Monday, October 21st, 2024

Pederson preaches ‘short-term memory’ after win

Craig Llewellyn

Editor

Pederson preaches ‘short-term memory’ after win

Craig Llewellyn NFL

Jacksonville head coach Doug Pederson admitted that it was nice to return to winning ways in the second of his team’s back-to-back games in London, but insisted that no-one could rest on the laurels of victory over New England at Wembley.

Just seven days after suffering a comprehensive defeat by the Chicago Bears at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the Jaguars bounced back against the similarly 1-5 Patriots, overcoming a fast start by the ‘visiting’ team to claim only a second win of the 2024 season.

“It’s a good way to finish this little run, [but] we’ve got to duplicate it,” Pederson insisted after the game. “We have to duplicate the energy. We have to duplicate what we did over here. This week in practice has been one of our better weeks of practice, and we’ve got to be able to carry this all the way back and do it again. That’s what this league is. It’s a short-term memory. You just try to go 1-0 each week.”

Pederson, who remains on a warming seat after the Jaguars’ disappointing star to a season in which they were expected to challenge for the AFC South crown, praised the way in which his roster steeled themselves after the loss to Chicago, making the most of the fact that they were remaining in the U.K. to focus fully on the switch to Wembley and facing the Patriots.

“I thought the guys really handled themselves professionally while we were here for the ten days,” he noted. “I’m proud of the guys, proud of the coaches for the way we worked this past ten days or so over here. The only pressure was needing to win a game. It didn’t matter where [it took place]. Obviously, we love coming over here, but it didn’t matter [that it was the U.K.]. We just needed to feel what winning feels like again.”

Perhaps encouraged by the turnaround his Jaguars achieved after visiting London a couple of seasons ago, Pederson is looking for the latest Wembley game to act as a springboard for the rest of the season, and credited his team for the way they refused to buckle after going down ten just after the completion of the opening quarter.

“You know, it’s just what our team can do, right?,” he said. “I feel strongly that if we play like that, that’s what we’re capable of. Now, is it sustainable over the course of 60 minutes? It’s not going to be sustainable. I get it. The other team is just as good. Again, we got in a situation where we were down ten, but nobody was like, ‘Here we go again’, or looked defeated or had negative thoughts. It was just one play at a time. The offense went out [and performed], and we showed the complementary aspect of the game today in all three phases. That’s the spark that hopefully can get this thing going.”

The positive wave emanating from a 22-point second quarter led Pederson to tell QB Trevor Lawrence and the offense to go for it on fourth down in the final period and, when failing to convert the short yardage effort led to a Patriots score, the HC again emphasised his team’s resilience in the face of what could have been another turning point in a game that appeared closer on the scoreboard than it had on the field.

“I was riding the momentum of what we were doing leading up to that point,” Pederson admitted. “Our offensive line was really taking control of the game at that point and it felt like just putting it in their hands one more time and getting the first down there [could] potentially ice the game at that point.

“Of course, they went down and scored. We get the ball back, and you still got to play football. And that’s just the message. You still got to continue to play. We were able to do that to go [back down the field]. We ended up taking a little time off before we punted the football back to them. The defense then did a great job and, of course, from the 10-yard line, we were able to punch it back in. But you just have to play for 60 minutes. These games are never over, and that’s always going to be the message.”

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