Liam Coen assesses play of Jaguars' starting defense vs. Steelers

Yahoo

4 days ago

Following the Jacksonville Jaguars' preseason opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers, head coach Liam Coen shared his thoughts on the play of the first-team defense, which was on the field for the opening possession.
In short, there is room for improvement.
"I think there's a little bit of concern with--I think we were playing a little loose in some of our coverage systems," Coen said. "I was a little disappointed with the early 3rd-and-2, I think it was, where we're playing a tight 3-deep in that situation, we got off-coverage to give them an easy Omaha away. That was frustrating to see."
Led by quarterback Mason Rudolph--not Aaron Rodgers--the Steelers orchestrated a nine-play, 65-yard touchdown drive on their opening possession.
On that drive, there was a lot of room for Rudolph and his pass catchers to operate, resulting in some chunk plays surrendered by the Jaguars. Rudolph would complete two separate passes for 19 yards and another for 15 yards.
That 3rd-and-2 that Coen referenced came on the fourth play of the drive and could have gotten the Jaguars' defense off the field. With there only being two yards to gain, Coen wanted to see the cornerbacks closer to the line of scrimmage.
Like Coen mentioned, there are going to be expected miscues to work out as the Jaguars implement a new defensive scheme--one that is very different than what Jacksonville operated under a year ago.
Beyond tightening up the coverage, like Coen mentioned, I'll also venture to guess that improved communication could help reduce the number of explosive plays.
As Anthony Campanile has discussed, that element is crucial to strong play in the secondary, but with it can come a learning curve as everyone adjusts to their new roles and the responsibilities of the defenders around them.
"Those are the things when you're playing a new system, they've been playing a lot of man coverage over the last year here, and we're playing a lot more zone coverage. Oftentimes, you almost start to do too much the other way, where we're giving up a lot of grass and a little bit of room. So I imagine we're going to want to ask these guys to get a little bit stickier."
This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Jaguars vs. Steelers: Liam Coen evaluates play of starting defense