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Jaguars News | Jacksonville Jaguars - jaguars.com

Doug Marrone - Monday, December 2, 2019

(Opening statement) "Obviously we had the quarterback situation, so I'm going to address that right off the bat. I handled the situation this morning, Gardner's [Minshew II] going to start for us Sunday versus the Chargers. Obviously, it was a tough deal with Nick [Foles] coming back from injury and us not being able to do a good enough job around him really. So, we feel with Gardner's mobility and elusiveness, it can give us a better chance of winning with the way we're playing right now, because we're all not doing a good enough job, the coaches, and we just have to keep it going. So, that's what we're doing going forward right now."

(On if he believes the offensive line is not doing a good enough job of protecting the quarterback) "Well, they're part of it when you look at protections, but it's really a lot of things. You have to get open; you have to protect. We have tight ends protecting. We have running backs that will protect. We have to be able to run the ball better, I mean there's a lot of things that come into it, but yeah, right now obviously, yesterday, we didn't do a good enough job protecting and we got beat up front and it's not the way we want to be playing."

(On how QB Nick Foles handled the news that he would not start in Week 14) "It's brutal. It's tough. He's a competitor. He worked his ass off to come back, and he's a great pro, so he's going to do everything he can to help us win, and at the same time, he's got to be ready in case there's an injury or whatever it may be. But he'll be a pro about this. I think the world of him. I think he's a really good quarterback. I think that he obviously could win in this league, but we've got to be able to help him around. We got to have some help around him."

(On if Foles' lack of mobility led him to struggle in the offensive scheme and on how Minshew II's mobility helps the team) "I think the mobility's going to help us. It's kind of like how [Associated Press writer] Mark [Long] said, just overall, we're not being able to give [Foles] a clean pocket where he can sit back there, so I think the mobility, that's the reason why we made the move. I think the mobility and elusiveness, they give us a better opportunity; a better chance to win."

(On his assessment of LB Donald Payne against Tampa Bay and on if he wore the green dot during the game) "Yeah, he did. And I give Donald a lot of credit. He played a lot of snaps yesterday. He only missed one snap. He was battling his butt off. He really prepared all week and it showed. He had 13 tackles. I thought he did a really good job and especially with the green dot and his communication which is also as equally important to make sure everyone gets the call. So, he did a nice job yesterday, he really stepped up."

(On if Minshew will start for the remainder of the season) "We're planning on him playing, yeah."

(On if he is worried about the tension in the postgame locker room) "I think when you have a team that's battling, and our guys are battling, and I know that people might have different views on it, but they're fighting hard, they're practicing hard, I see them every day. So, obviously we're all frustrated. We just have to channel that to being more productive and winning football games. So, in the sense that when people are frustrated, and it gets to that point, there's part of you that says, 'Hey, at least they damn care. At least they show that.' But then there's another part of you saying, 'Hey, we've got to be smarter than that and channel that energy.' So, I think that's the way we go. I've heard about [the frustration]. I heard it from [Director of Public Relations] Tad [Dickman] and a couple of the coaches, but it's not going to be something that's going to spill over into anything else. It was just a – obviously we're all frustrated at the moment."

(On what is leading to the amount of penalties called against the team) "Some of those penalties, like the special team ones, we work on that all the time. The holding, the block in the back, that just – you can't have it. And then you have these unforced errors. The false starts, you can't have those. And then when you get to these holding penalties which are hurting us, you have to be in position to do that. Obviously, no one's teaching it, and we're teaching them, hey, there will be times where you get your hands outside, but you have to get them underneath. You have to get them back inside quickly; you can't just leave them out there. So, we keep focusing on it, we keep talking about it. There's really not much we can do, meaning other players to go to that can play at a level that we need to play at, but again, it's something that's hurting this football team and it's something that I have to do a better job of, and the coaches and the players. It's an area where we're not doing a good enough job, because even though the analytics don't show it, penalties [and] winning and losing games. But I can tell you this first hand, it's hurting us from winning games, there's no doubt about it."

(On if he is surprised to see the way Foles has performed up to this point in the season) "Like I said before, I still believe in him as the quarterback. I just think that a lot of times it's never really just the one position, or one person. That's the one position [where] it's a team game, you need people around him to do a good job, and right now, we're all not doing a good enough job. So, we're just trying to put the best guys out there that give us the best chance to win. And it's tough. It's tough when you're not doing a good job, starting with myself, to the coaches and at times obviously the players. So, we've got to hang in there, and we've got to try to get past this. We have to obviously learn from it, because it's a learning experience, but at the same time, shit, we have this bad taste in our mouth. We've lost four straight. We're at home again and we have to find something that we can hang our hat on that we can win football games, so that's what we're trying to get done."

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