Jaguars' QB Trevor Lawrence Breaks Down His 3 Interceptions Vs. the Texans
History wasn’t on the Jacksonville Jaguars side, heading into this game, a season opening 37-21 loss. Since the NFL merger, No. 1 overall picks have gone 4-20-1 in their first game. The last No. 1 overall pick to win their opener? David Carr, Derek’s older brother, in 2002. So sheer history would indicate Trevor Lawrence could be in for a long day.
That’s exactly what happened, as the guy who’s here to save the franchise had moments of brilliance, in route to three touchdowns and 332 yards—then head shaking moments that screamed of a rookie adjusting to NFL speed, like three interceptions, including two on back-to-back drives.
The quarterback told local media last week that he knew protecting the ball would be of the utmost importance, given the Texans had forced 10 turnovers in the three preseason games. Yet Houston was still able to pressure him into three.
“Whenever you’ve got a young quarterback, first game in the NFL, you want to make it as hard as possible for him,” explained Houston middle linebacker Christian Kirksey who had one of the three interceptions on Lawrence. “He did some things good, and obviously there’s some things he has to work on. But the kid came out and he did the best that he could, but as a veteran defense and guys that’s been in the league, it’s our job to create turnovers and create takeaways like we did today.”
Lawrence, for his part, immediately took the blame for a day that honestly saw him get little help with multiple drops, but also saw him make the expected rookie mistakes, along with some baffling ones as well.
“It starts with me. I didn’t play well for sure. I played really bad tonight,” said a blatant Lawrence following the loss. “There’s a lot of good things there and we have to keep doing those and learn from the bad. We have to watch it and learn from it for sure but then flip the page. It’s a long season, we can’t let this snowball.”
So what can be learned from this? While Lawrence and team will know more after watching film, there are some mistakes that the quarterback immediately understands, thanks to an entire life spent playing the sport.
Lawrence threw three interceptions total. The first was as he was looking deep for Devin Smith over the middle of the field. Trying to escape pressure, he scampered to his left and threw with both feet off the ground. Too much air sailed it over Smith’s head and into Justin Reid’s hands.
Lawrence admitted he knew the moment the ball left his hand was about to happen.
“Right when I was throwing it, like last second, I'm like, damn, this is going to be a pick right here. So I'm trying to chase him and go make the tackle.
“The first pick was just a bad throw,” he further explained. “We had them. Scramble drill. I had Devin right there. He did a good job. I threw it inside too much. So that was just a bad throw. It's either a bad throw or a bad decision when you throw a pick. And bad decisions, those are the ones that will get you for sure. So that was just a bad throw.”
The defense bailed Lawrence out, forcing the Texans into a three-and-out after the turnover. But the rookie didn’t do himself any favors, throwing another pick the very next drive, this time deep in his own territory. And while the first one was a bad throw—as Lawrence explained—off a scramble, the second pick was a bad decision.
Looking for DJ Chark, who was posted up near the sideline around the Jags 25-yard line, Lawrence was baited in to the throw as Texans corner Vernon Hargreaves III waited just off Chark. He jumped the route and returned the pick to the 8-yard line. From there, Houston was able to grab a quick field goal to make it 20-7.
“They ran cover two. And I tried to throw a corner ball in there. And the corner was dropping. And should have just checked it down. That was the one when we were backed up,” said Lawrence, breaking down the interception.
On his last interception, Lawrence admits he tried to force a hard throw over the middle of the field to Laviska Shenault. But Kirksey moved to close the window and make the pick.
“Honestly, that was me just trying to do too much. I lost the MIKE [middle linebacker Kirksey] playing zone. They played cover two all night pretty much. Just kind of lost the MIKE in my sight of vision, and just kind of forced it there. And just pressed a little bit. I've got to take what they're giving me. Play the slow game. Get better at that for sure.
“Right when I let it go, I saw the MIKE right there…that’s usually the case. Right when you're letting it go or right after you throw it, you know what you did. Still got to get better, got to play smarter.”
If the first step is realizing what he did wrong, the second is cleaning up any and all miscommunications with his receivers. After an offseason that saw Lawrence take DJ Chark, Laviska Shenault and Marvin Jones Jr. for extended workouts back at Clemson, the quarterback and his receivers didn’t receive as much time to work on chemistry as the season drew near. Somewhat because Lawrence wasn’t receiving all of the first team reps until week 2 of the preseasons as well as Chark being held out of the entire preseason while recovering from hand surgery.
“We've just got to clean it up. We've got to play cleaner, be on the same page,” Lawrence said of his connection with the receiving corps. “I think a lot of the times we were. We made some great plays. You saw—we had a great third and 15 conversion with D.J., a little deep dig route, which was awesome.
“But a lot of little things where we—it’s not necessarily they're getting it wrong or I'm getting it wrong. We've just got to work and get on the same page with the routes. You guys know, there's so many adjustments with the way different teams play defenses. You've really got to be on the same page and definitely got to get better at that timing.
“And then I've got to be more accurate. There was a lot of opportunities that I missed. I probably missed four or five open receivers that could have been big plays or even just keep the chains moving so.”
Luckily for Lawrence, this is one game in a long 17-game season and plenty of those former No. 1 overall picks bounced back from bad openers—some even bad rookie seasons overall—to have Hall of Fame worthy careers, like Peyton Manning and Troy Aikman. Taking what went right on the touchdowns and more importantly, what went wrong on the turnovers will be the key to turning around the Jaguars and being the franchise changer Trevor Lawrence is meant to be.
“It's definitely part of the learning process. I'm kind of a perfectionist, so it's frustrating just because I did some things that I don't normally do and just threw -- some bad decisions that I'm disappointed in. But, like you said, it's part of the learning process. If you use it to learn, it's all good. And we'll get better. But got to get better for sure.”
