After the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 12-7 loss to the Minnesota Vikings where the offense turned three Sam Darnold interceptions into zero points and had the fifth-lowest yardage total in franchise history, Jags head coach Doug Pederson was asked about the final interception by his backup QB Mac Jones.
Jones finished the game 14-for-22 for 111 yards and two interceptions, making the offense look more moribund than ever before. His final pick was the icing on the cake.
Well, Pederson was curt with his words in his explanation, taking a shot at the beat writers and media who asked him a very fair question.
“I’m not gonna go through the details of the play because you guys wouldn’t figure it out.”
Tough words coming from the head coach and main offensive mastermind behind the worst Jaguars’ offense I’ve seen in my life. Because I’m motivated by spite and contempt towards the current head coach of my favorite football team, I decided to figure it out and tell you exactly how Pederson has failed as a head coach and playcaller.
So, here’s the situation: 1st-and-10 at the Vikings’ 43 yard line. There’s 1:57 left in the game and the Jaguars have one timeout left. Jacksonville is in 11 personnel, with TE Evan Engram, RB Travis Etienne and WRs Gabe Davis, Brian Thomas Jr. and Parker Washington on the field. The Vikings match that with their nickel personnel, four pass rushers, two linebackers and five DBs.
Jones motions WR Brian Thomas Jr. across the formation to create a 3×1, a formation the Jaguars love to pass out of (the big touchdown to Zay Jones in the playoff game against the Cardinals came out of a 3×1). The concept they’re running is called Detroit, with the two main routes being the Sail route by Thomas Jr. and the post by Davis. What’ll really make this play pop is the return route by Washington on the inside. It’s designed to give Jones a cleaner look against a cloud corner, a cornerback who is playing the flat, or a quick answer against man. The backside route by Engram is just a speed out to keep the backside corner occupied, that route is basically dead, running it for the love of the game.
At the snap, the Vikings are playing Cover 2. There’s no funky rotation, no mixed up look. LB Blake Cashman comes in on a blitz (we’ll get to that later) but for the most part it’s a pretty simple coverage look. Jones is reading the corner to the trips side. If the CB is carrying the deep post, he should have that Detroit route coming into the void. However, if the CB is squatting in the flat like he is on this play, the Detroit route is going to sit in the hole in the zone created by the return route and Jones has to hit him in the void. You only throw the deep post if the safety is squatting or gets too occupied with the Detroit route (see: Joe Burrow’s TD to Ja’Marr Chase on Thursday).
Or, if you’re Mac Jones, you feel pressure and throw up a hope ball when both safeties are squeezing on the deep post. Let’s talk about the pressure. This actually gets called out by the commentary team after the interception, but LT Walker Little and RB Travis Etienne aren’t on the same page at all.
Because Etienne is to the formation’s left, the protection is sliding to the right and Etienne has any free runner from the left. That free runner would be Cashman in this situation, but there’s a twist (literally). Cashman goes to “pick” the left tackle, literally setting a pick like in basketball, and the EDGE defender Jon Greenard is looping around him. Little’s eyes are still on Greenard even when Etienne responds correctly to this pick, and doesn’t respond to Cashman, who ends up getting the hit on this play. Just a cavalcade of catastrophy going on, but it could’ve been fixed with proper preparation on the part of the offensive masterminds in the room.
Now back to Jones. At no point is this deep post open. Like I said earlier, this route is run for the love of the game, and because there’s nothing to the backside to be worried about for S Harrison Smith, he gets to squeeze the air out of this passing window. You have to have a lot of faith in both your arm and your receiver’s speed to get this ball up over both safeties into the receivers’ arms. I don’t think Mac Jones has that kind of arm, especially under pressure. On top of that, it’s first down and there’s still a timeout left. You don’t need to make this throw at this point in the game. You can take the return route to Washington, call a timeout and get into another play. The situational awareness from top down on this team is incredibly poor, and it’s once again a reflection of the coaching.
Pederson’s statement about the writers not figuring out what the details of the play would be so he wouldn’t go into detail comes off as incredibly arrogant, something that has come up in bunches in the 2024 season. Pederson is going to get fired because he thinks his way is infallible, that it’s the players’ fault and never the problem of poor playcalling and never placing blame on offensive coordinator and playcaller Press Taylor. The arrogance of not changing playcalling duties even as the offense flounders. Pederson won a Super Bowl in 2017 so it makes him immune to any criticism, right? It even comes off as a throwaway line, an unnecessary jab at reporters when the rest of the statement would’ve been fine by itself. Pederson’s inability to change or admit that he was wrong in some areas is sinking the Jaguars, and it’s going to leave him out of a job again.
But other than that, I would say the play was rather simple to figure out, but the poor preparation throughout the week is what led to the result. Another masterclass in coaching out of Duval.
