Jaguars - 26, Panthers - 0
Q. Josh, Calais Campbell, your buddy, you passed him today. Best single-season, pass-rushing output for the Jaguars in franchise history. Could you put into words what that means to you?
JOSH ALLEN: I mean, I'm blessed and highly favored by the man above, first and foremost. I've got incredible teammates who backed me up this whole season, who witnessed me really high, really low, stayed with me, continue to be with me and I continue to be with those guys as well.
I couldn't have done it by myself. Shout out to Tre, too. He's got nine sacks on the year so far, almost getting double digits. That's a testament of us keep working and battling with each other. And still got one more left to go, and we have to keep going.
Q. Just thoughts on how important it was for the defense to play today the way you did today with the backup quarterback a lot of backup receivers on the field?
JOSH ALLEN: It started with the preparation that we came in on Monday. If we had backup, if we didn't have the backup, that's the way we had to play. Not relying on anybody, relying on ourselves, relying on each other to handle our business, because we know if a team doesn't score they don't win. That was something we could control.
But we all had to believe that again and we had to find trust and we had to find faith. And it started in practice. We had a talk as a defense, a much needed one. And I think that really sparked the, all right, let's get back to what we do.
We came out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday -- we came out Wednesday, that was one of the best practices we had all year. Thursday we followed up with it. Friday, executed the calls. Saturday, clean. And then Sunday we did all the hard work. Just go out here and play.
That was our mindset coming into the game. And C.J. did a heck of a job as well managing the game. He was tough when we needed him to be. Offensive line held up, did their job. T.J., man -- Evan, shout-out to Evan, too. Eighth tight end in NFL history I believe. I don't know anything else after that -- 100 catches, that's awesome. He's part of history. And he's only going up from here, too.
Q. Could you see this moment when you were drafted by the Jaguars to be standing up here today and have the single season record for sacks in a season? Did you see that? Did you envision something like that being a leader like this for this franchise?
JOSH ALLEN: Yes, sir. Every year that was one of my goals to do. Last year, it was one of my main goals coming into that season. And unfortunately that didn't happen. So for me just to not lose faith, get back to what I do best, take care of my body each day and just be mentally ready to play. And this year has been the best so far.
There's still room for me to improve, I believe. I haven't played my best ball, I don't think, like, I play obviously -- I don't know how many sacks I got but I got the record. But it's, like, looking back at this season there's still areas where I can improve to get better. So for me it's just to get back into the lab after we win the Super Bowl and just get better.
Q. What's it mean to break Calais' record in terms of your relationship with him and how he helped you in this league? What does it mean to you to break his record?
JOSH ALLEN: It's huge. He texted me the other day, go break the record. And that's one thing, record's are meant to be broken. I can't wait for somebody to break my record. I had a record in college. They broke that record. And I believe Tre will break this record.
For me to be in the history books, it's a huge -- I'm a legacy type of guy, I want to leave a legacy everywhere I go. This is a huge accomplishment for myself, the team and for my family as well. Man, I didn't do it by myself, first and foremost. So shout-out to everybody who was a part of it.
Q. You've been playing very well even through this tough patch for the Jaguars. Was your play kind of -- I don't want to say inspirational -- but leader-by-example kind of thing, just saying, hey, follow the lead here, that kind of thing? Was there kind of a message you could verbally tell these guys during this rough patch?
JOSH ALLEN: You've got to play football. At the end of the day the best players need to play their best football. I challenged myself, last week wasn't my best outing. And I think that kind of lit another fire under me that I had to respond. The great ones respond.
And this was a great opportunity for to us respond as a team, as a defense, as an individual player myself. So I went back to the lab, went back to the dark places and channeled something deep and positively. And we got the job done.
Q. How much did you training on your own this spring and summer make a difference, do you think, going into this season, just trying something different than your normal routine?
JOSH ALLEN: It played a huge part for me mentally because I had to -- I trained by myself -- obviously with my coaching staff, but I trained by myself so I competed against myself. I wanted to see how far can I push myself. When there's nobody else cheering for me, when there's nobody else in the field with me, I'm out there by myself, how far can I go?
So I really challenged myself every day to get out there. I was out there for a purpose, and I stuck to that purpose and that plan. And came back to Jacksonville wanting to succeed. And it was great that I had the opportunity to stay out there and that was a great time for me.
Q. Week 18 showdown against Tennessee, just like last year. Only difference is Tennessee has nothing at stake in the game except trying to spoil your season. How much in that locker room do you guys look forward to having an opportunity like that against such a kind of a bitter division rival?
JOSH ALLEN: Again, that goes down to the rivalry game. You say they're not playing for anything. They're playing for a lot. They're playing for pride. They're playing for themselves. They're playing for the checks. They're playing for everything.
So for us, you know how rivalry games go. You can be the best team, you can be the worst team. But rivalry games, the energy is going to be high, so we have to come prepared to play. No lackadaisical movement. No going through the motions.
We have to start on Monday knowing when we're going to play, first and foremost, and get ready to prepare every single day. If we can do that, I can see the same outcome as this. But if we don't, we can get beat easily.
Q. How much did you guys need today emotionally? Just forget the record and all that other stuff, but just to go out there, play a clean game and purge all the stuff from the last month. Was it getting a little tense in that locker room?
JOSH ALLEN: You know, I could honestly say we just had to fix what we were missing. Like, if that makes any sense. Again, the defense can only worry about the defense. Offense can only worry about the offense. Special teams is a collection of everybody working together doing one job.
You have to worry about yourself before you worry about others. Once we got that understood, and we got -- we went from team, now let's work about individually. When you individually get yourself right, if you feel you didn't play right or you missed a slow step, work on that step. Get better.
Because we can't win a game if you're one step short. Everybody has to be in one accord and in the same mindset. And this week of preparation this was best week that we had all year. And to see how we responded to that just gave us -- we know what it takes.
We played good football before. We practiced really good. We practiced up. We still won a game. We practiced down, still won a game, and vice versa.
But this by far was the best week of preparation we had no matter who we were playing against. And if we can follow up with that, and also pick it up just a little bit more, to challenge everybody in that locker room, man, we're going to hit a stride. I'm excited for it.
Q. Back to the record. Number one, you knew when you tied it and when you broke it, correct me if I'm wrong? And number two, how long have you thought about with Tre doing the Calais celebration at the end?
JOSH ALLEN: You know, like I said earlier, two weeks ago, I thought about it too much, anticipating it. When you play football, it's all about instincts and just being free.
And so you start thinking about it so much, you start getting tense, you start knowing when it's going to come, how is it going to come, what moment is it going to come -- what are you going to do, instead of going out there being free. So I allowed myself to stay calm, stay cool.
I know my match-up really well. I know how to beat these guys. If I can continue to apply pressure, then it's going to come. Once I got the first one, it was like, cool, okay.
Once I got the second one -- me and Tre already talked about it. Actually Dillon (phonetic), shout out to Dillon, he was the one that came up with the idea. I'm not going to take full credit off of that.
Once I thought about it, I was like that's a really good idea. I told Tre about it. Tre said, I'm going to pitch it to you; I'm going to pitch it to you. I was like, bet. There you go. Record broken.
Q. Getting that record here at home and hearing how much it meant to the fans to see you get that, what did that mean to you?
JOSH ALLEN: It was huge. Again, I'm glad we won the game. It's always better when you win, obviously. So it means a lot to myself, my family, to this team. I know my teammates are really proud. So we've got one more game left and we can pile it up a little bit more, but we've got to stop the run.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports