Transcript: Head Coach Tom Coughlin

Head Coach Tom Coughlin

November 26, 2014



Coughlin: Good morning. Let’s talk about the Jacksonville Jaguars, the youngest, the youngest team in the National Football League. Just a couple of thoughts in terms of recognizing this team – they did beat Cleveland at home for their only win; however, last weekend if you watch the Indianapolis game, it’s 6-3 at halftime. In the first quarter Clemons sacks Luck three times. They get a total of five sacks in the game. They are very good, I think, a very good defensive team. I was shocked to look at the numbers but they’re a team that has an outstanding front, they rush the passer very, very well with 33 sacks. They’re third in the National Football League. They trailed Cincinnati by three points with eight minutes to go in the game. They lost to Pittsburgh, 17-9, and 16-14 to Tennessee. Those are big games for them obviously. They defeated Cleveland, as I said. They had 23 points against Cincinnati (and) lost, 33-23. They lost, 31-17, to the Cowboys when the punt returner fumbled the ball, gave the Cowboys the ball at the six-yard line going in. They were driving the ball, Robinson fumbled on the 32-yard line going in and denied themselves a chance to score. Offensively they’re led by Blake Bortles, their young quarterback. They’re doing the right thing with him. They inserted him into the game, he’s had everything thrown at him, which you expect a young quarterback to have to stand up to the pressure. He’s done that well. They run the no-huddle offense. At one point this season they were fifth, I think, in the fastest snap time of any team in the league. He’s gone through his growing pains. He will run the read option, you will see that. He keeps the ball with that. They also have Denard Robinson, who they’ve made their starter now. He’s averaging 128 yards a game since he was put in the game as a starter. He’s very, very fast. You know him as a quarterback. He can throw the option pass, which you should all remember and know. Luke Joeckel is their left tackle, they drafted him in the first round the year before. They started him out on the right side, moved him to the left side and he got hurt. Now he’s the full-time left tackle so that is a little bit about their… they have allowed 43 sacks, which is most in the National Football League as well. Their defense, I mentioned Chris Clemons, Red Bryant is there from the Seattle Super Bowl championship the year before. JT Thomas, their middle backer. Cyprien, their safety, is the leader of their secondary. They have, as I said, 33 sacks. They are the number one defense in the National Football League in the red zone. Their special teams are led by Josh Scobee, Bryan Anger is their punter. They have Sanders, who’s done a really good job. You remember him, he caught 51 balls a year ago as well and he is their outstanding punt returner and then Jordan Todman has done a very good job on their kickoff returns and as a special teams cover guy as well. A little bit about our team now. Will not practice today will be Snyder, McClain and Kiwanuka. None of those guys will practice. We will have Jacquian Williams, Justin Pugh and Cullen Jenkins for the individual section of practice only. We progress now, again, in pursuit of a win. That’s exactly where we are. I know you don’t have any questions because you’re thinking about snow days.



Q: You started off by talking about Jacksonville’s pressure. How can you challenge your team to bring that type of pressure? Kiwanuka, JPP, to play up to…?

A: We’ve been challenging them for the entire year. Obviously we’re not doing a really good job of that. To be honest with you, when we call pressures, take a look and see who’s getting home, whether it comes out of the secondary, the linebackers, whatever you want to call it. You can talk about pressure all you want but we’ve got to have people to get to the ball, get to the quarterback. That hasn’t happened much. And we, quite frankly, we have called pressures, pressures have been aborted or not performed very well. How would you like to be the guy who is sitting there calling pressures and we call pressures and nothing happens, so you’re vulnerable in the secondary even more when you do that. You’re not getting home, how would you like to be the guy calling those plays? It is something that has been missing the majority of the time this year. The effectiveness of pressures, whether they come out of the secondary, the linebacker level, we have not been good with that. Plus, to be honest with you, we’ve had some missed assignments when those are called. The responsibility starts with me. We’d like to think we would be a better team with pressure. You mentioned Kiwanuka, that’s only one name. There are a bunch of guys up front that are supposed to be known for that. Ayers has had some success, didn’t play very well last weekend. Young Damontre, everybody wants him in the ball game, he did have some success the other day with one sack. He should have been playing a little bit more.



Q: You didn’t mention Odell Beckham. How is he feeling? Is he at full-go today?

A: He’ll be full-go.



Q: He’s playing such a big role in the offense, are you happy with the numbers that he’s had because it seems to be growing every week?

A: We’re trying to win a game. How many times do I have to answer the question that way? I’m either answering questions about us dispersing the ball and being a better distribution team using all of our abilities or I’m answering questions… either we’re not getting the ball to him enough, like I was asked the other day, someone asked me about his yardage after the half, or where are the other people. We’re trying to win a game. That’s all I can tell you. We will utilize Odell in as many spots as we can so that we will cause issues with the defensive team in terms of if they would like to plan some type of coverages based on where he is. We’ll continue to do that. He’s a young, talented guy who loves to play, wants the ball and he’s done well when he’s gotten it. We have other guys that have contributed and we’d like them to contribute more. And in the progression, it doesn’t always start with number 13. It depends on the play call.



Q: With no McClain today, will you go Kennard at the MIKE?

A: Yeah, well, Kennard or Herzlich. They’ve got to be ready for both those spots.



Q: You’re not a big talk-about-yourself guy, but this is your return to Jacksonville and it is your 300th regular season game.

A: Really? Thank you very much. I appreciate you saying that. I didn’t realize that.



Q: You didn’t realize it was your 300th game?

A: No. For a young guy, it’s hard to believe 300 games. I must have started when I was 15.



Q: What does that number mean to you?

A: Right now, not much, to be honest with you. What’s important to me is that we have this game on our schedule and with where we are, we need to win a football game and that’s the important thing. We’ve traveled to Jacksonville before, I’ve been very appreciative, the fans have been great when we return back there. It will be the same, my family will all be there at the game. I understand it’s alumni day, so it’s obviously a day of a lot of emotion going back there. I will certainly be appreciative of all those things, but just as the Jaguars will be, our full intention is to get ready to play a game and win a game.



Q: During your career, you have had that mentality of finishing. The last few weeks you haven’t finished. Is that something that, is it just confidence, belief? How does it get back to that mentality of finishing these games?

A: That’s the question, isn’t it? That’s the question. It’s very simple to state it. You work your tail off to get the game in a position where you can win it. Now let’s go win it. We haven’t done it. You keep working. Obviously is there confidence, is it an issue of confidence, what are the issues? We analyze everything, just as you do, fine and dandy but until we do it and we step up and the guys that can do it perform so that we can win, it will be a question that all of us will ask. We do spend a lot of time talking about finish, finish, finish, finish. That’s what this thing is about, that’s the whole point is to finish. Well, we’ve got to do a better job. Anybody else?



Q: You mentioned the Jaguars ability to rush the passer. Are you happy with the protection more so Sunday than in previous games or are you still juggling things on the offensive line?

A: At times, I was happy with it; at times, I wasn’t. The two-minute drill with two sacks, no, I’m not happy. I’m not happy. I’m not happy we didn’t score before the half and I’m not happy we didn’t score at the end of the game. We had a minute to go, so go kick a field goal. Four downs and we’re piddling around at 10 yards. Come on.



Q: You talked about Damontre Moore as a guy who should have played more in retrospect. You guys have said that a couple times this year. Why, in your opinion, do you think it hasn’t really happened for him?

A: Because there are times, to be honest with you, during the week when you talk about confidence level, whether it’s assignment football or whatever. For whatever reason, it hasn’t been something that we thought he knows exactly what he’s doing and so on and so forth. The practices have to fulfill the idea that we can go ahead and play him under all kinds of circumstances is what we’d like to do, not just on third down.



Q: You signed a practice squad player from Stony Brook.

A: We found the biggest man we could. No, I’m just kidding. He is huge, he’s a big man. He worked out yesterday, worked out well. He’s in outstanding shape so he’s here.