With the Jaguars facing the Patriots in the AFC title game and with Jacksonville executive V.P. of football operations Tom Coughlin having a history of beating Bill Belichick and Tom Brady in fairly big postseason games, Jaguars coach Doug Marrone will be leaning heavily on Coughlin, right?
The reality is that Marrone already does.
“I have leaned on Coach pretty good since day one,” Marrone told reporters on Wednesday. “I don’t think I can lean on him anymore because I’m a big guy. If I lean on him, I hurt him a little. No but honestly, it’s not something that now all of a sudden that they have had success that Coach will get more involved. It’s been the same way from day one when we started working together. When you say have you leaned on him, I’ve leaned on him quite a bit. We’ve worked with each other quite a bit. We’ve worked with each other the same amount of time together and talk about the same things.”
They’ll need to talk plenty about Coughlin’s plan for outscoring the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII and Super Bowl XLVI, because Marrone isn’t familiar with the specifics.
“I haven’t watched them,” Marrone said of the two wins by the Giants over New England. “Seriously. If I’m not in it, I don’t watch it. If I’m not in the Super Bowl, I usually don’t watch it. . . . David Tyree made a great catch though, he’s a Syracuse guy.”
Eli Manning also made a great throw. And that’s the one ingredient the Jaguars may need if they hope to beat the Patriots: A great throw in a big spot from quarterback Blake Bortles.