Doug Pederson defends DC Mike Caldwell after defensive fiasco

The Jacksonville Jaguars defense didn’t do anything well Sunday against the Detroit Lions.

It forced no turnovers, no punts, and allowed the Lions to score points on all of their offensive drives before Detroit kneeled out the clock on its last possession. There was plenty of criticism to go around after the Jaguars’ 40-14 loss and Mike Caldwell was at the center of it.

On Monday, Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson defended the first-year defensive coordinator, but also acknowledged that the coaching is going to need to improve.

“It takes time,” Pederson said of Caldwell on Monday. “I can remember back when I was a first-time coordinator and you’re trying to do a lot of different things, and then you realize you back off a little bit. We’ve done that, we have. We’ve scaled back a little bit and we’ve got some talented players, we’ve got some good players. Again, as a staff, we’re just making sure that we put these guys in the right positions and that’s on us to do that.

“I think Mike has done a good job of organizing and really keeping things together. On the same side of that is that we’ve got to do a better job of coaching and teaching and making sure everybody understands their jobs.”

Caldwell, 51, previously spent over a decade as a linebackers coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, Arizona Cardinals, New York Jets, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers before he was hired by the Jaguars in February.

Jacksonville allowed 313.8 yards and 16 points per game in the first five weeks of the season. The team has allowed an average of 408.6 yards and 27.4 points in the seven games since.