Hays Carlyon's Jaguars Blog

Gus’ Midnight Mailbag: Jaguars vs Colts Week 5 recap

todayOctober 7, 2024

Background

Welcome to the Week 5 edition of the Midnight Mailbag! I’ll be asking for your lingering questions after each Jaguars game on 1010XL’s Facebook and X/Twitter pages, with the submission deadline set for 11:59 p.m. the same day.

Here were your questions following Jacksonville’s 37-34 win over the Indianapolis Colts.

From Chris Mariann — Is this team built to win?

You’re not convinced by a win against the Joe Flacco-led Colts, huh? I can’t say I blame you.

This team is indeed “built to win” as evidenced by its $226 million active investment in the salary cap (eighth-most in the NFL) and especially the contract it gave to Trevor Lawrence four months ago. The roster is good enough to contend for a postseason berth — but it seems unlikely that we’ll find out if it’s good enough to contend for a championship.

From BC — When does Shad fire Doug & Trent? This win shouldn’t save them.

I’ve remained consistent in my guesstimate that the Jaguars won’t fire anyone until after they return from London, at the earliest. But unless the trip abroad is a total disaster, I suspect significant changes won’t be coming to Jacksonville until the offseason.

From Boris — Is Andre Cisco/Antonio Johnson the worst safety duo in the league?

From TRIPLEOG — The biggest question. How do you fix the secondary (safeties) if you want to be exact. Cisco got cooked in back to back to back weeks. 1st, Hill on deep cross, 2nd, Collins on the goal line, This week Pierce killed him. All resulted in a TD. And Johnson is confused. GREAT WIN 

From Derrick Rende — Will Tashaun and Dewey start in 3 more weeks? 26 is the worst player on this team and 5 is the most disappointing. FA and the draft next year will be focused heavily on interior OL and we will require 2 new starting safeties

Among 84 qualifying safeties this season, Andre Cisco ranks 80th in PFF grade and Antonio Johnson ranks 82nd. Pro Football Focus’ metrics aren’t an end-all-be-all but this stat does match the eye test. Cisco and Johnson have been the Achilles heel of Jacksonville’s defense, especially in coverage, with opposing offenses are honing in on each of them.

Perhaps Tashaun Gipson Sr. will take a starting spot when he returns from his six-game suspension (don’t expect Dewey Wingard to start barring injury). Until then, though, let’s try to be a little patient when it comes to the starting safety duo. They’re each under 25 years old and have only been coached by Ryan Nielsen, Kris Richard and company for a few months. It’s not too late for Cisco and Johnson to improve.

From Michael Brown — Why would Nielsen come in primarily as a man defense guy, which we practiced all offseason and go to zone all the time? Clearly guys are very lost in the secondary on where to be. I understand it’s been a rotation back there due to injuries but come on man

Nielsen has deployed more zone coverage in recent weeks because he doesn’t have the horses to hold up in man coverage. As Michael mentioned, that’s partly due to various injuries, but it’s mostly due to the position group we just mentioned. Antonio Johnson has allowed the second-most targets, catches and yards among all safeties in man coverage this season, per PFF. When you want to run a lot of man coverage, it’s important to have no weak links.

From 😱 — If Tyson returns this week will it be Tyson and Buster on the outside?

No. Montaric “Buster” Brown deserves his props for stepping up in Tyson Campbell’s absence, but once Campbell returns from his hamstring injury, Jacksonville’s starting cornerbacks will be Campbell and Ronald Darby with Darnell Savage in the slot. Just like Week 1.

From Mike Mapstone — Why in the world, with 4 minutes left, are we throwing the ball? Even in wins, it seems like Doug Pederson has a play clock management issue. Every week, win loss or draw, they will do some stupid either way clock management. Why is that?

I don’t have a problem with the Jaguars throwing the ball in positive game scripts. While the main goal is to churn the clock, it’s imperative to move the chains too, and passing the ball can be a smart move when opposing defenses are going all out to stop the run. Plus, the Jaguars feel confident about giving their franchise quarterback the ball in critical situations, as they should.

That said, Mike is not wrong when it comes to Doug Pederson’s clock management. The Jaguars seem to try their darnedest to find a new way to lose each game and Pederson is a big part of that. Jacksonville has cleaned up its operational procedures in recent weeks yet it still has room to improve.

From Shane Windhaus — We won so I really don’t have anything negative to say. My question is: We continue to have issues with converting 3rd and 4th down short-yardage situations. What do you guys think about using our big TE’s more? Roll-outs by Trevor and hitting the TE’s with short passes to underutilized but pretty reliable pass catchers. Certainly not sexy but we need to find ways to keep these drives moving. Akin to the way we utlized Bryan Walters when he played for us. Just a thought. Thanks. 

I agree, Shane! I said on a recent Duval Rundown show that while Jacksonville is utilizing a lot of play action this season, the majority of it is play action from within the pocket. Lawrence isn’t getting the benefit of the classic bootleg rollouts that Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay have popularized. By getting outside of the pocket with play action, there’s usually an easy option in the flat, like the tight ends Shane mentioned. Maximizing Lawrence’s athleticism by getting him on the run would go a long way in short-yardage situations.

From John Richardson Jr. — Is there any footage of Gabe Davis arguing with Trevor on the sideline or is that a rumor?

There is no footage of which I’m aware. The argument was reported by CBS sideline reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala. Lawrence said afterward:

“Yeah, I mean, it happens in this game. People that have played it know. People that haven’t probably don’t understand all the emotions that go into it. There was some frustration. We had a little back and forth and cleared it up. That’s all it is. I think stuff like that’s important, and I love when stuff like that happens. You confront issues. And I’m pissed about something, he’s pissed about something, let’s talk about it, move on. We did a great job at that. Gabe’s always good at communicating. We got on the same page quick, and it was good.”

Written by: Gus Logue


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By Hays Carlyon Feel good. Just enjoy it. Soak it up. The Jaguars won a game. Finally. Thanks to a revived Trevor Lawrence and several explosive plays the Jaguars maintained their Jacksonville dominance over AFC South rival Indianapolis winning 37-34 on Sunday at EverBank Stadium. Jaguars rookie kicker Cam Little hit a 49-yard field goal with 17 seconds left in the game. The Jaguars have now won 10 straight games […]

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