Jacksonville Jaguars players didn’t have much to say Friday when asked about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ George Pickens calling them a “hope defense.” Safety Andre Cisco only called it “an interesting choice of words.”
The Jaguars saved their talking about it until Sunday in the locker room after a 20-10 win in which Pickens had one reception for 22 yards that was the Steelers’ only touchdown of the day.
“We heard some chatter before the game that we didn’t like,” Jaguars safety Rayshawn Jenkins. “It really pissed us off, they shouldn’t have put that out there for us to hear that. They said we got ‘hope defense’ or something like that. We were hoping they would’ve came in here and put up a better fight.”
Safety Andrew Wingard, who started in place of Cisco, also jumped in with some thoughts on the Pickens comment that clearly didn’t sit well with Jaguars players.
“He needs some advice going forward, you never put pressure on yourself,” Wingard said. “You never put expectation on yourself. He did that. If hoping is getting a dub, we’ll take the dub. … You don’t fire up a bunch of hungry dogs. It’s not smart. George, do better.”
“He’s a young player, but you can’t chat before the game,” Jenkins added. “We didn’t say nothing the whole week. We just put it in the chamber and when it was time to come out, we started firing on all cylinders.
The 261 yards of total offense allowed was a season-best mark for the Jaguars defense, despite the team being without Cisco and cornerback Tyson Campbell.
