Liam Coen dissects how the Jaguars earned a gritty victory, highlighting clutch plays and defensive dominance that build their championship confidence.
The Jacksonville Jaguars needed a "killer instinct" to close out Sunday's win over the Colts in Indianapolis, and that's what they showed, according to head coach Liam Coen.
Entering the fourth quarter tied at 17, Coen knew that the team that won that quarter would be the team that won the game.
Jacksonville ended up closing the deal, but it didn't come easy.
Two field goals by Cam Little-- the second of which was with 18 seconds left-- were all the scoring Jacksonville got, and as it turned out, it was all the Jags needed.
The defense did most of the work, holding Indy to just 34 yards and two first downs in the fourth quarter. They also helped themselves by getting two interceptions-- one off of Philip Rivers and the second off of Riley Leonard with no time left on the clock.
With five of Jacksonville's first six wins in this seven-game winning streak being by double digits, the team hasn't needed to dig down deep much.
Against Indy, it showed that it could.
“Yeah, that's what you're trying to develop," Coen said Monday. "Look, there's a play there, a block, a technique, a call. Like, there's a number of different ways that you can execute better at the end of the game when a team knows you're running the football. You’re not going to throw it. You've got three runs essentially to get them—to end the football game. And so, it is usually the most challenging."
Coen then reminisced about his time coaching on Sean McVay's staff with the Los Angeles Rams, when he served as offensive coordinator in 2022.
"That was the most stressful time when I coached for the Rams, being on the headset with Sean in four-minute. Just because you've got an opportunity to win the game, you want to close it out on the offense's terms," Coen said. "And look, there's a couple things here and there that you can fix, a play call, a detail, a block. It's sometimes just one block that can get made, and you end up picking up that first down.
"That's why you want to consistently try to do that, because that builds confidence. It builds that killer instinct you mentioned. And to be able to go forward as an offense, as a team, you want to be able to do those things, and that's what winning teams do.”
To Coen's point, Jacksonville's offense did its job in closing out the game.
With 3:06 left, a turnover on downs gave Jacksonville the ball in Colts' territory.
The Jags didn't score a touchdown, but kept the ball for almost the rest of the game, getting a field goal and allowing the defense to do minimal work.
That's the type of thing Jacksonville needs to do to win a Super Bowl.