–Jacksonville executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin broke his silence for the first time this season, saying, “I’ll put the gloves on with anybody that wants to talk about what (moves the team made).” Coughlin has declined numerous requests by local media to comment about the 2018 season. He did however talk to announcers on a local radio station Tuesday morning when he made an appearance as part of a fundraising event to benefit The Tom Coughlin Jay Fund which helps families battle childhood cancer.
While Coughlin answered several questions about the Jaguars disappointing 3-8 season that includes a current seven-game losing streak, he did not offer comments about the firing of offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett or the benching of starting quarterback Blake Bortles, both of which were announced the day before by head coach Doug Marrone. While Marrone said he told both Coughlin and Jaguars general manager Dave Caldwell about his decision, he said that the decision to fire Hackett and demote Bortles was his alone. Coughlin does have the final say on all football matters and obviously could have nixed either move.
The former Jaguars coach prefaced his remarks by looking back at the Jaguars’ playoff endeavors last year.
“A whistle, we’re in the Super Bowl,” Coughlin said in reference to linebacker Myles Jack being ruled down following a fumble recovery against the New England Patriots late in the AFC Championship showdown. “And that’s my position, OK? So tell me, everyone out there, what they’re going to do in that circumstance about your football team.
“Aren’t you going to fill other pieces in and try to be as good as you can be? And we tried, didn’t we? Well, the nature of the game got us, so we go back to the drawing board.”
The Jaguars have been decimated with injuries from the preseason when they lost their top receiver Marqise Lee for the season to this week when their arguably best defensive player, Jalen Ramsey, may have to miss Sunday’s game due to a knee injury. The offensive unit has been hit the hardest, especially at left tackle, running back and tight end where the Jaguars have started four different players at each of those three positions. Coughlin addressed some of the concerns about 2018.
“Let’s face it, our numbers are down all over the place,” he said. “Our sacks are way down. Our pressure is down. Our turnovers are huge, they’re out of sight. Our penalties. The way we behave on the field, I mean it’s ridiculous some of the penalties. So, there’s a lot of things that are going to get addressed and are being addressed.”
–The firing of Jacksonville offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett by head coach Doug Marrone on Monday caught a lot of people by surprise, not the least being Hackett. Marrone and Hackett have a coaching history together, dating back to 2010-12 when Marrone was head coach and Hackett was offensive coordinator at Syracuse and the following two years at Buffalo when they held the same positions. Hackett then followed Marrone to Jacksonville in 2015 where he served as quarterbacks coach for a year before taking over as OC a year later.
Marrone said he had been considering making a change for several weeks before he dismissed Hackett on Monday. The Jaguars coach said it was his decision and his decision alone to let Hackett go.
“It’s not a knee-jerk reaction, obviously,” Marrone said. “I really feel at the end of the day we’ve got to try to get better production out of our passing game.
“Nathaniel is a good football coach. He is a tireless, hard worker. I have no doubt he will continue to have success in this league.”
In the end, it was quarterback Blake Bortles’ lack of production that cost Hackett his job. Bortles has been inconsistent with his passing much of this season. He had four games where he threw for 320, 376, 388 and 430 yards. But he also had three games where he threw for 61, 104 and 127 with the last two figures coming in the last two weeks. It’s that inconsistency that did in Hackett.
“Dang, I’ve been through so many ups and so many downs with Blake,” Hackett told the Florida Times-Union on Monday. “It was such a great run last year. I thought everything was in the right direction. Unfortunately, the entire offense took a pretty heavy setback this year after those first four games.
“I don’t want to take away what we did those first four games because I thought that we were on the right track. For whatever reason, things started digressing. There were just a lot of different things that just kind of went down, and I’m still kind of trying to wrap my head around it.”
BY THE NUMBER: 8.9 — The Jaguars are running an average of 8.9 plays per offensive drive, the most plays per drive of any team in the NFL. But averaging just 17.9 points per game (28th in the league), it’s an indication that the Jaguars are not scoring often enough on those lengthy drives.
