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A jab turned into bulletin-board fuel as Jacksonville left Denver with a statement win, and Liam Coen made it clear afterward that the Jaguars weren’t interested in playing polite about where the motivation came from. To get his team in the right headspace, Coen spent the week leaning into the skepticism about Jacksonville’s legitimacy, according to a New York Times report.
He got an extra dose of material when Broncos coach Sean Payton, in a comment that landed poorly, described the Jaguars as a “smaller market” team while still calling them good on tape.
The phrase echoed again after the game, including from Coen, who said he was thankful “that a small-market team like us can come into a place like Mile High and get it done,” a line that sounded like a direct answer to Payton’s wording.
Coen later tried to put a softer frame on it. He said it wasn’t really about Payton personally, and that the point was the broader message, that outside noise keeps supplying “ammo” and the Jaguars are happy to take it.
The report also noted Coen showed his players a sizzle reel at the team hotel in downtown Denver, packed with media doubt about Jacksonville, and he kept that theme going again in the locker room before kickoff.
Another focus in Coen’s Saturday night message was managing pressure. He specifically brought up a Nov. 9 loss to the Texans, when Jacksonville blew a 19-point fourth-quarter lead, and used it as the example of a lesson learned.
Coen told his team to embrace the setting, a meaningful December road game in a loud stadium, and to stay present rather than tighten up.
The Jaguars responded by handling the moment the way Coen wanted. They walked into Mile High, played with control, and left with the kind of win that forces the league to stop treating them like a cute story.
Whether it was a jab or not, the effect was the same: Jacksonville played like a team that came prepared to make sure nobody could laugh it off afterward.
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