The Jacksonville Jaguars didn't think a player named "Tank" rattling off explosive plays in EverBank Stadium would ever be a bad thing. In Week 3, it was.
Instead of Tank Bigsby running wild over the Houston Texans, it was rookie Houston wide receiver Tank Dell who was making game-changing plays. Dell had one of the best performances of any rookie receiver in the 2023 season, catching five passes for 145 yards and two touchdowns.
114 of those yards (or roughly 40% of the Texans' total passing yards) came on two plays: a 46-yard strike in the first-quarter to set up the Texans' first touchdown and a 68-yard touchdown with 9:08 remaining to put the Jaguars away.
But what exactly happened on the two daggers to the heart of the Jaguars' defense? Doug Pederson explained on Monday that, in short, it had to do with self-inflicted errors in the secondary.
“Well, the first one was the safeties, Cisco [S Andre Cisco] and Rayshawn [S Rayshawn Jenkins]. Both of them were down and Rayshawn was shooting back late to the post. It was just a miscommunication of who was going back. We were late getting back there," Pederson said.
As for the second touchdown, Pederson didn't point fingers or name names, but the All-22 shows Darious Williams playing a different coverage than the rest of the defense.
“Miscommunication on the backend. Man coverage, just miscommunication," Pederson said.
"That one and then the post in the first half with the safeties where they scored their first touchdown drive, both of those were just miscommunication on the secondary’s part. Just things that are unacceptable and can’t happen. Those guys have worked together too long to make those mistakes.”
In a season where the Jaguars have played bad situational football on offense, the same errors finally creeped into the defense. After a strong first two weeks, self-inflicted wounds caused the Jaguars' defense to allow two of their biggest plays of the season.
"You focus on the highlights, but you definitely coach it all. That’s why days like today are so important with the guys in the building to be able to show the mistakes and make the corrections today before we hit the practice field again on Wednesday," Pederson said.
"You have to show the good, the bad and the ugly to the players. My job is to paint the picture. This is where we are, this is not who we want to be, and this is where we’re going. All that stuff is still right in front of us.”
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