Jacksonville Jaguars 17, Houston Texans 10
LIAM COEN: Huge ability to stay the course. You're winning the game for the majority of it. They got and tied it up but even though obviously not playing our best football offensively, defense kept us in it. They played their tails off. Offensively found a way to have 75 yards rushing in the second half which obviously we didn't have much in the first. Etienne played his tail off and those guys make a play at the end of the game versus zero blitz and got in a huge moment.
Very proud of this group. They played their tails off and kept competing.
Q. Coach, the resilience factor not just with Brian Thomas and the receivers with all the drops but also the defense. Had a chance to put it away late last week. Came back and did it this week. What kind of confidence can that build for such a young roster?
LIAM COEN: Huge. They should take so much confident from this, especially defensively as you mentioned. Tyson Campbell gets hit on the double move and then comes back and makes a huge play, playing through the hands on a potential explosive play. The fact that we take the ball away as much as we have and give us so many opportunities to go and have extra possessions. You talk about finishing a game the right way. It was not pretty, it was not for us offensively, but we can take and we should take a ton of confidence from this to go clean up, we got to clean up the mistakes, play better and work on the drops and all that, but, man, I'm really proud of this group and the way they competed and finished this game.
Q. Specifically for Brian, obviously the drop's early. He's getting booed. Throws his helmet on the sideline. How big was that 46 yard catch?
LIAM COEN: Huge.
Q. You saw all the emotion afterwards. Just had to get him on the right track.
LIAM COEN: Totally. Early on he goes up on the fade and makes a great effort and you're like dang, okay. He didn't come down with it but, man, it looks like it's obviously trending and I thought when we had the third and I think it was, like, 14 when we had the illegal shift when he had a big-time catch. I think that would have got him going. It was like every time he had an opportunity to almost get things rolling, something negative occurred.
So, just talked to him in the looker room and really proud of the way he finished. That was a huge play and a big-time moment. We got to get it cleaned up, but he should absolutely take confidence from that play and be able to continue to go forward.
Q. Jourdan Lewis continues to make big plays for you guys. Is it hard to really measure the impact he's had on a defense last year that really was kind of lost?
LIAM COEN: Absolutely. He is, by far, one of our best leaders in our organization. Was if my office Wednesday morning at 7:00 a.m. talking to me about some things and the mentality that Jourdan has that he competes with, that he spreads his word and our word to the rest of the guys, he's infectious. He really is. He's a pro's pro but he's not just going to be quiet about it. He wants to reach everybody that he's involved with, not just the defense, offense and teams. So he's -- really proud of Jourdan. So happy to have him, obviously, but he's different a catalyst for us.
Q. When you're just starting as a new head coach, what does a win like this do for you when it's not going right but then all of a sudden at the end it does?
LIAM COEN: Yeah, you had a little bit of an eerie feeling almost last week in a way where you're like oh, God, they're moving it a little, but actually I was kind of a little -- I don't want to say yelling during that last drive but I was probably a little frustrated and Campy is like, dude, we got it. Relax. But it was great. It gave me confidence and the way that they were playing, I wasn't requesting whether they were going to get a stop, but you're starting to see it get moved down the field and -- but there's no flinch, really, out of that group. Last week was obviously disappointing to not finish it on the right end and to see them go out and take this win, to go take it from them, that's what we did.
Q. Three games now, seeing Josh Hines-Allen in action and today obviously with the tip at the end, just what have you seen from him and how important has he been to this defense?
LIAM COEN: Huge. Like we said during the week, it hasn't quite shown in every stat book, but his presence, what he does in terms of affecting the game both in the game and the pass has been really, really something that's helped us out to get other people to be able to get pressures and the way that he affects the game and also just his practice habits. The way Josh practices, the way that he is in the meeting setting, the way that he lifts. The way that he does everything is really what we're trying to continue to do as a program and really proud and happy for that defense especially for Josh.
Q. And Josh was incredibly consistent from the start, had a hit on Stroud I think on their second play. Drew numerous holds. Just seemed like throughout the entire game -- and then obviously makes the tip at the end that Antonio gets the pick on, but can you talk about how rare it is to see a defensive end affect the game from basically the first play to the last.
LIAM COEN: Yeah, that's a great point. He did. They started fast. We elected to defer for kind of that reason, honestly. It was just to kind of get our defense out there and let them start fast and affect the game and those guys did that. Josh, the length... but it's also his strain and I'm not taking anything away from his athletic ability, his talents, how hard he's worked but it's the way that he plays. His strain, his finish, even if he doesn't win on a rush, those guys really up front have all done a nice job of getting their hands up and affecting the pass game in different ways, so really, he was pretty emotional in there and excited and juiced up. So hopefully it's a sign to keep moving forward.
Q. Liam, what does it say to you the running game, just being able to get it going the second half after starting a little slow?
LIAM COEN: Yeah, early in the first half, we had a bunch of runs called and then they had some blitzes and different looks. They came out in a five-big package to our 12 personnel which was unscouted. We needed to adjust to that at halftime, which we did. Obviously we were able to get it going a little bit. I probably had too many -- some of those runs in 11 personnel, they're bringing Pitre off the edge and we had some screens and some things. The one that was tipped earlier in the game when we were on the like the minus 30. That was versus 0. That was going to be a huge play but we didn't end up getting it.
Called a lot more runs that end up getting actually executed just because of the defensive structures and looks they were presenting and the second half, like I said, I thought our coaches did a nice job adjusting, communicating those adjustments and being able to get some dirty yards in the so he could half when we needed to run the ball.
Q. Trevor seems frustrated at times with guys not being lined up right, plays not getting in quick enough. How do you think he fought through all that?
LIAM COEN: Yeah, Dyami goes down, right? And we were kind of going into this game with a little bit more for Parker based off of last week and the way that he practiced all week and then we kind of catch the drop bug a little bit so your confidence just as a quarterback, right? It wasn't -- the timing and rhythm, some of the stuff wasn't on, wasn't there early. Then when it is there, we're not catching it and then so you start to force it a little bit, specifically that third down interception, probably a force.
But, man, I was very proud that -- yeah, he was frustrated, we were all frustrated on the sidelines and communication but there really was none of this at all. It was just accountability, let's just go play the next play and in a critical moment, that play to BT was all Trevor in terms of the can. Like, that was a run play that they had saw blitz on, zero blitz. He gets out of the play. We had a run on. He gets out of it, fixes the protection, picks it up and then we execute the skinny that he wad in there and BT comes ripping in the window. He delivers it on time.
Yeah, it was a very frustrating outing in a lot of ways, man, but I'm hoping and we're hopeful that a moment like this can maybe do this for us and help us go to the next level in terms of understanding truly what it takes to throw and catch at a consistent level.
Q. Thanks, coach.
LIAM COEN: All right, guys, thank you, guys.
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