Jaguars DC Todd Wash points to himself, missed tackles as reasons for defensive issues in week 1

Four days after his defense gave up 40 points in the 2019 season's home opener on Sunday, Jacksonville Jaguars defensive coordinator did not mince words about the unit's struggles.

“I think the first thing you do as a coach when you go out and you put a performance like that on the field is you have to look at yourself and how you put the players in the position that they were in," Wash said Thursday.

Against the Chiefs, Wash's defense gave up 491 yards of offense and let Kansas City score on each of their first seven offensive possessions. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes and wide receiver Sammy Watkins shredded the secondary throughout the day, with Watkins totaling 198 yards and three touchdowns on nine targets.

"Obviously we know we didn’t play well. Mr. Obvious, right?" Wash said. "For me to stand up here and say I saw that coming I’d be crazy. We just didn’t play well, and once again, it comes back to me to get them ready."

One thing that stood out to Wash after the game about the performance was that maybe he tried to do too much with his scheme. In his words, he "got too cute" too often.

"We played some different stuff. Like I said, I think we got a little too cute. We played some different coverages and some of the things [Chiefs Head Coach] [Andy] Reid threw at us we didn’t see," he said. "If you’ve got some new stuff, I don’t think you don’t have a real solid foundation to how to react to different things you haven’t seen. That’s where I sit and say we got a little too cute.”

Wash's star cornerback Jalen Ramsey said he understands where Wash is coming from and they are both in agreement about the poor performance, but at the end of the day the team needs to move forward and get their mindsets right for the Texans.

"It happened. It wasn't what we wanted, but we're gonna drop it. We're gonna be positive. We have a lot of good energy going this week," he said Thursday.

But aside from schematic issues the Jaguars faced against the Chiefs, they had self-inflicted hiccups when put into positions to make plays. For example, one of the team's several missed tackles came on the third-play of the game from safety Ronnie Harrison and led to a 68-yard Watkins touchdown.

Patrick Mahomes 68-yard TD pass to Sammy Watkins. And the #Chiefs are off and running.... pic.twitter.com/xZ8Lwhm5L1
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 8, 2019

“But the second part of the message that I was really more concerned with is obviously not [having] self-control, the penalties we had on defense. ... And the missed tackles – we put a major, major emphasis on that this week," Wash said.

To hopefully alleviate those tackling issues, Wash said the team is mixing things up a bit in their preparation for the Texans. For instance, they will place an extra emphasis on tackling drills.

"And there is some live tackling that we’re going to do today, which is not very common in the NFL to do live tackling, but we’re going to do it because we have to – regardless, if we are in position to make a play or not, we have to be able to tackle. That’s our job as coaches, to put them in those positions and get them to tackle," Wash said.

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