The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - 1010XL Jacksonville's Rick Ballou Joins Before Sundays Texan/Jag Match Up

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

1010XL Jacksonville's Rick Ballou Joins Before Sundays Texan/Jag Match Up 

now, Rick Ballou, long-time guest of the program. We appreciate him joining us. Always ready and willing to talk some Texans and Jags. Rick, how are we thanks? Matt, everything is great. I'm wondering why, though, you folks would hate Jacksonville if you come here yearly and win. Okay, first and foremost, that was Ross, okay? So Matt was getting coffee. I was getting, Rick, Rick, I was getting coffee. First of all, you are always welcome on this show. You are an OG guest of ours. You've been one of us, probably at least 10 years. And for that, we thank you. I listen to you back in the day when you're doing national radios. That's much of respect I have for you. And then secondly, you're right. The Texans love coming to Jacksonville. So let me ask you this. Does your audience, are they grumpy when

the Texans come to town? They know that there's such a long streak in favor of the Texans in this series? Well, first of all, my audience is grumpy to begin with. Okay. That's fair. This is the losing his franchise and team athletics over the last 10 years. If you look at the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NHL, in the NBA. And, you know, they go through coaching changes. They go through front office changes. And, you know, this year, notwithstanding, the roster, I think they had 54 out of their 90 was new. And right now, I want to say unofficially, they have 28 new players on their 53 man roster.

So, yes, they're grumpy. They're extra grumpy the week here of Houston. and, you know, these fans are great, but I've really described it as Houston rolls in the Duval. They beat the living tar out of the man, and they steal the woman, and they drive back down to Houston, or back over to Houston, I guess I should say. It's not down from here, but, you know, you catch my drift.

And, you know, it's tough to separate fandom from players and coaches because players and coaches, when you change that fast, They're not aware of 9 of 10, but certainly the fans are. So, you know, it's really somewhat of a conflict if you look at it that way. Well, I will say this. I spent a lot of time, and Ross and I are both big red zone guys, and we love watching it. And for some reason, your game was on the red zone more than perhaps others was it today. Broughton kept throwing interceptions.

I'm like, Jackson was going to win this game. You're really going to win this game. And then the receiving core just dropped one pass after the. the other. How did the Jaguars lose that game in the nighty last Sunday? Well, you know, it was really interesting being there watching this game because you pointed it out. I mean, you have a backup quarterback. You knock out Browning. And if you just say your backup comes and he throws three picks, I mean, you win the football game. And that wasn't the case. I mean, there was so many things that went wrong for Jacksonville. I thought they should have taken

the three points to go up six. They didn't. They went for it on fourth down. Trevor Lawrence made the right pass. Brian Thomas Jr. dropped it. That's a huge issue here in town. Brian Thomas Jr. looks scared. There's something going on with him. We don't know if it's a personal situation.

We don't know if he's jealous of all the attention. Travis Hunter is getting. We don't know if he does not just like playing with Trevor Lawrence. He had much better numbers a year ago with Mack Jones. but, you know, Jacksonville's defense has played some pretty decent football. Then all of a sudden, with 342 to go, they allow a 15-play 92-yard drive. And, you know, it totally changed the outcome of the game. When you needed it most, it didn't happen for Jacksonville.

And that's been a huge problem for years here. Complementary football. At times the offense does its job. At times the defense does. his job. They lost 10 games last year by seven points or more. And if you look at it, when the defense would step up, the offense would fall. When the offense would step up, the defense would fall. So that's something that Liam Cohen's going to try to change. But yeah, it was a very difficult loss. That is a game that they flat out gave away. They outplayed Cincinnati.

They should have won it. And, you know, they had a ton of penalties and made some mistakes. And now they're one in one on the year. You mentioned Liam Cohen. who was supposed to come in and kind of nurture Trevor Lawrence and help him reach his full potential. What was your thoughts of the hire when it was made and then now through training camp and seeing a couple of games on the field of how he's doing with Trevor Lawrence and that offense? It's better than I expected. I mean, I had heard a lot about Liam Cohen, but I really wondered about his, you know, stability. And he never stays in one place too long. He went back and forth. to L.A. and Kentucky then took over a Tampa Bay offense and, you know, it was just fantastic. They were number one in Red Zone. They were last in rushing three years ago. He came in there

and put him in the top four in rushing. But when they got here, they totally, you know, redid Trevor Lawrence. You give a guy $275 million and then all of a sudden you hear that they're working on changing his footwork. And everything from literally, you know, top the bottom changed for Trevor Lawrence. Now, I really think this offense is going to benefit him. And the key is will they be able to still run the football? But I mean, this just feels like they started from ground zero with everything here in Jacksonville. And that includes Trevor Lawrence, who, you know, once again, you look at his numbers. He's 28th and completion percentage. He's 27th in quarterback rating.

Granted, there's been nine drops. I think that's kind. I think they're double digits into the drops. I still think that this is going to work. I believe that Liam Cohen is the right guy for Trevor Lawrence. And it's going to take a little bit of time. But, you know, we'll be here to see what actually does happen. But yes, I'm impressed totally with what I've seen with Liam Cohen.

But, you know, the other side of it was no one else was interviewing Liam Cohen. No one else was interviewing James Gladstone. You know, they were guys that were certainly lured here and wanted here, but they weren't wanted with those other vacancies across the NFL. Rick Blue 1010 XL and Jacksonville with us here on Sports Talk 790. Here in Houston, obviously, the offensive line has been much maligned. talked about and the pressures on C.J. Straub, but the defensive line is one of the best units in football. How would you assess the trenches on both sides for the Jaguars? Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun there. I think this game is one in the ditch.

You know, they brought in six new offensive linemen here. Tony Bisselli taking things over with James Gladstone. They've played really well so far. They lead the league in rushing. They've only allowed one sack. And, you know, it's the passing offense. that really needs to pick up a little bit. Defensively, Anthony Campanile has come in and really changed a lot of things. You're told you can't pitch Joe Burrell, what they did last week, and their blitz rate has really gone up. I think every layer certainly does have a playmaker.

The concern for Jacksonville would be the middle of the field safety. They said goodbye to Darnell Savage. So, you know, Anthony Campanile's played an awful lot of three safety looks, more than 20 plays a game. And he got rid of a guy who played 28 plays against Carolina and 20 plays against Cincinnati. And now all of a sudden, you're going to put it in Antonio Johnson, who's taking one snap and two games there at safety. So, you know, I think it's going to be intriguing.

I think the Jaguars will have some success against Houston's offensive line with Walker and Heinz Allen. And, you know, I really think the key to the game will be who's able to run. I know Houston struggled so far this year without Joe Mixon, and Jacksonville's done very well. It could come down to that. I mean, forever I covered, you know, Florida State Miami. It was something like 32 out of 33 years in that rivalry. Whoever rushed for the most yardage won the game.

And I kind of look at this one on Sunday as that statistic being huge. whoever was able to rush the football more, I think it's going to win this contest. Last question. How much is on each side of the ball is Travis Hunter playing right now? And what do you think, if we were to visit you in late December, where do you think that split would be? 42 plays on offense both weeks. He only played six plays on defense against Carolina. Jari and Jones went out with a back injury.

He played 43 snaps against Cincinnati. So he went from six to 43. on the defensive side. Parker Washington has had an incredible camp, and they did not target him against the Panthers. They did so five times on Sunday against the Bengals, five for five for 76 yards. Parker Washington has earned more snaps. I think this game with the Jones injury, Buster Brown looks like he's going to come back, but he hasn't played at all this year. I think this is a Sunday where we see more snaps for Travis Hunter on defense and less snaps for Travis Hunter on offense. That would be intriguing because they said from day one that it was going to be 75% offense, 25% defense for Hunter.

But I think it's a fluid situation. And this would be the week that I expect him to play more on the defensive side. Great stuff, my friend. Thank you, Rick, for joining us this year. in previous years. We hope to bother you again down the road and we enjoy you having on the show and have a great weekend. Thanks for joining us. Never to bother. Have a great weekend as well. Thank you again.

Rick Ballou, 1010 XL in Jacksonville.