JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jaguars wrapped up two days of spirited and intense practices in Detroit and now turn their attention to their second preseason game of the year.
Will fans see many recognizable names on Saturday afternoon when the Jaguars and Lions face off?
Recommended Videos
The joint practices with the Lions were a good measuring stick for the Jaguars, and included a number of physical plays and trash talking from both sides. For quarterback Trevor Lawrence, that type of intensity was great to see at this point in training camp. The Jaguars broke the monotony of facing one another daily with a chance to see different faces. That explains the feistiness among both teams during certain drills.
“It was really competitive, I thought in both teams it was really competitive. We were battling and you love to see that. It got fiery and that’s what this game is about. It was cool to see and just to see that competitiveness come out of everybody, that was great,” Lawrence said.
“Like I said, situationally it was great work, a lot to learn from. It was a lot of good and a lot of bad in the last two days. Just to watch the tape and to have this, it’s going to be really valuable for us and I’m sure for Detroit as well. It just does a lot of good.”
Jacksonville will face Detroit on Saturday at 1 p.m., a game that likely won’t feature any starters from at least the Detroit side of the ball.
Jaguars coach Doug Pederson didn’t speak after practice, but Lions coach Dan Campbell told the Stoney & Jansen show on 97.1 the Ticket that starters wouldn’t see action against the Jaguars on Saturday. The Jaguars won’t have offensive tackle Josh Wells, safety Antonio Johnson or defensive lineman Foley Fatukasi available for the game after each were banged up in practice.
Lawrence said that both days of practice were exciting and filled with good spirited trash talking.
“I like it. It makes it fun, then obviously with Chauncey [Lions S C.J. Gardner-Johnson] over there, you get plenty of that and you get a lot of doses of the talking. It was fun, I think it was really intense, didn’t really cross the line too many times and that’s the big thing,” he said.
The trip to Detroit is a bit of a revisit of old wounds and the rebirth of a turnaround. Jacksonville suffered its most humiliating loss of the season in Detroit in Week 13, a 40-14 blowout that left them at 4-8. The Jaguars didn’t lose again until the AFC divisional playoffs against eventual Super Bowl champ Kansas City.
“Well, other than the fact that we didn’t play our best football for whatever reason,” Pederson said. “There are moments throughout the course of an NFL year where there’s games, there’s situations that could be an injury to your team, whatever it might be, that kind of spurs a little bit inside of everybody, coaches and players. That was a moment that wasn’t our best and we seemed to figure it out from there and flip it around after that.”