Jacksonville Jaguars Media Conference

Sunday, October 30, 2022

Jacksonville, Florida, USA

Coach Doug Pederson

Postgame Press Conference


Broncos 21, Jaguars 17

DOUG PEDERSON:

Q. You tried to attack the Broncos' defense with the run, but you found problems with the passing, especially with the red zone. What are your thoughts about this?

DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, it's been an area that we've kind of struggled in all season. You know, we kind of pride ourselves on trying to get touchdowns once we get into the red zone, but it's something as a staff we really have to take a look at and make sure we are putting our players in situations there and plays that they can be successful in.

It's got to be a collective effort. Coaches, players, offensively, just making that conscious effort to get better.

Q. Obviously Trevor didn't make a good decision there on the 1st and goal; any second-guessing on your part throwing the ball on 1st and goal from the 1?

DOUG PEDERSON: No, because it's 1st and goal. It's a relatively safe play. If it's not there -- and Trevor knows this -- just throw the ball, just sail the ball, and you've got two to three more downs to do whatever you want to do there.

I can definitely do a better play call, obviously, but at the same time, defensively as they packed the box, just trike to get one-on-one with Christian and Trevor really. They did a nice job of taking that away. We've just got to learn from it, throw the ball away, live to play 2nd down and take our chance that way.

Q. Was that interception eerily reminiscent of the one against the Texans where you wanted him to make a similar decision throwing it out of the back of the end zone?

DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah.

Q. How do you coach out those mistakes?

DOUG PEDERSON: You just keep coaching it. You just keep showing him. You just keep teaching. That's why we as coaches do what we do. We've got to continue to teach and just show Trevor and a lot of the players just those situations, and those are always the critical ones that seem to raise their head in games like this when it comes down to a one-score game.

It's just unfortunate, but we've got to be smart, I think both coaches and players collectively, in those situations.

Q. It keeps coming down to a one-score game. How does the team overcome that? How do they get beyond losing that one-score game?

DOUG PEDERSON: I'll tell you what, my hats off to those guys in the dressing room. They battle their tails off.

We just keep plugging. We just keep plugging away, and we keep practicing and we keep learning and we keep teaching, and we keep scratching and fighting.

I truly believe that good things are going to happen for this football team. We're sitting here after eight games, not where we want to be, obviously, but to every man in there, nobody is going to hang their head. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us.

We're not going to make excuses. We've just got to continue to work.

Q. Coach, now you've experienced a London game as Jags' head coach. Despite the result, what do you think the future of the franchise can hold over here in London?

DOUG PEDERSON: Well, they're obviously well respected here, and I believe Shad, our owner, does a great job of marketing. A lot of Jags fans over here, and it was great to see today.

I think it's just a relationship that we continue to build on each and every year and enjoy coming over here, and just wish it were a better result.

Q. Big game from Travis Etienne today; was that what you expected from him?

DOUG PEDERSON: Yes.

Q. Would you like to see more of that from No. 1?

DOUG PEDERSON: Yes.

Q. How much more of that can you get from No. 1?

DOUG PEDERSON: A lot. Got another one?

Q. Could you have asked anything more from --

DOUG PEDERSON: No, listen, he played great today. He played tough. He played physical. He's a good football player, and again, we've just got to continue to find ways to get the ball in his hand.

Q. Overall defensively, got some big plays and then at the end couldn't quite hold them.

DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, we started the game extremely well. We got a turnover early and just got after the quarterback a little bit there, and then it's just -- listen, it's a 60-minute football game, and we've got to continue to play for 60 minutes and keep the pressure on.

I thought the D-line did a nice job. When they needed to get a pass rush, they got the pass rush there, and that was good to see today.

Again, we needed to find a stop at the end. Again, as coaches, we look at those situations and did we do our part to put our players in position to make those plays.

Q. You've preached patience since before the year started; were these the kind of close games that you anticipated going into the season when you started saying, hey, be patient, it's a young team, there will be growing pains?

DOUG PEDERSON: I think so. You know, obviously these last couple of weeks are tough, tough to take. Especially as hard as the guys work and play.

What I'm proud of, the guys are playing for 60 minutes. They're playing until the end.

Honestly, nobody likes to lose, right? That's the nature of the game. But if I had to pick, I'd rather pick these types of games than blowout games where you lose. I think you learn more in losses like this as a team, where we are with the culture of our team, than you would in a blowout loss.

My hats off to the guys; nobody is going to hang their heads. We've just got to keep fighting.

Q. When you see your guys fight until the very end like that, does that give you the hope that it'll start paying off --

DOUG PEDERSON: I do, yeah, I believe that. I believe that we keep fighting and keep working the way they're working, good things will pay off eventually. We're just looking for that one to get it kind of started, and then we just build off of that.

That's kind of where we are.

Q. What, if anything, did you say to Trevor either after the first interception or after the last one?

DOUG PEDERSON: I mean, listen, we still have a lot of trust and a lot of faith in him. We're just going to continue to grow. We're going to grow together.

I just told him to keep his head up, stay confident. I want to put the ball back in his hands and just show the trust that we have, that I have in him and that the team has.

He knows that we've got to be better in a few situations, but again, those are really good learning opportunities for Trevor.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
126564-1-1041 2022-10-30 17:20:00 GMT

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