Words out on Ramsey
No need to trash Jags CB publicly
FOXBORO — As far as trash-talking goes, Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey’s recent comments were relatively innocuous.
Publicly, the Patriots weren’t going to feed into it yesterday, but they’ll surely be reminded of Ramsey’s Super Bowl proclamation throughout the week, especially behind the scenes.
“Jalen Ramsey is a good player,” Pats safety Duron Harmon said. “He talks a lot of trash. That’s a part of his game. You can’t take it away from him. He’s confident. He should be confident in his team. He has a really good football team. The top two AFC teams are left and he’s a part of one of them. His approach to the game is different than ours, but we can’t knock him for it. We know they are going to come ready to play. We just have to match their type of physicality, and also just their emotion and their readiness to get ready to play.”
As the Jaguars returned home from their playoff win in Pittsburgh against the Steelers, Ramsey told the crowd, “We’re going to the Super Bowl, and we’re going to win that (expletive).”
In a pep-rally setting, those comments were an extremely minor offense, and it’s not like the Jaguars or Patriots have any plans to lose Sunday in the AFC Championship Game at Gillette Stadium.
Jaguars coach Doug Marrone tried to convey that message.
“You come back, and you’ve got all the fans here and things of that nature,” Marrone told reporters in Jacksonville. “Obviously, that is something that everybody wants to do when you get this close. Whether they have to say it or not, the one thing they do know is the road to (the Super Bowl) always leads through New England, so our focus isn’t on anything else but the New England Patriots. That’s exactly what our whole team will be focused on.
“It will be a great challenge for us, obviously, and we’re going to have to have a great week.”
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The Jaguars will serve as the Patriots’ first and last Gillette opponent this season. Even during those joint practices that preceded the preseason opener, the Pats said they could tell Jacksonville was onto something greater.
“It’s a unique scenario, but I’m not surprised because we knew they were good then as we know they are good now,” left tackle Nate Solder said. “The way they practiced was hard, so you knew they were going to improve and get better. That’s what they’ve done.”
The Patriots are used to reaping the rewards of intense practices, so they instantly respected the Jaguars’ approach as it related to their long-term prospects.
“You could just tell,” Harmon said. “You could tell the mood around the team. They came up here, and instantly, they wanted to show that they were a good football team just like we are a good football team, and they did. You saw it.”
Heavenly abilities
Patriots special teams captain Matthew Slater, who has plans to become a pastor after his NFL career, said divine intervention was at play while marveling over Ramsey’s natural ability.
“The good Lord made that guy, and he said, ‘Let there be corner.’ And there he is,” Slater said.
Wide receiver Phillip Dorsett knows Jacksonville’s highly regarded cornerback tandem all too well from firsthand experience.
Dorsett, who went to the University of Miami, played Ramsey during their meetings with Florida State. And Dorsett spent two seasons in Indianapolis when A.J. Bouye was a member of the Colts’ AFC South rival, the Houston Texans.
“Physical guys, they’ve got a lot of length,” Dorsett said. “They can run. They try to get their hands on you to disrupt what’s going on. They have a great pass rush, which helps the corners a lot. This is probably the best group we’ve played against all year.”