One thing that became clear during Urban Meyer’s short stint as the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars was that he didn’t know his players’ names and often had no idea who their opponents were. Conversely, Doug Pederson has the Jags steering in the right direction and one reason is his strong understanding of the team and their division rivalries.
On the days preceding Jacksonville’s division matchup against the Tennesse Titans, Pederson told the media that “these are the kind of game you must love playing in“. To get his players amped up for the Tennessee Titans, Pederson prepared a “history lesson”.
Jaguars HC Doug Pederson’s history lesson ahead of win vs. Titans
Following their 36-22 in Week 14, tight end Evan Engram told the media that their head coach taught him and his teammates a bit about the Jags’ rivalry with the Titans.
“Had a nice history lesson this week on the history between these two teams, where we are, and our season”, Engram said. And what we have to do this last stretch of games. This one was big and we kind of got a glimpse of that last night as a motivation.
“We came out, we were ready. We had a great week of practice. We had fun at practice, and we just trusted our process and we put our process to the test today. Defense, offense, special teams had a big one call back, which is unfortunate but we all answered the ball today. It was fun”, Engram said.
The best teachers are those that can successfully get you engaged on whatever topic they’re explaining regardless of how tough or boring it might be. In Week 14, Pederson got Jaguars players to make it personal against the Titans and to make losing a division game not acceptable. That’s what makes him the right coach to right the ship following a dearth of success in recent years. Here are other takeaways from the Jaguars’ convincing win over their division foes.
The Jaguars defense rebounded vs. the Titans after a subpar outing
Throughout most of the 2022 season, the Jags have failed to play complementary football. The offense will do its job only to be let down by the defense and vice versa. But both units, along with special teams, were in unison against the Titans which is why Jacksonville was able to build an early lead and never look back.
In Week 14, the Jags’ defense managed to force four takeaways and all of them led to points on offense (two touchdowns and two field goals). Doug Pederson credited their ability to get after quarterback Ryan Tannehill.
“Put pressure on the quarterback and balls tend to either miss their targets a little bit”, Pederson said. “And the guys were in the right spots and made some critical takeaways in this football game. But hats off to the defense”.
Mike Caldwell deserves praise for getting the defense ready for the Titans. Just last week, his unit gave up 40 points to the Lions and seemed to have regressed after a strong start to the 2022 season. Nevertheless, they had four sacks against the Titans in addition to the aforementioned takeaways.
The Jags had trouble stopping running back Derrick Henry at first. In the first quarter alone, Henry gained 96 yards. He finished the first half with 119 yards but only managed to muster a measly two in the second half. Building a comfortable lead forced Tennesse to abandon the run. But that shouldn’t take credit away from the defense, which was able to neutralize their biggest offensive weapon.
The Jaguars team that beat the Titans in Week 14 is built differently
Trevor Lawrence rightfully deserves plenty of praise following the Jaguars’ dismantling of the Titans. After all, he had a career day in Week 14, going 30-of-42 for 368 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Moreover, Lawrence added a touchdown on the ground for a total of four and became the first quarterback in franchise history to throw for 3,000 yards in each of his two first seasons. But as important as he’s for the Jaguars’ long-term future, Doug Pederson has also played a key role in steadily turning things around.
As John Shipley of Fan Nation noted, Jaguars teams from previous years would have folded once the Titans had the lead but not Pederson’s bunch.
Reason I keep coming back to "Doug Pederson is good" other than the obviously good passing offense: how the Jaguars battled back after 7-0 and 14-7 today.
— John Shipley (@_John_Shipley) December 12, 2022
Feel like every other Jaguars team I've covered would've folded after either of those touchdowns.
Pederson doesn’t let the highs get too high and the lows too low. He’s straightforward and knows how to get his message across but he will also adjust it to each individual player. This also applies to his coaching staff. He tells them what his vision is and what it takes to get it down.
The Jaguars could’ve thrown the towel following the loss to the Lions but instead had them fighting against the Titans as if last week hadn’t happened.
You will often hear coaches talk about taking it one day at a time but Pederson does it. That’s why the Jags are 5-8 with four games left in the season, which isn’t particularly impressive but it’s noteworthy when you take into account that the Jags have only won six games in a year just once since 2008 and the last time they won five was in 2019.
Progress sometimes takes time and Rome wasn’t built on one day but it’s evident the Jaguars have made significant strides in Pederson’s first year with the team.