Tag: Andrew Wingard

Jaguars spent 2023 ‘looking for that spark’ that never came

The Jaguars kept waiting to find a spark and a fire down the stretch, but never found it.

An 8-3 start to the 2023 season was flushed down the drain by the Jacksonville Jaguars. After a four-game losing streak in December put the team’s postseason hopes in jeopardy, those hopes officially went down in flames in a season finale loss to the Tennessee Titans.

In just about every way, 2023 was the polar opposite of the team’s storybook 2022 season. Jacksonville entered that year with low expectations after back-to-back last place finishes and stumbled its way to a 4-8 record through 13 weeks. But the season was saved by a five-game win streak that vaulted the Jaguars into the playoffs as an unlikely Cinderella story.

“Last year, it was like we had a spark,” Jaguars outside linebacker Josh Allen said Sunday after the team’s 28-20 loss. “We had a fire. We had a determination. We had a want. This year, we were looking for that spark. And we never got that lit. We have to figure out if we do have one, and if we don’t one, we need to find a way to win games.”

“It was easy last year when there was no expectation or you’re in last place. It’s easy,” safety Andrew Wingard said. “It’s super easy when you’ve got nothing to lose. I’ve been in that situation. It’s easy to not care and go play your best ball because you’re free.”

The result was a Jaguars team that collapsed in two primetime matchups against the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens with a chance to establish itself as an AFC powerhouse. Then it couldn’t right the ship when the losses started to stack up.

“The thing is, you can’t sit around and wait for a spark,” Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said. “You got to be the spark, right? That’s either me being it, or Josh [Allen] being it, or Trevor [Lawrence] being it or something when that other team catches fire. That’s all part of learning how to win, learning how to do things right repeatedly week in and week out.”

That was a lesson the Jaguars hoped they could learn on the fly, but couldn’t figure out in time to salvage a 2023 season that will be remembered as one of the team’s most frustrating years.

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Jaguars PFF grades: Best and worst performers vs. Steelers

Trevor Lawrence, Folorunso Fatukasi, and Andrew Wingard were the Jaguars’ best players Sunday, according to PFF.

The Jacksonville Jaguars rolled through another opponent, making it five straight wins with a 20-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 8.

The formula for the Jaguars was familiar. The team’s talented offense made a lot of impressive plays, but left way too many points on the field and cost itself chances with significant errors. The unheralded defense once again came to the rescue with an excellent showing.

Who was most to blame for the Jaguars’ underwhelming offensive showing? And who deserves the most credit for the defense’s shutdown performance?

Here are the players who received the highest and lowest marks in the grades from Pro Football Focus:

Studs and duds in the Jaguars’ 20-10 win vs. Steelers

Who stood out most in the Jaguars’ fifth straight win?

The Jacksonville Jaguars turned the ball over three times and failed to score a touchdown on three trips to the red zone, yet still managed to pick up a fifth straight win Sunday.

With a 20-10 win against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Jaguars are rolling into a much-needed Week 9 bye with a 6-2 record, a hefty lead in the AFC South, and a share of first place in the AFC.

Not much is going wrong in Duval, but the Jaguars aren’t quite blowing out teams either. Against a Steelers team that went three-and-out on its first four possessions and turned the ball over on its last three, why was the game in contention so long?

The positives certainly outweigh the negatives for the Jaguars, but the latter isn’t non-existent. Here’s who stood out most in the team’s Week 8 win at Acrisure Stadium:

Andrew Wingard: Win at home and we’ll go to the Super Bowl

As long as the Jaguars don’t lose any more games at home, they’ll play in Super Bowl LVIII, says Andrew Wingard.

All that stands between the Jacksonville Jaguars and their first-ever trip to the Super Bowl is a string of wins at EverBank Stadium, says safety Andrew Wingard.

The always-fired-up defensive back and special teamer was forced into the starting lineup Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers because of an injury to Andre Cisco. After a 20-10 win that included an interception by Wingard, he had a lot to say after the game.

Wingard, who snatched a Terrible Towel during the game and had postgame advice for the Steelers’ George Pickens, laid out the clear path to Super Bowl LVIII in an interview with Brent Martineau of Action Sports Jax.

“Isn’t this fun? Is this not fun? This is awesome,” Wingard said. “I mean, look at these freakin’ fans. We need to be selling out The Bank every damn week. We need to win all our home games and we’re gonna go to the [expletive] Super Bowl.”

That’s quite the statement from a player on a team that has now won five straight and is feeling great. It’s also — well — probably pretty true.

The Jaguars have five more home games (vs. 49ers, Titans, Bengals, Ravens, Panthers) on the schedule. At worst, the team would be 11-6 at the end of the year if it wins those games. That should be more than enough to win an AFC South that now has three teams below .500.

That’d mean at least one home playoff game in January and probably more, so long as the Jaguars don’t go 0-4 in their remaining road games (vs. Texans, Browns, Buccaneers, Titans).

The Jaguars are 2-2 in home games this season, although one of those wins was at their “home” away from home at Wembley Stadium in London. If the Jaguars run the table at EverBank Field, Wingard is feeling pretty good about their chances at playing for the Lombardi Trophy at Allegiant Stadium.

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Watch: Jaguars celebrate interception vs Steelers with Terrible Towels

Andrew Wingard snatched a Terrible Towel from an inattentive Steelers fan after his interception Sunday.

A harmless remark by Trevor Lawrence about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ “Terrible Towel” was blown out of proportion and taken as a sign of disrespect by fans and even Bill Cowher in the lead up to a Week 8 game.

Jacksonville Jaguars safety Andrew Wingard actually made sure to disrespect the Towel during a 20-10 win on Sunday. After picking off the Steelers’ Mitchell Trubisky, Wingard snagged a Terrible Towel from an inattentive Pittsburgh fan and charged out on the field to give it some swings. Jaguars pass rusher K’Lavon Chaisson found one too during the defense’s celebration.

Days ahead of the Week 8 matchup, Steelers wide receiver George Pickens said Jacksonville has a “hope defense.” After the game, both Wingard and fellow Jaguars safety Rayshawn Jenkins made it clear they took the comment personally.

So Wingard, a player who’s never lacking for energy and gusto, was more than ready to rub his big play in the face of the Steelers and their fans.

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Jaguars defense gives ‘advice’ to Steelers WR George Pickens after win

“You don’t fire up a bunch of hungry dogs.”

Jacksonville Jaguars players didn’t have much to say Friday when asked about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ George Pickens calling them a “hope defense.” Safety Andre Cisco only called it “an interesting choice of words.”

The Jaguars saved their talking about it until Sunday in the locker room after a 20-10 win in which Pickens had one reception for 22 yards that was the Steelers’ only touchdown of the day.

“We heard some chatter before the game that we didn’t like,” Jaguars safety Rayshawn Jenkins. “It really pissed us off, they shouldn’t have put that out there for us to hear that. They said we got ‘hope defense’ or something like that. We were hoping they would’ve came in here and put up a better fight.”

Safety Andrew Wingard, who started in place of Cisco, also jumped in with some thoughts on the Pickens comment that clearly didn’t sit well with Jaguars players.

“He needs some advice going forward, you never put pressure on yourself,” Wingard said. “You never put expectation on yourself. He did that. If hoping is getting a dub, we’ll take the dub. … You don’t fire up a bunch of hungry dogs. It’s not smart. George, do better.”

“He’s a young player, but you can’t chat before the game,” Jenkins added. “We didn’t say nothing the whole week. We just put it in the chamber and when it was time to come out, we started firing on all cylinders.

The 261 yards of total offense allowed was a season-best mark for the Jaguars defense, despite the team being without Cisco and cornerback Tyson Campbell.

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Jaguars players steal fans’ Terrible Towels after interception

The disrepect of the Steelers continues against the Jaguars.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Pittsburgh Steelers backup quarterback Mitch Trubisky made a horrible throw into triple coverage resulting in an interception by Jacksonville safety Andrew Wingard.

After the INT, Wingard and his teammates did the usual, “run to the end zone and celebrate’ and Wingard and some teammates took it a step further by literally snatching up Terrible Towels from Steelers fans with seats at the front.

This would normally be where we would warn against the curse of the Terrible Towel but it doesn’t feel like that curse, or really anything of the tradition of this team means much as poorly as they are playing.

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Doug Pederson: Andrew Wingard’s captainship ‘speaks volumes’

Doug Pederson raved about the growth of first-time team captain Andrew Wingard.

It wasn’t long ago that Andrew “Dewey” Wingard was a relatively unpopular player among Jacksonville Jaguars fans.

The 2019 undrafted signee worked his way into the Jaguars’ defensive lineup and was a full-time starter in 2021, despite the team drafting Andre Cisco in the third round earlier that year. He struggled, at times, in that role, but found much more success in 2022 as a core special teamer and a rotational player in the secondary.

Now Wingard is a fan favorite, due in part to his resurgent season last year, but especially because of his enthusiasm and energy. He’s also set to be a team captain in 2023 after his Jaguars teammates voted him as the leader of the special teams unit.

“It speaks volumes for him, personally,” Jaguars coach Doug Pederson told reporters Wednesday. “He’s been with this team through the early days and not so good days. Now, to being a captain, it just shows his growth and his maturity and where he’s come as a player with this team.

“You see it every year, there’s always those one or two guys that just emerge as leaders. Whether they’re voted captains or not, they’re still great men and great leaders of your football team. Dewey has done some really good things to be in this position, he’s worked hard, he’s excited for himself, he’s excited for our team and this season. I’m excited for him as a captain of our team.”

Wingard, 26, received a 79.9 defensive grade from PFF last season, fourth highest on the team among players who played more than two snaps per game. He also had a 72.5 grade on special teams.

In four NFL seasons, Wingard has four interceptions, two sacks, two forced fumbles, and seven tackles for loss.

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Jaguars announce 5 team captains for 2023 season

The Jaguars’ group of 2023 team captains features a couple of tenured players who received the honor for the first time.

The Jacksonville Jaguars announced five permanent captains for the 2023 season on Tuesday. A sixth captain will be chosen by Jaguars coaches on a weekly basis.

While there were some obvious choices, like quarterback Trevor Lawrence, the team didn’t pick the same five players it did in 2022.

Defensive lineman Roy Robertson-Harris is a first-time captain, replacing outside linebacker Josh Allen as one of the two defensive captains. Allen previously spent three straight seasons as a Jaguars captain.

Special teams ace Andrew Wingard also earned captainship for the first time, replacing long-time punter Logan Cooke.

Here are the five Jaguars captains in 2023:

Andrew Wingard on pass rush concerns: ‘They don’t see what we see’

Andrew Wingard knows fans are concerned about the pass rush. He’s not.

If there’s a pressing concern for the Jacksonville Jaguars heading into the 2023 season, it’s the team’s pass rush.

While the offense promises to be even better than the top 10 unit from 2022, the Jaguars did very little to address their inability to affect opposing quarterbacks. After finishing 26th in the NFL in sacks last year, the team allowed Arden Key to walk in free agency and waited until the fifth round of the draft to add Yasir Abdullah.

Jaguars safety Andrew Wingard isn’t worried about the pass rush, though.

“Fans don’t see what we see,” Wingard told 1010XL after practice earlier this week. “Fans like to talk, they like to speculate, and that’s what you do, people love football. But they’re not in this building every day, they don’t see what we see, they don’t know what we know. We’re confident.”

The Jacksonville pass rush will mostly rely on the duo of Josh Allen and Travon Walker to make significant strides in 2023. Allen recorded 10.5 sacks as a rookie in 2019, but hasn’t been able to reach eight sacks in any season since. Walker finished his first NFL season with 3.5 sacks.

A deeper look at the pressure created by the Jaguars defense last year can provide some reasons for optimism, though. Jacksonville was sixth in the NFL in quarterback hurries (defined as a pressure that forced an early throw or moved the quarterback out of the pocket), and it was first in quarterback knockdowns (defined as a passer hitting the ground after a throw).

That’s a lot of close-but-no-cigar moments that could translate to many more sacks if there’s just a bit more development from the rushers and also just a bit more time bought by the coverage unit.

If Wingard is correct and the pass rush is better than it appears, the Jaguars may have all the pieces in place to make a serious run.

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