Was Week 4 a Blip or a Setback for Jaguars' Trevor Lawrence? Doug Pederson Weighs In
What do you call a game like the one Trevor Lawrence had against the Eagles in Sunday's 29-21 loss?
A blip? A setback? A perfect storm of bad football?
To head coach Doug Pederson, it is clear what he thinks -- and what the Jaguars hope -- it was.
“Let’s hope it was a blip. I don’t think it was a setback, I think it was just a blip," Pederson said on Monday.
Lawrence's day started out well with the Jaguars putting together a perfectly-orchestrated and executed touchdown drive on their second possession, which ended with Lawrence throwing a touchdown pass to Jamal Agnew. But that is more or less when the good times ended for Lawrence, with the second-year passer finishing with four fumbles and 11-of-23 passing (47.8%) for 174 yards (7.6 yards per attempt), two touchdowns and one interception, giving him a passer rating of 83.
With his five turnovers, Lawrence became not only the first-ever Jaguar to lose four fumbles in a game, but the first NFL player this century to do so. Nothing went right for the passer who had shown incredible development and improvement the weeks prior.
So, does that mean all of that improvement goes out the window and the Jaguars start back from scratch? Not quite.
"I just think, you hate to say it, but maybe it's one of those games during the season where nothing really goes right. It happens," Pederson said. "I’ll never make excuses, we have to do a better job of hanging onto the football, he knows that. That’s the prized possession out there. If we make the plays that were left on the field, it might be a different outcome today.”
Even with the turnovers, the Jaguars had the ball with less than two minutes on the clock and a chance to drive for a potential game-tying drive. But just as he had done on three other occasions in the rain on Sunday, Lawrence gifted the Eagles the ball, losing it as he was sacked by Haason Reddick on the first play of the Jaguars' final drive.
It was the second time this season Lawrence turned the ball over on critical final drive. It happened last year, too, namely against the Colts in mid-season when he fumbled in the pocket. For all of the areas of improvement he has shown, having the fortitude to come through in the clutch is still an area he needs to work toward fixing.
“The good ones, obviously, and I feel Trevor is in that group as we go, they want the ball in their hands," Pederson said.
"When you look around at Brady (Buccaneers QB Tom Brady), Mahomes (Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes), Aaron Rodgers (Packers QB Aaron Rodgers), those guys. They want the ball in their hands. Josh Allen (Bills QB Josh Allen) they want the ball in their hands at the end of the game, to go win the game. With a young quarterback, we have to have more opportunity to do that. We’ve had a couple this year, but we want to make sure that when we do have the football, at the end, that we stay aggressive and maintain that mentality. Especially at the quarterback position and everybody rides his coattail down the field to score and win the game."
The Jaguars' faith in Lawrence being a special quarterback won't, and shouldn't, go away with one nightmarish game. And it isn't as if Lawrence was spraying the ball, either, with the Jaguars recording six drops (three from Christian Kirk).
But it was a game Lawrence needs to learn from. A game he can't let happen again. Because as of today, the Jaguars are 2-2 and not 3-1 because of Lawrence.
"Just got to keep doing it. Keep putting him in those situations," Pederson said.
"Keep putting the team in those situations, and we’ll get better. We’ll just learn from them. Honestly, keep working on them, keep talking about them, and the day will come when we learn how to do that and how to overcome that.”
