Tag: Matt Eberflus

Postgame analysis: Jags fall in season finale to Colts and finish season 1-15

Finally, the Jags’ 2020 season has ended, but not without another loss.

Finally, it’s over.

The Jacksonville Jaguars concluded their 2020 season Sunday after falling to the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium by a score of 28-14. As a result, the Jags finished the season with the worst record in the league and in their franchise’s history, while the Colts will advance to the playoffs.

Sunday’s game was one in which the Colts started hot and never looked back.  They got off to a 20-0 start against the Jags with the first touchdown coming from T.Y. Hilton early in the first quarter. As for their second touchdown, it came as the result of Indy taking advantage of a Mike Glennon fumble (caused by Darius Leonard) at the Jags’ 36-yard line. The Colts were also able to add two field goals before the half courtesy of Rodrigo Blankenship.

However, before the half could end, receiver Laviska Shenault Jr. put the Jags on the board after scoring off a slant pattern where he beat cornerback TJ Carrie. As a result, the Colts went into halftime up 20-7.

After the half, Shenault would continue his success through the air by snagging another touchdown during the Jags first drive of the third quarter. He was able to link up with Glennon on an outside post where he got a step on Leonard and was hit with a perfect pass from his veteran cornerback. Of course, that was the last score of the game for the Jags and also was the only score of the quarter, putting the game at a score of 20-14.

With their playoff hopes being threatened, the Colts went ahead to finish the job thanks to rookie tailback Johnathan Taylor. With the ball at around the mid-field point, Taylor was able to bust a 45-yard rush open and take it to the house, putting a dagger in the heart of the Jags. Afterward, Hilton was able to help with a 2-point conversion, which gave Indy a two-touchdown lead and put the game at its final scoring figure.

The loss marked another game in which the Jags’ defense allowed over 400 yards (437 to be exact), which is an issue that has been an ongoing problem all year. A majority of those yards came from Taylor, who had a whopping total of 30 carries for 253 yards and two touchdowns.

As for the Jags, it was pretty much a roller-coaster day for Glennon, who took the field for his fourth start of the season and finished his day 26-of-42, for 261 yards, and two touchdowns. Meanwhile, receiver Chris Conley led the way in receiving with seven catches for 87 yards and Dare Ogunbowale was the rushing leader with 14 carries for 50 yards.

With Week 17’s game in the books, it’s now on to the 2021 offseason, which will involve many changes. That includes the fate of coach Doug Marrone, who will meet with ownership Monday and is expected to be fired in the coming days.

Afterward, they will be tasked with finding his replacement and a new general manager, then it’s on to the 2021 NFL Draft where the Jags have 11 selections, including the No. 1 overall pick.

The top 10 head-coaching candidates Jets should consider to replace Adam Gase

Jets Wire unveils its list of the top 10 candidates to replace Adam Gase.

With Adam Gase’s tenure as Jets head coach over, it’s time to take a look at who could replace him.

Fortunately for Joe Douglas and New York, the cupboard is full of candidates who can turn the Jets around. From bright college coaches to innovative offensive minds and some candidates with impressive defensive backgrounds, Douglas will have plenty of intriguing candidates to choose from this offseason.

Now that the Jets and Gase have officially parted ways, Jets Wire will take a look at who could replace Gase from a variety of angles. To start, here are Jets Wire’s top 10 candidates to replace him, a should-be, ranked wish list if the Jets had their pick of the litter.

Jaguars vs. Colts: 3 things to know about Week 17’s game

The Jags will face the Colts for their regular-season finale and a win for Jacksonville could help their offseason interview process.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have made it to their season finale after a long season full of lows and a late-season Christmas gift. As they did last season, they will conclude the regular season against the Indianapolis Colts, who they were able to acquire their first and only win of 2020 against.

Of course, with both teams being in the AFC South for a while they’ve grown quite familiar with each other and Sunday’s game will mark their 39th meeting. However, with Doug Marrone’s future up in the air, it could mark the veteran coach’s last game with the Jags, and it goes without saying he’d like to end it with a bang.

All of that said, here are three things to watch Sunday as the Jags travel to Indy:

What were Texans QB Deshaun Watson and Colts DC Matt Eberflus talking about after the game?

Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson says he talked with Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus after the 27-20 loss in Week 15.

Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson dropped an interesting note in his postgame presser Sunday afternoon.

After the Indianapolis Colts vanquished the Texans 27-20 at Lucas Oil Stadium, Watson apparently had a conversion with Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus.

What was the subject of their discussion? Just how the Colts defense was able to curtail the Texans’ offense, limiting them to exactly 20 points in both of their contests this season, two weeks apart.

“We play a team that we just played two weeks ago so we have to figure out what they’re doing differently,” Watson said. “They did a lot of different things differently. I talked to their DC afterwards and told him about it and he was like, ‘Yeah, that’s what we had to do. We had to switch up some different things.’

“Because that defense is a bend but don’t break defense. They play a lot of zone coverages and a lot of different things that they do — you know exactly what they’re going to do but today they wanted to try to mix it around and do some different things.”

Watson completed 33 passes on 41 attempts for 373 yards and two touchdowns while taking five sacks. The 120.8 passer rating may have been good enough to win the game if not for receiver Keke Coutee fumbling at the 2-yard line en route to scoring the game-tying touchdown.

“We just have to get into a rhythm — that’s the biggest thing,” Watson said. “Sometimes we start fast, sometimes we don’t.”

The Texans will have a chance to find an early rhythm as they take on the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 16 for a Sunday afternoon encounter at 12:00 p.m. CT at NRG Stadium. Whether or not Watson talks to Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo after the game remains to be seen.

Behind Enemy Lines: Previewing the Texans’ Week 15 rematch with Colts Wire

The Houston Texans take on the Indianapolis Colts in Week 15. The Colts Wire helps preview the matchup.

The Houston Texans take on the Indianapolis Colts in Week 15 at Lucas Oil Stadium.

To get ready for the Sunday at 12:00 p.m. CT matchup, Kevin Hickey from the Colts Wire helps preview the game.

 

Texans Wire: What’s it like being on the winning end of playing a team twice in three weeks?

Kevin Hickey: Pretty cool, I’d say. The Colts have been so shoddy in recent seasons that it’s nice to see them stringing together consistent wins. What’s nice is that these wins don’t feel like flukes like it did in 2019 when they started 5-2. This team is legit on both sides of the ball and while it still remains to be seen how far of a run they can go on in the playoffs, their ability to string together wins feels legit.

 

TW: Where do the Colts feel like they failed in the first matchup?

KH: In the same area they have failed for the majority of the season: the first half. Allowing 20 points in the first half typically downs a team pretty quickly, but it helps when that same defense plays like a completely different unit in the second half. The Texans saw first hand what those mid-game adjustments look like when they failed to score any points in the second half in Week 13. A depleted supporting cast for Deshaun Watson and a stellar game from DeForest Buckner helped, but the Colts have to make sure their defense can play two halves. They haven’t done that for the majority of the season and Philip Rivers has kept the offense humming, so it has worked out. But against a magician like Watson, they can’t fail in the first half again.

 

TW: How does this game factor into the Colts’ path to winning the division?

KH: Essentially, the Colts should get in if they win two of the next three games. Those matchups include the Texans, the Steelers in Week 16 and the Jaguars in Week 17. The Steelers game is a bit of toss up given how they’ve struggled recently but it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Colts lose that one. So in order to stay alive in the playoff picture—they currently sit sixth—the Colts have to come away with a win. If they don’t, they run the risk of tying with a number of teams for the final wild-card spot, and the only team they hold a tiebreaker over is the Raiders.

 

TW: Did S Kenny Moore really intercept it from WR Brandin Cooks?

KH: Seeing as we still have no idea what constitutes as a catch, I’m gonna say yes. Having gone back and rewatching the play, there’s a telling sign in the body language that Cooks gives after the play is made. He makes no effort to show he believes he caught the ball and while that’s not always an indication, it’s enough for me to say, “Yeah, that’s probably an interception.”

Editor’s note: Cooks was concussed on that play, which explains why he wasn’t demonstrative that he caught the ball.

 

TW: Is Matt Eberflus a quality head coaching candidate?

KH: Absolutely. Whenever Eberflus moves on to be a head coach, there’s one thing that will suit him well. We’ve seen the story many times over where a smart X’s & O’s coach fails to have success because, while he’s a smart football guy, he fails to get his team to buy in. That won’t be a problem for Eberflus. Everywhere he has gone, he gets his unit to buy into playing maximum effort 100% of the time. He’s easy to work with and finds a nice mixture of being an approachable yet no-nonsense type of playing style. Whoever gets Eberflus will need to match him with an offensive play-caller, but in terms of leadership and getting a team to follow quickly, Eberflus excels.

 

TW: What is your prediction?

KH: The Colts should win this one again. It’s tough to sweep a team during the regular season, but the Colts are nearly fully healthy, and the Texans seem to be hanging by a thread. The loss of Justin Reid will allow Rivers to take more shots downfield, and this time the Colts will have starting left tackle Anthony Castonzo back. I still expect Watson to keep the Texans competitive with a solid first half before the Colts defense again smothers their way to a sizable lead. I have the Colts, 28-19.

Colts’ coordinator corner: Jonathan Taylor coming into his own

Coordinators talk ahead of Week 15.

The Indianapolis Colts (9-4) are preparing to host the Houston Texans (4-9) at Lucas Oil Stadium for a Week 15 matchup on Sunday as the season enters its final three weeks.

Ahead of the rematch against the Texans, the coordinators for the Colts spoke to the media on Tuesday touching on various topics in all three phases of the game.

Here are some highlights from the coordinator’s corner:

Jonathan Taylor getting better each week

The rookie running back has taken the league by storm over the last month or so. He has 55 carries for 331 yards and two rushing touchdowns while adding nine receptions for 83 yards and a touchdown in the passing game over three games.

Offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni attributes the improvements Taylor has made to an increase in reps and confidence for the rookie.

“Confidence and reps. Really, that is as simple as it can be – confidence and reps. He just keeps getting reps, keeps getting better. He just keeps seeing it over and over and over again, and he is building confidence from that. You can really see that,” Sirianni said. “Confidence is a crazy thing, and momentum and confidence is a great thing to have. He’s got that and he’s playing really good football right now.”

Taylor endured a three-game stretch in which he was essentially benched as the Colts rode the hot hand in the backfield. Sirianni couldn’t be more impressed with how the rookie handled the rough stretch of games.

“I never really sensed that he had lost confidence. I really don’t and I think he handled not getting all the carries and Nyheim (Hines) getting some of the carries because he was hot or Jordan (Wilkins) because he was hot at the time, I think he handled that truly like a pro,” Sirianni said. “Of course he wanted to get all those carries that they were getting, but he is a pro and he handled it like a pro. He didn’t complain. He just said, ‘Hey, next time I get out there I am going to make the most of my opportunities’ and he has done that. So a big credit to him.”

Khari Willis quietly having a strong season

The second-year safety may have been overshadowed by rookie Julian Blackmon this season, but don’t mistake that for a lack of development for the Michigan safety. Willis has been turning in a strong season, showing improvements in both phases of the game.

“He’s just been special since he’s been here, just to be frank. He’s a great young man, he has high character. He brings energy and enthusiasm on the practice field. He’s very serious about his business, meaning that he’s a true pro,” said defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus. “He’s a good player. That’s the one thing you have to be. He’s quick and explosive. He’s a good tackler and plays well in space. We’ve been having him primarily as the guy that drops down for us, that covers guys and fits the run game, but he can play in the deep part of the field too. He does a lot of things well for us, but I would say the main thing is the way he practices and the way he prepares and his energy and enthusiasm all the way through the week and into the game time. He’s pretty impressive.”

Willis had an impressive rookie campaign but he’s been even better in Year 2. His improvements against the pass are shining through while he continues to be a play-maker against the run.

It seems the Colts have their starting safety tandem of the future.

Jordan Glasgow showing growth

Though he missed Week 14 due to being on the reserve/COVID-19 list and there’s a chance he misses this week as well, the rookie in Glasgow has been showing out for the majority of his rookie campaign on special teams.

Special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone has seen a lot of growth from the sixth-round pick, and the rookie has quickly become a leader on special teams.

“Jordan (Glasgow) has been a great player for us this year. He’s done a good job, he prepares well, he’s very detailed. He’s pretty much a leader amongst that group by the way he prepares every week for his opponent and the detail he puts into his studies,” said Ventrone. “He’s very instinctive player. He’s done a great job for us in coverage and he’s made a lot of good blocks in the return game. He’s one of our best if not our best single blocker in both return units.”

Glasgow is second on the team in special teams tackles behind safety George Odum, who leads the NFL in that category. His absence will be missed if he’s forced to sit out another game, but the rookie is becoming a key cog on special teams.

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Colts’ Frank Reich, Matt Eberflus among NFL’s best play-callers

Touchdown Wire gives props to Indy’s play-callers.

Indianapolis Colts head coach Frank Reich and defensive coordinator Matt Ebeflus have been viewed in a positive light for the majority of their tenure with the team.

As the 9-4 Colts begin to gain more national attention en route to their fight for a playoff spot, Reich ad Eberflus are also getting more recognition for their work as play-callers.

Both Reich and Eberflus were featured on Touchdown Wire’s list of the NFL’s top play-callers on both the offensive side of the ball and the defensive side of the ball.

This isn’t to say both coaches have been perfect in their play calls this season. But their minds have benefitted the Colts much more than they have hurt the team.

There have been some questionable play calls when it comes to the run game for Reich, but his multiple offense and the way he uses tight ends in various packages allows the Colts to keep from being one dimensional.

Reich also has a knack for finding ways to beat man coverage, mostly through rub and mesh concepts. That has been a staple of his offense since he arrived in 2018.

Eberflus also has some questions with his first-half defense being among the worst in the NFL, but there is no denying he is a master at mid-game adjustments while also having the knack to get his players to buy in 100% to his philosophy.

While the Colts run primarily a zone defense that harps on getting pressure with four rushers, Eberflus is able to create confusion up front by implementing various twists and stunts with his personnel.

The Colts have a solid group of coaches and with Reich and Eberflus leading the way, they should be able to make a run for the postseason.

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4 defensive coordinators Jets should consider for head coach if they fire Adam Gase

Jets Wire takes a look at six NFL defensive coordinators that succeed Adam Gase if New York fires him this offseason.

The Jets swung and missed on landing an offensive guru when they hired Adam Gase in 2019. Could that give Joe Douglas reason to go in a different direction with New York’s next search for a new head coach likely nearing?

If Gase is fired after the offseason, as expected, it’s highly likely the Jets go with another offense-first coach to pair with whoever their next quarterback will be — Trevor Lawrence if New York lands the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NFL draft. However, there is a chance Douglas could opt for a defensive-minded head coach with more of a CEO-like skillset over one whose head would only be buried in his offensive playbook.

Here are four the Jets should target if Gase is shown the door at season’s end and Douglas opts to go in that direction.

The NFL’s best defensive play-callers

Great players make great defenses happen, but great coaching is just as important. Here are the NFL’s best defensive minds in 2020.

When you look at the NFL’s best defenses in 2020 — the ones that are able to stay consistently efficient-to-dominant in a league that sets up success in the passing game above all — there are mandatory characteristics that transcend coordinator and scheme. Especially in an era in which sub-packages and hybrid defenders are the norm as opposed to the outlier, modern defenses must have these three things:

  1. Front multiplicity and gap confusion. Great defenses rarely show the same fronts twice in a row from play to play. You may see a base front on one play, and then, some sort of wicked NASCAR or amoeba front on the next. Then, variants of those concepts as drives continue. Those different looks challenge offensive protection calls, especially when offenses are running packages with three or more receivers on 65% of their plays. Then, when you create gap confusion with different line stunts and multi-level blitzes, you wind up with some very uncomfortable quarterbacks and fractured passing games. How many defensive linemen have their hands down, and how many are standing up? Where are they attacking based on where they start?
  2. Muddied looks at the linebacker level. When your defense has one or more moneybacks or monsterbacks — players who can affect offenses everywhere from the line of scrimmage to the deep third — you have an extreme tactical advantage you can use in all kinds of different ways. Move beyond the traditional stay-at-home linebacker, as modern defenses have, and you are able to present clear pre-snap looks to a quarterback and his receivers, and then go about doing radically different things after the snap. Throw linebacker pressure from the A-gaps and then drop into coverage from there, and even Russell Wilson will lose his place.
  3. Coverage switches in the secondary. It is the job of every modern defensive coordinator and secondary coach to plant schematic and spacing inabilities in the mind of the opposing quarterback. This is done in the secondary through the refusal to run coverage based on what is shown pre-snap. What might look like a Cover-0 jailbreak blitz pre-snap turns into 2-Man. What might look like a man defense indicator based on reaction to offensive motion becomes zone. That single-high safety look you see before you take the ball from the center is actually Cover-2 or Quarters, and as the quarterback, you now have to re-focus — especially if you’re running heavy play-action, you turn your back to the defense at your second step, and you turn back around at your fourth or fifth step to see something entirely different than what you expected.

You’ll see different iterations of these concepts among the NFL’s best defensive play-callers in 2020, but you won’t see the absence of any of them. Here, with all that said, are the league’s best defensive minds this season, and the staple ideas that make those defenses great.

Colts coordinator corner: Darren Waller is special

Colts coordinators talk about the Raiders matchup.

The Indianapolis Colts (8-4) are on the road again in Week 14 as they visit the Las Vegas Raiders (7-5) at Allegiant Stadium for what should be a big matchup with playoff implications.

Entering the weekend as 2.5-point road favorites, this game should be close between two teams fighting for a wild-card spot. Before the matchup, offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni and defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus touched on a few topics.

Darren Waller is special

Each week the Colts have a few key targets on either side of the ball in which their game plan typically revolves around. When it comes to the Raiders, there is one player on offense that they will be prioritizing. That would be the tight end in Waller.

The 28-year-old has revived his career and is now one of the best receiving tight ends in the NFL. He has 77 receptions for 742 yards and seven touchdowns and is coming off of a 200-yard performance against the Jets. Stopping Waller will be a tough task for the Colts defense.

“The challenge every week is to defend the guys that get the football the most and (Darren) Waller is one of those guys. It’s certainly a tough match for everybody in the league,” Eberflus said. “This guy is special, he is one of the special guys in this league and this is what makes this league fun to watch – guys like him and the guy we played last week. It’s going to be all hands on deck to try to play good, solid defense against him and the Raiders.”

The Raiders offense is centered around getting Waller as many looks as possible. He’s a mismatch in the passing game given his size, length and athleticism and should be a fun challenge for the likes of Bobby Okereke, Darius Leonard and Kenny Moore.

Quarterback Derek Carr has been enjoying a solid season, and one of the biggest reasons has been the continued emergence of Waller as one of the most explosive tight end threats in the NFL.

The rookie is being decisive

It has been a roller coaster of a season for rookie running back Jonathan Taylor, but things seem to be pointing up. He has 114 and 125 scrimmage yards in each of his last two games while showing plenty of developments as a runner with four games remaining.

There’s a lot that goes into why a rookie running back may struggle to break out but part of the reason for Taylor has been his decisiveness. Understanding which holes to hit is part of the equation but being decisive is part of the battle as well. Sirianni sees a more confident runner in Taylor when making those decisions on hitting the hole.

“Yeah, I think he was and I think he is just continuing to get a little bit better each day and each week. I think that is pretty typical of a rookie that’s just finding their way through and seeing all the different looks they could get and being able to adjust off the things they get,” Sirianni said. “I was really pleased with the way he ran the football. He really hit it, he really looked good running the football.”

Sirianni also believes the coaching staff is getting a better feel for which play calls benefit the rookie the most.

“Yeah, I think that is kind of with any play or any player – what we want to do or how we want to attack, but it really has to start with what the players do best. I think that goes through the season, right?” said Sirianni. “As guys get better at doing things, you want to do them more and you want to do them in different ways. 100 percent you have to figure out what they do best and you want to see what they have success on and build upon that.”

Taylor has another juicy matchup to prove his worth as the Raiders are allowing 4.5 yards per carry to opposing offenses.

George Odum deserves his respect

The Colts may have other players getting the majority of attention in other phases of the game, but Odum is a star in the making on special teams. The third-year safety currently leads the league in special teams stops and is making his case for a Pro Bowl roster spot.

Special Teams coach Bubba Ventrone believes Odum’s success comes from his toughness and his willingness to work.

“I’ll say one thing about George (Odum), he is a tough kid now. This kid is tough. He is willing to do anything you ask him to do. He’s very productive, instinctive, he does a good job – he just finds the ball, consistently finds the ball in all these coverage units and he has improved in the return game,” Ventrone said. “He’s been a great guy for our unit overall and obviously, the production has been outstanding this year. That’s one thing – to be able to lead the league in tackles at this point in the season is a testament to him and his hard work and his toughness.”