Continued Turnover Struggles Doom Trevor Lawrence in Sloppy Loss to Texans

After winning the AFC Offensive Player of the Week in Week 3 after a standout performance against the Los Angeles Chargers, these last two weeks have not been kind to Trevor Lawrence.

The young quarterback struggled to develop a rhythm with top receivers Zay Jones and Christian Kirk against the Texans, as the two combined for 23 total yards on 11 targets. This lack of rapport was the tip of the iceberg for an offense that struggled to muster any production outside of Marvin Jones Jr. and Travis Etienne, resulting in a crushing 13-6 defeat to the Houston Texans, a previously winless division rival.

For head coach Doug Pederson and the Jaguars coaching staff, this game marked a continued quest to get Trevor Lawrence settled into games early where he has the best chance to succeed.

“I mean, I think that we as a staff have to figure out a way to kind of get him settled into the game, number one,” Pederson said.

“Then, obviously, Trevor has to, obviously, make sure that he is in a good spot. The thing is he sees everything. He sees the field well. We just have to continue to keep throwing and keep putting him in situations like that. He is going to get better. He will get better. I’m not worried about that at all. We have a lot of faith and trust in him, and he can definitely do the job. We’ve seen it this season. We just have to keep working on him.

Like many young NFL quarterbacks, Lawrence sometimes tries to force the ball through tightly contested windows, leading to dangerous situations or costly turnovers. One such mistake came in the third quarter, with Lawrence scrambling out to his right looking for a double-covered Zay Jones in the back of the end zone, leading to a Derek Stingley Jr. interception, the first of his young career.

After crucial mistakes like these, acknowledgment from the quarterback on what needs to be addressed is the first step toward the path to improvement. For Trevor Lawrence, his self-accountability was evident when speaking with the media

“Honestly, I just forced it,” Lawrence said. “The field shrunk down there. “We were in the boundary, didn’t have James [Robinson] in the flat. Then I thought I might have had a shot at the back baseline and just Stingley fell off the corner there. It was just a bad decision. That’s one you just throw away, maybe try to run it in, live to play another down. I think it was first and second and goal, just can’t do that.

"Our defense held them, what, to 13 points. You have to score more than 13 points if you want to win. For us offensively, that’s the standard. We have to play better, help them out. We didn’t finish drives. We got into the red zone multiple times, most of the game. We had a couple of three and outs. We were driving the ball successfully, we had a lot of big plays and we would just stall out. We have to fix that. We have to all look in the mirror and be accountable. Myself, I have to look at the things that I have to do better. Obviously, the turnover, can’t let that happen and then just beyond that, though, a couple of throws that were close. We just have to make the play. It’s like we talked about in the locker room, like I told the guys, we can’t all have an off day on the same day. You can have one guy, you can pick them up and go make a play for them, and that’s fine, but we all just have to be better collectively.”

Through five weeks the season is still young for the Jacksonville Jaguars and there is plenty of time to turn around these negative performances and regain their foothold in the standings. For Lawrence and the Jaguars offense, despite it being early in the season, the pressure for improvement will only continue to grow and they will need to answer the call.

“We have a lot of room for improvement,” Lawrence said. “Like I said, we’ve played some really good football this season. We’ve played some bad football too. The only thing it says is we’ve got to get better, and that’s the message whether we win or lose, but especially when you lose a game like this and you don’t play well, especially offensively.

"Like I said, we’ve got to hold each other accountable and get better, and we all just have to do our part. Our team does a good job of staying together. No one is going to point fingers, but we do have to step up and make the plays that are there and really just be more consistent all the way around. That’s the message is just it’s early. We have plenty of time, but we have to make improvements.”