Tennessee player says Jaguars punter threatened to ‘kill me’ during Titans loss

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Titans running back Julius Chestnut said Jacksonville Jaguars punter Logan Cooke said he was going to kill him during Sunday’s game.

Chestnut blocked Cooke as the punter got a leg up to trip Titans returner Chimere Dike at the end of a 47-yard return with 14:06 left. Cooke was hurt and evaluated for a concussion before returning to punt at the end of the Jaguars’ next series.

The Jaguars and Titans then had another scuffle at the end of Dike’s 13-yard return with 11:49 remaining, with Chestnut and Cooke squaring off.

Officials huddled and handed out a pair of unnecessary roughness penalties to each team, and Cooke and long snapper Ross Matiscik were flagged for the Jags. Titans safety Mike Brown was ejected.

The Jaguars went on to a 25-3 win. The AFC South teams combined for 23 accepted penalties for a total of 184 yards.

“I was just trying to play hard, and he came up to me and said he was going to kill me,” Chestnut said. “So I don’t know what made him do that.”

Chestnut said he never got an explanation for why Cooke was so mad that he “came at me.”

“That was surprising to me. I ain’t never seen nothing like that before,” Chestnut said.

Cooke was not asked specifically after the game about what Chestnut said the punter told him. A message was left Sunday night seeking comment from the Jaguars.

The 6-foot-5, 230-pound Cooke said right after the loss that he likes hitting people. He said Chestnut got the best of him in an “eventful” game.

Cooke talked with the referee at halftime after punting from his own end zone late in the second quarter with a backup long snapper.

“I might have said some things that sounded rude, so I wanted to go clear the air,” Cooke said of his talk with the referee. “I don’t like people having grudges against me. So kind of telling him the situation and also find out his take on what happened on that play in the end zone.”

Jaguars coach Liam Coen said he’d like Cooke to be smarter when it comes to his flag for unnecessary roughness, but he was proud of his players for competing.

“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 we maybe were roughed or potentially roughed at one point,” Coen said. “I don’t know if it got called or not.”

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AP Sports Writer Mark Long in Jacksonville contributed to this report.

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