JAGUARS HEAD COACH DOUG MARRONE POSTGAME VS. PITTSBURGH STEELERS
Opening statement
“I think going through the game, I think early on obviously I felt we wanted to run the ball and be physical, and I felt we were able to do that. I thought defensively we played outstanding. I think at the end of the day, talking about the first half right now, that when we created those turnovers that we couldn’t turn into touchdowns. I think out of the turnovers we just had three points when we had the first two and we had it in the plus territory. That was disappointing, but we still had the lead going out, then we get another turnover and then we’re able to march down the field and go 80 yards and get the touchdown and then go up. Obviously, defensively we played well. We should have had safety help on the long ball to Antonio Brown, so that was a play that we gave them. And at the end I think we had three or four three-and-outs at the end of the game. You know, that’s what’s tough. You’re physical and running the football. Protection-wise we could’ve done a better job. We were getting beat a little bit, not schematically, but just up front, but still we have to be able to get first downs and close the game out. If you just had one first down on any of those drives you had a chance to win that football game, and we weren’t able to do that. That’s disappointing. We’ve got a week coming up here. Guys battled, fought, [were] physical. Give them some time tomorrow and come back Tuesday, which is like a Wednesday for us, and then try to get this thing completed where we can put a complete four quarters together where we don’t slow down at all.”
On how he gets the team emotionally ready again following this loss.
“I go back to the same thing. I’ve said this before: we’re professionals. We have to understand that. Emotionally we did put a lot into it, and I think that’s why, I told the players, ‘Hey, tomorrow take a step back.’ You know what I’m saying? Just take a step back. Come back on Tuesday. We’ll be ready to go and try to gear this thing up and put it all together and go out there and play well and take pride in what we do.”
On if he considered passing on third-and-five toward the end of the game
“I did. I said, what’s the best pass play we have, and we wanted to run the football and put it in our best player’s hands. I think at that point, obviously when you don’t make it, it’s discouraging.”
On if he considered a sneak on that third-and-five play
“No. We didn’t have that play up. I didn’t consider that, but I did consider throwing it and running it.”
On if he considered it, but was talked out of it
“Yeah. I said, ‘Hey, what are we going to throw?’ And we were worried about the protection, and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to run it,’ and we gave it to Leonard [Fournette].”
On if the Steelers made any adjustments at halftime to stop the running game
“The only thing that we saw, and we saw it early in the game, was they played a front that they haven’t played that much, but they always played it against us, so we knew that was a possibility coming up.”
On if Blake Bortles looked off today
“Yeah, I’ve got to look and see. I know on the one that got batted down we had the under, it was coming open, the ball got batted down. I know that one, looking at it, I was more concerned looking up front and the physical battles and what we were doing there and then getting my eyes late down the field to the receivers. So that’s something I have to look at. I know the two plays to Leonard [Fournette], they brought the free safety on that play. Obviously, you lose the coverage on Leonard and are able to hit him two times. He got hit a couple of times early pretty good.”
On if he’s okay with the way the defense was playing considering the penalties
“You’re going to have emotional plays and things. Calais’ [penalty] was one I was a little disappointed in because he kind of got wrapped around the waist as he came out there and tackled the quarterback and just didn’t get his hands out on the ground, so they called it for weight. I couldn’t see the play on the other side of the field, the face mask. The personal foul on the other side of the field was probably a good call. You’ve got to stay off that guy there. I can’t look everywhere on the field and see everything, but those things, obviously the holding penalties on offense, we had two when we were driving, on the left side of the field. Those things hurt you, knock you 10 yards back.”
On if this was the style of game he wanted to play
“We want to be a physical team. We want to be able to run the football, but we also want to be able to make some plays.”
On how much Blake Bortles’ confidence was affected by having three back-up offensive linemen in the game
“I don’t know. I try to put one of those things in there where you got to have confidence in the guys that are in there, no matter what you do. If that was the case, then I would be disappointed. I don’t think that was it. You do have to watch, early on, when you get hit pretty good. I saw that early, but that was a twist game and things like that are going to happen, but you’ve got to keep coming at it.”
On why the team struggled to run the ball in the fourth quarter
“One time there was a check, they were coming down on a late rotation that they did. One time we didn’t go backside, we miscommunicated at the front on one play and just basically holding on to the blocks and finishing the blocks. We did a better job of it in the first of that than we did in the second half.”
On his thoughts on the receivers and their ability to get separation
“We were getting a lot of zone. We weren’t getting as much man. So again, it’s those areas of the field where you’ve got to just find those spots and get those things open. I mean, really, at the end of the day you’ve got to find those cracks and seams in the zone coverage and at the end of the day when we did drop back it probably wasn’t good enough.”