Quoteboard: Everything Titans Players Had To Say About the Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars lost 37-19 to the Tennessee Titans, gong to 0-5 overall and riding a 20-game losing streak. The Titans and Jaguars play twice a year, which means the two teams are very familiar with each other.
With that in mind, we asked several Titans players for their thoughts on the Jaguars.
Derrick Henry on James Robinson
Titans running back Derrick Henry is the best running back in the league, bar none. The two-time Pro-Bowler and NFL Offensive Player of the Year (2020) knows what it takes to become an incredible running back. And he sees something special in Jaguars running back James Robinson.
"He's the truth. Patient runner. It's easy to get downhill fast. Break tackles. He's just a really good back. I just told him to stay with it, man, just keep being great. And you see that on the field."
Kevin Byard on James Robinson
Robinson averaged 8.3 yards per carry, had a touchdown and set a new career record with 149 yards—which was also a game high. It left the whole Titans defense impressed.
"Honestly, I think James Robinson is one of the more underrated running backs in this league. We saw him last year get over a thousand [yards]. He’ll probably get over a thousand again this year. He’s a really good running back, [has] good vision. He has real good like center of gravity, [New Orleans Saints running back] Alvin Kamara like, small, compact, strong. But as a defense overall, we just didn’t tackle well enough today, gave up some big plays on missed tackles. [There’s] stuff we have to clean up."
Byard on Jaguars Overall
Over the last nine games, the Titans have one eight. And the Jaguars haven't won since September 2019. Despite the Jaguars falling more often than not to the Titans during his time, Byard sees a team that has more pieces in place to build something more substantial, eventually.
"My first two years, obviously it was [former Jaguars quarterback] Blake Bortles and it was a really good defense. The offense really wasn't good at all. They were kind of leaning on their defense. As of now you can see that their defense still is pretty good, but they can score points in a hurry.
"Trevor Lawrence, [it was] my first time playing him, but I think he's going to be a heck of a quarterback in the league. It's going to be exciting to play him for the years to come. But they're going to keep getting better. We knew that they were going to be a pretty good offense and they weren’t going to lay down once we got up on them. But I think, like I said, for him and the running back [James Robinson] and [WR Laviska] Shenault Jr.], I think we did a good job of containing them at times, but just not consistently enough."
Taylor Lewan on Jaguars Defense
The Jags defense gave up 368 yards (while the Jags offense racked up 454) but the killer was Tennessee going 4-5 in the redzone. Still, Titans offensive lineman Taylor Lewan feels that in year's past, the 18-point win would've been any even bigger differential. He credits the Jaguars defense for a more physicality mentality than he's seen in years past.
"Jacksonville is a good team. I know they're 0-5 and all of that, but I think in past experiences, and something about Jacksonville is that it wasn't as much fight if the game got a little separated. They fought the entire game [today]. They played hard.
"Their defense plays extremely hard. They have great leadership on that team. They're going to win some games this year. I know they're going to have a much better year than the start has been. They played hard all game, and I'm just really happy for the team to get back on track and kind of keep moving forward."
