Punters aren’t exactly known for their trash-talking game, but on Sunday, Jags punter Logan Cooke reportedly took it to another level.
In his post-game comments, Titans running back Julius Chestnut told reporters that Logan Cooke threatened to kill him during one of their two confrontations.
“I don’t know why the punter did that. I was just trying to play hard, and he came up to me and said he was going to kill me,” Chestnut said of his interaction with Cooke.
“So, I don’t know what made him do that.”
Late in the fourth quarter, with the Titans getting blown out 25-3, Chestnut laid Cooke out after one of his relatively few punt attempts during the game. So bad was the hit that Cooke had to get evaluated for a concussion.
On Cooke’s next punt, Chestnut continued his hit-sticking and stood above a Jaguars player. Chestnut took exception to this and ran over to bump the Titans’ running back.
Cooke drew a flag for unnecessary roughness on the play. In all, there were four penalties issued on the play, including an ejection for Titans safety Mike Brown.
“I don’t think it was any frustration,” Chestnut said, “I think it was just us playing hard and me and the other guy was playing hard, and I think he just wanted something to say, honestly, I have no idea.”
Jags coach Liam Coen praised the competitive nature of his punter and long snapper, but urged them to play “smarter.”
“They had an edge, for sure. I’d like Logan to be a little smarter there on the one where he got hit on, but there, there were some frustrations that were being built up with them rushing us the way they were with the long snapper issue, and we thought that we maybe were roughed or potentially roughed at one point,” Coen said. “I don’t know if it got called or not. Proud of those guys for competing but we got to continue to be smarter.”
