When All-Pro defensive end Calais Campbell re-watched his first season with the Jacksonville Jaguars Connor Williams Youth Jersey , he noticed a recurring issue: The vaunted defense had chances to come up big late in games and failed.

It happened in four of Jacksonville’s final five losses, including – and most memorably – in the AFC championship game at New England.

Campbell felt as if the unit also could and should have done more against the Los Angeles Rams, Arizona and Tennessee.

”When I study the tape and those situations, I realize that as good as we are we have so much room for growth,” Campbell said.

With Campbell leading the way, ”finishing” has become the defense’s motto for 2018. The Jags expect to be better in those fourth-quarter situations, knowing one stop could be the difference in a league that has a penchant for tight games.

”We have to have that mentality of crunch time,” Pro Bowl linebacker Telvin Smith said. ”We know we are not front-runners; we can bang with you. We just have to put our foot on your throat and keep it there from the beginning to the end.”

Jacksonville’s defense was one of the best in the league in 2017. The group ranked second in points (16.8) and yards allowed (286.1) and first in yards per play (4.61), passing yards (169.9) Ty Montgomery Jersey Elite , third down rate (33.6 percent) and red zone rate (39.3 percent).

The Jaguars also had 55 sacks and set a franchise record with 33 takeaways.

In some games, it wasn’t enough.

Jacksonville had New England reeling in late January, leading 20-10 early in the fourth quarter. But the defense allowed Tom Brady to convert a third-and-18 play that led to a touchdown and later provided little resistance while trying to prevent the go-ahead score.

In the regular-season finale at Tennessee, the Jaguars trailed 15-10 with about four minutes remaining but gave up two first downs that helped the Titans to run out the clock and essentially seal the victory.

The defense also faltered twice down the stretch at Arizona in late November. The Jags led 17-16 in the fourth before getting torched for a long touchdown pass. They tied the game on the ensuing possession and kept it that way until Blaine Gabbert connected on two first-down passes in the final 16 seconds to set up a game-winning 57-yard field goal.

Those three losses came on the road. The Rams found similar success against the Jags in Jacksonville.

They were up 24-17 with about seven minutes to play and essentially put the game away by picking up three first downs that got them into field-goal range.

”It’s not a conditioning thing. It’s a mental thing,” Jaguars safety Tashaun Gipson said. ”That is something that is easily correctable. You just have to go back to the drawing board and figure out what it is. It is nothing wrong with what we are doing, us schematically. It is not that we are not in shape. It is just we have to have that mentality.

”You have to see the blood in the water. You have to go attack.”

The Jaguars expect to see gains from returning 10 defensive starters and having all of them in the same scheme for a second straight year. They also anticipate continued improvement from star cornerback Jalen Ramsey as well as linebacker Myles Jack and defensive end Yannick Ngakoue.

All that experience has Jacksonville making offseason tweaks to blitz schemes and third-down packages – and waiting for another late-game shot.

”You have to go out there when you have an opportunity, when it presents itself, whether it is a preseason game or during the regular season,” coach Doug Marrone said. ”Then Deion Sanders Jersey Limited , you have to step up and do it and that will prove that you are able to do those things.

”I think that until you do that in those situations, there is always going to be a question mark. But having the thought of wanting to do that obviously helps because it keeps you aware of that situation.”

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OAKLAND, Calif. — Last year’s Western Conference finalists go head-to-head in the first round of the NBA Playoffs this season when the injury-handcuffed San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors meet in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series Saturday afternoon.

The Spurs will be seeking their sixth championship in 20 years without star forward Kawhi Leonard, who has missed all but nine games this year with tendinopathy in his right quad.

Meanwhile, standout point guard Stephen Curry will be a spectator due to a sprained left MCL when the Warriors begin their quest for a third championship in four years.

Both perennial All-Stars are presumed out for the entire series, although no formal announcement has been made.

Curry is scheduled for a re-examination of his injured knee Saturday on the three-week anniversary of having suffered the injury. The Warriors hope to get him back at some point during the postseason, presuming either that the news is better than expected Saturday or they can survive the first round without him.

Curry averaged 31.5 points when the Warriors swept the Spurs 4-0 in the Western Finals last May en route to the championship. Leonard got injured in the first game of the series.

Neither team has demonstrated championship form this season.

The Spurs had an 18-year run of 50-win seasons snapped when they went 47-35, good for just the seventh seed in the West.

They enter the postseason having lost five of their last nine, including 122-98 at New Orleans on Wednesday night in the regular-season finale Jarvis Landry Browns Jersey , which dropped them into the seventh position and a matchup with Golden State right off the bat.

That means nothing, Spurs veteran Manu Ginobili claimed, when all 16 playoff teams start 0-0 in the playoffs.

“We have got to play above where we have been playing. We really have to improve in many ways,” he noted. “Hopefully, we do that and we raise our game to the next level.”

The Spurs still feature two of the greatest winners the league has ever seen in Ginobili and Tony Parker, who have teamed for 131 playoff wins, equaling the most of any tandem in NBA history.

What the Warriors lack in playoff-win quantity they make up for in quality. Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala were all key players in last year’s record-tying 16-1 stampede to the title.

Like the Spurs Tyron Smith Jersey Womens , the Warriors struggled down the stretch, losing 10 of their last 17 to finish seven games behind Houston for the best record in the West.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who played for San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich during the Spurs’ ongoing championship era, sounded like his mentor when he labeled much of what happened in March and earlier this month as “meaningless.”

“This has been such a chaotic month with all the injuries and meaningless games,” Kerr insisted. “We’ve been frustrated we haven’t performed very well. But the good news is we have performed well for four years. We know who we are and what we’re about.”

The Warriors took the season series 3-1 from the Spurs this year, winning both games in Oakland.
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