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The Jaguars captain talks about the crunch game in Week 10
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The Jaguars captain talks about the crunch game in Week 10

Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Foyesade Oluokun spoke to the media on Friday and we were there for it all.

To listen to his interview, watch above.

Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson also spoke on Monday. Below is a transcript of what he said.

Q: About the injury updates after Sunday’s game?

Pederson: “Anton (OL Anton Harrison) is fine. He just clenched his knee. They looked at him, taped him, froze him during the game. It should be fine. (OL) Brandon Scherff, same. Because he was coming off the previous week with a knee injury. He played extremely tough, physically, but he will be fine. It hurts, kind of everyday. It should be fine. (OL) Cooper Hodges is the one we will miss, probably for the rest of the year. It was a significant leg injury during the game. So we’ll miss him, obviously. BT (WR Brian Thomas Jr.) pitched well. Ezra (OL Ezra Cleveland) obviously wasn’t active. So yeah, I mean, we’ll find out on Wednesday.”

Q: About the injury status of RB Tank Bigsby and RB Travis Etienne after the game?

Pederson: “Tank, okay. Yes. Both good.”

Q: About QB Trevor Lawrence’s injury status after the game?

Pederson: “It hurts. He played hard, he played physical. Scramble took a hit there, I think in the second quarter, I think it was. Obviously I felt that, but okay. It turned out well.”

Q: What if he thought Lawrence wouldn’t have played in the second half after being the last player to leave the locker room?

Pederson: “No, I didn’t. No, it was just a precaution. Still with the medical team at that point, just a double check, triple check. I knew going out that he might be out late. I said, “Don’t be late because we’re going to get the ball to start the second half.”

Q: What if they classified it as shoulder discomfort?

Pederson: “Right now, yes.”

Q: On WR Brian Thomas Jr. and TE Brenton Strange the lack of targets against Philadelphia?

Pederson: “If you’re specifically watching the football game and not chasing the ball, you’re going to see what Philly did in normal situations. Some on third down because they had a corner and a safety. So basically they doubled BT. It’s hard to throw the ball out there to a guy who doubled. So you have to go to other places with the ball. So that was part of their game plan. What we saw during the week and scouting, and all of that in situations, didn’t necessarily feature those coverages. So you have to make adjustments throughout the game. In Brenton’s case, I think it’s probably more up to us not to involve him further. But I also think when you look at this game, some of the struggles to stay efficient on first down, some of the second down stuff kind of takes you out of the rhythm and the flow of the game a little bit. just a little bit. I had opportunities. We had, I think, four or five thirds and fours in this game and we weren’t capitalizing. I mean, these are things that have haunted us this season. So it takes you away from getting to things in your game plan that can obviously help you.”

Q: On DE, Travon Walker looking like a running back on his fumble recovery returned for a touchdown?

Pederson: Yeah, a play. A play. Great awareness, wanting to get on that ball, which is what our defense preaches a lot when the balls are on the ground like that and they broke some tackles, we got a nice block down the field and it went into the end zone. So it looked pretty good.”

Q: How many guesses do he and the coaching staff make after a game for specific situations?

Pederson: “I mean, obviously on a Monday, you can sit here and look at the tape and your eyes a little calmer and probably, ‘shoulda, coulda, woulda,’ no ? You play that game with yourself all the time. Trust me, that beats you as a coach, doesn’t it? You go back and replay it and say, “Ah, we could have done that,” or “We could have done that,” or “We could have gotten to that.” You are also often in the heat of the moment. At the end of the game, you’re trying to score, but at the same time, you’re also trying to wind down the clock a little bit, right? Take time off the clock. So are you looking at those situations where you could run the ball there? Definitely, definitely. But you too now, yes, you’re taking time off the clock, but now you’re risking maybe a second and 10, a second and 12, right? I don’t know. You play mental gymnastics all day. As a coach, you can’t — on Mondays, you can talk to your football team about situational football and situational awareness and say, ‘OK, we can’t do that. We can’t do that as a football team, no, in those situations. And as coaches, you say, “We could have done that. We could have done that. We should have done that. We should have done that. And that’s the part that beats you all the time while you’re — the longer you’re in this business, the more you coach it, the more you play it, I think every coach goes through that. Every player will go through this. You know, it’s not accurate. It’s not perfect. The boys fight extremely hard. I mean, you saw yesterday, we had guys that played tough, played hurt. You try to put them in the best possible situations. Sometimes guys play out of position because we need them to. We ask them. You know, so we do everything we can in those moments to just try to win a game.”

Q: If there was anything that could have been executed better in the final passing game?

Pederson: “Well, at the end of the day, it was a play. I mean, a play. Now the coach part comes down and says we can detail the route a little better. You know, it’s a route. It’s been our offense for a long time. We can coach D’Ernest (RB D’Ernest Johnson). Etienne (RB Travis Etienne Jr.) ran similar routes during the game and we can coach them better, right? We can detail them better. But at the end of the day, we can tell Trevor to throw it away. If it’s not there, throw it away. Live for a second down. You know, all kinds of things. But at the end of the day, I’d say (Eagles LB) Nakobe Dean made a heck of a football play.”

Q: Where does he feel the team stacks up against opponents they’ve lost close games to?

Pederson: “Well, that’s exactly what I pointed out to him today. Two weeks ago, the Packers, I think, were in the NFC Championship game a year ago, right? The team we played yesterday was recently in the Super Bowl. Then you point out the mistakes the coaches and players make on our side. It encourages you because you are so close. I mean, you’re only one game away, right? You just never know when those pieces will come. Those moments will come into play. Your awareness as a coach, your awareness as a player, we have to be on the same page, we have to communicate, all these things. But it’s encouraging that you can play with these guys. Honestly, you eliminate some mistakes, we don’t give them 13 points off turnovers. And a week before, we don’t give them 14 points from turnovers. Things could be different, right? Go back to Miami. I keep coming back to that game. We grope the two. Next play, it’s 80 yards into the end zone. So that’s the part we have to overcome as a team. We have to eliminate. I think it gives us a better chance.”

Q: If players embrace the proximity of games?

Pederson: “Number one. I think he’s right about parity in the NFL right now. Games come in the fourth quarter. I mean, just look at us…take us. We have five games out of seven, it’s a score. Six points or less, right? And they’re the guys who, as you say, coin the phrase “I want the ball.” It’s Michael Jordan’s. It’s Kobe Bryant’s. They’re the guys that say, ‘Hey, give me the ball, no matter what it looks like, defensively, Foye (LB Foye Oluokun), he’s putting the ball in our hands. Last second shot, quarterback, whoever. And let me make the play to win the game, right? This is what you dream about as a kid, playing this game. When you’re running around with your friends and doing plays, like, hey, one day, I want to see myself doing that play on a big stage. So I think we have guys in the locker room who feel the same way. We just have to keep giving and we gave ourselves opportunities. Right now we have to capitalize on them.”

Q: How frustrating is it to see the offense get off to a slow start?

Pederson: “Well, that’s the thing. You know, we say it as coaches. It’s like, “Let’s go to the tempo,” right? I mean, I hear it all the time. Why don’t you pick up the pace? Well, yeah, I mean, the downside is you’ve been on the field for 30 seconds and you’re playing football. The upside is that you pace the quarterback. You run your offense into a rhythm and potentially end up with three or seven points, right? The other thing is first down, if you want to go tempo, you better get positive yards on first down, right? If you try to run or throw, it doesn’t matter. If it’s incomplete one second and 10 or if you’re running in second and 12, yeah, it’s kind of hard to go after that. So we have to do a better job on that first call of that run and just get positive (yards). Start the car, right? I think that’s the key is to get going and then you can be on the ball from there.”

Q: About the difficulty of getting into a rhythm on offense without extending drives?

Pederson: “I mean, there were a lot of—I think in yesterday’s game for us offensively, three-and-outs, or five-and-outs, or short possessions, where that’s the part that’s frustrating, right? You want to get into that rhythm. Part of that is part of football too, right? I mean, that’s just your opponent making plays. That’s what they get paid for. So this is just the ebb and flow of a game. But I don’t see our guys going down. I don’t see our guys on the sidelines. There is excellent communication on the sidelines. Lots of encouragement, like, “Hey, we’re going to play this game next time, or we suggest this, we suggest this.” And really, I think just feeling like, it’s close. From your point of view, I mean, it’s close, right? We just need that play to get us going.”

Q: If he attributes the slow starts to the offensive script?

Pederson: “I think the first thing you have to look at, you have to look at third downs, right? When we talk about first down, you have to get positive and we had positive yards for—we had a great first play yesterday. We’re just a finger away from being an explosive play, right? 53 (Eagles LB Zack Braun) makes a play. That’s football. And they get paid to do plays, right? OK, if Trevor throws it six inches, it’s a completion to Evan (TE Evan Engram), 20-yard gain, and we feel great. So those things, the pieces are there, right? Yes, part of its execution. Part of it…OK, there’s also a little bit of an unknown in terms of how our defense is going to look because with the injury situation that we’ve had, different things. How will they look at us, how will they interpret us? But then we get to third down. I hit Parker (WR Parker Washington) on first down, great execution. Him and Trevor, it was third and seven or eight. I don’t know, we have 10, 11 meters, whatever. But then on the next one, it’s the third and fourth, same drive. We have a little pressure on Trevor. And then we have BT open, we just can’t get him the football. So it’s kind of a give and take. We need to tense up a little better. As coaches, we have to put our players in situations where third and fourth is a good situation, but maybe if we’re better on first and second down, maybe that’s third and two, and you can do it. some different things. So I think we as a staff have to look at third downs, quite frankly, and see if there’s anything different that we can do or move some guys around in the scheme of things and try to we stay on the field. .”

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