Despite Losing, Jaguars Still “Together”
In the week following the loss to Tennessee, Jaguars Head Coach Gus Bradley was searching for answers just like anybody else. Having acknowledged that his team is having trouble getting to the quarterback no matter what they’ve tried with different packages, Bradley says they’re taking things back to the beginning.
“I think that you do get back to your fundamentals. Sometimes a game like that it re-elevates the need for that, whether we shrink the package or the calls that we use, we’ll see. It’s really based by game.”
Once again the Indianapolis Colts will be without Andrew Luck at quarterback but they beat the Jaguars in Indy in the first meeting between the two teams in 2015 with Matt Hasselbeck at the controls. Veteran quarterbacks give the Jaguars problems and Hasselbeck is no different with his ability to read coverages, avoid the rush and get the ball to the open man. While that’s a given, Bradley says the Jaguars are looking inward before concentrating on the opponent.
“You know what, I think what we’ve learned, we talk about it, it’s about us but this week it really is,” he explained at his weekly Wednesday press conference. “We’ve got to get some things corrected and that’s been the emphasis for us. We tackle better, we use our fundamental principles, cover better and then let’s see.”
In his third year as the Jaguars head coach, Bradley has never been on the winning side against the Colts, but again, he’s aware of that but not focused on it this week.
“Again, it’s about not them,” Gus said. “Just like last week red zone and offensively, is it corrected? I can’t say that, it doesn’t carry over to the next week. Every week you’ve got to go out there and prepare. So it comes back to nothing to do with the Colts, it’s about us and what we need to do. That part hasn’t changed.”
In what Bradley calls “this stage” of the team’s development, they’re in one-possession games and occasionally, four times this year, get on the winning side of those. Other times, they haven’t been able to overcome their own mistakes but the head coach says the culture is changing, allowing the team to “bounce back” when things go wrong. “Yeah, I do see progress in that. I don’t think we’re so orientated based on that, or one play. We throw an interception and the game is over; our guys have learned to quickly recover It’s very interesting to me how some of the things that separate some teams brings us closer together.”
If, In fact, adversity brings the team together and drags the fans along for the ride, this team, and their fans should be a pretty tight group. Bradley credits the atmosphere in the locker room and the things the players can count on, day in and day out as the glue that’s kept them together.
“I think the culture is meant for times that you establish it and it’s something that they can count on day in and day out and I think that’s where it brings power. They know when they walk in the building what’s going to take place it brings strength.”
