JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS WEEKLY GAME RELEASE

(On the Saints’ fourth down conversion on the first drive?) “We had a communication. There was a call in
and some of the guys got the call, some didn’t. We had time, we decided to change the call. Poz changed
the call at the line of scrimmage because he felt like the urgency to come up and he felt like everybody
didn’t get the call. Some guys played the initial call and some guys didn’t. He tried to change it back to the
initial call. There was just some confusion.”
(Could he have called timeout there?) “That’s what I talked to him about it. He felt like everybody got the
call. He felt like he had enough time. But yeah, in a situation like that, the timeout is warranted.”
(How frustrating is it for you as a defensive guy to watch this defense play like this?) “We have a standard
and that’s what I think with this defense, we’re always trying to create a new standard. Okay, here’s where
we’re at and let’s raise that standard. When you see a performance that’s not at that standard or adding
on to that standard, it’s unacceptable. I just felt like yesterday’s performance defensively, we didn’t reach
that standard so that makes it unacceptable. So yeah, that’s disappointing. It’s disappointing that when
you put together a game plan, you count on your fundamentals, your alignments, how guys are going to
handle motions. We can count on these things, now let’s add to it. Some of these things that we’re
counting on week-in and week-out didn’t show up, and that’s disappointing. We talk about, they did a
nice job doing some shifts, some motions. We’ve seen that all year. But some of the things that they did—
they say motion creates emotion—I felt like it did with our guys. I felt like it did create some emotion, it
created some hesitancy. So at times, we didn’t play as fast as we’re capable of. Not so much what they
did, it was just us handling it. We just have to be more in-tune to that.”
(On the free safety position) “You’re constantly challenging them. You see some things. I felt like there
were plays that they were right on the money with, and then there were some plays that we weren’t. That
striving for the consistency, high level of play is something that we have to challenge them. I look at it
more of that’s on us at coaches. We have to continue to find ways to get them in position to make plays.
And then they have to take the responsibility to execute it.”
(Is there one aspect of the defense that is regressing?) “I would like to see better in our rush. I think that’s
an area. Sometimes, we talk about rush and cover. I think as we look back at it, there are times that you
count on your coverage and there are times that you have to bring pressure. I think finding that mix when
we can rush with four and when we can blitz. I think that’s been a challenge this year to find out and try
to eliminate explosive plays. Looking back at it, there were some times that be brought some pressure up
the middle on him. Going into the game, we felt like that was the way to attack him. We got some pressure
on him. Looking back at it and to go back, I think we could have applied more.”
(Do you think you need to change your scheme if you don’t find a free safety?) “No, I think there are some
things within it that you can adjust. I’m not talking just specifically the free safety, I’m saying that as you
go through and with some injuries taking place and some new personnel in there, to have a clear identity
of who this person is, who these guys are and then maybe do some changes to help them. Same within
the same system, but adjusting to help your guys out a little bit.”
(Why is the free safety position so tough to find guys?) “I can’t speak for other teams, but here’s a guy
that plays in the middle of the field and it’s a challenging position because, especially versus the run, if
something breaks through, he’s the sole guy back there. He has to be a really good tackler in the open
field. His range, when you play a lot of single-safety middle like we do, his range is important. Those are
just two qualities and I think our guys have those traits. We just need to see it more consistently.”
(On the bad snap) “That was more on our quarterback with the protection. I think it was the whole
process. You’ll have to ask Blake. He called the protection out and there was a possibility of changing it.
We were already set up front, the front was recognized that they were ready to go. The center got the
cue to be ready for the snap and then he snapped it. It’s just communication. He didn’t give a cue to give
the snap. The whole procedure, without getting into too much details of it, the offensive line felt like,
okay, we’re ready, everybody is ready and set now, the snap can come at any time. Blake yelled out a
check and they thought that was the snap count.”