Jaguars coach: Blame me for slump
Jaguars coach Doug Marrone is shouldering the blame for the team’s four-game losing streak, saying he “hasn’t done a good enough job for whatever reason to get everyone’s mind in the right place.”
Marrone insists he’s not trying to be a “martyr, a shield or anything like that.”
Truth is he’s protecting everyone: top executive Tom Coughlin, general manager Dave Caldwell, inconsistent quarterback Blake Bortles, unavailable running back Leonard Fournette and dozens more underperforming players on an underachieving team.
The Jaguars (3-5) have been one of the biggest busts in 2018, especially last month when they went 0-for-October and looked nothing like the team that advanced to the AFC title game nine months earlier.
“There is a story out there about this team. It is an ugly story,” said Marrone, who expects his team to regroup during its off week.
“But the story hasn’t ended. We can still control how this story reads.”
Injuries are a big reason for the slide, especially with Fournette — the team’s offensive centerpiece — missing six games because of a strained right hamstring. But Coughlin, Caldwell and Bortles deserve criticism.
Coughlin designed an old-school team to play in a pass-happy league, one in which running the ball is barely important and hiding a mediocre quarterback is next to impossible. The ground-and-pound Jags want to control the clock, limit Bortles’ throws and play stout defense.
It can work, but it usually needs all to go right.
Packers look to Williams: Veteran cornerback Tramon Williams is in the mix to replace the traded Ha Ha Clinton-Dix at safety for the Packers.
Defensive coordinator Mike Pettine said Williams will play some safety, though he didn’t classify it as a full-time move for now.
The Packers are preparing for a tough road game against quarterback Tom Brady and the Patriots on Sunday night.
The 35-year-old Williams is in his second stint with the Packers after returning during the offseason to the team that gave him his first shot in the NFL in 2007 as an undrafted secondyear player out of Louisiana Tech.
Williams brought a veteran presence to a young cornerback group. Now he could help at safety after Clinton-Dix, a fifth-year starter, was traded this week to the Redskins for a fourthround draft pick.
Williams, a 12-year pro, started two games at safety while with the Browns in 2016.
“He can find the football and he plays with good vision and has a good sense of when to break and just the understanding of football,” Pettine said. “He’s played in the slot, he’s played outside.”
Extra points: WR Stefon Diggs didn’t practice for the second straight day after injuring his ribs during the the Vikings’ 30-20 loss to the Saints on Sunday .... Cowboys DL David Irving suffered a high-ankle injury during practice and may miss Monday night’s game against the Titans. Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill will miss his fourth shoulder injury against the Bengals in Week 5.