Upset, oh, so tweet

Jags coach jacks up team with Le’Veon Bell quote

I don’t know why you sayin’ something like that ... You’re just adding fuel to the fire. Jaguars’ Abry Jones

PITTSBURGH — How did the Jacksonville Jaguars find out about Le’Veon Bell’s provocative, fateful tweet late Saturday night?

“Coach told us about it,” nose tackle Abry Jones said in the Jaguars’ locker room, following his team’s shock-the-world, 45-42 defeat of the host Steelers on Sunday.

Shortly after New England beat Tennessee in the first weekend AFC divisional playoff game, Bell — Pittsburgh’s great dual-threat running back — tweeted that the Steelers now would have back-toback grudge rematches after regular-season losses. Meaning Jacksonville and — after Pittsburgh beat Jacksonville the next day — New England.

“That was just stupid of him,” Jones said.

Did Marrone inform Jags players by text about Bell’s boast, which he tweeted at 11:51 p.m. EST Saturday?

“No, he told us. To our faces,” Jones said. “I mean, he told us and we just took it from there.”

Jones just shook his head when asked what Bell’s motivation could possibly have been in tweeting that out publicly.

“I don’t know why you sayin’ something like that, especially before this type of game when everybody’s already riled up,” he said. “You’re just adding fuel to the fire.”

But it worked, at least from Jacksonville’s perspective.

“Yeah, thanks to him,” Jones said. “It didn’t work out for him, but I appreciate it.”

Did Jaguars players immediately get worked-up upon hearing about Bell’s tweet? Barking about vengeance or come-uppance or what-not?

“Naw, we didn’t say nothing, other than: ‘We’re going to go out there and bust their ass,” Jones said.

Telvin Smith, Jacksonville’s emotional, quote-machine linebacker, described with a more violent metaphor how the tweet further motivated the Jaguars.

“Put it in the chamber. Ya know, another shot, another bullet,” Smith said.

“We had the upper hand, because we came up here and won (already this season). All that talking (by Pittsburgh), it was great through the week. On Sunday you’ve got to play. And you see what we came out and did. Great game.”

The “Sacksonville” defence’s sacks leader, end Calais Campbell, also said the tweet further fired the team up, and further convinced Jags players that they were approaching such a big moment properly.

“My heart said, ‘People have to earn it.’ You have to earn it,” Campbell said. “Because we won’t just give it to them. You have to come out here and take it from us.”

Jacksonville’s well-spoken interior-defensive line backup Eli Ankou, a rookie from Ottawa who did not dress on Sunday, offered this assessment:

“It comes back to being overlooked. When you don’t give somebody the respect they deserve, people don’t take too kindly to it. I think here is a prime example of you should probably just not say anything, and just play your game. Things were said. They had to back it up. There was one winner, and it was us.

he end of the day it’s who has the W and who doesn’t.”

So, you gotta think that the Jaguars would never make the same mistake as Bell and other Steelers, in looking past the next formidable opponent? Right? Wrong. Cornerback Jalen Ramsey shouted this Sunday night, shortly after the Jags landed back home, to celebrating fans gathered at their home stadium, EverBank Field:

“We goin’ to the Super Bowl and gon’ win that bitch.”