Jaguars S Andrew Wingard on beating the Raiders: ‘It feels good to win’

The Jacksonville Jaguars proved in Week 9 that actions speak louder than words. Instead of talking about not shooting themselves in the foot and how they would play better, they went onto the football field and come back from a 17-0 deficit to beat the Las Vegas Raiders. Four-year safety Andrew Wingard met with the local media Monday and talked about what the Jags did differently to end a five-game losing streak.

Right off the bat, Wingard told the media “it feels good to win” but knows that he and his teammates can’t get win drunk, “we have a tough challenge this week, so we have to enjoy it today and get back on the horse next week”. He went on to say that he knew the Jaguars were going to win even though they were trailing the Raiders 17-0 in the second quarter.

So what did the Jaguars do differently to get over the hump in Week 9? The player known as Dewey says that messages eventually lose their effectiveness, so the team just went out there and executed.

“You don’t like motivational speaking”, Wingard said. “We don’t need to come in here every week and try to find some motivation of ‘everyone’s saying’. Words really breed actions. When everyone comes in and it’s like ‘we need this, we need that, we need, need, it kind of gets redundant and it’s not a good feeling. But I know for sure this week we came out and stopped talking and just started doing so. That’s really what we tried to focus on throughout the course of the week”.

After going undrafted in 2019, Wingard signed with the Jaguars. He was mostly relegated to special teams in his rookie season but worked his way up the depth chart and eventually joined the starting lineup. The former Wyoming Cowboy beat Andre Cisco for the starting job next to Rayshawn Jenkins last year but started this season on the bench.

Wingard has appeared in just 16 defensive snaps in 2022, most of them against the Raiders and only when Jenkins was ruled out of the game with a concussion. In the past three years, Dewey played 44 games with 21 starts and logged three interceptions and six passes defensed, so he does bring experience at the position. Here’s his full exchange with the media.

The Jaguars showed up against the Raiders and execute

Andrew Wingard brought up several important points during his conversation with the media. You can talk about what you want to achieve but in the end, results speak and intentions don’t. In previous weeks, head coach Doug Pederson and Trevor Lawrence often talked about fixing things and playing better. But at some point, it became redundant, as they kept talking about being better, yet, the results were the same.

On the other hand, it’s important that Wingard understands that the team can’t rest on their laurels. They will next face a Kansas City Chiefs team that ranks first in the league in points score and the Jags will need to bring their A-game to Arrowhead Stadium if they want to have a shot at pulling off the upset.

Ending a losing streak was necessary but the Jaguars now need to show they can consistently play complementary football. If they continue to “stop talking and start doing”, their chances of winning will increase in Week 10.