Gus’ Midnight Mailbag: Jaguars vs Texans Week 4 recap

Welcome to the Week 4 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 24-20 loss to the Houston Texans.

From Thomas Vanderpol — How long till there’s a staff change? Doug is putting his neck out there for Press when obviously that’s causing issues. History repeats itself and it happening here again with Doug and Press

From Brooks Colleton — Why isn’t anyone fired ? Like we were supposed to be a playoff team, yet we play like a 1st year team….Baalke can’t be spared either. His coaches were Urban And Doug

From last week’s mailbag: “I wrote in the last two mailbags that Jaguars ownership will wait until after the London games before letting Pederson (and likely Press Taylor) go. I’ll stick to that prediction for now.” Shad Khan does not like firing people and tends to allow a long leash. It’s fair to assume Pederson and Taylor will be out of Jacksonville eventually, but that day may not come in the near future.

From George Roach Jr. — The first year, the offense was good when Doug(HC) called offensive plays, then with Taylor calling plays the offence struggle while the defense can hold their own for so much with out offense putting up puts n relying n putting pressure on Defense to always step up n keep trying to give offense extra possessions to score to catch up/tie/get the lead….why not finally change at Play calling, offense coordinator, cause it ain’t been working this season just like the meltdown last year

Pederson said after the Texans loss, “I thought [Taylor] called a great game. As coaches, we can’t go out there and make the plays, right?” As The Ringer’s Steven Ruiz wrote Monday, “Pederson is officially at the ‘throw your players under the bus’ stage of the coaching hot seat cycle.” Jacksonville’s offensive coaches believe the playcalling is just fine and the players simply need to execute. It’s a message that goes back to last season, yet Pederson seems uninterested in changing his own approach to help the team change direction.

From Ignacio Abascal — Something’s off with Trevor’s mechanics and confidence. He needs a real QB coach. His awareness in the pocket is average, he seems less mobile than last year. He got the bag and suddenly he’s mediocre? nah, young man needs a sports psychologist for real. LeBron did it and it worked out well for him. He’s the franchise, hope he gets the help he needs but Doug and Trent are part of the problem too IMO

To me, Lawrence is currently playing like a three-point shooter who’s in the midst of a bad slump. We’ve seen him hit all the shots he’s missed recently — the problem seems to be more about confidence than ability. Here’s to hoping he does get the help he needs, because he certainly could use a confidence boost or something to get him back in rhythm and playing with some swagger.

From Bill Youells — Can we move on from Trevor. It was good play calling by the offense but you can’t drop the ball and over shoot your receivers and expect to win. Watch Trevor play he spins for no reason in the back watch the highlights. Why is he still playing stats don’t lie and his stats say he sucks and we over paid.

No, we can’t “move on from Trevor,” and to answer “why is he still playing,” go ahead and take a look at his contract. $17 million cap hit in 2025, $24 million in 2026, $35 million in 2027, $47 million in 2028, etc. He’s not getting traded and he’s not going anywhere. I know he’s not new to the NFL, but I’d still suggest practicing patience when it comes to the 24-year-old.

From FIRE DOUG & TRENT — Are we taking trades now for anyone? Like I hear teams want Kirk do we start cleaning house and getting picks?

ESPN’s Dan Graziano wrote last week: “Tennessee’s DeAndre Hopkins and Jacksonville’s Christian Kirk are two veterans who could conceivably become available and might be appealing to the Steelers if their teams continue to lose and fall out of the playoff race.” I wouldn’t expect any trades to happen until the trade deadline approaches on Nov. 5, so let’s put a pin in this topic for now, but it does seem like the Jaguars could be sellers as opposed to buyers.

From notoesdown — Why cant this team perfrom in pressure moments? Ie: 4 downs after Tank’s run and the drive with 4 mins to go. Personally I think it is the QB

From Christian Jaxon — Yeah…..why cant we get a first down when you get the ball with 4 minutes to go and the lead…..horrible play calling in the last quarter

There’s plenty of blame to go around. Lawrence missed a throw or two, but he also wasn’t set up very well. Here were Jacksonville’s first down plays in the fourth quarter before Houston scored the go-ahead touchdown: Travis Etienne 3 yard rush; Etienne 2 yard rush; D’Ernest Johnson -1 yard rush; Etienne 1 yard rush. Lawrence was continually being forced to put on a superhero cape on 2nd/3rd-and-long situations rather than the offense trickling down the field the way that the Texans eventually did. The Jaguars were too concerned about taking time off the clock and not concerned enough about putting more points on the scoreboard.

From Alan Munger — Wheres the defense that was good in preseason? All we heard about was how nielsen had all these schemes and we can’t even get pressure on the qb and let the receivers run free in the middle of the field. 3rd and 18 and we let the rb catch a 2 yard dump off and run for another 10 yards before anyone even gets close to tackle him and then they let him get 5 more yards for a 1st down.

It’s a lot harder to execute a scheme based in man coverage when you’re missing two of your three best defenders in Tyson Campbell (hamstring) and Foye Oluokun (foot). Considering those injuries, plus Week 4 absences from Devin Lloyd (knee) and Darnell Savage (quad), I thought Ryan Nielsen’s unit played pretty well on Sunday. They did a much better job of mixing up zone coverages, especially after Week 3’s disaster against the Bills, and the Texans gained just 24 yards on 10 plays in the third quarter. For the third time this season, I thought Jacksonville’s defense played well enough to win the football game. The offense is 0/4 in that regard.

From Mac Jones — Why are we cursed?

My theory is it’s because we live by the beach. The two-time defending world champion Kansas City Chiefs are located over 1,000 miles away from any ocean.

From Nick diotte — Can we get a refund on season tickets ? For defective products?

Think you can get something positive out of the 2024 Jaguars? Think again, my friend.