Trevor Lawrence Enters Monday Night Football As PFF’s Top QB of Week 14
Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence had one of the best games of his young career in Week 14. As a result, the praise rolled into Jacksonville in a big way on Monday.
Ahead of the New England Patriots/Arizona Cardinals matchup on Monday Night Football, Lawrence is Pro Football Focus' top-ranked quarterback for Week 14.
Lawrence threw for a career-high 368 yards on 71.4% passing, throwing three touchdowns and rushing for another as the Jaguars improved to 5-8 and won in Nashville for the first time since 2013. Lawrence averaged 8.8 yards per pass and according to PFF was 8-of-12 for 98 yards when under pressure in the 36-22 victory over the Titans.
Since Week 9's victory over the Las Vegas Raiders, Lawrence is PFF's No. 2 quarterback behind just Joe Burrow, completing 71.82% of his passes for 1,362 yards, 10 touchdowns and zero interceptions. Lawrence is second among all starters in passer rating and fourth in big-time throws during the five-game span, which has been the best of his career.
Lawrence also scored on a rushing touchdown against the Titans that, according to head coach Doug Pederson, was never supposed to result with the ball in Lawrence's hands.
“It wasn’t a read. It wasn’t a QB pull, it was a handoff. That’s why I said ‘Ask him.’ Maybe he would give you a straight answer," Pederson said with a laugh on Monday.
"He’s a sharp guy, and the linebacker, 53, came off the edge, and he saw him kind of flash and kind of bend off the corner, and he instinctively pulled the football, stiff-armed him, and dove into the end zone. Sort of a bewildered look on the sideline from me and everybody else, like ‘What is he doing?’ He knew what he was doing. It was just a good play.”
Lawrence's outing against the Titans on Sunday was even more impressive when considering he entered the game at less than 100%, not practicing on Wednesday or Thursday due to a toe injury.
"I thought Trevor, for the limited amount of practices he played, played tough, played physical, played smart, made a heckuva – some great throws actually in this football game," Pederson said on Sunday.
"It's kind of one of the things that people don't understand, too. We're very fortunate to have C.J. Beathard as our backup. We went into this week not missing a beat in practice. Meaning, you know, we didn't have to change anything gameplan-wise because C.J. was taking the reps during the week, especially early on. So really when Trevor (Lawrence) comes back, we just kind of plug and play and that's the thing about it. You don't have to go in, redo a whole gameplan, right? And then Trevor (Lawrence)’s study and his preparation mentally on Wednesday and Thursday, you know, just really kept everybody sort of locked in. We didn't have to change route combinations or plays or scheme or anything like that during the week just because Trevor didn't take snaps. And that's a credit to C.J. as backup quarterback, coming in and doing that during the week.
