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Jaguars coach Liam Coen is not feeling the love from the NFL establishment,.
Liam Coen channeled his inner Rodney Dangerfield after the Jacksonville Jaguars‘ latest signature win.
The Jaguars’ rookie head coach offered praise to his team, while admitting leaguewide respect is unlikely to come, after Jacksonville took sole possession of first place in the AFC South with a 36-19 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday at Everbank Stadium.
The Jags (9-4) won their fourth straight game and sit a full game ahead of both the Colts and two-time-reigning division champion Houston Texans, who won their fifth straight game, 20-10 over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night.
According to The Athletic, the Jaguars have a 59 percent chance to win the AFC South and have a 98 percent chance to reach the postseason at this point in the season. Jacksonville has not qualified for the playoffs since winning the AFC South in 2022 and went 4-13 in 2024.
The Jaguars are also one win from their first double-digit-win season since 2017. They’ll host the New York Jets on Sunday.
Liam Coen: Leaguewide Respect For The Jaguars ‘Ain’t Coming’
It’s easy for a coach to play the nobody-respects-us card, but in the Jaguars’ case Coen’s opinion is accurate.
Few might even be noticing the Jaguars, even though they are currently locked into the No. 3 seed in the AFC and have wins over the Kansas City Chiefs, San Francisco 49ers and a 35-6 rout of the Los Angeles Chargers.
Still Coen isn’t expecting praise.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever really get it,” Coen said. “It ain’t coming, [but] that’s the beauty of it, and that’s totally fine.”
Before the season, ESPN projected the Jaguars to win 8.1 games, a mark they officially surpassed Sunday, and gave them a 27.1 percent chance of winning the AFC South. ESPN also gave the Jaguars a 39.3 percent chance of making the playoffs before the year, and they currently have a 98 percent chance of reaching the seven-team AFC field, according to The Athletic.
“Credit to these guys for sticking with it and continuing to have confidence in each other to go make plays,” Coen said.
Liam Coen: Losing To Houston Was ‘Good’ For The Jaguars
The Jaguars could have sewn up the tiebreaker against the second-place Texans if they could have won at NRG Stadium on Nov. 9.
But Houston turned around a 29-10 third-quarter deficit in its 36-29 win over the Jaguars, in a game where the Texans outscored the Jaguars 26-0 in the fourth quarter and Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence turned the ball over twice.
Yet, according to Coen, that loss set the Jaguars up for the run they are on now.
“[Losing in] Houston was good for us, I do believe that,” Coen said. “Every game is going to be a 60-minute football game, and our mindset and our mentality has to be that way. When you get into December, and you’re going to go and play some really difficult games on the schedule coming up, every one counts.”
To Coen’s point, the Jaguars still have road games against the Denver Broncos. They will close with back-to-back games against division rivals, the Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans — and could still claim the No. 1 seed in the AFC if they win out.
“I’m very proud of these guys getting to nine wins,” Coen said, “but there’s a lot of work to be done.”
Pat Pickens is an experienced sports writer and media personality who has written for outlets like NHL.com, the Associated Press, the New York Times and USA Today. He covers the NFL, NBA, NHL and NBA as a breaking news contributor at Heavy. More about Pat Pickens
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