Jaguars-Saints Week 7 TNF Recap

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Car to the end zone and Chops preaching for is the adavanserin vous touchdown as he at all Lawrence fires that's caught on the run, Christian Kirk inside the twenty egos and Christian Kirk.

00:00:22
Speaker 2: Tached the ball all the.

00:00:24
Speaker 1: Way to about the one yard line, car to the enz off the.

00:00:34
Speaker 3: Fingertips of Moreau but not holding it.

00:00:40
Speaker 4: Oh Foster, Moreau dropped what could have been the game tying touchdown, or who knows, maybe the Saints would have gone for two. They threw a fade on fourth down in the red zone that didn't work. Either the Jaguars escape thirty one to twenty four or in a game that was, you know, not as entertaining as that score would say, but more entertaining than we thought it was gonna be about halfway through, when it looked like the.

00:01:09
Speaker 3: Jaguars were gonna run away with this.

00:01:12
Speaker 4: I'm Greg Rosenthal wrapping up T and F with Charles McDonald from Yahoo.

00:01:19
Speaker 3: He helped us out a year ago.

00:01:21
Speaker 4: Charles, he's the host of the Exemptless podcast doing good stuff over at Yahoo Sports.

00:01:26
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining, Charles, Glad we got a good one for you.

00:01:29
Speaker 5: Yeah, Well, I was a little worried when as this game was going on in the first half. But luckily the Jaguars kind of, you know, did what they've done all year and mess around in the second half.

00:01:41
Speaker 6: And let the other team get back into it.

00:01:43
Speaker 5: But they were blessed by the grace of God really to have Foster Morrow drop that touchdown at the end of the game and give them the win. But man, that was a really, really sloppy game. Like, like you said, the final score does not it was not indicator of how competitive or close.

00:02:03
Speaker 6: That actually was.

00:02:04
Speaker 4: Right, there's so much and I do think this tends to happen on T and F games. I used to think it was just something people complained about on Thursday nights because like half of these early, you know, slate games on Sundays, they're just they're ugly too. But now I really do think there is something to it, not having that time to get ready and to recover your body and everything that goes along with it.

00:02:29
Speaker 3: So this was an ugly game, but it ended up being entertaining.

00:02:33
Speaker 4: And I'm trying to check myself because you know, I went to school in New Orleans. I followed the Saints team closely, and they feel like the main characters to me in this game, the ups and the downs, and they're the home team. And yet I will start with the Jaguars here because they are five and two and they've managed to get through a tricky part of this schedule where they were in London for two games. They come back, they have a division game and then a short week on the road in New Orleans.

00:02:59
Speaker 3: They get to five and two, and you said it, Charles.

00:03:03
Speaker 4: Every week they come out and their opening script is godlike, I mean, Press Taylor who's calling plays for them now, and Doug Peterson helps put together the plan, and Trevor Lawrence. They come out every week, the first couple of drives are awesome. It happened again tonight. They put a touchdown up early, they get another touchdown early second quarter, it's fourteen to three, and then it just gets stagnant the rest of the game. And I can't really put it on Trevor Lawrence who's playing out there with an injured knee, although he looked good running the ball, Like, what is it that you're seeing with this offense this year?

00:03:40
Speaker 3: And then certainly in this game where.

00:03:43
Speaker 4: It's like they seem to start off well and then they can't quite hit the levels that they were hitting at the end of last year.

00:03:49
Speaker 5: Well, I think one thing that was big for them in this game, at least was the absence of Zay Jones almost send the same flowers wrong as they But they kind of found themselves in a situation today where Jamal Agnew was taking real deal wide receiver reps for them when he's more of a gadget return guy.

00:04:09
Speaker 6: You know, I feel like in the best use.

00:04:13
Speaker 5: Of Jamal agne for an NFL offense, you're probably looking at a guy who's taking screens, maybe.

00:04:17
Speaker 6: A reverse or a jet sweep every once in a while.

00:04:20
Speaker 5: But where they got into trouble was, you know, having him run routes that you would expect Calvin Ridley making or Zay Jones be making, a Christian Kirk be making, and for some reason, he kind of kept getting funneled the ball, like he had six targets in the first half alone, and they tried to get him the ball in another reverse that didn't really work out in their favor. So I think they're just kind of stuck when the Ridley to Lawrence connection isn't working right.

00:04:45
Speaker 3: It wasn't working like it wasn't working today at all.

00:04:47
Speaker 4: Anew got six targets, Calvin Rerialby had four. I don't think he had any in the first half. He only had one catch five yard. It's been a very strange Ridley season where it's either he's the game changer or he's kind of taken away from the offense. That's what I felt like tonight on a big call that they dial you're in a big drive when it was tied, I believe, or they're trying to put the game away. They go three straight plays to Ridley, none of them work. They end up getting the ball back and getting the go ahead touchdown. But it's been uneven throwing it to Ridley.

00:05:20
Speaker 6: Yeah.

00:05:20
Speaker 5: I think when you look at the whole offense, it's really they're kind of incomplete when you look at the sum of their talent. I think having Trevor Lawrence it is a huge blessing for the Jaguars. We even saw that tonight, coming off of a knee injury, he still picked up a handful of clutch first downs on his own when things weren't open downfield. So he's kind of gotten to a place in his career I think where he can elevate the talent around him. And luckily they play you know, the NFC South and the AFC South this year, so that should be a good amount of wins for them. But I think when you look at where they're trying to be, which is at the top of the AFC, they're not quite there yet like with the Bills or the Dolphins of the Chiefs, but they're coming, you know, I think they're another off season the way.

00:06:05
Speaker 4: But they're also stacking wins as they go. And so one of the things I've tried to learn over the years is, like man, October, these teams they're not really who they're going to be when it matters. They'll fool you one way or another. And the key is do you have the pieces that are there? Are you kind of stacking wins and you're in a good position along the way, And they've done it.

00:06:29
Speaker 3: They start out one and two, they're up to five and two. No one in the AFC has more wins than they do.

00:06:34
Speaker 4: As we go to sleep tonight, they got Pittsburgh next week and then they have a bye week, so a nice little stretch here where they have a lot of off days, and as you mentioned, the schedule is not bad at all down the stretch, so they're in good position and we can get to their defense later. But there's some things about their defense I like, and ultimately like they're improving enough on offense, and Lawrence looks good this year that I'm not too worried.

00:07:00
Speaker 3: But I gotta get to the Saints, because the Saints this whole game.

00:07:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, let's work backwards actually at the end, because the Saints offense came alive in the fourth quarter, the Alvin Kamara offense, which is like what we can call the Saints. He had twenty nine touches total one hundred and fifty three yards from scrimmage. Total sixty two are on the ground on seventeen carries, twelve catches.

00:07:24
Speaker 3: For ninety one.

00:07:25
Speaker 4: I mean everything was his check down, checkdown, everything's going to Camara. He's not really making plays on the second level, but he's good at making that first guy missed. But it was a very frustrating night for Derek Carr's a frustrating night for Saints fans who are booing the hell out of him early. He's yelling at half of his teammates during the game. Olave for stopping short unner route Camara for changing his route up ones, he's checking the ball down before even seeming to go through his reads.

00:07:53
Speaker 3: And then you look up at the end.

00:07:54
Speaker 4: Of the game and here they are, like making a fourth quarter comeback, a foster drop away from tying this thing at like thirty one if they go for the extra point. And I know Dennis Allen, he's gutless, he would have definitely gone for the extra point. Like, what what do you make of this Saint's team after spending your night with him?

00:08:12
Speaker 3: Well that was that was an open ended question.

00:08:15
Speaker 5: But yes, the petty Falcons fan in me, yes, a nice kick out of that, to be honest with you, because they look terrible for the vast majority of the game, right and and honestly, for how decimated their offensive line was, I thought the protection maybe could have been a little bit worse. Like there were times when Josh Allen and Andre's Pete you know, had their quote unquote battles where Josh Allen run straight past some more they had like protection mix mixes ups in the middle where you know, bad guys coming running running straight through the middle of the line of scrimmage. But it's just it's just so constipated, like they don't really have anything to get that. It's the best way that I can described it, right because Derek Carr are the most explosive playmaker they have Chris Alave. Derek Carr has no rapport with him right now. And you know Alave dropped the pass today too as well. So you look at that the decline of Michael Thomas to where he's at right now, it kind of turns into an offense where all you have is Alvin Kamara and trying to spam the ball to him. So is Alvin Kamara gonna catch one hundred passes this year? I don't really think that that's a great style of offense for them. But then they come back and you have when you got to have it. They run down the field fifty three yards, three players score touchdown. I'm like, where is that? Where has that been all game? Because it's I don't I don't think these players are as bad as maybe their production has been, but it was just a mess tonight.

00:09:43
Speaker 3: No.

00:09:43
Speaker 4: I think if you put Kamara or even Michael Thomas and a more functional offense, they would look better. Kamara, Yeah, he has twenty three catches going into this game. So he now has thirty five on the season in four games.

00:09:58
Speaker 6: That's crazy.

00:09:59
Speaker 4: That's if he was playing seventeen games. That's like a pace for one fifty. And he's not the same dude he used to be in terms of making people miss at the second level. And so some of those I've said it on this show, some of those plays that used to be like twenty one yards are like eight.

00:10:15
Speaker 3: Now or ten. But they wore the Jags down. I think part of that.

00:10:21
Speaker 4: A big part of that was just it's a short week and they ended up running eighty seven plays. The Jags could not stay on the field in the second half. They decided not to go for it on a fourth down. The Saints had a really long drive that then didn't score, and then they had a pick six, and then they had another long drive, so they just had the ball forever. And I think that's part of the reason why you saw the Saints look so good at the end of the game was the Jaguars defense was just worn out.

00:10:50
Speaker 3: But you're right on a lave because there's frustration there.

00:10:54
Speaker 4: They threw the ball to him fifteen times tonight for fifty seven yards, So that that's under four yards per attempt when you're targeting allotving nothing over fourteen yards.

00:11:05
Speaker 3: There was frustration, there's drops.

00:11:06
Speaker 4: And then especially early in the game, there was just straight up misses by Derek Carr. So he's combining to me, like a guy who plays it very safe, kind of checking down before he even looks down the field.

00:11:18
Speaker 3: That's why I love Thursday nights.

00:11:19
Speaker 4: You can watch the prime vision and kind of see the field and he's just hitting that Camara, you know, throwing the flat before he even takes any time. But when he is trying to go deeper down the field, it just seems like things are off.

00:11:34
Speaker 3: So it's a lot of the same just kind of drop back.

00:11:37
Speaker 4: And throw it, not a lot of creativity, Like Saints fans are done with Pete Carmichael and they're wondering if Derek Carr is better than Andy Dalton was a year ago.

00:11:45
Speaker 5: Yeah, one of the more interesting parts of the game to me was, you know, you said that had eighty seven plays, Like they had to use all of those plays to get you know, down the field because as bad as they were on third down, Because there were so many plays where Derek Carr you'll be third and eight, he's throwing shortest sticks.

00:12:01
Speaker 6: Third and six, he's throwing shortest sticks.

00:12:03
Speaker 5: And then they end up four and six on fourth down because I think in the second half they're like, well, screw it, we got to start going for it. Even if Derek's not going to, you know, give us a chance down the field. We still have forty one in the backfield and we can spam that.

00:12:15
Speaker 6: So it just.

00:12:18
Speaker 3: Eighteen by the way down until they got that third one.

00:12:23
Speaker 4: That was the most third down attempts without a third conversion in four years.

00:12:28
Speaker 3: So it's pretty rare that a team pretty that.

00:12:31
Speaker 5: Yeah, it just the best way I can put it is offense looked very, very hard for the Saints tonight. There's just no easy buttons, there's no outlets, And yeah, hopefully that can improve for them as the offensive line gets healthy, and maybe Trevor Penny can improve and start to look like the first round pick that they drafted him to be. But they just kind of seem to be in a bit of a talent deficit right now.

00:12:54
Speaker 6: It's it's top heavy. You still have your stars at the top.

00:12:57
Speaker 5: But I think what we've seen as they've had to deal with the effects of kicking all the Breeze money down the road and kicking all those contracts down the road, you start to lose like the middle class of your roster. So when an I want to say, Taylor gets hurt, maybe you don't have someone to replace him. Where your offensive line gets hurt, you've probably got someone cheaper than what you had in the past as depth. So that's where you start to see it. Because I think it's interesting when people say, oh, the CAP's not real. CAP's not real, and for the most part, like, yeah, you can do your tricks to mess around with it, but when you put yourself into a situation like the Saints, it's just a slow bleed of talent over year after year after year after year.

00:13:34
Speaker 6: And I looked it up during the game today.

00:13:36
Speaker 5: They are projected to have negative eighty million dollars in cap space next year.

00:13:41
Speaker 3: So they get best around with that.

00:13:44
Speaker 6: Yeah, to a decent degree, but to a degree.

00:13:46
Speaker 3: Here's some guaranteed money that they have next year.

00:13:49
Speaker 4: I know it's a little early to be talking like next year for Saints, but Derek Carr ram check at your loving this As a Falcons fan, I want to get to your reaction to about how the Saints fans are or booing the hell out of the seam. But Derek Carr, ramcheck Cam, Jordan Kamara, Taysom Hill, Jamis, they all have money that's gonna be I think ten million dollars plus into next year, and yeah, they can keep spreading it out, but that's money that's gonna be on their cap. And the point is, like these are all declining players. You know, they're not players that are on the upswing for the most part.

00:14:25
Speaker 3: So now you're you're kind of tied into this core for at least a.

00:14:28
Speaker 4: Couple more years that aren't necessarily getting better. The whole point is to be maxing out this year, to get to nine or ten wins, to get Dennis Allen and Mickey Loomis another two years at this gig. I mean to me that that's been the whole point of this Saint season, and I think it's why the fans.

00:14:49
Speaker 3: Are especially so frustrated.

00:14:50
Speaker 4: How are you feeling watching them boo the hell out of the Saints, like in the first half the game was just like seven to three, and booing the checkdowns to Derek Carr like.

00:15:03
Speaker 3: They're three and three they're tied for Are they tied for first? Or the Bucks are three and two?

00:15:07
Speaker 6: But the Bucks are first?

00:15:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're basically they're they're three and three though they're trying to get in the first place this week and their fans are booing the hell out of them because they're kind of just sick of watching this offense, Like how does that make you feel?

00:15:19
Speaker 6: As the Saint amazing?

00:15:22
Speaker 5: It's just it's wasn't like these people deserve to have I don't know that the best way that I can put it.

00:15:28
Speaker 3: Y'all much of it.

00:15:30
Speaker 5: But I can't get too ahead of myself because like this, this rivalry does get petty enough where someone will come back and pull this and say something to me about it if the Falcons offense doesn't pick it up.

00:15:42
Speaker 6: But for now, I mean.

00:15:44
Speaker 5: Watching Derek car Get Buddhas a Saints quarterback, it's like everything I dreamed of this offseason. It's what I It's what I need and and I think, what's what's crazy is I found myself looking at, you know, his contract to see if they could get out of it after the offseason.

00:16:01
Speaker 3: Yeah they kind of can, but they kind of can.

00:16:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, they'll they can and they will if if it goes downhill.

00:16:09
Speaker 3: Uh, but they'll eat half of it.

00:16:11
Speaker 4: We've kind of well, they eat I think plus ten million or something, and they would do that if that's what they feel like the best move is.

00:16:20
Speaker 3: We'll see how the rest of this season goes.

00:16:22
Speaker 5: The I think the interesting thing for where Saints fans are, where the organization is is every year, basically since Drew Brees has started to dwindle down through his retirement through this year, you're all in just based on how your roster is set up, like you.

00:16:38
Speaker 6: You kind of have to functionally be all in.

00:16:41
Speaker 5: So you're starting to see the mission returns on what being all in every single year starts to look like. And now you're you're kind of at a spot where, oh man, are some of our core players are getting older? We just signed Derek Carr and he doesn't look like he's a great fit here. And now we're just kind of waving around in no man's land again. So, like you said, their goal should be to get ten wins because job security matters if you are Dennis Allen and Mickey Loomis. But I don't really see what where this season is supposed to take.

00:17:10
Speaker 4: Them Okay, we're gonna take a quick break, but I do have a couple of points on what you just said with job security coming up after the break.

00:17:20
Speaker 3: Okay, I do.

00:17:21
Speaker 4: I do want to mention here how this was a revenge game for Doug Peterson. And I love the guys at the Saints Twitter podcast that I'm sure they are ranting tonight. They have one of the best team specific podcasts out there. You guys can check it out. And one of the things that always cracks me up is they're so pissed that Doug Peterson only got a Zoom interview when they hired Dennis Allen, that like they didn't want to fly that, you know, Doug Peterson, who had won a Super Bowl with Eagles down to New Orleans.

00:17:57
Speaker 3: They're just gotta cheap out.

00:17:58
Speaker 4: We're gonna we're gonna interview you on Zoom because we know we got this guy in house, Dennis Allen, who's now eighteen and forty two as a head coach in the NFL, and we kind of know we're going to hire him, and so these are kind of sham interviews. We're gonna do Eric the Enemy like that too, and we're not really going to.

00:18:18
Speaker 3: Try to get creative on offense.

00:18:19
Speaker 4: We're gonna keep Pete Carmichael, who you know, there were some whispers reports didn't even want the OC job because he was kind of he was.

00:18:25
Speaker 3: Kind of cool with just kind of being, you know, in the background.

00:18:29
Speaker 4: And I'm not saying that to like say, oh, let's just mock them. They made a bad choice. I'm saying it to point out what you talked about, which is like, I think they did that because Dennis Allen was the guy they knew that wasn't going to rock the boat. And I do think there is something about this organization where Gail Benson's there who took over for her late husband, and Mickey Loomis is really running this show. He has about as much power as anyone that's that's like no a note or not a head coach. Sean Payton's out the door, and I think they just wanted to like keep it all in house. They weren't hiring any new assistance from outside the building. It's all the same people. It's like all the same players. It's just like, let's just keep this all together. We don't want someone like Doug coming in here, who is going to bring in his own people, and who knows if it gets kind of sideways, like we're gonna be out of a job.

00:19:17
Speaker 3: So it's this whole sort of culture.

00:19:19
Speaker 4: That I think speaks to what even you were talking about with the roster getting stale. It's just like, let's just hold on to this as long as we can. Like I don't think there's any aspirations to win the super Bowl. It's like, let's get paid for like four or five more years if we can. And that's like I get it, Like I get the motivation to make that happen, but like, I don't think long term success is gonna is gonna happen when you make decisions like that.

00:19:43
Speaker 5: No, at the time, I kind of understood it because I do think where they were as far as like their roster construction in their cat space was kind of relevant for the hire they made. You know, I don't think it was quite inspiring higher because, like you said, eighteen and forty two record kind kind of speaks for itself after a while. All right, but you're at a point where, excuse me, you can't really blow it up and rebuild through the contracts you have, so maybe you just say, let's run it back to a degree and for Doug that worked out great for you, man, like you got you fell into the lap of Trevor Lawrence. Now that gets Protty much.

00:20:19
Speaker 4: Better that way. And that that was at the point in the off season too. I Doug Peterson was not sure.

00:20:24
Speaker 3: To get a job.

00:20:24
Speaker 4: I forget now off the top of my head who Jacksonville's first pick was.

00:20:28
Speaker 3: But it wasn't Doug Peterson.

00:20:30
Speaker 5: It was that the Byron left which here was that in well maybe no, no, I think that was a year after.

00:20:37
Speaker 3: He didn't want to.

00:20:38
Speaker 4: It was the same iron cycle as Alan and but they ended up with a better coach with with Doug Peterson, and thank you. This is why I like the tn F recaps. The only time we go this deep into one team. It's the only time I really feel like I have the space where my regular co hosts Mark and Dan aren't just gonna cut me off from making my three minute rant on the Saints have just been trying to protect their jobs all these years with.

00:21:01
Speaker 6: Dennis it was Byron left wind. I just looked it up. Memory did not fail.

00:21:05
Speaker 5: Yeah, they picked Doug over Byron, and then Byron got fired after this past season.

00:21:09
Speaker 4: M well, they made they made a good choice, Doug, Doug Peterson doing a good job. And then the last thing on the Saints is you mentioned how, yeah, they didn't protect car Well tonight maybe a little better than you would expect. They did have backups at their tackle position that you know they they suddenly are very banged up there, but that speaks to the weirdness that's.

00:21:30
Speaker 3: Going on there.

00:21:30
Speaker 4: Their first round pick, Trevor Penning, was their left tackle started the whole season until last week when an article goes up on New Orleans Football dot Com. I don't know how deep you got into this charge now, but I'm deep at the Saint's Twitter talking basically about how bad Trevor Penning's been watched him play, sources inside the organization and saying how he's messing up the run game and that he's going to be benched, and that's how he learned that he was going to be benched. And I'm fine with like them benching Trevor Penning and he struggled. But this is some Dennis Allen stuff where he and he did it back in Oakland and he's done it a little bit in New Orleans with when they were going to trade ced deuce where he started seeing all this stuff popping out in the media, and he's just like kind of using the.

00:22:18
Speaker 3: Media to explain what he's going to do.

00:22:19
Speaker 4: But it's like, just tell the man, just tell the man in your bench, right, you don't need to like do some whole sourcing and bury him in the media. So it's like, I don't think players respect that, and they're not stupid. Believe me, if I'm talking about it, they're talking about.

00:22:33
Speaker 6: It well, especially with the Trevor Penning thing.

00:22:35
Speaker 5: It's not like benching would not have been totally justified based on Washington play.

00:22:42
Speaker 6: So I don't know why you would.

00:22:44
Speaker 4: Like they got and then their left tackle got hurt, and then their backup left tackle got hurt, the fifth string tackle.

00:22:49
Speaker 3: What's going on? They didn't start.

00:22:51
Speaker 5: I know, it's crazy that it kind of seems like they're just waving the white flag on Matt Pick already, which is kind of crazy, but he really.

00:23:00
Speaker 6: Has been that bad.

00:23:02
Speaker 5: I think it's it's it's also kind of an indictment on maybe even where they are like culturally that that they would rather go andres Pete and cam Irving as your tackles and even just try to have your first round tackle, you know, just give it a go.

00:23:17
Speaker 4: So he was on the field when they like lined up, I don't know if it was like seven on the line or something.

00:23:23
Speaker 3: For that Taysom Hill touchdown.

00:23:26
Speaker 6: In the backfield, you got tackle.

00:23:28
Speaker 4: You got your defensive tackle, Caylen Sanders in the backfield, you got Trevor Petting over there as like an extra tight end. I mean, every time I watch the Saints, I can't believe I got to this place. But I'm like, give me more Taysom Hill man.

00:23:43
Speaker 3: Like, you know, he's pretty good at what he does. He's not worth He's not worth the money that he gets.

00:23:49
Speaker 4: He's guaranteed like thirteen million dollars next year by the way too, so he's not going anywhere. But it's like at least they got some juice when he's on the field. He's been pretty good this year.

00:23:58
Speaker 5: As as so one who has been on the wrong end of a lot of Taysom Hill runs. As far as Falcon phantoms go, I swear to God that Taysom Hill quarterback power run is like one of the most unstoppable plays in football. Like when the goal line they can run it on first down in short yardage. Unfortunately, you know that's not a play you can run every single down. But as as a nice little change up, it's it's become kind of a crutch for their offense at times.

00:24:27
Speaker 6: And maybe he was worth that that contract at the game.

00:24:30
Speaker 3: I don't think turning into like a decent tight end.

00:24:34
Speaker 4: He went four for fifty tonight, Like you see him out there actually running some real routes because yeah, yeah, I'm watching the next Gen stats feed and like he's lined up as a wide receiver. I don't know how many snaps just seem like quite a bit of snaps. It's kind of crazy, but it just goes to show like that they're a wild They're a wild organization. I love having them in the NFL because there's no other team that's trading multiple first round picks and trading up for Trevor Penny and trading multiple first on picks for Chris o Lobby. They just do whatever the hell they want. Give this contract to taysoon Mill.

00:25:04
Speaker 3: They don't care.

00:25:05
Speaker 6: It's fun.

00:25:06
Speaker 5: It's definitely fun to watch because I'd respected to a degree just the never tank philosophy.

00:25:13
Speaker 6: Yeah, we're not bottoming out. We're going for it.

00:25:16
Speaker 5: But it's just starting to deteriorate, and I think this year is really one of the heaviest times you can see, oh wow, this is kind of going to be a multi year rebuild for them to get back to where they want to be.

00:25:27
Speaker 4: But like your Falcons and like the Bucks, this division is is pretty pretty lousy. So everyone's got hope, and so the Saints still have hope at three and four, but I'm kind of glad they're three and four because they deserve to be three and four.

00:25:40
Speaker 3: They don't deserve to be four and three.

00:25:42
Speaker 4: Let's finish by talking some positive about the Jaguars, maybe where we see them going from here. I've been really impressed this year with Foye Olukon. He's the one who got the pick six here. And Darius Williams, who really struggled last year on the outside. He came over from the Rams winning the Super Bowl there where he was a great story, really struggled a year ago and this year has been making a lot of good plays on the football and I believe he's the one that tipped up that pass that ended up being taken back in by a LUA Kan and I'm just seeing a lot of players that are a little more comfortable in this Mike Caldwell scheme in their second year, and they came into tonight leading the league in turnovers. They forced one tonight, they were without their best cornerback. Still look pretty good out there for the most part. Just tell me what you see in kind of what stands out with this defense this year.

00:26:35
Speaker 5: The run defense is so good, like they just pummel people up front. I thought one of the most impressive sequences, the suconsequences that they had was when they got down to the goal line and they gave up the first down, and it was like the sixteen play drive where Taysom Hills scored on the fourth down, but they stuffed him on first and goal, second and goal, third and goal before they gave it up on fourth down.

00:26:58
Speaker 6: That stuff was so impressive to me. I think we just.

00:27:00
Speaker 5: Watched how they beat up on the Saints O line throughout the night. It's like, man, if they can just get something out of Trayvon Walker, because Josh Allen's here this year, if they can just get something out of Trayvon Walker, like that defense could really really ascend because they have the run defense, Like you said, when Tyson Campbell gets back, I think that second day is looking pretty good, especially with the development of Andre Cisco on the back end. You can just get another pass rusher to pair at that run defense and the development of linebackers like that defense is gonna be just a pain when it gets to the playoffs.

00:27:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Trayvon Walker does contribute in the running game.

00:27:36
Speaker 4: He's a good run defender, and they're tough to push. They've actually gotten healthier. I think Devon Hamilton was he back, he's big.

00:27:46
Speaker 6: He's coming back. He's a backer, is coming back soon.

00:27:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, and.

00:27:51
Speaker 4: If they're somewhat balanced, they got to get their offense to improve. But this was one of those games where it was like they were negative to and turn in the first half, and they went into halftime up seventeen six despite the Saints I'm doing I'm counting it now got seven possessions in the first half and so and the Jaguars only held them to six, So I look at that stuff. Then they hold them to a field goal, then they get the pick six. So at that point in the game, we're into the fourth quarter. Now the defense has already been on the field for nine or ten possessions. They've actually scored more points with that pick six then they've given up at that point. It's totally on the Jaguars offense that the game isn't just over over. And if the Jaguars offense didn't go three plays, four plays, then first down and punt and downs and then first down and punt in the second half, like this score would have been different and we would have been talking about the Jaguars, like we wouldn't be looking at a twenty four spot that New Orleans put up. So it's one of those things you got to watch the whole game to get the whole story, because to me, the Jaguars offense for the most part let them down, you know after that first quarter surge, and the defense won them this game.

00:29:06
Speaker 6: Yeah, this was a defensive led performance. For sure.

00:29:10
Speaker 5: I would find this performance a little concerning if I was a Jaguars fan, because, like, you've made it to the playoffs, you've had a signature moment by coming back from the Chargers and even playing well against the Chief for the most part in that the visual game, so now you kind of want a little bit more and to me, like a performance like that when we're stuck in park for like two quarters at a time. That's a little bit every.

00:29:35
Speaker 3: Game though this year. That right, I know that was against the Colts last week.

00:29:39
Speaker 5: Actually, even the Falcons in the second half, they weren't really moving even.

00:29:42
Speaker 4: The Chiefs game, which they didn't win, but they were kind of stuck there the whole time.

00:29:46
Speaker 3: It's it's been consistent like this. It's a little concern.

00:29:50
Speaker 4: But when they got the ball, I gotta say, for some reason, I just was like, the Saints are gonna mess this up one way or another. Like even when it was tied, I was like, I don't know how the Saints are going to lose, but they're gonna lose it. And to the Jaguars credit, they get the ball back after punting it three forty five left after a terrible punt on the Saints forty six second play of that drive, Christian Kirk just made Honey Badger look slow. Kind of hurt my heart because I'm a big Honey Badger fan, but tough, I've never seen Christian Kirk look so good. So give them some credit for you know, their best two players on offense for the most part, is Lawrence and etn. But Kirk's probably third right now. And Kirk made a big time play there forty four yards to go win the game.

00:30:33
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, that was that was like a poor one out for Honey Badger moment because he got dusted and it was it was one of those moments where so where Christian Kirk you could see the he was accelerating away and Honey Badgers kind of stay at the same speed. And I was like, oh, no, it ain't quite you know, twenty eighteen anymore. But I think I think that's kind of where the Saints are going to exist though, for the next few years. Right now for the Jaguars are though, because it's a young it's a young, good roster. You can still ad pieces too.

00:31:02
Speaker 3: No, and they'll they'll have decisions to make.

00:31:04
Speaker 4: Josh Allen is having a crazy good contract year, so they might have to use the tag with him. But Calvin Ridley is a free agent too, so there's a.

00:31:12
Speaker 3: Lot coming up. But they don't have to worry about that that they got a chance to do things this year.

00:31:17
Speaker 4: In this AFC. They are the favorites in the a f C South. You're one of my favorites Charles, I appreciate you exemplest.

00:31:24
Speaker 3: Podcast What's Up? And you're still writing the four verts on Yahoo dot com.

00:31:29
Speaker 4: You're still doing doing the good thing, one of my favorite columns out there, and writing some other stuff during the week.

00:31:36
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm going to uh phillyas week for the Dolphins Eagles game.

00:31:39
Speaker 6: So oh dang, really excited about.

00:31:41
Speaker 3: All right, Well, root for the Eagles there. I locked them up. We do our locks of the Week every every week. It's a competition.

00:31:49
Speaker 4: I wanted to take the Jags, I said it, and then Lawrence's injury freaked me out. I didn't want to have to wait until game time, so I got off the Jags. So Egles better come through with me. Who you got in that game? Okay, that's Charles, still still thinking, not just about the Super Bowl, but the following year when I was with you, I was at I was in Philadelphia. For some reason, I liked that Falcons team because I wanted them to get some redemption. I think they had a chance to win the Super Bowl that next year. People don't remember that, And Matt Ryan sailed that, uh.

00:32:25
Speaker 5: Well you know what we almost had that What you know we almost had that year was Falcon Saints NFC Title game because that was the Stephan Diggs catch last year too. One play away in each game from Falcon Saints NFC Title game, which is basically like World War Three.

00:32:40
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:32:40
Speaker 4: Instead, we got Brandon Graham strips up and strip sacking my guy Tom Brady in the Super Bowl Charles great job again. Fun game, Jaguars win it. Thirty one twenty four. We will be back here on Sunday for.

00:32:54
Speaker 3: The flagship recap show. In the meantime,