State of The Jaguars

It’s been a rough year for rookie Trevor Lawrence; He went from rarely losing in college to leading an NFL franchise to a two-win season. Today wasn’t as great for him as the last few weeks. On the way to an average 65.2 passing grade, he completed 23 of his 42 passes for 228 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. His touchdown to Tavon Austin broke a three-game streak without a passing touchdown, so maybe that can build momentum. His interception came when a defender caught a deep pass intended for Austin. Coach Urban Meyer and Quarterback Trevor Lawrence were asked if they thought it was a free play due to a penalty; here’s what they had to say about it. (Urban Meyer)

“You know, I didn’t grab him. We all did. We all thought it was free to play. I even heard over my headset free play, and then it turned out we covered up a tight end on the play. You’re down on the 1-yard line, have a chance to stop them, and then we did stop them, and then we gave them a 1st down. Yeah, that’s what we thought. You’d have to ask Trevor [what he thought], though. I’m sorry.” (Trevor Lawrence) “No, I saw him jump. I wasn’t sure — I wasn’t positive that it was a free play, so that wasn’t the reason I threw it. I thought we had a little bit more separation on the guy for the deep ball, and we got held up at the top of the route. Yeah, I mean, I think that — I thought we were going to win over the top, so you’ve got to anticipate those throws, and that’s one we didn’t. Marv and I already talked about that and cleared all that up. We communicated. But no, I didn’t think it was a free play.”

But overall, the game was run by Matt Ryan, Cordarrelle Patterson, and the Atlanta Falcons. The first three drives for Jacksonville did not turn out well, with the second drive Lawrence throwing an interception and the next one James Robinson fumbled the ball and turned it over. The Jaguar’s offense could not seem to find the end zone in the first half other than a field goal but tried to turn things around by scoring a touchdown with a 2-point conversion and a field goal.

The last few drives were a punt or three and outs. Lawrence was asked about it. “It’s frustrating,” Lawrence said. “Our defense two times has put us in a situation to go win the game and haven’t been able to do it. So, we’ve just got to get better and make those plays in the biggest moments. I know we can do it, but we’ve got to go do it, and that starts with me.” The Jaguars lost TE Dan Arnold(knee) and LB Damien Wilson (ankle). Jacksonville did get C Brandon Linder (knee/ankle) and O’Shaughnessy (ankle) back after extended stays on injured reserve, and both played well. But in the end, they do have things to improve on when they go to Los Angeles to face former Jaguar Jalen Ramsey and the Los Angeles Rams this Sunday.