The Jacksonville Jaguars scored just nine points against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2, failing to get in the end zone on three trips to the red zone. One person that Jaguars coach Doug Pederson is not pointing the finger at, though, is offensive coordinator Press Taylor.
Shortly before the Jacksonville Jaguars’ regular season was set to begin last week in Indianapolis, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that offensive coordinator Taylor was taking over offensive play-calling duties for the Jaguars. Pederson later clarified that Taylor had experience in the role after calling the plays in the second half of Jaguars games in 2022.
Buy Jaguars TicketsWhile the rough showing brought criticism of Taylor’s decisions, Pederson said the play-calls weren’t the issue.
“Sometimes it’s not about the plays,” Pederson said Sunday after the loss. “I learned a long time ago that the players — you know, players play this football game and coaches coach. … We’re going to evaluate everything and make sure that we’re putting our guys in the right places. But I thought Press did a nice job today.”
So what was the issue then?
“The glaring thing is just our execution,” Pederson said. “We were in too many second and long and then it turned into third and long situations. You just can’t put yourself, as an offense, yourself in those situations too many times. And it’s not favorable to do that.”
Still, the Jaguars could’ve got away with their five-punt day if they found the end zone on one or more of their three red zone trips. Maybe the most questionable choice of the day was the decision not to hand the ball off once after getting set up with a first-and-goal from the 1-yard line.
“The first play, we had a run dialed up and didn’t execute well,” Pederson said. “It’s not about who’s in the game or who’s getting the touch or anything like that, Travis [Etienne], Tank [Bigsby], D’Ernest [Johnson], all three of those guys are very capable of doing it. So it’s not that.”
Taylor, 35, previously spent five seasons as an offensive assistant with the Philadelphia Eagles while Pederson was the team’s head coach. He was hired as the Jaguars’ offensive coordinator shortly after Pederson was hired in Jacksonville.
