Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen and quarterback Trevor Lawrence understand the team is far away from complete after loss to Steelers.
Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen was pleased with some of his first-team offense's performance, but did not hold back when addressing the team's defense after their 31-25 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers Saturday night.
"Yeah, I think there's a little concern with I think we were playing a little loose in some of our coverage system, you know? I was a little disappointed with the early third and two I think it was where we're playing a tight three deep in that situation. We got off coverage to give an easy Omaha away. That was a little frustrating to see," Coen said.
Jacksonville played soft coverage on third-and-two during the first quarter of the contest at Jacksonville's 38-yard line, giving Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph an easy first-down pass to receiver Brandon Johnson on a five-yard gain. Jaguars cornerback Tyson Campbell was in coverage. Coen said he thinks the team will try to be stickier in coverage moving forward.
"Those are some things when you're playing a new system, right? They've been playing a lot of man coverage over the last year here, and playing a lot more zone coverage, so oftentimes you almost start to do too much the other way where we're giving up a lot of grass and a little bit of room so I imagine we're going to want to ask these guys to get a little stickier."
The Jaguars are deploying a new defensive scheme this year under defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile. The team's starters on defense did not have a good outing, however, allowing Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph to complete 7 of 7 passes for 70 yards and a touchdown on their lone drive of the game.
Here are more highlights from Coen and quarterback Trevor Lawrence's postgame press conferences at EverBank Stadium after the team's preseason Week 1 loss.
How will Liam Coen address penalties with team after loss to Steelers?
"Yeah, I did just address it. I think that ultimately, it's something that takes no talent to do and, you know, we can't beat anybody. This is something we have been preaching for a long time since we arrived was, we cannot start to beat people until we start beating ourselves and that has remained pretty consistent since February or whatever it's been. So, yeah, frustrating for sure."
Liam Coen shares thoughts on Cam Little's 70-yard field goal make
"Yeah, it was -- I forget what the time was. It was five seconds, we tried to run all slants to get a down, down, time-out situation to try to get it past the 50 if you could. They played three-deep soft zone. There wasn't an easy completion right now so we checked it down and just banged it, you know? And Cam looked at me and was like yeah, I want it and so gave it a go and, yeah, that was pretty cool to see, huh?"
Liam Coen pleased with Travis Hunter's performance
"Yeah, you know, he made a couple good catches on some option routes and missed the one tackle defensively that I noticed. That was the only thing that I kind of noticed about his overall play. In terms of that, I'll have to watch the tape on how he operated defensively a little bit more, but I thought offensively, he made the right decisions on those option routes. Made a good catch, almost broke out of that one where [QB] Trevor [Lawrence] put it behind him on that third down we talked about, but I'll have to go watch the tape a little bit more to know more."
How did Trevor Lawrence feel about playing football again?
"It's good to get back out there. Just to be a live-game setting, felt good. Felt good to be back out there. Some stuff to clean up operationally. A couple of penalties, especially our drive to start the game. Got behind the sticks early, first play, obviously, a penalty, and then got in first or second and long with the later penalty of the drive. So, some of that stuff to clean up, setting us back a little bit, having to get back on track. But I thought there was some good stuff out there. Like always, like I said, there will be a lot of stuff to learn from the tape, and we'll learn from it."
Trevor Lawrence addresses taking first hit since Texans game
"Yeah, like I said at first. For me, just getting back out there where you can get hit. You don't have the red jersey on, feeling the pass rush settling in there and guys did a great job up front. The one time I did get hit I kind of scrambled up the middle and they did a nice job but yeah, it feels good. That's real game stuff, getting hit and not having the red jersey on, so it was nice to be back out there."
Trevor Lawrence satisfied with spreading ball out to team's playmakers
"Yeah, it is intentional. We have so many playmakers. You want to get them all involved and early and let guys get the rock and do something with it, so I think that is intentional for sure, and there are times where the ball just kind of finds guys more than others. I think in games like this, obviously you want to spread the ball around, you want to get guys touches, get them going, kind of see what we can do. But I thought the guys did a nice job. Obviously, we had the one drive, so it's hard to really evaluate beyond that but yeah, I thought the guys did a good job when their number was called."
Demetrius Harvey is the Jacksonville Jaguars reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @Demetrius82 or on Bluesky @ Demetrius.
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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jaguars' Coen, Trevor Lawrence break down preseason loss to Steelers
Category: Football