Tom Coughlin is hot about the Jacksonville Jaguars' 2018 demise.
Tuesday the Jags executive VP of football operations went on 1010 XL radio and lamented that the team he helped build went from a whisker of playing for a Lombardi Trophy to the doormat of the AFC South.
"No, we were a whistle. And that's my position," Coughlin said of the perceived quick-whistle on Myles Jack's fumble recovery in the AFC Championship game. "So tell me everyone out there what they're going to do in that circumstance about your football team. Aren't you going to fill other pieces in and try to be as good as you can be? Well we tried, didn't we? The nature of the game got us and we go back to the drawing board.
"I'll put the gloves on with anybody that wants to talk about what -- let's face it, our numbers are down all over the place. Our sacks are way down. Our pressure is down, our turnovers are huge, they're out of sight. Our penalties, the way that we behave on the field is ridiculous, some of the penalties. So there's a lot of things that are going to get addressed, and are being addressed."
During their seven-game losing streak the Jags have averaged just 15.6 points while giving up 26.7 and allowing 355 yards. For a team predicated on a strong defense and running game, the collapse has been an unmitigated disaster.
Coughlin noted that he believes teams can still win with a great defense and running game.
"Everyone's aware of it. And it's not my philosophy. It's coach [Doug] Marrone's philosophy," he said when asked about the lack of offensive balance. "And that's the important thing. But as you adjust through the course of a season dealing with points for, point against, what the score is, where you're at, so on and so forth, you do get away from yourself sometimes, and sometimes you're forced to. And sometimes you fall into a pattern where it becomes kind of the thing to go, and you get away from it. There's no doubt you have to go back and re-evaluate who you are."
It's not hard to read between the lines that Coughlin is not happy with the current coaching staff. Of course, the front office deserves some share of the blame for not upgrading the quarterback position in the offseason.
On Monday, Marrone fired offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and benched quarterback Blake Bortles in an effort to shake things up.
Coughlin agreed something needed to be done to get the Jags out of their funk.
"That's exactly what coach Marrone decided had to be done at this point in time, because you're going to try something," he said.
If the losing continues, the next thing for the Jags to try is changing the entire coaching staff.
