Jacksonville Jaguars coach Liam Coen held his usual Monday news conference on Sept. 21 to discuss the team's 20-13 loss to the Denver Broncos the day before. The loss broke a nine-game regular season winning streak for the Jaguars and brought into discussion some old issues, namely pass protection and the lack of a pass rush.
The Jaguars (1-1) will host the New England Patriots (1-1) at EverBank Stadium on Sept. 27 (1 p.m., CBS).
Liam Coen on moving forward
"That was the message right after the game in the team in the locker room, and then obviously this morning [in a team meeting]. It was, 'Hey guys, we've got to be extremely accountable to each other to the things that obviously we could improve on and where we fell short.' Coaches, players, everybody involved in that,
we got to be accountable. We got to connect, reconnect, and we've got to move on and respond. I mean, that's what it really comes down to. I'm excited to see us respond. I'm excited to get back on the grass on Wednesday with this group."
Liam Coen on the offensive line
"In the run game, it was a little bit better than it maybe felt at times. You know, I think we had some decent movement. I thought we handled some movement well and some pressure, decent. In the pass pro, I think, you know we got edged a little bit. I think [Broncos edge rusher] Zach Allen really disrupted things inside. We all kind of took our turns [missing blocks and assignments] a little bit up front. I think it wasn't necessarily one guy for the majority of the game. I think we all kind of took our turns.
"We've got to do a better job of moving the launch point and doing some things to help those guys so they're not just getting teed off on. Some of the longer down and distances need to get the ball out a little bit more. I don't think we helped them with some of that."
Liam Coen on the cornerback rotation
"It's just by drive [possessions]. With those guys rotating in, but with Buster [Brown], Travis [Hunter], Jarrien [Jones], and then obviously J. Lew [Jourdan Lewis] and … some of the nickel stuff. We did it for the most part of the last season as well before Travis got hurt, and it's something that we got to continue to do. We have corners that we have confidence in. Those guys can all make plays for us. They can all communicate for us. They've been in the system now.
"It's a rotation based on pregame. We have it all laid out. The players know it. They all know the rotation. It's been clearly laid out today. What the expectations and standards are.
"We've got to play it better for sure, but we also got to get to the quarterback to help those guys out in the back end. So definitely some communication. We're a little bit softer [in coverage] than I would have liked us to be, especially in some situations."
Liam Coen on the offense operations during a loud road game
"We tried to do some tempo to get in some static formations, and it was good for us. And then we also had some incompletions on those plays … just trimming the inventory [the number of plays] when you're on the road. Maybe some less motion, less moving parts to be able to help these guys. You know, just go settle in. We had the one illegal shift penalty that got called … could have been could have gone either way. I thought our guys handled it for the most part, decent. That's a tough place to play. There's some real home field advantage that they had there."
Liam Coen on playing in high altitude
"We didn't hear from Ferg [director of player health Jeff Ferguson] or any of the guys, 'Hey man, we're gassed.' I didn't sense that or get any of that information. So I didn't hear anything at all, like post-game action review. I didn't get anything from those guys in terms of feeling the altitude or being out of shape from any of that stuff. I just think we're on the grass a lot."
Liam Coen on the defensive mistakes
"We talk about practice performance equals game reality. We didn't have our best practices last week, on Thursday and Friday, specifically on the defensive side of the ball. I'm not saying it was putrid by any means, but it was just ... a little bit too many completions happening. It kind of carried into Sunday in some ways."
Liam Coen on QB Trevor Lawrence in two-minute offense
"I think when you're in two-minute, especially with some of the play calls … we rep those ad nauseum. You know, it's their core plays. A lot of them are things that he's been running now for a year. I've been pleased. I mean, you look at last year, obviously, in the Denver game with the two-minute drive at the end of the half to be able to get points. We did the same thing, and obviously we got to continue to be better about it in some of those known passing situations. He's operating the two-minute fairly well since we've been here."
Liam Coen on the lack of a pass rush vs. Denver
"I think [Denver] did a nice job of mixing some of their schemes, like in terms of limiting maybe some of the true drop-back ops that [quarterback Bo Nix] had. They were moving the launch point. They ran a lot of boots on early downs. With the launch point, got us chasing and running a little bit. They did a nice job, I think, of chipping when they needed to. And Bo did a really good job of … he'd get to the top of his drop, and maybe the routes hadn't declared yet, and he just was checking it down a ton.
"And even if we were rallying and tackling, it's still frustrating for the D line, right? Is it's frustrating for those guys when maybe it's even a longer down-and-distance situation, and he checks it down … so frustrating for sure, but I thought Denver did a nice job of mixing it."
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: What Jaguars coach Liam Coen said about 20-13 loss to Denver Broncos
