Jaguars’ Friday presser: the Taylor Brothers Bowl

Jaguars coordinator Press Taylor addresses the media before facing off against the visiting Cincinnati Bengals, led by his older brother, on MNF.

Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor met with the press during his weekly media availability on Friday to catch up on all things Jaguars and to discuss the upcoming Monday Night Football matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Taylor first took to the podium to discuss the matchup not only versus the Bengals but also against his brother (Bengals Head Coach Zac Taylor).

Sometimes (we will talk) twice a week, sometimes we won’t talk for three weeks. We’re pretty much on a very similar schedule, so we try to talk on the drive home is where we reach each other. I’m not going to answer my phone when I’m at home, because I’m at home. If I’m in a meeting, I’m not going to answer here. He’s the same way. There may be times it just didn’t work out, we didn’t talk. Maybe we will text here and there, but if we get a chance on Fridays as I’m driving home until we get to the house, we’ll catch up or something like that.

Press later confirmed that he also has not spoken with his brother this week. Having the ability to win against your older brother at such a high level as the NFL would probably be a huge thing to most, but Press indicated that being the Taylor Bro Bowl Champion is more just about familial trash talk than anything.

It used to be something that was cool, we were both quality controls or assistant position coaches, whatever it was. It was kind of a fun way for our family to be involved, for us to talk a little trash. Now, it’s just kind of something that only gets brought up this time of year. We may randomly think about it every so often and see if my dad updated it, but that’s really all it is. It’s just a fun thing for our family.

Taylor took much of his media availability discussing the failed final play from the one-yard line before halftime versus the Houston Texans.

Obviously, the front that [Trevor] snuck the first one, I think it was a jammed front, he went over the top of the center right there. We were gapped out on the other one, they were in a goal line personnel because we were in a goal line personnel. They had us gapped out, we tried to run a play that we’ve been pretty successful with here for two years that they made a tackle on the goal line and got us stopped.

Taylor continued…

I do think over the course of the last couple of years, I think short yardage conversion percentages continue to go down across the league as teams get better at understanding when teams quarterback sneak and different looks, presenting different fronts and compliments to the fronts. That’s the fun part of this game, is it used to be if there’s an open A-gap, you’re going to sneak it. That was the patriot way. Oh, they’re 92 percent, well they wouldn’t sneak it if it wasn’t the right look. They snuck it versus primary looks, then everybody started getting the double tight look, they started running off tackle. Now you’re getting the double tight look to prevent quarterback sneaks but they’re getting out charged. They’re really getting B-gaps from an A-gap position. It’s the cat and mouse game that continues to go into every single snap that’s the fun part of this.

Taylor, when asked a follow-up question continued his breakdown of the play, advising that there was no one way for Travis Etienne to succeed on the play, as blocking can dictate his route.

We’ve seen it different ways. We ran it at Pittsburgh, we had one last year at Vegas, so I think where he cut inside it’s played out different times over the course of having run that play. We kind of let Travis [RB Travis Etienne Jr.] be ball carrier and go as he goes, ultimately we probably liked to finish it a little bit better and him be able to work the one guy a little bit cleaner. I think we could put everybody in better positions as play callers.

Injury Updates:

As a late addition to the injury report, tight end Brenton Strange was reportedly in a walking boot after practice due to a foot injury.