Doug Pederson comments after Jaguars narrowly defeat Houston Texans
John Oehser analyzes the news conference held by Jaguars Head Coach Doug Pederson after the team’s 24-21 victory over the Houston Texans on Sunday in 2023 Week 12 at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.
1. “A great win.”First things first: for Pederson, Sunday was mostly about winning a division away game in the late season. In the NFL, those are usually gained via hard work; if the Jaguars’ victory on Sunday was one of those, it was also very significant and gratifying. With six regular-season games left, the Jaguars (8-3) lead the Texans (6-5) and Indianapolis Colts (6-5) by two games. On Sunday, the Jaguars won their eighth straight road game, a franchise record. With a higher division record than the Texans and a sweep of the Colts, they now have a tiebreaker advantage over both clubs. As Pederson responded to the opening query of Sunday’s post-game press conference, “You take every win and every loss humbly and that’s what we have to do,” “It’s a great win for our team. It puts us a few games up and that was our goal this week, obviously.”
3. The no-sack area.The offensive line for the Jaguars has significantly improved over the past two weeks; they have allowed just one sack after giving up five in a defeat to the San Francisco 49ers in Week 10. This figure included a game on Sunday in which Trevor Lawrence, the quarterback, completed 23 of 38 throws for 364 yards and a score with one interception since the offensive line gave up no sacks and two quarterback hurries. Due to a knee injury sustained in the first quarter, left tackle Cam Robinson had to leave the game. Veteran Ezra Cleveland finished the game at left guard, while left guard Walker Little moved to left tackle. “Quarterbacks feel comfortable when they’re getting protection, so my hat’s off to the offensive line,” said Pederson. “We had to shuffle Walker out and Ezra coming in, and proud of those two guys for taking on that role. They did a great job, and really the whole offensive line did a great job keeping Trevor clean and upright and to have the type of day.”
4. Significant effect.For the first time this season, the Jaguars prevailed on Sunday without needing a takeaway, and a major factor in that victory was their four sacks of Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud. Josh Allen, an outside linebacker, finished the game with 2.5 sacks, all in the first half, including a sack and a half during the Texans’ last drive. Three plays before to Ammandola’s last-minute, missed field goal, the Texans were forced back nine yards by a crucial sack shared by Allen and second-year outside linebacker Travon Walker. “The defensive line had to continue to fight through the whistle and same with the defensive backs,” added Pederson. “Stroud is able to prolong plays. His gaze is constantly fixed on the field, as we witnessed today. He’s always looking for the big play. For our D-line to run all over the field sometimes it felt like to make plays, it’s just a credit to them and just the ‘no-quit mentality,’ and Josh had a heck of a game today, particularly here at the end.”
5. Pederson on winning the division in November while traveling: “We anticipated that this fans would be fired up because of the way they’ve been playing, and that anticipation was justified. the manner in which their quarterback has been performing, and again, with good reason. When we came here, we knew that. Overall, I thought our guys did a great job managing the noise. There was effective communication. It’s not a place to play lightly. It’s difficult to hear that this fan base is as excited as they were today. The field is noisy. However, it was a big victory on the journey for us to be here and complete our tasks today.”
