Jaguars Blame Crowd Noise and Coen for Delay Penalties as Texans Line Swings

Liam Coen Takes the Blame for Jaguars Delay of Game Penalties

Jacksonville was flagged for delay of game three times in Sunday's game against Philadelphia in London, and coach Liam Coen said the fault was his, ESPN reported Wednesday. He plans to get calls in faster, and possibly shorten them, before Sunday's game against Houston at Wembley Stadium.

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ESPN Research says the Jaguars had never had more than one delay penalty in a game under Coen, with four total in three seasons. One came on the first drive, creating a second-and-40. Two more came in a three-play span in the fourth quarter after first-and-goal at the Eagles' 1-yard line, and the drive ended at the 5 on an incomplete pass. Coen pointed to a loud stadium filled mostly with Eagles fans in a game labeled a Jaguars home game. Jacksonville still won 19-17, per ESPN's scoreboard.

Texans at Jaguars Odds: What the Market Did

The line has crossed from Houston to Jacksonville. Per ESPN's odds feed (DraftKings) as of October 14 at 9:10 AM ET, the Jaguars are three-point favorites after the Texans opened as 1.5-point favorites.

The feed does not say why a line moved, so everything after this table is our reading and not a reported cause.

Our Read: Are Delay Penalties a Habit or a One-Off?

This is our commentary. The story is about a small, fixable problem, but it landed at the worst spots in the game.

• Four in three years says one-off. A staff that had four delay penalties across three seasons did not suddenly forget the clock. The noise explanation is plausible, and Coen's fix of shorter verbiage is a sensible response.
• The cost was real. A second-and-40 and a stalled goal-line series are exactly the situations where five yards changes the call. A two-point win hid how much those flags mattered.
• The market is mostly pricing something else. A swing of 4.5 points on a Houston team that went 26-3 at Tennessee points to a 4-1 versus 1-4 gap in records, not to a flag count. We cannot tell which factor moved the number.
• The evidence cuts both ways. The same Wembley crowd issue may not repeat if the split of fans differs, and the Texans' win came against a 0-5 team.

What to Watch in Jaguars vs. Texans at Wembley

• Whether Jacksonville gets plays in early on its first drive, since that is where the first penalty came.
• How loud the stadium is for the Jaguars offense, and whether Coen shortens calls near the goal line.
• Whether the spread holds at Jacksonville -3 or drifts back toward the key number.
• The red zone: Jacksonville's drive stalled at the 5 against Philadelphia.

Compare NFL odds and line movement

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