JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It was a long, quiet, angry week for the Jacksonville Jaguars. The team spent seven days stewing after blowing a 19-point, fourth-quarter lead in a loss to Houston, and head coach Liam Coen could tell in the Saturday night team meeting that his players were still angry.
He was glad, because, "We play better pissed off."
Sunday's 35-6 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers at EverBank Stadium bears that out. The Jaguars held the Los Angeles Chargers to 135 yards (fifth-lowest in franchise history), didn't punt in a game for the first time since Week 2 in 2010, and ran the ball 47 times (fourth-most in franchise history and the most by any team this season). And they did it despite being down their top two receivers, top three cornerbacks, top two tight ends, their best offensive lineman (right tackle Anton Harrison) and their top safety (Eric Murray).
So anger apparently is a powerful motivator for this group of players.
"Being pissed off was great for us because we lost and the way we lost [last week]," said defensive end Josh Hines-Allen, who moved into first place on the franchise's all-time sack list (56) with his first-quarter sack of Justin Herbert. "At that current moment, we needed to play pissed off.
"I think being pissed off kind of made people focus on their details, focus on what I have to come into this building and do. Maybe I have to come up earlier and get extra treatment. Maybe I have to do more studying. Maybe I have to be in the play book a little bit more. Maybe I have to study something differently, you know? I think that put more focus on everybody has to be where they need to be. If that's the focus that we have moving forward, we'll be a tough team to beat."
The Jaguars' dominance was most evident on the offensive and defensive lines. The Jaguars ran for 192 yards (their second-highest total of the season), didn't give up a sack for the first time since Week 4, sacked Herbert twice and pressured him on 48% of his dropbacks until he was pulled in the fourth quarter.
"That's where we won the game, I thought," Coen said. "That's where we imposed our will a little bit there on the OL and DL."
Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh agreed.
"We were out-physical'd ... every phase," he said. "We got beat every which way you could possibly be beat."
The victory gives the Jaguars (6-4) tie-breakers over the Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs (whom they beat in Week 5) if all three remain in the AFC playoff race. Under the anger at last week's loss was the realization of how critical this game was for the Jaguars' playoff chances.
"I think guys understood how important this game was today as far as just our team and where we're at and it's a game you've got to win playing a good AFC team getting into November later in the season you start to look at your schedule and the games and you're starting to run out opportunities," quarterback Trevor Lawrence said. "I just think for all of us, we know how important this game was after we gave one away last week in Houston obviously, and it was a great way to bounce back for us."
There is one potential drawback to the anger, though. How do the Jaguars get pissed off after a game like this? A legitimate question, Hines-Alen said.
"That week needed an extra motivational message from having a loss like that," he said. "But again, it's like we're happy this week, how are we going to piss ourselves off? I don't think that needs to be the motto. I think we need to take each week separately and have that same attention to detail that each player came out with this week. That's where our focus needs to kind of remain.
"If we tend to stay within that type of focus as a team, as individuals, we will continue to have the outcomes we had today."
