Gene Frenette: Jaguars' defense better bring some physicality along to gloomy Cleveland

Josh Allen never used the word “soft,” but his evaluation of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ defense after reviewing tape of the 34-31 overtime loss Monday to the Cincinnati Bengals clearly insinuated he had questions about the unit’s toughness.

It was a spot-on assessment. The Jaguars were shoddy in every respect on defense, none moreso than allowing the NFL’s worst rushing attack to gash them for 156 yards on the ground. It was the most rushing yards and total yards (491) Jacksonville allowed all season.

Bengals quarterback Jake Browning, along with backs Joe Mixon and Chase Brown, had their way with the Jaguars, and Allen made no attempt to sugarcoat it.

More Gene Frenette: Losing Trevor, Kirk adds to Jaguars' nightmare of overtime loss to Bengals

“It wasn’t to our standard,” said Allen. “We speak every time we win. We did our keys, we stopped the run, pressured the quarterback, create takeaways. Did we stop the run? No. Were we physical enough up front? No. Were we in our gaps? No, not enough to be able to dominate a game.”

Take note of Allen’s rebuke of his team’s defensive front because Sunday’s road game against the Cleveland Browns might be the biggest physical challenge of the season.

With the Browns far more proficient running the ball (135.1 yards per game, seventh in the NFL) behind Jerome Ford and Kareem Hunt, and game-time temperatures expected in the low 40s and 65 percent chance of rain, Cleveland will be comfortable with a grind-it-out, low-scoring game.

“We have to take pride in stopping the run,” Allen said. “We have to earn the right to rush the passer. That’s first things first we got to take care of.”

Regardless of whether Trevor Lawrence can recover enough from a high ankle sprain to start against the Browns, this game may well be decided by how the defense responds to its most embarrassing performance of the season.

Allen measured his words carefully and took the diplomatic route in criticizing the Jaguars’ defense, but his message was unmistakable.

The Jaguars are in the homestretch of a playoff chase and can’t afford to have their defense get pushed around.

Between Cleveland’s emphasis on the running game and a gloomy forecast, this is a perfect opportunity for the Jaguars’ defense to redeem itself by getting takeaways and winning the line of scrimmage.

We’ll see if Mike Caldwell’s unit has enough pride to avoid getting bullied by another Ohio-based NFL offense.

Washington follows Agnew MNF path

In the days leading up to the Monday Night Football matchup against the Bengals, return specialist and backup receiver Jamal Agnew wanted to encourage replacement Parker Washington, so he reminded him about a special moment from his rookie season with the Detroit Lions in 2017.

Agnew had an 88-yard punt return touchdown at the Meadowlands against the New York Giants, the longest in the NFL that season, and it happened on the MNF stage.

“I told him my first NFL touchdown was my rookie year on a Monday night,” said Agnew, who has been on injured reserve since hurting his shoulder and ribs against the San Francisco 49ers. “[Washington] talked about that if he got the opportunity, he was going to do something, and he did it.”

The difference is Washington’s opportunity came on offense after replacing the injured Christian Kirk. In his first extensive action at receiver, he caught six passes for 61 yards, including what might be the Jaguars’ catch of the year on a third-and-9 reception for a touchdown.

Washington kept his concentration after the ball ricocheted off safety Dax Hill’s hand and he cradled it with his right hand, then bringing it into his body for a 14-yard TD that tied the game 21-21.

“It was just an unbelievable play,” said Agnew. “Parker’s really the last progression on that play. Trevor [Lawrence] did a great job of getting to his last read. Parker went up and made a play.”

Minshew price tag going up

For the first time in Gardner Minshew’s career, he has led his team to four straight wins and the resilient Indianapolis Colts quarterback will likely cash in as an intriguing unrestricted free agent after this season.

Minshew is one of the NFL’s biggest outlier quarterbacks. Though generally regarded as a high-end backup, he’s also made 32 starts — including 20 for the Jaguars in 2019-20 — and is inclined to only play for a team in 2024 where he thinks he has a reasonable chance to compete for a starting job.

He signed a one-year deal with Indianapolis because it had a glaring need at the position, which the Colts filled by drafting Anthony Richardson, a raw prospect from Florida with accuracy issues. He also had an injury history, which hindered him again in 2023 as Richardson underwent season-ending shoulder surgery, so Minshew and his agent made a good call to sign with the Colts.

Now that Minshew is keeping Indianapolis afloat in the AFC playoff chase, it will presumably raise his stock and make him an interesting free agent prospect.

The Colts should try to re-sign him as an insurance policy, but any NFL team without a sure thing at QB can’t ignore what Minshew might bring to the table. He’s going to have a job somewhere in the league for a long time.

Rahm defection shows loyalty has a price

Spare me the indignation over Jon Rahm deciding to switch to golf's dark side, agreeing to a reported $500-plus million to go to LIV golf. The Spanish superstar made a complete flip from his previous stance of pledging allegiance to the PGA Tour, saying 18 months ago at the U.S. Open that LIV's riches didn't mean as much to him as the history and legacy of the Tour.

Well, so much for that virtuous sentiment. Like Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau before him, Rahm gave in to the mounting leverage factor that keeps building LIV's momentum: obscene wealth.

But Rahm leaving now for LIV doesn't carry the same condemnation factor as it did for previous stars defecting. That all changed after Tour commissioner Jay Monahan lost a ton of credibility by making a secretive deal with LIV over the summer behind the players' backs, all in the name of easing the Tour's financial strain.

Rahm has no problem dealing with whatever criticism he gets for flipping on his previous commitment to the Tour. He's already exempt into the next 16 majors, so those precious OWGR points still not coming to LIV players won't impact him as much.

So rip Rahm if you must for taking a king's ransom from the Saudi-based Public Investment Fund. He really just confirmed what a disjointed golf world is growing to accept: everything has a price tag.

The world's No. 3-ranked player divorcing the PGA Tour spells trouble, especially if the biggest shoe falls and Rory McIlroy ever gets enticed to make a similar move.

Cowherd was wrong, and sort of right

The social media outrage from Jaguars fans directed at Fox Sports talk-show host Colin Cowherd, who criticized the organization for not having quarterback Trevor Lawrence on a golf cart after his ankle injury during Monday night’s loss to Cincinnati, was mostly warranted. Cowherd went on a 4-minute rant, essentially saying not putting Trevor on a cart is why the Jaguars aren’t a respected franchise.

It was idiotic of Cowherd to insinuate an NFL team didn’t have a cart available, then use that as a launching point to rip the organization. That’s an incredibly lazy take, a bad call by a talk-show host who is typically well-prepared and one of the best at his craft.

Cowherd’s blunder aside, him saying the Jaguars should have insisted their franchise QB get on a cart as a precaution was a valid point. Lawrence acknowledged Wednesday that he turned down the cart, but that the walk to the locker room was longer than he anticipated, then implied he probably should have reconsidered the cart option, saying: “You guys can put that on me, maybe that was dumb, maybe I should’ve taken one.”

More: Gene Frenette: FSU has every right to be livid with exclusion from College Football Playoff

Quick-hitting nuggets

Florida running back Trevor Etienne revealed Thursday on Twitter that he will be entering the transfer portal, which should go down as the worst-kept-secret in college football all year. Strong rumors that the 4-star prospect would be leaving have circulated for two weeks and his older brother, Jaguars' running back Travis, didn't try to hide last week that he didn't think Trevor was a good fit with the Gators and head coach Billy Napier. All signs pointed to him leaving and the general consensus is UF's biggest rival, Georgia, will be among the schools in the running for his services.

This would be a fitting postseason outcome for the College Football Playoff selection committee after sticking it to Florida State by using Jordan Travis’ injury as the excuse to leave the 13-0 Seminoles out of the four-team CFP: Texas winning the national championship over either Michigan or Alabama and FSU knocking off Georgia in the Orange Bowl, allowing Mike Norvell’s program to finish as the only unbeaten Power 5 team. …

The New York Yankees acquiring superstar outfielder Juan Soto from the San Diego Padres on what is likely a one-year rental will be a mere appetizer transaction in the baseball offseason. The main dish will be finding out whether the Los Angeles Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Angels or somebody else winds up overpaying in the $600 million ballpark for two-way player Shohei Ohtani. It’s hard to imagine any player would be worth that kind of money. …

Among the latest NFL narratives popping up after the San Francisco 49ers decimated the Philadelphia Eagles 42-19 is that quarterback Brock Purdy should possibly move ahead of Eagles counterpart Jalen Hurts in the league MVP conversation. If Purdy actually ended up winning that award, it’d be one of the most incredible stories to happen in the NFL in years. Who would ever have thought the last guy picked in the 2022 draft, Mr. Irrelevant, would even be considered for such a prestigious honor? A Purdy movie script can’t be far behind if he pulls that off. …

Pigskin forecast

Jaguars over Cleveland Browns by 1 (D’Ernest Johnson revenge highlight); Cincinnati Bengals over Indianapolis Colts by 1 (AFC wild-card invitation); New York Jets over Houston Texans by 3 (Shad Khan dinner tabs); Baltimore Ravens over Los Angeles Rams by 4 (look-ahead antidotes); Miami Dolphins over Tennessee Titans by 10 (Jalen Ramsey trash-talk responses); Philadelphia Eagles over Dallas Cowboys by 1 (push-tush clinic); Army over Navy by 3 (Bill the Goat droppings). Last week: 2 right, 5 Bengals’ double passes.

Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540; Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @genefrenette. 

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Bully pulpit: Jaguars' defensive star Allen expects turnaround in Cleveland