George Pickens had an old take exposed with Sunday’s loss to Jacksonville.
Pittsburgh Steelers wideout Pickens made some inflammatory remarks prior to his team’s Week 8 showdown against the Jaguars. Pickens said that Jacksonville had what he called a “hope defense,” merely hoping that guys would be able to hold up in coverage.
Those comments came back to bite Pickens on Sunday though. The Jaguars took down the Steelers by a 20-10 final score and held Pittsburgh to under 270 yards of total offense. They intercepted Mitchell Trubisky (who came in after starter Kenny Pickett was injured) twice and held Pickens to just one catch on five targets (though the one catch was a 22-yard TD in the third quarter).
In the locker room after the game, Jaguars safety Rayshawn Jenkins took the opportunity to use Pickens’ own words against him.
“We’d have hoped they would have put up a better fight than that,” joked Jenkins, per Jaguars beat writer Demetrius Harvey.
Pickens was somewhat right in that Jacksonville hasn’t been as sturdy on the defensive end this season (ranking 25th in the NFL in average yardage allowed). But he is not really in a position to be throwing shade given that the Steelers have a dysfunctional offense that is now putting up fewer than 17 points per game. Pittsburgh themselves might just be a “hope offense.”
You knew that Jenkins especially was not about to let Pickens get away with that one. Jenkins is emerging as one of the NFL’s best trolls and also took a funny shot at Derek Carr after the Jags’ Week 7 win over New Orleans.
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