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Jaguars' Logan Cooke remembers tackle, good cigar after beating Chargers in NFL playoffs
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- Jaguars' Logan Cooke remembers tackle, good cigar after beating Chargers in NFL playoffs
Jacksonville Jaguars punter Logan Cooke has a variety of memories of a cold January night at EverBank Stadium nearly three years ago, when the Jags staged a comeback as improbable as the way they got to the NFL playoffs in the first place.
Two stick out: Being tackled by a referee and a mother's disapproval.
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More on that later.
In between was the best thing about the night: holding for Riley Patterson as he kicked a 36-yard, walk-off field goal to give the Jags a 31-30 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers in an NFL Wild Card game on Jan. 14, 2023.
Jacksonville Jaguars place kicker Riley Patterson (10) kicks a game-winning field goal as punter Logan Cooke (9) holds during the fourth quarter of their wild card round matchup Jan. 14, 2023 at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville. The Jaguars overcame a 27-0 deficit to win 31-30.
When asked if it was the best single play in which he had been involved as a football player, Cooke hesitated a bit, then characterized it as almost any Jaguars fan who was shivering in the stadium or watching TV might.
"The coolest play, by far ... just the whole thing of it," Cooke said Thursday, Nov. 13, after the Jaguars practiced in preparation for the first time they will entertain the Chargers since that game, on Nov. 16 (1 p.m., CBS). "Really, really cool."
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Perhaps on the week after the Jaguars lost to the Houston Texans , blowing the largest lead in franchise history (19 points) to lose 36-29 , it's worth a look back at the flip side: when the Jags staged the largest comeback in team history.
Cooke, snapper Ross Matisck, still on the team
Cooke is part of the snapper-holder-kicker combination that executed the field goal to cap a rally from a 27-0 deficit late in the second quarter, and 30-14 late in the third quarter.
Patterson is now with Miami but the player who has to start any kick or punt, Ross Matiscik , is still with the Jags.
He echoed Cooke's sentiments.
"Definitely a cool one," Matisick said of the moment and the weather, with the temperature at 45 degrees at kickoff, dipping into the high-30s by the time Patterson's foot met ball at 11:28 p.m. to send more than 70,000 fans into ecstasy.
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"Just to be a part of that was cool in a year where we didn't start hot but somehow won a bunch of games in the last second," Matiscik continued. "Then winning the Titans game in the last second and then [the playoff game] down to the last second.
"We didn't start that game hot either," Matisick noted. "We were down a lot. It was so fitting."
Jaguars finished regular season strong
The Jaguars struggled most of the 2022 season in Doug Pederson's first year as the coach and got off to a 2-6 start and then were 4-8 after a 40-14 shellacking in Detroit .
But a 36-22 victory over Tennessee , in Nashville, was the spark. The Jaguars won their last five games, including a 40-34 overtime victory over Dallas and then relatively easy double-digit victories over the New York Jets and Houston Texans, both on the road.
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The Jags had to win the final game against the Titans at home to clinch the AFC South. It was another dramatic ending in a season loaded with them, as Rayshawn Jenkins , the hero of the Dallas victory with his pick six in overtime, sacked Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs , forcing a fumble that Josh Hines-Allen picked up and ran 37 yards into the end zone with 3:01 left for a 20-16 victory .
That also clinched a home playoff game against the Chargers.
Trevor Lawrence rallied after four picks
For most of the first half, the Jaguars looked like they didn't belong. Trevor Lawrence threw four interceptions and Justin Herbert threw for 139 yards and a touchdown and Austin Ekeler scored two TDs for a 27-0 Chargers lead.
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The Jaguars finally got on the board with 24 seconds left in the first half when Lawrence threw a 9-yard pass to Evan Engram .
Members of the Jacksonville Jaguars mob kicker Riley Patterson after he kicked the winning field goal in a 31-30 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Jan. 14, 2023 at EverBank Stadium to advance in the NFL playoffs.
As the second half wore on, the Jaguars kept chipping away and belief in themselves kept growing. Lawrence came out in the second half and hit Marvin Jones Jr. with a TD pass. Then Zay Jones . Then Christian Kirk , followed by a Chargers penalty and the bold decision by Pederson to go for two points and cut the margin to 30-28.
Lawrence executed one of his short-yardage plays in which he stretches the ball over the goal line and got the extra two points.
"Crazy game," Lawrence said. "Obviously good memories for us and our team. A lot of guys [on that team] aren't here anymore and the team has changed a lot, so not really much in our minds about that game going into this one. But obviously great memories."
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Logan Cooke said the team was running on emotion
Cooke said he had little doubt the Jags would give themselves a chance.
"We had the Dallas game and that was a wild finish," he said. "We had the Ravens game and that was a wild finish [a 28-27 victory]. So we had these games that were insane endings. There was a lot of emotion out there."
The Jaguars got the ball back and Lawrence moved the team across midfield. Facing a fourth-and-1 at the Chargers' 41, Travis Etienne gained 25 yards on an old-fashioned sweep from a T-formation and the Jaguars were in position to attempt the game-winning field goal.
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But not before one bizarre sequence.
Logan Cooke 'tackled' by umpire
The Chargers called a timeout just as the ball was snapped in an attempt to freeze Patterson. Cooke said the move was anticipated, and he and Matiscik actually don't mind when that happens.
"You try to get a snap, just to warm up," Cooke said. "You don't want to kick it but it's okay to snap it. Then I felt the ref grab me from behind and I jumped up and said, 'what are we doing?'"
What Cooke felt was umpire Barry Anderson running up when the timeout was called and grabbing him around the shoulder pads ― as if Cooke didn't know the timeout had been called.
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"Ref, horse collar tackle," Cooke said, laughing at the memory.
Cooke admitted that it might be instinctive to lash out, especially since the referee grabbed him from behind at one of the most pressure-packed moments of his career.
"Riley told me after that game, 'dude, I was gonna be so p---ed off if you got a 15-yard penalty," Cooke said.
Patterson was money on short attempts
But the two teams reset and Patterson curled the field goal inside the right upright.
"I knew he was going to make it," Matiscik said of Patterson, who made 30 of 35 field-goal attempts that season, missed only one inside 40 yards and made 37 of 37 conversions. "That [distance] was his wheelhouse. He was just so consistent that year."
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The celebration then began, which included cigars in the locker room brought in by a member of the team's staff.
Cooke heard about that later from his mother, Tracey Cooke, after she saw a postgame interview with her son smoking one of the cigars.
"My mom got mad at me," Cooke said.
But not for long.
"Winning a playoff game, Trevor came back, Riley got to make the game-winner ... It was one play and if we don't make it, people would say, 'same old Jags.,'" Cooke said. "Make it and we're going to go to Kansas City [for the next playoff game]. A lot went into that kick, a whole season."
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Logan Cooke, Ross Matiscik helped make winning play vs Chargers in 2023
