Jaguars' Liam Coen Reflects on Seahawks Loss, Turns Page Forward

For a partial transcript of Coen's comments, read below.

Q: On his evaluation of the defense’s performance?

Coen: “Well that's the key of, we let the ball get thrown over our heads a few times. That's a tough world if you let up two 60-yarders. And then, I will say that Seattle did a great job of calling their shots against the exact coverages that you would want those plays to be drawn up in. Tough one on obviously the post that went, but they hit us on a couple overs to Kupp [Seahawks WR Cooper Kupp] and one to JSN [Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba] on the over verse three deep got us, we stopped the run the way we wanted to.

We won third down, played stout in the red area on the one third down where they ran it and we made them kick a field goal. We did some really good things, but ultimately those big plays, man, they're killing us. And so, we've got to eliminate those plays, whether it's with the play call, whether it's with the execution of the play call and understanding maybe what's the shot zone, when are they going to call these shots and how can we help them from a coverage standpoint but that's the Achilles heel over the last two weeks has been the big plays.”

Q: On how to improve their looks when not generating pressure?

Coen: “We’ve just got to get a little bit more pressure. Now here's the deal. Their pass game when it was in the shotgun or if you were to say drop back, ball was coming out. When they took those shots, those were seven-man max pros where both tight ends are staying in, you’ve got the back on a hard ball play action. We got hit on two man routes a lot yesterday. Whether it was the post overs, whether it was this [inside post motion] or whether it was that [outside post motion], we got hit on some two-man routes where the corners are out there one-on-one.

And so, we have got to make sure we're doing a nice job of mixing up where our cloud is to be able to not let the offense get a beat on where the cloud is going to be. And so, they can't pick on the quarter side if you will. And so, it is hard to create a four-man rush versus max pro. So that is always a challenge we've got to look at as a defensive staff. Alright, where can we maybe create some more pressure? How can we help them create some more pressure, whether it's with personnel or whether it's with pressure.”

Q: On if the long trip to London is a team bonding experience?

Coen: “I do. I've done it both ways. Going out early or staying on this time zone obviously and then leaving as late as kind of possible. It was just something that when we talked about in the offseason, this could be a possible opportunity for a new everything to maybe be together for an extended period of time. It just so happens I told the team, what a perfect time for this to come up, that we're coming off of a tough loss and we've got to face a little adversity as a team.

Well now we're together for an extended period of time in a new setting, in a different place. Obviously, this organization has had a lot of familiarity with making this trip and I think our ops, travel, everybody that is involved really gets it. They just get it. They know how to do this trip. So, that gave me a lot of confidence to be able to move and say, look, let's go early and let's dive into this thing, get acclimated to the weather, to the fields, to all that stuff. Knowing that man, the game, the field may be a little bit different than what we've been playing in every day here. The weather, the conditions, just the being out there.

That was what really went into it was just trying to give these guys—I talked to some of the players in the offseason about what they actually liked as well, and it weighed into it. And we tried to make the best decision. We did all the pros and cons from a sports science standpoint. We dove into it and at the end of the day I thought it was just a great opportunity for our team to be together and to see if we could—right before the bye where we're not going to see each other for very long, we just thought it was a great op to get together, to dive into each other and I do think it came at the perfect time.”