Jaguars specialists relishing in chances to help Jacksonville stack up wins

Two of the Jaguars specialists came up huge in the team's week 4 win

Fresh off of two consecutive wins where special teams played a large role, the Jacksonville Jaguars specialists are just happy to be able to come through when their team needs them. This was especially true in Denver on Sunday when the Jaguars got big games out of punter Logan Cooke and kicker Josh Lambo, who kicked four field goals, including a 33-yard game winner.

"It’s comforting as a head coach when you’ve got to make decisions of kicking field goals, when you want to do them, what you want to do, and it’s good to have someone like him that you feel is reliable, you can count on," head coach Doug Marrone said Wednesday when giving praise about the performance of his special teams unit. 

For Lambo, this was not his first game winning field goal. He knew what he needed to do and had put in enough preparation that he felt confident in his own abilities. And instead of basking in the afterglow of nailing the walk-off field goal, Lambo's focus is on those he shares the locker room with.

"I am just happy for everybody on the team. They sacrifice their bodies so much putting me in a position where I can do my job," Lambo said in the locker room Wednesday. 

From the number of field goals to Cooke's six punts (for an average of 45.5 yards), Lambo and Cooke stayed busy on Sunday, each playing a large role in the team's comeback victory on the road.

"You look at how many kickoffs we had, how many punts we had, how many field goals we had, especially the last one, there was a lot of plays in that game that controlled field position, scored points, and kept them backed up as well," Cooke said.

Cooke's biggest play of the game came after the Jacksonville offense's first drive, which ended at their own four-yard line. With Cooke standing in his own end zone, an area no punter wants to be in, he boomed a 59-yard field goal to help flip field position.

"Anytime you are backed up, most direction of the punt kind of goes out the window and you just try to flip the field, so anytime you see that ball takeoff like that, especially in Denver, you know it is going to fly," Cooke said. 

When it comes to Cooke and Lambo, it is clear the confidence both their teammates and coaching staff have in them. And as Cooke explained, the relationship between the specialists and Marrone is something now every team has.

It is cool to have a head coach like coach Marrone who notices it and talks to you about it after the game and is like, ‘Hey, good job with this,'" Cooke said. "There is a lot of guys who, you know, head coaches and special teams guys don’t really communicate. So it is cool to see that and hear that."

For his four field goals (and two extra points) made on Sunday, Lambo was named the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week on Wednesday, a first-time honor for him. But it isn't the award Lambo and Cooke are really chasing after.

Anytime you can get a national award, that is pretty cool. One of 16 guys available to get it and I finally got one, so that is really cool," Lambo said.

"But there is one particular award I want and that is about 20 weeks away, so that is the one we are really worried about."