Jacksonville Jaguars Media Conference

Sunday, September 17, 2023

Jacksonville, Florida, USA

Head Coach Doug Pederson

Postgame Press Conference


Jacksonville - 9, Kansas City - 17

Q. Today on third down, offensively, anything that carried over, any trend that carried over that 3 of 12 the last two weeks on third down?

DOUG PEDERSON: I mean, the glaring thing is just our execution, right, on offense. Again, we were in too many second and long and then, you know, it turned into third and long situations. You can't -- you just can't put yourself, as an offense, yourself in those situations too many times. And it's not favorable to do that. And we got to take a look at this tape and figure that out.

Q. Red zone last week, a lot of success. Three for three. Today, early 4th quarter, you got the ball at the one. Last week, you went to Tank. He didn't have a touch today. Any feelings on not having a running back touch the ball and not have carries at the goal line?

DOUG PEDERSON: No. I mean, listen, it's -- we need to score there. I mean, that's the thing. And, you know, the first play, we had a run dialed up and didn't execute well. We didn't -- you know, we didn't get it in the end zone. And just got to take a look at everything.

But it's not about who's in the game or who's getting the touch or anything like that, Travis, Tank, D'Ernest, all three of those guys are very capable of doing it. And, you know, so it's not that. We just got to look at what we're doing and making sure we're putting our guys in a position to be successful.

Q. The defense today, three turnovers. It seemed like a successful outing against a team like a team against Kansas City. Just what did you see out there and I guess why wasn't the offense able to do anything with those turnovers, basically?

DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, defense played well. I mean, the defense kept us in this football game, created the takeaways you mentioned. And like you said, it's execution. We've got to do better. We've got to execute. We got too many guys on offense, veteran players that, you know, just we all need to do better, starting with me.

Q. Doug, just how different was this from the playoff game last year defensively from what you saw of the Chiefs? And the other thing I was going to ask also, was: Up until the very end, you were in this game. Any score could have tied this game or given you the lead. So, you know, looking back on that, just kind of your thoughts on that one, as well.

DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, I mean, last year is last year. We've moved forward. I mean, it's obviously a good football team. And, you know, they did a lot of the same stuff they did last year to us. So it wasn't anything that we did not expect.

But, again, it -- you play good teams, you play well coached teams, you can't beat yourself. And that's what we did today. We beat ourselves. You know, yes, the defense; yes, special teams played well. But it takes all three phases, right? That's what good football teams do. And we didn't do that well enough today. The opportunities were there and we didn't do it. We got to look at this film and be hard and critical of ourselves and bounce back next week.

Q. Doug, what's your level of surprise/concern that the execution, the offensive rhythm, and flow hasn't been there, despite the fact that almost everybody has come back year two in the system?

DOUG PEDERSON: I mean, the guys are doing it in practice. We just got to make sure it's carrying over to the game. And as coaches, we've got to make sure we're doing the right things and not doing too much. Just putting our guys in positions and letting them go play.

And then, as players, we just got to execute the plays and execute what we see. You know, and we just -- again, it's something that, you know, we all have to be accountable for, myself included, and make sure that we get it corrected.

Q. Doug, following up on the offensive execution: What is your concern level with the offensive line, specifically with Anton Harrison, I know he had a tough matchup, but it's two weeks in a row that he's had some troubles out there?

DOUG PEDERSON: I got all of the confidence in the world in Anton. And, you know, listen, Chris Jones is a great player. He's great player. I mean, he's a very good player, right? And Anton's a good player. This is a great game for Anton to learn from.

And, you know, I -- look, it's week 2. And there's a lot of football ahead of us. It's a good football team sitting in that locker room right now. And we're going to get this thing fixed and turned around and headed in the right direction.

Q. Doug, you guys were up 3-0, you had a 4th and 5 at the KC 45. It had been, obviously, a defense struggle at that point. What went into your thinking to go for it there? Just were you enough on the other side of midfield to try --

DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, I knew their offense wasn't, like, playing extremely well at the time, right? I mean, we had some opportunities. But I just wanted to stay aggressive right there. And, you know, that was just my decision. My decision to be aggressive and stay on the field. We just didn't execute.

Q. Doug, I know this is the second game the press has called the entire play. I know you commented last week that, obviously, there was some things that may be a little bit clunky. It's a group effort. It's a group effort. But how would you assess his second game calling an entire game?

DOUG PEDERSON: It's fine. Listen, this game, sometimes it's not about the plays. Now, we have to coach the plays better so the guys understand exactly what to do and how to react to what the defense is presenting. But, you know, I learned a long time ago that the players -- you know, players play this football game and coaches coach. We coach better, the players will ultimately play better. So it starts with us.

And, you know, if -- you know, we're going to evaluate everything and make sure that we're putting our guys in the right places. But I thought Press did a nice job today.

Q. When it was 17 to 9, about 5 minutes left, 4th and 12, was there any thoughts about kicking a field goal there or was that just, again, another thing about staying aggressive?

DOUG PEDERSON: If the backwards pass would have put us back, maybe in 4th and 15ish, 4th and 15, yeah, I would have kicked it there. 4th and 12, you know, you're taking a shot to the end zone anyway. So not a big deal.

Q. On a day where it looked clunky, didn't feel good, how do you avoid overreacting where Trevor missed open receivers and offensive linemen struggled to block, and nothing seemed to work, how do you keep a team from overreacting?

DOUG PEDERSON: It's week two. It's week two. I mean, my gosh. We're 1-1. We're in a great spot. We lost to a great football team today. We didn't play great. Guys know that. Guys are going to rally. Guys are going to bounce back. We're going to be better next week.

A lot of football ahead of us. And that's the -- you know, that's the exciting part about it. And those guys are ticked off in there. You know, they're mad. And, you know, they know it. But it's so early in this season that one game's not going to define who we are and it's not going to define our season.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
136818-1-1839 2023-09-17 20:47:00 GMT

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