Liam Coen’s message to the Jacksonville Jaguars: ‘Go 1-0 this week’
Jacksonville Jaguars coach Liam Coen pointed out that the team still has high stakes in Sunday’s home game against Tennessee.
The Jacksonville Jaguars (12-4) understand the opportunity they have in front of them against the Tennessee Titans (3-13) in Week 18, the regular-season finale.
With a win, the Jaguars will earn the AFC South crown for the third time in franchise history. The title comes down to Jacksonville and the Houston Texans. If Jacksonville falters against the Titans, the Texans will likely earn the hats and t-shirts if they defeat the Indianapolis Colts.
If they both lose, the Jaguars still win the title.
The Jaguars will take on the Titans at EverBank Stadium on Sunday, Jan. 4, at 1 p.m.
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The game will be aired on FOX.
And that’s their focus, not the postseason.
Jaguars head coach Liam Coen stressed earlier in the week that the team must stay where their feet are, both on and off the field, and his message continued as the week neared an end. The Jaguars are getting ready to face the Titans, and nothing else matters; the team won’t be scoreboard watching, either.
But that doesn’t mean they don’t know the importance of what this week entails or the stakes at hand.
“You can talk about winning the division because it’s what we’ve got an opportunity to do, and it’s one game. We’re here, leading up to this point, we weren’t here yet. We had to win. Obviously, look at what Houston did and they’ve won a bunch of games too,” Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence said this week.
The Texans have won their last eight games, for an 11-5 record, starting with a 36-29 win over Jacksonville in Week 10, which also turned the tide for Jacksonville. The Jaguars have enjoyed a seven-game win streak, which has helped them reach a 12-4 record.
“So, we had to win all those games to get to this point to have the opportunity to continue to control the division and keep it in our hands. And that’s what we did and none bigger than this one. We’re here to win the division this week and a Titans team is going to come in here and obviously presented some challenges for us last time we played them up there and there’s some things we need to get better at and put together a good plan,” Lawrence added.
The Jaguars defeated the Titans 25-3 in the teams’ first meeting in Nashville, but as everyone saw last week against the Indianapolis Colts, just because Jacksonville won decisively in the first meeting doesn’t mean anything about the next one. Both teams have improved, or at the very least changed a bit from their previous meeting.
Coen isn’t overlooking what Tennessee has done in recent weeks, with wins over the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cleveland Browns since the last time the two teams met up. The Titans entered their Week 10 meeting with Jacksonville with just one win.
“It’s going to be one of those types of football games where we understand that they’ve improved. I think Tennessee, in really all areas, it’s one of the best run defenses in the National Football League over the last X amount of weeks. They are scoring more offensively,” Coen said of the Titans of late.
“You can tell that Cam [Titans QB Cam Ward] has definitely found a little bit more of a rhythm. They’re getting the ball out of his hands, some more RPOs, they’re running it well. There’s not a lot of quit in that football team in Tennessee right now.”
Here are some bold predictions ahead of the team’s game against the Titans.
Travis Etienne will get 100-or-more scrimmage yards against Tennessee
As Coen mentioned, the Titans are one of the best run defenses in the NFL, and have been for the last few weeks, especially.
Since their Week 10 BYE, the Titans have allowed just three teams to run for over 100 yards: the Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers and the New Orleans Saints.
The Jaguars mustered just 70 yards on the ground in their matchup earlier this season. So, getting back on track against a team like Tennessee isn’t recommended.
Still, the Jaguars ran for the most yards they have had since Week 12 last week, 121 yards against the Colts. They’ve struggled at times to get consistent yardage, but in a tune-up game for the postseason, perhaps the Jaguars can overcome their challenges.
Jacksonville’s ground attack will start with running back Travis Etienne. Last week, Etienne had his best rushing performance since Week 12, rushing for 76 yards. He’s totaled 100-or-more scrimmage yards five times this season, including 105 yards against the New York Jets in Week 15.
Against Tennessee earlier this year, Etienne had his worst performance, totalling just 41 scrimmage yards against the AFC South foe. That ought to change this week.
Titans QB Cam Ward will continue to rise vs. Jaguars
There’s no question Ward has gotten better since the two teams first met a little over a month ago.
So far this year, Ward has completed 59.6% of his passes for 3,117 yards, 15 touchdowns, and seven interceptions.
While those numbers aren’t overly impressive on the surface, Ward has thrown for two touchdowns in each of the last four games. Previously, Ward totaled either zero or one touchdown per game.
At one point in the season, Ward had thrown an interception in six straight games. He hasn’t thrown one in any of the last three games. He’s also totaled at least 220 yards in back-to-back weeks and has led the team to a 2-2 record over the previous month.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Ward pick up a solid game against Jacksonville, albeit in a likely blowout loss. The Jaguars have a few players dealing with illness, so they could come out of the gate a bit sluggish.
Josh Hines-Allen will bring season total sacks to 10 vs. Ward, Titans
Jaguars defensive end Josh Hines-Allen has eight sacks this season, tallying a sack in five of the last seven games. Hines-Allen’s season began slowly, with the seventh-year pass rusher logging just a half-sack through the first seven games of the season ahead of the team’s Week 8 bye week.
Since then, he’s gotten 7.5 sacks and owns the team’s career franchise sack record with 61 so far in his career since being drafted by the team with the seventh-overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.
The first time the team went up against Ward, Hines-Allen had his best game of the season in terms of sack production, tallying two against the rookie QB.
This week, Hines-Allen is likely to have a similar performance, but he’s been impressed with the rookie all season.
“He’s just a lot more … I say he’s a lot more confident, but he’s doing a lot of the same things that he’s did before since the last time I studied him. He’s a good player, makes a lot of good plays. He can make plays in the pocket, he can make plays outside of pocket, and he can find a receiver, man. And he’s proven at it each week,” Hines-Allen said in the locker room this week.
“One or two plays just stand out and just like, ‘Whoa, that’s a great ball.’ I know when I watch film on him, I’m like, ‘[Dang], that’s a good play. That’s a great ball.’ With two people around him, maybe it’s like a gutsy play, but to be able to have that confidence to kind of drill it in there and the receiver to trust that he can make the catch, it’s awesome.”
Jaguars-Titans score prediction
Jaguars 30, Titans 14.
Demetrius Harvey is the Jacksonville Jaguars reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @Demetrius82 or on Bluesky at Demetrius.
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