Liam Coen didn’t need the film to know which mistake bothered him most. After the Jacksonville Jaguars lost 34-31 to the Houston Texans at Wembley Stadium, the head coach pointed to a fourth-and-1 punt early in the third quarter, when the Jaguars got caught with too many men on the field and handed Houston a drive that ended in a touchdown.
Jacksonville had just stopped the Texans short on third down. Instead of getting the ball back, the defense stayed on the field, and Jaylin Noel caught a 13-yard touchdown pass a few plays later.
Liam Coen explains the punt-safe mix-up
Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Coen didn’t make excuses. “We’re in punt safe. Nobody’s supposed to leave the field,” he said after the game. “We knew that they would do this, that they’d run them on late, and so we weren’t sure if they were going to potentially go for it in that situation. And so we made a mistake of subbing off in a fourth-and-1 moment when we were in just punt safe and nobody should leave the field.”
Put simply, Houston sent its punt team out late on purpose, Jacksonville’s staff had already prepared for it, and players came off the field anyway. That’s what makes this one sting. It was a scouted look.
It also wasn’t the only self-inflicted wound. Travis Hunter’s 17-yard pass interference penalty put the ball at the Jacksonville 1 right before halftime, and Foster Moreau scored two plays later. Late in the third quarter, a 19-yard interference call on Jarrian Jones set up Jawhar Jordan’s 25-yard touchdown run. All three Houston touchdown drives in that stretch got help from the Jaguars, which is exactly the penalty problem we flagged before kickoff.
Coen admitted the timing hurt more than the total. Jacksonville was flagged six times for 66 yards, a cleaner day than the 13 penalties in a wild win over Philadelphia a week earlier.
“I did think it was a cleaner game operationally for sure,” Coen said. “But some of the moments in which they’ve occurred for sure bit us in the butt today.”
That’s the frustrating part for fans who got up for a 9:30 a.m. kickoff back on the First Coast. Trevor Lawrence threw four touchdown passes, Hunter scored and intercepted C.J. Stroud in the end zone, and Cam Little tied it from 60 yards with two minutes left. Ka’imi Fairbairn still won it with a 49-yarder as time expired.
Special teams has already been a headache this month, with the Jaguars signing a new long snapper before the trip. The bye gives Coen two weeks to make sure everyone on the punt unit knows the call. In a three-point loss, one substitution error was the difference between getting the ball back and chasing the game.
