Jaguars players, head coach Liam Coen say team gets no respect despite 9-4 record: 'Nobody really cares about the Jags'
The AFC South turned in a massive way in Week 14. With their 36-19 win over the Indianapolis Colts, the Jacksonville Jaguars improved to 9-4 and took control of the division with just a few weeks left in the regular season.
Despite the win, however, the focus wasn't on the Jaguars after the contest. Instead, it was on Colts quarterback Daniel Jones, whose resurgence had the Colts looking like Super Bowl contenders. Jones sustained an Achilles injury in the loss, and could miss the rest of the season due to the issue.
That storyline must have been apparent to multiple members of the Jaguars after the game, because they - along with head coach Liam Coen - used the opportunity to point out that they get no respect for the way the team has performed this season.
Running back Travis Etienne, who rushed for 74 yards and scored twice in the win, made that abundantly clear after the contest, per ESPN.
"At the end of the day, I feel like no one likes us except for us. It just goes along with being in this organization and the way this organization has been for some time now. We're not going to get their respect. We kind of don't even care."
He wasn't the only member of the team to make that point. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence said the Jaguars "don't get the credit" they deserve. He concluded his statement by saying, "Nobody really cares about the Jags, which is fine."
Lawrence turned in a strong performance in the win, throwing for 244 yards and two touchdowns.
If it sounds like that might be a rallying point by the Jaguars this season, that might be by design. Coen didn't exactly downplay that narrative after the win. In fact, he did just the opposite, he fed into it, per ESPN.
"I don't know if we'll ever really get [respect]," he said. "That's the beauty of it. It ain't coming. You know that. It's not. And that's the beauty of it. And that's totally fine."
Respect - or the perceived lack of it - is a common motivator in sports. Coaches who want their teams to stay hungry and motivated will often point to it as a way to get players fired up. Oftentimes, it doesn't even matter if it's true. Bill Belichick and Tom Brady continued to rely on the notion that nobody believed in them many, many years into their dynasty with the New England Patriots.
The Jaguars, however, might have a point. Even after Sunday's game, the Colts have dominated the AFC South headlines. That's likely to change now that Jones is hurt, but attention is already starting to shift to the 8-5 Houston Texans after they took down the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night.
The Jaguars seem pretty content to play the role of the underdog for now. It's tough to blame them. Under Coen, the team has quietly surged to first place and sits in the No. 3 seed in the AFC with just four games to go.
That's quite the turnaround for a team that finished 4-13 last year.