Pep Talks Vanquished By Jaguars Coach As Team Struggles

The Jacksonville Jaguars need a win desperately. Don't expect a rah-rah speech from head coach Doug Pederson.

Sep 24, 2023; Jacksonville, Florida, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson against the Houston Texans during the second quarter at EverBank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Morgan Tencza-Imagn Images / Morgan Tencza-Imagn Images

The Jacksonville Jaguars, to put it mildly, are experiencing rough waters. Perhaps the roughest of waters. They are 0-3 and with the good chance they lose against a very good Houston Texans team on Sunday, they could sink to 0-4. It would ostensibly end all hopes for a successful season.

But don't expect any Al Pacino "Any Given Sunday"-type speeches from head coach Doug Pederson. He told reporters on Wednesday that there would be no rah-rah talks in his locker room.

"I mean, look, it’s good to have them. It’s good to have at times player-only meetings, which teams do, and players do," he said. "But it’s that time too where you’ve just got to go play. You’ve got to go coach; you’ve got to go play. You can talk after."

For a team struggling, flailing even, it is an interesting stance to take. It is similar to Pederson's approach to the team's urgency heading into Houston. That is, to Pederson there is no added urgency.

"I mean, obviously, our sense of urgency is heightened obviously at 0-3," Pederson said. "That’s not where we wanted to be. Now, we’re facing a really good Houston football team on the road, and it doesn’t get easier. I don’t think I have to say much, obviously, about these types of weeks. It’s just a matter of continuing to trust our process and the standard we’ve set here and continuing to work through it.”

For quarterback Trevor Lawrence there is no need for the added urgency or the motivational speeches. He is looking to past experience to find answers for the future.

"Seasons are always different. How they unfold, how these games go early and down the stretch," Lawrence said. "So, I feel like, not just myself, this group, for the majority of us, we've played together for a few years now. We've been through a lot, and I think it will help us. But we’ve got to use it, and we’ve got to move forward and it's a long season. I don’t say that to say that we have time to waste because we surely don't anymore. But saying that is it is a long season and we've been in a worse spot than this before. We found a way out of it, and I’ve got full faith we're going to do the same."

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