three of which were solo. Andrew Wingard had the same exact statistic. So technically they were tied there. So Foyer and Wingard um there leading the way in tackles. Josh Hines Allen was right there behind him. He had uh four tackles, two uh for solo, and one of which um he had a sack as well and a tackle for loss. He wasn't the only one who got to the quarterback um as Trayvon Walker contributed a half a sack. Uh Eric Armstead contributed a sack, albeit late in the game against um the backup squad. And Daniel Stragal uh contributed a half a sack, and uh BJ Green would have had one too, but the refs uh let's just say um I almost said a bad word there, but the refs did him dirty and uh penalized him for a big time hit he had on Justin Herbert, by the way. I hope they don't find him for that hit because it was clean to me, but we'll see in time. We'll tell. No uh major special team stats to really go through because the Jaguars didn't really have to use their special teams in terms of relying on Cam Little for kicks or relying on Logan Cook for punts. Logan Cook didn't have to punt a single time. Cam Little only had to see the field um for you know kickoffs and for point after attempts. So that was a good thing. Um and obviously the score reflects as to why it was that way. We'll go really quickly through the the charger side. Justin Herbert, who left the game early because John Harbaugh just weighed the white flag. He was getting beat up back there. Um, he was 10 of 18 for only 81 yards, so that kind of tells you what kind of day the defense had in terms of rushing. They only had 42 yards rushing, and Herbert led the way for them in rushing with 21 yards. Leading the way in receiving was Keenan Allen, who had four receptions for 53 yards. They had 118 total receiving yards as a whole. And then leading the way for them in terms of tackle was Elijah Molden, who had seven total tackles, five of which were solos. So I was gonna do some quick hit takeaways just for the offense, defense, and special teams in general, but I'll just do my normal takeaways and I'll just incorporate those quick hits into these three to four takeaways. It depends on how I'm feeling or how many I'll do. Uh, the first one that I want to mention, and it I want to mention this because it hasn't been getting enough attention, in my opinion. I know a lot of a few people, should I say, have mentioned it, but a lot of people haven't really gone deep into details about this. But the Jacksonville Jaguars only had one penalty, and that was one uh penalty on defense, none on offense at all, which is when you look at how this team has struggled with penalties, is miraculous. But the one penalty it came from Jarian Jones on um, he had an illegal contact penalty. I think it was in the second quarter or so. But aside from that, man, a clean game. And the reason I want to mention this is not just because it hasn't been mentioned enough, but also because this kind of goes back to something I was talking about earlier in the year, and Phil as well. And that was if the Jaguars played cleaner games, who knows what their potential could be? This game is very indicative of that, very indicative of that. We've finally seen what this team would look like when they play penalty-free football, and the result is them blowing out the chargers, who are a team that's a playoff seed team, a respectable team, right? A team that was hot coming into this game, if I'm not mistaken. But they molliwapped these dudes, man, because a lot of which, not just how they dominated the game in some aspects that I'll mention in my other takeaways, but because they played so clean that they didn't give the Chargers a chance to capitalize on any mishaps, basically. You know, there were mishaps, but they weren't penalty related, right? There was the one pick from Trevor Lawrence, which he bounced back from. We'll talk about that in a little bit later. But I said all of that to say that see what happens when the Jaguars play to their potential and they play mistake-free football and clean football, should I say? And Liam said it a little bit after the presser that you know, a lot of why they played the way they played, and it's not just with the edge, but they also played the way that they played. It's because of the loss to the Texans. So what if that loss to the Texans is what we needed, right? That combat from the Texans that we would all rather forget. What if that is what we we simply needed as a team to help us get rid of this penalty issue and to play cleaner heading forward? Now, look, I don't expect us to come out of the next few games with just one penalty, but if we can keep this thing at a minimum, six or less penalties, you know, um, that would be good for this team, right? Because we've seen many, many times where they're getting into double digits with penalties, and not only that, they're having penalties at critical moments. That's another thing that helped them here. They didn't have any penalties to negate their big plays that they made on offense or defense, right? Again, there was only one that was from Jerry and Jones, and um, of course, they you know they accepted it and it was good for uh um a first down, but there wasn't a lot of harm done by it, if I can recall. At best, maybe the Chargers got a field goal on that drive at best, if I can recall, and they might not have even got that from it. I'll have to go back and look at the game. But when this team isn't shooting themselves in the foot, this is what we should expect 35 points or more. And that makes me eager to see if they continue to at least again, I don't expect them to go throughout the season with just one penalty gain heading forward. But if they can minimize the penalties and keep it to close to five penalties a game, man, we can see more of this and we can see a revitalized Jaguars team heading forward as we have two crucial months of November and December coming up, um, in which the Jacksonville Jaguars um need to handle business and at least win about four more games. The second takeaway um was Trevor Lawrence, who I just mentioned not too long ago, and it's worth mentioning um as a takeaway because he was one of the big talking points that we talked about last week, and he is often on this podcast uh throughout the episodes, but he was a big talking point in last week's episode. We spent what five minutes, six minutes, or a good portion of maybe even eight minutes talking about him and his performance in the game against the Texans, talked about him a great deal the game before that, if I'm not mistaken. Um, but yeah, Trevor Lawrence, he he was off to a little bit of a slow start, right? And this was a crucial moment for him because coming into the game, Liam Cohen mentioned it, and he kind of mentioned this with the whole team. It wasn't just Trevor, but he did say he told Trevor this specifically too. But he wanted Trevor to cut it loose, and it looked like Trevor was nervous as all get out in the first quarter, in the second quarter, but mostly the first quarter. He was back there double clutching, and you could tell he was thinking a lot, right? And as a result, he went into the second half with basically, you know, the the announcer said it like he's gonna have to make a big play somewhere down the road for this team to win a game, which you know, come to find out he they actually didn't necessarily need that because they were so dominant in the trenches. But at that time, it did look like they would need Trevor Lawrence um to make a big play to get the team going and to get them a win. Because at the time, the score, if I'm not mistaken, was 14 to 6. You know, it was within reach for the Chargers. And, you know, the Jacksonville Jaguars left something to be desired in that half, if you will. And I guess you could say a lot of that, or some of it was because of Trevor Lawrence. But man, did he turn it on in the third quarter? I think he went like seven of eight or eight of nine in the fourth quarter at one point in time. Um, he started to really go to those interior patterns, and this is kind of where the addition of Jacoby Myers, which I told you guys he would hit the ground running. I said it when we we got him in free agency or uh in the trade deadline, excuse me. Um, Jacoby Myers and that connection with Trevor Lawrence that I mentioned that would only get stronger as time went on, really showed itself. Again, the stats weren't crazy for Trevor or Myers, but in that third quarter, they started cooking. He started hitting them in the middle of the field. And that is something that I said, man. Part of why Trevor was struggling is because he needed that big target in the middle of the field, that sure-handed target, which he hadn't had because Brenton Strange was injured and Brian Thomas Jr. is underperforming in that regard. But the light bulb went off for those two, and not just those two, Liam, the offense in general, and things began to click as he hit Myers on some uh if one of them was a post to convert a third down. Um, he hit him on a uh hitch route and Parker Washington too as well. You know, he hit him on a few interior patterns as well. And, you know, I'll I'll come out and say it, man. He started to look like that Trevor Lawrence that we saw in 2022 when he first got that spark to start the run that he had that got him into the Pro Bowl. And what I mean by that is it all sparked in that Ravens game, if y'all can remember. He looked awfully similar to that Trevor Lawrence that received the spark from that Ravens game. And he looked almost identical with him, with probably even better mechanics, because Trevor's mechanics weren't that great then. Um and he still has some work to do there now. But he looked very similar to that Trevor Lawrence. And hopefully, much like in that situation with the Ravens, this is the turning point for him where he turns it on and goes on this just heater and starts turning heads, especially with it being the month of November and December. This is when we need him the most. If he can go on a heater and build momentum from this moment, the Jacksonville Jack Wars will find themselves in the postseason. And if he can replicate that in the postseason, they will find themselves going far in the postseason, man. So just based off of what we saw alone in that second half from him, man, you you gotta feel like the vibes are high. Now, look, you know, he is Trevor Lawrence and um he is sporadic. But I would say let's not be shocked if this is the moment where he turns it on and doesn't go back, so to speak, as he's done many, many times, and he doesn't turn back. Don't be surprised if this is the moment where he turns it on and gets the Jaguars offense rolling like a Chevy Silverado. So um glad Trevor was able to bounce back from the Texans game and um kind of cool down the fan base off of him a little bit. The next takeaway I want to talk about is simply the most obvious thing that went down in this victory, and the key reason the Jaguars won was just the dominance in the trenches, man. And it this was something that they needed after, you know, of course, they struggled against a defense in in Texas or Houston, should I say, who is arguably the best defense in football, or if not that top two, right? And they also struggled to get to the quarterback against a bunch of backups in terms of the defensive side of the ball. So boy, did they ever need this performance in the trenches. And they were just on one from the beginning, man. Like they were getting to Herbert right away from the beginning. And some of it was Mr. Simons. I know the offensive line and the supporting cast around Herbert is beat up, but that's what you like to see from a unit that was coming from where the Jaguars were coming from in that Houston game against uh a group that was significantly less talented than Houston's group. Again, some of which is due to injury and um just you know the supporting cast isn't that strong right now for Justin Herbert. But they took advantage of that like you would want them to, you know, like right out of the gate. I think the first play, um, it was actually a Mr. Simon where Trayvon Walker um basically went down the line untouched, and Herbert had to throw the ball away and it was intentional grounded, man. That kind of set the tone, at least for the the Chargers side, right? It kind of set the tone for what it would be and what kind of a day it would be offensively for the Chargers. Like if there was ever a time where the first play kind of told you everything that was gonna happen for an offense, that was it, right? And even when Trayvon Walker was blocked, and not just him, but you know, everybody, uh it was a lot of guys who had a good game. But Trayvon Walker was one of them. They they couldn't do too much with him, you know. Even when he was blocked, he was helping in the run game, he was helping in the pass rush regard. He's getting closer to himself, and I know a lot had to do with the cast, and you know, that's kind of hard to play with as a defensive end or an edge rusher, but he's getting closer back to himself, and um, I'm glad that he was able to have this performance against, you know, lower competition because this is the kind of momentum that can help him get going against higher level competition because as we all know, the NFL is a game of momentum, and sometimes it takes you to get that spark from a team that's beat up, and you can carry that into you know teams with better competition, and next thing you know, you got somebody playing at a very high level. I would also be remiss not to mention that Josh Hines Allen was able with the sack that he acquired in the game to um get the sack record for the all-time sack leader in Jacksonville Jaguars history. So, shout outs to him. You know, people have been very critical, and we have been two of him. So, congratulations to him, man, and it's very well deserved and some hard work that went into that. And hopefully we can see him continue to improve and become the player or be the player um that we need him to be, and that he has shown us he can be. But one thing I want to discuss in terms of those defensive trenches, in terms of an adjustment, and it was a change that kind of took place. Well, it's no kind of in it, it took place before the game, and that was just the option to activate Stragal and Green over Agba. Now, Green has been activated many times um in his rookie campaign, so this isn't it's nothing new for him, but um Stragal and not just that, but the both of them also got a decent amount of snaps. I'll have to see their snap count and pull that up. I'll have to probably look on PFF or something like that for it. But um, the decision to make them active and not just active, just play them in a you know, give them a significant amount of snaps, that seemed to really have worked. Now, again, like you got to consider what kind of competition they were going against with this Chargers offensive line. But both of those young men looked hungry out there and they had great games. And BJ Green was even robbed of a sack. I think Stragal, as I mentioned earlier, got a half of one with Trayvon Walker as well. And it was just one of those plays where um it was just a lot of hustle that went into it, right? He actually fell down, had to get back up, uh, made his way to the quarterback, and bam, you know, Justin Herbert's on the ground. But those are two guys that the reason I'm mentioning them, those are two guys I was high on in the preseason, right? And I think heading forward, they need to make that a permanent part of their rotation, having those two get significant snaps and making them active. And the forward, now look, like they could very well hit a wall when the competition is better. But at the very least, they they showed that these are two relentless, hungry players here who, for the time being, gave us a shot in the arm in the defensive trenches. And I again, I like them from the beginning. You can go back and look at my tweets that I um put out there about them in the preseason. Glad to see them getting the reps that they need. And look, man, reps will only make those two young players better, man. BJ Green has always just looked like he's hard to deal with, despite being a rookie, just for the simple fact he has a low center of gravity and a relentless motor. Keep those guys out there, man. Let them take their bumps and let them learn a little bit, man. And before you know it, when we get to the end of the season and um throughout the months of November and January or November and December, excuse me, you have two players who are playing at a high level who have helped this defense potentially uh turn things around and get back to their ways of causing havoc and getting the turnovers that we were seeing early in the season. And to kind of just give you all some stats to back up the day that the Jaguars had in the trenches, especially in the defensive trenches, the top PFF grades, in terms of the top five, three of the five were um defensive linemen. It was BJ Green, he had a 75, Josh Hines Allen, who had an 80, and then Devon Hamilton had an 89.6, which was good for the highest PFF grade on defense. Now, also in the positive was Walker with a 71.6, and uh Danny Stragal with a 70.7, they were ranked seventh and eighth on defense, respectively. Um, but yeah, when you put those figures together, man, like that just kind of shows you the day they had in the trenches. And then going to the offensive trenches real quick, the person or the player who had the top grade for the offensive side in general, not just in the offensive trenches and the team in general, actually, was Ezra Cleveland. He had a 90.5. Man, when you pop on the film of him, you couldn't help but see what kind of um impact he made in the run game, especially, man. And um, you know, I reflecting back on it, that might be a big part of why they probably struggle against the Houston Texans. I think if you have Ezra Cleveland based on how he played in this game, they probably beat the Texans too. But man, was he a force for that run game and Basel Tutin and company? Uh, so definitely shout outs to him and the job that he did um and and the um upgrade that he was, as he was a vital part, as I just mentioned, to the day that Bascial Tootin had and that um ETN had, which is my next talking point. I guess I'll just briefly get into them. Man, um I forgot who it was. Somebody put out a tweet that we have our own version of Sonic and Knuckles, and I couldn't agree more that we do, man. But it was just so fun watching the not just the the people in the trenches, not just the offensive and defensive line bring the physicality that we have been wanting to see or that we wanted to see last week. But it was just fun to watch them just impose their will, both ETN and Tutin. Impose and LaQuent Allen got in there a few snaps at the end as well, impose their will on a Chargers defense who looked like they didn't want any part of them. Like it was one time that um that Tootin boomed, I think it was Elijah Molden. It was a defensive back for sure. And you know, you that was just kind of indicative and just telling uh he bounced off of that tackle um and the linebacker or somebody else had to bring him down, but that was just kind of telling of what kind of day they were having in terms of the Chargers defense when anytime that ETN or Tootin touched the ball, man, they weren't getting touched until they were four yards down the field. And even when they were, they were bouncing off of tackles, and it looked like nobody wanted any parts of them, man. So that's crazy to say when you're talking about a hardball team, right? Which their whole mantra is running the ball and physicality for crying out loud, their offensive coordinator is Greg Roman. But to see us Greg Roman to death, the Chargers was just a neat thing to see, and out physical the Chargers was a neat thing to see. And I hope this trend continues heading forward because if it does, man, we are we are bound for a great November and December, and we can even make some noise in the playoffs. So I guess I will leave it at that. Well, I'll go to one of my last takeaway. I'll make it brief. My last takeaway was kudos to the job that the coaches did. And by the way, this was a coaching staff that ESPN ranked like one of the worst in their little power rankers that they did before the season, probably because of the newness and the unknowns and what have you. But kudos to the job that the coaches did and the staff did. Getting this team ready after a long time. Low moment, a very low moment in Jazz history. Liam Cohen very well could have folded like many coaches have done before him when we've hit these low moments. But they they put their heads down, they put in the work throughout practice. They came out there, as he said, with some edge about them. You got Tony Boselli saying all kind of crazy stuff like this is the most important game in history. They answered the call. They're a good job on the staff. Liam Cohen, Tony Boselli, James Gladstone, everybody that played a part in just um making sure the culture didn't take a plummet after that loss to the Houston Texans and getting them to come out and play like this is a very good thing to see is how they bounced back and how they responded to Liam and not getting down in the dumps as a result of that Houston game. But good job by Liam, just getting them to bounce back from that with the best game that they've had of the season and a game that again, I keep saying this, but a game that all of the positive things that came out of it can give you a lot of momentum heading forward throughout the rest of November and December. This could really be a turning point for the Jacksonville Jaguars. And look, man, if this if the Jaguars go to the Super Bowl, this is the moment that essentially stunted their growth to get there. Make no mistake about it. So if we ever get to the Super Bowl, look back at this game as the one and the job that Liam and the staff did to get them going in the opposite direction than they were going in. This was the one that started them on that path to the Super Bowl or revitalized them or whatever you want to say. So all of that said, man, we will go ahead and cut it short there. Um I'm not sure where I'm at on time, but this one feels like it's been a little bit of a shorter one, but still, a lot of great talking points and a lot of great content came out of it. At least I hope so. Let me know if it didn't. But as you all know, I am James Johnson, aka sports grind underscore done on Twitter. Um, you can follow my co-host who will be back next week, Phil Barrera, um at Phil the Filipino on Twitter. You can follow the Touchdown Jaguars Podcast handler on Twitter at TD Jagspod. And you can follow our website, um, touchdownjadwars.com. Go ahead and um feel free to use our promotion code as I mentioned earlier, as I will push our sponsor one more time, SeatGeek. The promotion code that will get you$20 off of your first order is Touchdown Jaguars. Feel free to download the app or go to their website as they are your go-to place for your ticket and needs. So until next time, you all take care of each other and look out for each other and ride the wave that we are coming off of. And um, hopefully we'll come back with some more great news and content after another victory, hopefully, against the Arizona Cardinals. So until next time, you all take care of each other, and I am signing out of the way.
