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Jaguars News | Jacksonville Jaguars - jaguars.com

Doug Marrone - Monday, September 24, 2018

(Opening statement) "To reiterate some of the things I said yesterday, obviously, I could have done a better job getting everyone prepared, and the fake punt, which was my call. Looking back, we want to be aggressive, but it's a tough situation. The way the game was going to go, I probably would have kicked it there and tried to get it down inside [the 20-yard line]. You have to learn from that like I told the players. We couldn't make a play. All we needed to do was make a play. We weren't able to do that, so I credit Tennessee. They did a good job of keeping us from doing it. Some poor execution and we didn't play well. It starts with me, the coaches and the players. It's on all of us. The thing now is we talked to the players, made the corrections, had a lot of talks and in perspective, it's tough losing a division game and getting behind early in the year. That's something that you do not want to do. We talk to [the players] a lot about quarters. We are going into the fourth game against a good football team with an opportunity to win the first quarter and go 3-1. Right after I'm done with this press conference, we'll get to work on that."

(On Sunday's game being a bad day at the office) "I think we did not perform well enough. From me on. You go back and you try to look at things and try to see things. If you see things during the week then you need to step up and correct them. There's a great sign down the hall by SMG. It says, 'If you see something, say something.' I really think that's an accurate sign. I tell that to the coaches and players all the time. We work together to get the team ready and there is a lot of communication on this team. I'm looking forward to seeing how this team bounces back. You cannot rely on what happened in the past with the team because that was the 2017 team, which did a good job of bouncing back. This is 2018 and it's a challenge for us and our first challenge with some adversity. We're going to have to do a good job from me on down to everyone."

(On if it helps retaining some of the veterans from 2017 this year when facing adversity) "That was one of the things I spoke to a couple of them about. We can't take that for granted. This is a different team. There's a different type of chemistry to it. That's why I've always believed that every year is different. Every year you start from the beginning. This will be a big week in how we prepare and how we get ourselves ready coming off of a poor performance."

(On if T.J. Yeldon re-injured his ankle during the game) "He got hit on the sideline. That took him out and then he recovered and was fine."

(On Yeldon and Leonard Fournette's status) "I was optimistic two weeks ago. I'm just going to handle this one day-to-day. The only one that's a little bit longer is D.J. [Hayden]. He has a sprained toe. His will be week-to-week. I'm not giving up on him for the week, but I think that status will be more week-to-week."

(On the difference between 3-1 and 2-2) "One game. For us we talk about winning the quarters. There's a big difference between 3-1 and 2-2. Obviously if you tie all the quarters you are going to be 8-8 and you have to win more. If you can stay winning the quarters and stay 3-1 then you should be in pretty good shape."

(On Chris Reed) "It's tough. You're going against one of the better players in the league. They had a bunch of guys coming in and out. I thought Chris had a couple of good plays and probably some plays he wants to have back. The holding penalty is questionable, but you can't do that in a game when you're going back into the red zone. Obviously we played a game and we didn't get into the red zone. That's something we don't ever want to have happen again."

(On the back-up RG) "He has been our back-up."

(On A.J. Cann's status) "If I say I do and he is not, are you guys going to be [upset]? I'll give you my honest opinion; yes, I think Thursday if he is practicing and completes Thursday and feels good then he will be back."

(On penalties) "I'm probably like everyone else. Some penalties I could say you understand, tough situation. You try to coach them to be in a better situation. I'm big on – I don't like the pre-snap ones, ones you do have control over. More so on the offensive side. With Jalen's penalty he was trying to time it up and getting a good sense of the cadence and count. It's tough to block field goals or PATs. You have to try to get a hell of a ge- off. That one I wasn't as concerned about. Penalties inside the red zone are major. Penalties, drops, missed opportunities. It's very difficult in this league to get down there, but once you get down there you want to be able to put it in there. It's tough when you get penalties because not only does it back you up, but the field is shorter down there. The play calling becomes much more difficult. Some of the plays you may run might not be in the plan. You're sitting at third and 15 or third and 18. It is a difficult area to try and complete those. Difficult anywhere, but more difficult down there."

(On if this team takes a loss differently than last year's team) "I don't know. We all take it pretty bad. We all take it to heart. The one thing about this team is we know we're all accountable for the loss. No different than when we are all accountable and contribute to the win. That's the one thing I've always admired about the team."

(On howthe team bounced back today) "How you would expect. You feel shitty. You let an opportunity go by. You didn't perform the way you wanted to perform. I feel awful, everyone feels awful. The people that clean the building, they feel awful. We all do. When I say we're all in it together, it's the truth. It's one of those things where you come in and you feel awful, give credit to the other team. I don't want to take any credit away from Tennessee. You look at the tape, you learn from it, how we will never let this happen again. Now our focus goes on to the fourth game of this first quarter. Winning the quarter and getting back. We're at home, which is going to help. Our focus is on New York. That's pretty much how the day works."

(On if he thought there would be more frustration in the locker room after the game) "I would be disappointed if there was. We're a close team. The players communicate well. They all back each other. I didn't see any of that."

(On why Blake Bortles was less accurate yesterday) "It's a lot of things. There was rush, there were routes run by the receivers, things of that nature. Decisions. Where to go. There's a lot of things that go into it, but we all needed to, every phase needs to do a better job. We had drops, decisions, throws, protection. It's not just one glaring thing, which would be a whole lot easier sometimes to correct. We have to get on the same page. That's the one thing about offense. You always have to be ready. You always have to go full go. You can't have a breakdown. You have a breakdown, you can get exposed whereas on defense, you may not cover someone, they may not throw him the ball. You can still make a play and you have that happening. On offense, it's very difficult to overcome any of those mistakes, especially when you can't get into a rhythm."

(On how you teach players about the new helmet rule) "We're on it. We're on them all the time. Telvin's [Smith Sr.] came back and it wasn't. We just have to keep talking about, 'hey, get your head to the side' and doing that. Malik's [Jackson] was a tough one, I think, because the quarterback's movement and spinning. That's a little bit tougher. We're talking all the time, showing our players all the tapes that we get about weight on the quarterback and the helmet-to-helmet. We're just trying to do the best job that we can."

(On Taven Bryan) "He's getting strong. I think he'll be the first one to tell you he can get a lot more. A lot more of himself, making more plays. I think that he's progressing. We're looking forward to him playing better and better each week. We really do. I think he's done a nice job."

(On if he's worried about Yannick Ngakoue not getting sacks) "No. It depends. If there's a lot of noise on the outside about, hey, what's wrong? What's going on? What's this and that? Really, it's from people not watching the tape or watching him play. Anyone who's watching him play knows how effective he is on the quarterback. They also see what people are trying to do: chipping him and doing a bunch of things to him. I think he's done a heck of a job in the run game, which is good. I think that he's a big part of the pressure that we put on quarterbacks. He's doing a good job."

(On if he feels the need to say anything to him) "You guys know him. He's strong. He's a focused, focused guy now. Probably one of the most focused guys that I've been around. He's focusing. If you hold him, he might get frustrated, but I'm just saying, he doesn't get frustrated as far as he looks at each snap, goes about it, gives us 110 percent, try to be the best that he can. I really admire that from him."

(On if Ngakoue has been chipped more than in years past) "I think teams have a better plan coming into the game. That happened last year, probably not right off the bat, but early on in the season. I think our guys, they expect him there. We've got to do a good job."

(On Ngakoue getting around Titans LT Taylor Lewan for a tackle for loss) "I think he's improving in everything that he does. There's many players on this team, but he's one that I would say that really, really is hard on himself, really studies everything about his game between his footwork, to his hands. He's a very – some guys play with pure talent; there are some guys that have talent like Yann and play technically strong as far as meaning that you always look at the game. If you look at it, he was lined up perfectly, he had good get-off, he had great hands, he had great leverage. When he does all of that, he's a tough person to defend against. Both run and pass."

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