The Jacksonville Jaguars defeated the Tennessee Titans on Sunday in a battle of AFC South divisional opponents. The game continued a season of misery for Tennessee, who fell to 1-11 after yet another defeat.
Jacksonville is now level with the Indianapolis Colts for the division lead as the season reaches its final and most important stretch. Sunday’s game held major implications for the division title race, but one incident during the matchup extended beyond the realm of competition.
In the fourth quarter, Titans player Julius Chestnut blocked the Jaguars’ Logan Cooke on a punt return. Cooke attempted to trip return man Chimere Dike on the play, and suffered an injury before being evaluated on the sideline.
Cooke and Chestnut had another altercation after the punter made another kick on the following series, and multiple players were penalized. One Titans player was ejected from the game, but Chestnut says Cooke took things a step further.
Chestnut Points Out Alarming Comment
“I was just trying to play hard, and he came up to me and said he was going to kill me,” Chestnut said about Cooke after the game. “So I don’t know what made him do that.”
Chestnut, who has played for the Titans since 2022, added that he hadn’t encountered anything like this in his football career.
“He said he would kill me,” Chestnut added, according to The Tennessean. “That’s what he said. He came up to me and said he’d kill me. Never heard that one before. That was strange. Especially a punter, you know. It was strange.”
After the game, Cooke admitted that he liked hitting people on the field, but acknowledged that “I might have said some things that sounded rude.”
Cooke Reacts After Sunday’s Game
“I don’t like people having grudges against me,” the punter said, referencing a discussion he had with a referee during the game. “So kind of telling him the situation and also find out his take on what happened on that play in the end zone.”
Both teams were heavily penalized on Sunday. Tennessee received 10 penalties with four personal fouls, and Jacksonville received 13 penalties with two personal fouls. It is the first game in the 2025 NFL season to see both teams penalized 10 or more times, each accruing more than 80 penalty yards.
Cooke and the Jaguars will face the Colts next week with the division lead on the line, while Chestnut and the Titans appear destined for the league’s worst record for a second consecutive season.
