Liam Coen: Jaguars’ Struggles vs. Broncos Started Before Kickoff
Sunday’s collapse against the Denver Broncos marked a stark dropoff from the explosive performance on both sides of the ball that characterized the Jacksonville Jaguars’ season opener.
Against the Browns, the Jaguars (1-1) put up 24 first-half points and finished the contest letting Cleveland into the end zone just once down the stretch. But on the road in Denver, the Jaguars offense struggled to finish big plays, and the defense slipped in the back half of the contest, allowing 17 unanswered points to close out the loss.
Among the issues coach Liam Coen addressed Monday was the road environment, with the matchup marking Jacksonville’s first outside the comforts of EverBank Stadium.
“That’s a tough place to play,” Coen said. “There’s some real home-field advantage that they have there, and it’s something that, in the NFL, you got to deal with it. It is what it is; you have to go compete at that level and be dialed in to execute in those situations.”
The road environment played a factor, but plenty of the struggles on offense and defense can be attributed elsewhere. On the offensive end, the Jaguars struggled to create and finish explosive plays after their sole scoring drive to open the second half.
After the third-quarter push capped off by a Cam Little 23-yard field goal, the Jaguars had just one 20-plus yard play — a 28-yard toss from Trevor Lawrence to Jakobi Meyers.
“Whether it was in the run or the pass, we just didn’t create any explosives, so for me as a coach I got to put them in a better position to be successful, and we have to go execute the calls a little bit better,” Coen said.
The Jaguars also recorded a plethora of drops, something that was few and far between against Cleveland. Notably, Brian Thomas Jr. had two and running back LeQuint Allen Jr. recorded one in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, on the defensive side, the Jaguars failed to put pressure on Bo Nix.
The Jaguars recorded zero sacks throughout the contest and had just three quarterback hits to Denver’s seven. The amount of pressure Lawrence faced Sunday compared to Nix’s comfortability in the pocket made all the difference, especially down the stretch as the Broncos mounted their comeback.
“I think it was a combination of they did a nice job of mixing [some of the play action] and when we had some of those ops to go, we just didn’t take advantage of them,” Coen said.
Coen also said the issues on display Sunday started well before kickoff. Jacksonville will look to solve for it with a stronger week of practice before it hosts last season’s Super Bowl runners-up, the New England Patriots, Sunday at 1 p.m.
“We didn’t have our best practices last week on Thursday and Friday, specifically on the defensive side of the ball,” Coen said. “We addressed it, and it kind of carried into Sunday in some ways … we don’t dominate practice; it’s going to be really hard to go dominate an opponent.”
Category: Feature Sports News, Jacksonville Jaguars, NFL
