A prickly presser may be a fork in the road for the Jaguars in 2024

With only one game under their belt, it's pretty darn early for the Jacksonville Jaguars or any NFL team to be looking at a fork-in-the-road moment. Fans should never extrapolate too much from the first game of the season, as they often prove to be exceptions rather than the rule.

But, with so much to chew on in that game, and with a somewhat out-of-character demeanor displayed by their head coach, fans in Duval are wondering if a turning point moment is exactly where they stand.

With the collapse to the Dolphins still stinging, Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson took the podium on Monday for his regularly scheduled press conference with the media. The second question dealt with the widely held opinion that the playcalling went conservative in the second half, contributing to the team blowing its lead and falling to the 'Fins. Pederson's response was telling:

"I don't know what game you were watchin' cause we had a backed up drive started at the three yard line. We ripped off a 26 yard run ... and then we came back and hit Gabe and we hit TJ in the flat and next thing you know we're at the 15 and we fumble going in. So that's pretty aggressive to me."

- Doug Pederson

Pederson has been a stand-up guy throughout his time in Jacksonville. So, there's no reason not to take him at his word, and if one does that in this case, his word reveals a severe disconnect between the way he is seeing the game and the way pretty much everyone else is seeing the game.

Doug P cited his decision to go for it on fourth down on his own 32-yard line as further evidence of his aggressiveness. Forgetting that most observers saw that decision as more of a sign of panic than aggression, even if it was evidence of an attacking mindset, it still belies the real issue at hand.

Fans are not questioning an ill-advised fourth-down decision as aggressive or not. Fans are questioning the playcalling. Here is the sequence of plays after Etienne's costly fumble:

Oof. Doug's presser got even testier when Hays Carlyon of 1010 XL asked him about his team's ability to close, before ultimately agreeing, "We did not do enough to finish the football game."

No one is going to argue with Pederson on that point. But, the devil is in the details. Once again, a disconnect was revealed later in the press conference when Pederson stated that he and the rest of the coaches thought the offensive line was asserting itself; thus, the decision to call the game so run-heavy in the second half.

GenJag's Jordan De Lugo asked him whether the decision to run the football almost exclusively was "by design," which really seemed to raise Pederson's hackles.

"(Smiling incredulously) When you say 'by design,' uh... that, that that, uh... I don't know. Um. There's a time in the game where we as offensive coaches felt like our offensive line was taking over the football game."

- Doug Pederson

Disconnect. The offensive line was, in fact, not taking over the football game, and the Jags were ultimately unable to stay on the field and salt away the win.

The Jaguars had no shortage of tense moments after the loss the Dolphins

There were other moments in the press conference that were a little salty as well. For instance, Pederson didn't seem to like Carlyon's second question about quarterback sneaks.

Pederson also publicly questioned the way defensive coordinator Ryan Nielson coached his defense to defend the 80-yard touchdown pass to Tyreek Hill, stating that the Dolphins ran the play "all day." And yet, that's another disconnect with observers who note that ultimately the Jaguars held a potent Dolphins offense to 20 points.

That should be enough to win, and breaking character and throwing your defensive coordinator under the bus when it really wasn't the defense's fault is ... well, a disconnect.

If you are an NFL fan of any length, you've seen this movie before. When the coach starts to get defensive, and recounts events from the game through a lens that baffles even the most loyal fan, things can start to turn for the worse.

But, Doug Pederson is a good NFL coach who knows what he's doing. This isn't some knucklehead like Urban Meyer, and it's entirely possible that he's pushing buttons both publicly and behind the scenes.

If there's one criticism of Pederson and his teams in Jacksonville so far it's a lack of fire. Maybe he sees that and is lighting one. It wasn't so long ago that fans and media were publicly questioning whether the head coach would even yell at players. Perhaps now, Doug is showing that side of him.

So, it's entirely possible what people are seeing is an early turning point: No more Mr. Nice Guy in Jacksonville. If that's the case, and the players are willing to embrace it, Jacksonville could turn the early season loss against the Dolphins into a catapult toward success for the rest of the season.

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