The Jacksonville Jaguars fell to 0-4 in heartbreaking fashion on Thursday night. Then, head coach Urban Meyer became the center of attention this week in the aftermath of his bar video controversy. Now, the Jags have to somehow find a way to get focused ahead of a matchup with the division-leading Tennessee Titans and the NFL’s leading rusher in Derrick Henry.
But according to defensive end Jihad Ward, that won’t be an issue on Sunday.
“This is not a distraction,” he said, according to the Associated Press’ Mark Long. “This is a bunch of negative stuff that we got going on. … I promise you we are 100% not worried about this. This is not making us feel bad. This is not we got our heads down. We are moving up. We’re aiming for the top. That’s all I care about and that’s all what the team cares about. This stuff … if people laugh about it, we laugh about it. But we’re moving on.”
Ward said that ultimately if the team falls flat against the Titans on Sunday, it won’t be on Urban Meyer. Rather, it will be on the players.
“People laughing about it, people joking about it, that’s fine,” Ward said. “But at the end of the day, we got to move forward. We can’t worry about this stuff. Because if we lose this game, he is not to be the blame of this mess that we got going on. He’s not going to be the blame of it. And I won’t allow that to happen. So this is not a defend-my-head-coach situation. This is we’re not worried about this (stuff).”
He’s certainly right about the fact that this (theoretically) shouldn’t impact the team’s on-field performance, but at the same time, it’s hard to see how it won’t. It’s proven to be a major distraction, as the scandal has been the focus of media attention during the week.
Still, the Jags will look to bounce back against a banged-up Tennessee Titans team in TIAA Bank Field.