Jacksonville players troll George Pickens’ over his ‘hope defense’ comment after Steelers’ 20-10 loss to the Jaguars
Jaguars players shut down Pickens on the field and off it.
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George Pickens (Image via IMAGO)
Before Sunday’s clash against the Jacksonville Jaguars, George Pickens took a not-so-subtle dig at Duval’s defense, calling it ‘hopeful’. It’s safe to say they heard it and came out in full force.
They restricted the Pittsburgh Steelers offense to just 261 yards the entire night. As for Pickens, he was reduced to just one for 22 yards. He did manage to score a touchdown, but in the grand scheme of things, it mattered very little because the Jaguars won 20-10 in the end.
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When the press went into the visitors’ locker room and purposely searched for the defenders to get a reaction, they got in bucketload. Safety Rayshawn Jenkins was one of the players in charge of keeping Pickens at bay. He had the best response.
We know there's going to be some plays made out there; we expected it. But we would've 'hoped,' just like they would have hoped our defense was going to come in. I don't know what they thought—how we were gonna come in. We would've 'hoped' they would've put up a better fight.
Even the Jacksonville Jaguars X (formerly Twitter) account joined in trolling George Pickens. In it, they paired the second-year wide receiver with safety Andrew Wingard, forcing an interception. They captioned it, “Hope is a dangerous thing.”
Jenkins won the battle of words. Previously, he called the Steelers “No. 14” (Pickens).
I know that receiver we have coming in this week, number 14. He has a high yardage per catch. But, respectfully, he hasn't played our corner yet. So, I'll say that.
Before the game, the Steelers man taunted the Jaguars’ defense by saying:
They hope guys hold up (in coverage), so it’s kind of a ‘Hope defense.’
George Pickens fined by the NFL
There has been a wave of players picking up fines in October. Mostly for personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct. Despite the subpar officiating in the games, some of the infringements get caught, and the players face the wrath of the NFL.
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George Pickens is the latest to get the hammer from the league. He has to pay $8,525.00 for two different illegal fouls during the Los Angeles Rams game. One was for taunting, and the other was because of a blindsided block by a Los Angeles Rams player in Week 7, as per Spotrac.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin revealed they are focusing on keeping their heads cool and not receiving unnecessary penalties on matchdays.
We have to adjust our behavior.We got into the game and saw the tenor of that crew and didn’t adjust our behavior accordingly. That’s our job as professionals.Tomlin as per Sports Illustrated.
He is not worried too much about it, though. These types of small nitpicks can be eradicated with trial and error. It just needs a bit of time.
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