JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jaguars were back in action Sunday morning and trying to fix things after a tough preseason opener against the Raiders.
Coach Doug Pederson said that the 27-11 loss to Las Vegas was a feeling out process for the team and the coaching staff.
“Never as good as you think, it’s never as bad as you think. There were some good individual efforts out there during the game. I think there’s still, there’s a lot of things we got to clean up. It just comes down to fundamentals and details.”
It was a crash course for the Jaguars in getting a game plan ready for the Raiders. Jacksonville had just eight training camp practices before the Thursday night game in Canton, Ohio. Pederson said the first slice of camp was getting things built out as far as plays and familiarity of the playbook. As the preseason continues, expect to see a greater expansion of the game plan.
Jacksonville (0-1) hosts Cleveland on Friday night in the second preseason game of the season.
“The installations as far as putting in the information is tapering off now so we can continue to go back and fine tune assignments, alignments, the details of routes, run game, the fits for the offensive line, things like that,” Pederson said. “And that’s what you got to see and that’s where the constant improvement needs to start showing up here in these next several weeks before the regular season.”
Notebook
- The defense came out with serious intensity on Sunday, arguably the most pumped of camp.
- Perhaps the hit of camp was courtesy of Andre Cisco on Travis Etienne during the live period. Etienne broke out of the backfield and took a route to the sideline. Instead of stepping out of bounds, he kept going and Cisco absolutely obliterated Etienne. To his credit, Etienne popped back up and went back to the offensive huddle but that’s not a hit he needs to take often. Etienne also got leveled by Tre Herndon on a similar play a few snaps later.
- As mentioned above, it was a day the defense headlined. Rookie linebacker Chad Muma had two big hits during the live period and dropped Ryquell Armstead after a catch for a loss. Andrew Wingard crushed tight end Luke Farrell after a catch in one of the day’s other hard hits.
- Third-year linebacker Rashod Berry was a presence on Sunday. He had a sack of CJ Beathard in the live period.
- In a goal line rep from the 2, Lawrence and the No. 1s couldn’t get it into the end zone. Lawrence overthrew Chris Manhertz in the end zone and sailed a pass over Dan Arnold’s head. The play to Arnold was wide open, too.
- Etienne was stuffed for no gain at the 2. And Foye Oluokun stopped Snoop Conner at the 1 on an excellent fourth down read. Conner looked like he was headed for the end zone but Oluokun met him at the 1 and dropped him straight to the grass before Conner could attempt to stretch the ball across. Lawrence and the 1s were 0 for 4 in the situation.
- The second team wasn’t much better. Beathard’s first pass was tipped by Daniel Thomas and broken up in the end zone. The line swamped Mekhi Sargent at the 1. After a false start that pushed them back to the 6, Beathard finally ended the offense’s slump when he threw a touchdown pass to Laquon Treadwell. It took Jacksonville eight plays to find them end zone.
- After leading the team in receiving against the Raiders, Farrell turned in an excellent morning. He had three significant catches, including one that netted about 40 yards and nearly wound up a touchdown. Farrell made the catch near the sideline and followed a great lead block from Zay Jones on Cisco all the way down it. Had it been a game moment Farrell would have likely scored. One of the best catches that any player had on Sunday.
- After practice wrapped, Arnold and Lawrence went back down to the same end zone where they misfired on the goal line play and re-ran it. They connected this time.
- Rookie linebacker Devin Lloyd is still day to day with a hamstring issue. Right tackle Jawaan Taylor participated in individual work on Sunday.
- Jamal Agnew got more work than he has in camp on Sunday, working on offense and snagging a few passes as well as fielding some punts. Agnew is working his way back from a season-ending hip injury.
- Beathard was eased back into action for his first significant action of camp. He’s been battling a groin injury since OTAs.
- Armstead nearly had a touchdown run in the goal line situation but fumbled it away and Tyson Campbell recovered.