Episode 132: Titans/Jaguars Week 13 Analysis - Jags Put Up a Dominant Performance in Nashville

We celebrate a rivalry beatdown in Nashville and pivot to a high-stakes showdown with Indianapolis. Trevor Lawrence’s control and a smothering defense shaped a dominant day against the Titans, who were eliminated from the playoff picture Sunday.

The specific topics we discussed this week are as follows:

• Rivalry stakes and why the tone matters 
• Trevor’s pocket command and turnover-free day 
• Defense compressing Tennessee’s short game 
• Run game struggles and pass-pro highlights 
• Jacoby Meyers’ fit with Brian Thomas Jr.
• Injuries and how depth changes the plan 
• Playoff odds, seeding paths, and matchups to avoid 
• Keys for beating Indy in a tight divisional game

Make sure you click the link tree link in the show notes of this and every single episode to keep up with everything Touchdown Jaguars related 
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James Johnson and Phil Barrera bring you the best and most up to date Jacksonville Jaguars news. "Touchdown Jaguars!" is a tribute to the prospective ownership group "Touchdown Jacksonville!" In 1991, the NFL announced plans to add two expansion teams and "Touchdown Jacksonville!" announced its bid for a team, and Jacksonville was ultimately chosen as one of five finalists. In November 1993, the NFL owners voted 26–2 in favor of awarding the 30th franchise to Jacksonville. James and Phil have been fans of the franchise ever since and have had the honor (and sometimes dishonor) of covering the team professionally since 2017. The rest as they say, is history.

Transcript

Rivalry Win Sets The Tone

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Here your host, James Johnson. Phil Smith. Hey everyone, welcome back to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. I am your co-host, Phil Barrera, joined as always by your other co-host, James Johnson. And Jay, hope you had a good holiday weekend. Of course, we didn't get to hang out like we typically do uh during the Thanksgiving season, but uh hopefully uh um you are thankful just as I am for a Jacksonville Jaguar victory, which we will certainly take. Appreciate you guys checking us out, whether it be for the first time or if you are a longtime listener of the show. Uh, but yeah, Jay, you always take a win, and you will always take a win against the Tennessee Titans because as we like to say here in Duval County, I hate the Titans. So no matter what their record is, it doesn't matter when you want to lay the beat down on that team from Nashville, and that's certainly what they did. Getting in and out of Nashville relatively unscathed. We will talk about some of those injuries and how they may affect a very big divisional matchup coming up this weekend here in Jacksonville. But yeah, always good to meet up with you after a win, uh, even if it is against probably the worst team in football.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

Hey man, always and forever bump the Titans, man. Uh, you for me, and as you said, man, um, you can never beat the Titans enough times that you can never run up the score too high on them, you know. Um, regardless of what kind of state they're in. Um, because look, at the end of the day, who cared for us when we were down, right, Phil? Oh, you guys got Trent Balkey as your GM. Here's a beat down 35 points to 14 or whatever people were beating us down with under Doug Peterson and Trent Balkey. Nobody cared, right? So um I don't want to hear it for the Titans. I want to especially don't want to hear it for the Titans. And um, you see all the post-game press conferences and stuff like that, and they they just made us to be out just these animals, you know, on the field. As if they didn't know how intense this rivalry was. It's like, did they not give you a history, uh, a history lesson when you first came to Tennessee about how much you hate the Jaguars and how much the Jaguars hate you? I mean, Josh Hines Allen got that history lesson. Let him tell it. Remembering um sounds of the game last year, he said it. The first thing they told me when I walked in the door is we hate the Titans. So that sounds like a personal problem that they need to get fixed on their end um in terms of their introduction to the history of you know what this rivalry means, regardless

Postgame Reactions And Titans History Lesson

SPEAKER_02 3:45

of the records of both teams, man. But yeah, man, very excited to discuss the win. Um, although the the uh the penalties left a bad taste in my mouth, but still, I mean, you know, we beat them 25 to what, three. Like, I can't complain about penalties at that point. Um, so yeah, anyway, man, yeah, I can't wait to talk about this, can't wait to talk about um an interesting AFC South um rate, that we have an interesting playoff picture in general, man. But yeah, man, again, cannot take for granted, and this goes back to what you were saying about Thanksgiving and being thankful for something, can't take for granted uh that we are talking about playoff football, we are talking about Trent Balkie being gone, we're talking about Doug Peterson being gone, and we're talking about a new regime handling business in the month of November, like they should.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Yeah, man. Sounds like uh those guys over in Tennessee, like you said, need a bit of a history lesson about how this thing goes and how these two teams are supposed to feel about each other. At least, you know, one half of uh of the matchup got the memo. But yeah, it sounds like Jeffrey Simmons and the guys that have been there for a while. Maybe Mayor Arden Key needs to let everybody know how this rivalry works because it seems like uh the people over there in uh in uh in the ten uh with the Tennessee Titans forgot. But we don't we didn't forget. Uh it's like you said, it's it's uh F the Titans every single week. So uh but yeah, Jay, we're gonna you know briefly talk about the win because you know it's uh we get to the point of the season, we kind of mention this every single year. Now it's a little bit different, of course, because they are in the playoff race, but uh you know, around around this time of the year, you kind of know who your team is. You want to get it in and out of the games that you're supposed to win, and they've they've done that, you know. Now, granted, against uh you know the games like against Las Vegas and Arizona, those take overtime, but you do eventually come out with a win. Uh, you of course have the blunder against Houston, and they're as hot as any team in the NFL right now. Uh, and then you you host the Chargers and you know you shock everybody by blowing them out of the water as well. And you know, this is the time of year where the last five weeks of the season, especially being in the position that Jacksonville is in, where you really want to turn it up and kind of get everything going and get into a nice rhythm. And and we're starting to see that here in the last couple weeks with Jacksonville. So very excited to talk about all of that, but we're gonna probably spend most of this episode talking about next week's matchup with Indianapolis because it is such a huge game. Um, so yeah, uh for those of you once again, if you're brand new to the show or if you have been listening for a long time, make sure you click the link tree link in the show notes of this in every single episode to keep up with everything Touchdown Jaguars related. Uh, you can also find the link to download SeatGeek and use our promo code Touchdown

Penalties And Big-Picture AFC Stakes

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Jaguars for uh to save $20 off of your first eligible purchase. So make sure you um get your tickets via SeatGeek and use our promo code uh for this weekend's game uh as we will not be able to be there. So you guys go ahead and save some money on behalf of Touchdown Jaguars. But today, like you mentioned, Jacksonville beat Tennessee 25-3 in a game where there was never really any down Indy one-up. Uh I'm sorry, Tennessee went up 3-0 early. And then after that, Jacksonville was pretty much in cruise control. They were up 18-3 at halftime, tacked on another touchdown in the third quarter, and that was all she wrote for a Tennessee against the Tennessee Titans team that really is just kind of trying to figure out who they are at this point. You kind of think that uh they may be a ways away from relevancy um with their young quarterback. But our young quarterback played pretty well, uh, had plenty of time to throw in the pocket. He didn't get sacked a couple times, but uh for the for a lot of the game, he was just kind of standing around, uh maybe you know, checking on his kids, seeing how Marissa was doing at home, uh, you know, checking some other things that he had on his mind because he had a lot of time to throw on Sunday. 16 for 27, 229 yards, and two touchdowns. And uh one of those touchdowns went to Jacoby Myers, the other went to Brenton Strange. Um, but yeah, the Jay, the uh offense looked relatively good. I would have liked to see them maybe put one more on Tennessee, maybe just because it's Tennessee, I would have liked to see them win by a wider margin. And um, you know, maybe because of some of those penalties that we still are continuing to see. Um, maybe he left some points on the board, some opportunities, but overall, Jay, um the defense was smothering. Uh they played against a team, a young team, the way that you want to see them play. Uh, Cam Moore pretty much couldn't get anything going, averaged about like less than four yards per throw. And uh that's how you want to go in and win a game like this, and uh, you know, and leave no question and no stone unturned when it comes to a team that you know in your heart of hearts they are better than, uh despite it being a divisional matchup. And that's what they went into Nashville and did Jay. And they came up with a win, and they didn't fall victim to looking ahead to uh again what is going to be a very big matchup this weekend against Indy.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

Yeah, man. Um, you know, I guess we'll start with, as you mentioned, Trevor Lawrence, because that's where we always start, right? For better or for worse, um, depending on how he did. Uh, but that's where we started the last few months, is with him. Um, as you said, and I think Archuletta said he was, you know, he was like a baby kangaroo in his mother's pouch back there, just surveying the field and um just just taking his time back there, which um hey, we'll take it. You know, anytime you got like four seconds in the pocket, that's catastrophic for the defense, right? You you almost feel like even though the um the panel can only show the pocket and the quarterback, if a quarterback's in the pocket four seconds, you gotta feel like what's going on in the backfield is somebody's running wide open, and it was a lot of that, right? Um, in terms of um, yeah, his overall day, uh he was uh hold on, let me pull up my box score here. He was 16 of 27, 229 yards. Um, he was almost perfect, if I can recall, Phil, in terms of the first quarter and second quarter, he was like seven of eight, eight of nine, something like that, almost perfect. Um, but yeah, certainly in his drive. And um, I think it's important because as we mentioned, Phil, we kind of talked about this in regard to how the defensive line should look against bad um offensive lines. Well, you know, Trevor Lawrence also needs to look good against very bad teams as well. Like that can be applied to him too. And you know, he did just that. And um, you know, those that's the kind of performance that will get Trevor Lawrence started on that heater that we saw, you know, in 2022, where uh again we referenced that, I think it was last week, where it was the Ravens where he uh turned it on, and like that's when he started to play at a Pro Bowl level for the next five or so

Trevor Lawrence Controls The Pocket

SPEAKER_02 10:40

games. So um, if this is the starting point for him to start playing well heading into the postseason, then I say heading into the postseason because um we're gonna be positive here and and we have to feel like we will go. Um, I think that's how we got an 80% chance uh now, which is uh you love to hear that. Uh we are the Jaguars though, so we can't let our foot off the gas. But um, yeah, proud of how he um he played, especially after coming off of the game that he came off of last week where he threw multiple picks, right? Um I think I saw on PFF that um most of his throws were pretty much throws that were um were throws that uh the defense had no chance of of you know impacting for the most part. So he didn't put the ball in harm's way, basically, is how they worded. I forgot what the metrics call, but a lot of his throws were throws where he didn't put the ball in harm's way. That's especially good to hear after coming off the game that he came off of against the Arizona Cardinals, where you know he at least, you know, I think we counted last week, he at least had two bad picks at the very least out of all four turnovers.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Yeah, didn't see those throws where he is putting the ball in harm's way. Uh, didn't really see too much of that. Um, you know, as far as uh the the poor decision making, didn't see any of that. And you know, that's again relatively easy to do when you're upright for most of the game. Now, Tennessee did get home a couple of times, uh, I believe in the latter half of the game. Um, but yeah, like I said, uh like we said, you know, it is a type of performance you want to see against a team that going into the game was one in ten, right? Like that's how you go in, you go in, you go out, you make your statement, you don't leave anything up to chance, uh, especially in a divisional game uh where crazier things have happened, and you just kind of you know, again set the tone from the very, very beginning, and that is what Jacksonville was able to do. Uh, some of the other uh outliers there, uh running game, not really too much of a running game, uh, to be spoken of. 12 carries, 28 yards for ATN, Bacial Two and 8 carries, 17 yards. Nothing really going there. Trevor Lawrence, three carries, 25 yards as he was able to create with his legs. Um, this was all pretty much on the offensive side uh because of Trevor, because of Jacoby Myers, and then also attacking on there, Brenton Strange. Uh BTJ got involved as well, had a couple of catches in his first game back. So we're gonna start to see this offense, especially with Jacoby Myers and Brian Thomas Jr. I really want to see how they gel going forward. Um, but of course, the you know, the big thing there, Jay, is that uh, you know, the the loss of Parker Washington. Now we're not 100% sure what that status is, and you can tell me here if there has been any update as of today. We're recording this on the evening of December 1st, Monday night here at 8 30 p.m. So not sure if there's been any update in terms of Parker Washington. Um, but you know, what do you expect? Or you know, what did you see out of as you as we continue to see Jacoby Myers continue to flourish more and more in this offense?

SPEAKER_02 13:38

Yeah, well, as you mentioned, uh the Ron game was non-existent. A lot of that is because, like, when you look at it, man, you had uh the receivers, even even Parker Washington,

Defense Smothers Tennessee’s Offense

SPEAKER_02 19:00

December first, you know, this lady.

Injuries And Depth Chart Ripples

SPEAKER_03 41:49

Part of his gain is translation.

Playoff Odds And Seeding Scenarios

SPEAKER_02 43:02

To the Super Bowl as our counterparts that make the playoffs, this is it, man. So we can't fumble this. I hope we take care of business, man, in terms of um this Colt's game and keep our street going in Everbank Field. But yeah, just curious to know your thoughts on this. Uh and you talked about it last week, but if it's anything you want to add on about the playoff picture, man, and like how you feel in regards to just kind of we can do this, we can look in advance and and try and project Super Bowls, right? Phil, they shouldn't. The Jack War shouldn't do this by any means. You take it at one game at a time, basically. Okay, don't do that. Don't do what we do, but we can so just wanted to add a little extra content here.

SPEAKER_00 43:46

Yeah, you know, I who was it um earlier today that in our group threat uh our group chat who was the national guy talking about how it really is just a um kind of an open oh it's Prisco. Yeah, Prisco was talking about that, and it really is an you know, all of these teams, all seven of these teams currently in have some sort of flaw. Jacksonville included, you know. Uh Denver, do you really believe in bonex? New England, like you said, a very young team as well. Uh, but you know, do you believe you certainly put a level of belief in their coaching staff? Um, Baltimore has not been what they have been in the past. Now, I'm not gonna be one of those guys that bets against Lamar Jackson, but who's to say with how weird that division has been? That somehow Pittsburgh wins it at 8-9. You know what I mean? Or or uh the Baltimore wins division eight and nine, uh nine-eight, something along those lines. Chargers, we've already known we know that we can beat the the Chargers. Um, and then really the thing, the the team I think I wouldn't want to play, like you mentioned, is Buffalo, um, just because they can get hot at the right time. But also playoffs, uh, when it comes to them and playing their best when it matters the most, they have not been able to put those wins together, and who's to say they don't falter against New England again, you know, in the uh in the playoffs. They if they go up against a Baltimore and then all of a sudden um Derrick Henry doesn't fumble the football, you know, at an inopportune time. Uh so anything can happen, and it literally is a wide open race. There's no Tom Brady waiting at the AFC Championship game like in 2017, right? That's not happening here. So, like you said, there is a there's a window here. There is a window for a team that maybe isn't the most dominant but just plays well at the right time to win this whole thing, or at least get to the dance. Uh now when then whenever, you know, obviously looking very far ahead, depending on the matchup in the NFC, we'll see who it goes. But there, I don't know, there are very few teams in the AFC that I would over the Rams, uh, if the Eagles get it together, or even like the Seahawks, um, maybe even the Packers and Niners with the way that they're playing. So the AFC is wide open. There is a path to get there, like you said. Um, uh the only team that I would probably want to avoid, as we mentioned, is Buffalo.

SPEAKER_02 46:07

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, the luxury in that is even if you face them, if we continue at the rate we're continuing at and we end up winning the AFC south, then that means they have to come to us, you know. So at least you don't have to go in the snow and play them. Still, I I don't like the whole aspect of playing Josh Allen home or away, but definitely if you're gonna do it, I I would rather do it in Duval County. Um, but yeah, man, it it's an interesting thing, man, in terms of this playoff picture. Another thing, just real quick, I wanted to ask, man. Um, now this is a long shot. Um, but the fact that like we're so close to the number one seed, and I honestly don't want the number one seed. I don't want to have a week off. I'm scared of what a week off would do for us. But I'm just saying, uh, what are your thoughts on like I mean, and obviously the Patriots schedule is pretty easy heading out. Um, but like what do you feel about our odds to maybe acquire the number one overall seed?

SPEAKER_00 47:09

Well, the Patriots right now are winning 17 to 7 against New York. They're they're the team that has that like crazy um, you don't want to say easy because every game in the NFL

Who’s Scariest In The AFC Field

SPEAKER_00 47:20

is supposed to be relatively difficult. But who do they finish up against? They got New York. Well, see, the next couple weeks are interesting. They have both Buffalo and Baltimore coming up on their schedule. Those could easily be back-to-back losses. Um then they finish up with the Jets and the Dolphins. I can see it happening if they run the table like a very outside shot. Obviously, they have a head-to-head against uh Denver coming up here relatively soon, so they'll be able to control that portion of the uh uh of the standings. Who does Denver finish up against? Vegas, that's probably a win, but then they have Green Bay, Jacksonville, Chiefs, and Chargers. Those are four games they could lose. Like they could I would if you told me that Denver would lose three out of these last four games and finish their season uh 11 and what would it be, 11 and 6? I could see that happening um for sure. So it's not out of the question. Um, it's just well, they had that opportunity a couple years ago, and like we were like planning on man, what do we do when would the Jack Wars go to the Super Bowl? We're gonna need to rent down a hotel. I'm not gonna do that this year. I just can't do it, and then we know what happened about River's injury. 8 and 3, right? We all remember 8 and 3. So I'm just not gonna do that here. Like, get through this Colts game, handle business against the Jets. And if they beat Denver, let's reevaluate in a couple weeks because we could be having that conversation, but it it certainly it's in reach, but obviously a lot has to happen uh in order to get some assistance from Denver and New England. I just don't know that New England with that schedule, like winning winning those two extra games for New England might be enough, you know.

SPEAKER_02 49:02

Yeah, I mean, like we we could at best might end up being the two seed, and granted, we just might go undefeated pretty much the rest of the season, which is a lot to ask for because it's we are the dead wars, right? But no, it just it just popped in my head because we I mean we are the third seed, right? Like we didn't if you would have told me last week we'll end up being the third seed this week, like nobody was really like looking at that. So the reason I want to have these conversations is because the AFC is so wild, man, to the point where like something new happens every week and like we're looking at things from a totally different perspective, right? Because last week we weren't having any conversations about being the third seed and being the number one seed in the the AFC and granted through a tiebreaker, you know, situation. But um, we weren't really having those conversations, man. But yeah, in terms of yeah, you're right. I don't want to get too ahead um in regards to um the Super Bowl, uh, because we've been there and done that right. Um, but you know, this time I guess what I would say is like that we should at least have the inkling in our head, like just kind of considering it because our odds feel like they might be a little bit better than they've been in the past in terms of maybe going that route.

SPEAKER_00 50:18

Yeah, uh a lot of opportunity here coming up over the next couple of weeks as far as seeding, and uh, you know, we just gotta hope that they handle business on their end and uh, you know, kind of go from there. But Jay, anything else you want to mention before we wrap up here this week and again focus on a big time uh divisional matchup. Um we've discussed it plenty on the line here this week. And anything else you want to mention before we close out?

SPEAKER_02 50:43

Nah, that's it. That's it, man. Just glad to be talking about some competitive, important football at this point.

SPEAKER_00 50:51

Yeah, exactly. Uh really, really exciting time and uh to be this far into the season and hot and and haven't discussed one draft prospect, I think is a big time win here for this podcast. But yeah, folks, thank you so much for checking us out here this week in the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. Make sure you click the link tree link in the show notes of this in every single episode to keep up with what's going on with the show. Follow us over on Twitter where we are the most active, keeping you up to date with uh you know things such as PFF rankings, post uh post-game analysis, post-game press conferences, all that. Jay's making sure you guys stay up to date with all of the latest when it comes to the team. Uh, make sure you head

Number One Seed Talk And Reality Check

SPEAKER_00 51:30

on over to uh C can use our promo code Touchdown Jaguar, save yourself twenty dollars on your first eligible purchase with them. And yeah, appreciate all of you that have uh gone out of your way and supported the show. Make sure you head on over to any of your podcast player of choice and leave us the uh a five-star review. That's another great way to support the show. Folks, that is my co-host James Johnson. I am Phil Barrera. Thank you so much for listening, and don't forget to tune in the Touchdown Jaguars each and every single week for every Jaguar touchdown. And we'll see you this weekend, folks, go Jags, and I'm gonna go to the next one.