Quotes of Note: What Jaguars Players, Coaches Say About the Titans
The Tennessee Titans’ first AFC South game of 2020 has become a battle for first place.
Tennessee and Jacksonville were the only teams in the division to win in Week 1 and now they face off at Nissan Stadium, in a game that will be played without fans.
Tennessee has won seven of the last nine overall in the series, including six straight at home.
Here is some of what Jaguars players and coaches said this week about facing the Titans:
• Quarterback Gardner Minshew, on the Jaguars’ struggles at Nissan Stadium: “You always get these streaks and things and people try to correlate things year after year, but I think in reality every year is a new year. Every week is a new week. I think a lot of times these trends are more superficial than anything actually tangible. I think it’s a challenge that we’re looking forward to. We obviously don’t want any streaks like that.”
• Offensive coordinator Jay Gruden, on the Titans’ defense: “Well, I think Coach [Mike] Vrabel does a great job, I think he’s one of the better defensive coaches in the NFL. He does a great job when they get to third down with different looks, different people in different spots. And they can rush four or five, six, sometimes they rush three, sometimes they rush two, and they do a good job of knowing your protections. … He’s a great coach, man, and he proved it last year going late in the playoffs and [he’s] done a good job.”
• Defensive coordinator Todd Wash, on Tennessee’s offense: “I think the quarterback really thrives off his play action game and they do a lot of things to try to get the guys at the second level to suck up at the line of scrimmage and take some shots over the top or right over basically the outside part of the tackles and everything like that. So, [the] play action game. [Ryan] Tannehill does an extremely good job with the play fake the offense does. The play action game is really predicated off of the run game, but that’s the thing that really concerns you.”
• Head coach Doug Marrone, on facing Derrick Henry: “You can see where this guy just breaks that one tackle and he can take it to the house. I think he’s a back that keeps grinding out the yards. He’s a guy that at any time can really break it. Who’s to say if he had one more carry [he wouldn’t have had a big gain against Denver].”
• Minshew, on Titans safety Kevin Byard: “He’s so good, man. He’s one of the best safeties in the league. He can play well in the box. He can play well deep. He mixes up looks. He’s savvy. He has a nose for the ball. So, you definitely have to have an idea of where he is. He’s a good player and he’s a challenge that we’re looking forward to.”
• Gruden, on the Titans’ variety of blitzes: “Their blitz patterns are … I got about one hour of sleep (Tuesday) watching all these blitzes from last year. So, very, very tough to deal with on third down, first and second down, they have some nuisance type blitzes that are tough.”
• Minshew, on the Titans’ defense: “They were very similarly built last year – a lot of veteran guys that can disguise looks, move things around on you. Very disciplined. And I think that’s a lot of the same of what you saw Week 1 [at Denver]. … They’re going to be a very good team.”
• Defensive end Josh Allen, on the Jaguars’ struggles in Nashville: “I’m a professional athlete, there’s always going to be guys that talk crap. You can be the best player, like Lebron [James], the best basketball player in the world and he still gets talked about as not one of the best, you know what I mean? There’s always going to be those people out there criticizing what you do. And I know that’s how that is here, so can’t let that effect on how we play. We’re a new team this year and we’re just ready to prove, shock the world and win a lot of games in this organization for each other.”
