Jacksonville Jaguars coach Liam Coen admitted during a virtual news conference on Oct. 12 from London that he didn't sleep well the night before.
Understandable. The Jaguars beat the Philadelphia Eagles 19-17
at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on a walk-off, 57-yard field goal by Cam Little, following a 53-yard kickoff return by Ameer Abdullah. It came after the Eagles' Jake Elliott put his team ahead 17-16 with a 48-yard field goal with 8 seconds left."A lot happened … a ton of things occurred throughout," Coen said.
Coen talked about many of those things during his virtual availability
Liam Coen on a replacement long snapper
(Note: Long snapper Ross Matiscik was injured early in the game and starting nose tackle DaVon Hamilton had to double snapping on punts and place kicks).
"We got that's
happening … got somebody arriving here. I think right now. It was challenging in the moment for sure and affected some of the calls, like going for it on fourth down versus kicking field goals. We missed the extra point … so it does affect a lot of things, op times, especially how cool the end of the game really was in that last play. That's an elite field goal block unit, right? [Eagles defensive tackle] Jalen Carter himself has blocked so many on his own. From not being able to make the [conversion] kick to have the protection that we had. That was really the two plays I showed the team today in the meeting, the return and the kick. Obviously, the kick was amazing and the hold, but the protection on that play was fantastic from those guys."
Liam Coen on holder Logan Cooke
"Logan was fantastic. How can you say more about the hand-eye coordination, the athlete? There was one that he got it down, and he was a little bit in the way. His foot was a little bit in the way of the spot, and at the last possible second, he just like slightly moved his foot to get out of Cam's way, and it was, just chaos for sure."
Liam Coen on Parker Washington's one-hand TD
"It was an extremely well executed play from the top down. It was fourth and five … so you're always in that in between of do you try to give them a ball out or catch and run more intermediate, or do you try to take a shot? And we felt like we had a good play to get Parker matched up in the slot to give him some more room on the route. He won right off the line. They bring a five-man pressure. We picked it up. [Quarterback] Trevor [Lawrence] was awesome with his feet and the ball location. I don't think he could quite get both hands on it, but the ball placement was phenomenal in terms of where he put it.
"You're amazed because of the moment and because of how big of a time it was. But to look back and to continue to see this guy make plays for our team, especially in some of these critical moments … it speaks to the dude, and to make critical plays in critical moments, he's showing that he can step up and do that stuff."
Liam Coen on Jaguars' red-zone issues
"We just got to continue to lean and ricochet and stay grounded. And then Jalen Carter, the highest paid inside D tackle in the NFL, made a play on [Chris Rodriguez] down there before the half. It was a tough. It was a yard and a half, and so we didn't feel like we could sneak it, which was obviously what we would have liked to do there. And so we tried to hit the perimeter and block it well on the outside.
"When you're not in the rhythm throughout the whole game, and then you get down there and things are a little chaotic … you've been back and forth. We had an 18-play drive and then not come away with points twice on the one-yard line, that's never really a recipe for success. And so, an area in which we have been really good, we just were not. It was a combination of a couple play calls and situations that I can help them out with, some finishing of execution, and also some good defense. They made a couple plays and a couple stops, and they got good players."
Liam Coen on the offensive line adjustments
"I thought those guys responded well in the second half. I thought Jalen Carter was kind of wrecking shop a little bit in the first half. He made some really fantastic individual efforts … some of his swim [moves] are pretty challenging. And so he made some plays. I thought we handled him and the front better in the second half. It's hard in there, and they're playing a good group.
"I just felt like they stuck with it. I thought, protection-wise, for the most part of the day, didn't think it was too bad. I thought we settled down a little bit more in the second half as a group. They played hard. They played their tails off. That's a damn good front. It's one of the bigger fronts that we'll see. Obviously, have a huge challenge again this week with another good front. But I was proud of the way that they played."
Liam Coen on injured OT Anton Harrison
"He just got an MRI, so we don't have the results back yet. He's a little stiff, but I have a lot of belief in [Player Health and Performance director Jeff Ferguson] and our group downstairs to be able to get him ready to play if anybody can. And we'll have to be patient if he's not able to practice. It was a weird play. He was kind of trying to block on the turn back, and it just tweaked on him a little bit."
Liam Coen on the team's run defense
"It's such a cool deal to see the guys get off blocks and fight blocks and strain and buzz around to the football, regardless of who's playing running back for them. I know they had some old linemen. They've traditionally run the ball well. It's still a big line. They can lean on you a little bit, and for us to be able to do that was huge. We went into the game saying, if we could run it for 100+ plus [yards] and hold them, under that, that we would have a good chance at winning the football game. I thought our defense kept us in the game, especially in the second half. And it really all starts with the guys up front and the way they play the run and how dialed in they are against the run."
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jaguars coach Liam Coen said help is on the way for a long snapper
