JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It wasn’t the best showing, but it may have been exactly what the Jaguars needed.
The Jaguars could easily be 3-0, and they could very easily be 1-2. That’s how the start has been for first-year head coach Liam Coen. They gave a Week 2 game away to Cincinnati, and Sunday’s win over the Texans could have easily gone the other way, too.
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But Coen has got to be somewhat pleased with the start. Yes, Jacksonville imploded against the Bengals to dredge up bad memories of Jaguars past. The offense actually played well enough to win that game. In Week 3 against Houston, Jacksonville was abysmal offensively but had three fourth-quarter takeaways and a late rushing touchdown to sneak away with a 17-10 win.
The win over Houston was significant for Coen’s team because it’s just the type of game that the Jaguars had managed to lose in recent seasons. Jacksonville hadn’t beaten the Texans here since 2017.
“That is really big for us to be able to move forward and have belief that we can go and win tight games because obviously it wasn’t the case last week, and in a game you probably felt like you played better in a lot of ways, specifically on offense,” Coen said.
Offense has been hot and cold
The ground game had been carrying the load until Houston erased it on Sunday. That put more pressure on Trevor Lawrence to beat the Texans, and he struggled most of the day to do that.
Trevor Lawrence’s expected big step forward under Coen hasn’t quite yet materialized. Statistically speaking, Lawrence has 671 yards passing, a number that ranks 10th. He’s got a 42.8 QB rating, a metric that comes in at 23rd. Lawrence has four touchdowns and four interceptions.
He hasn’t been elite but he hasn’t looked skittish and overmatched as he did at times last year under Doug Pederson and Press Taylor.
“I mean, it shows a lot of progress, but I think we left so much out there, and I think that’s something that’s exciting,” said third-year tight end Brenton Strange. “We can go out here and fix those mistakes and when you get the win, it’s a better feeling than having the loss and then having to come in and fix it, but obviously, like we have so much as an offense that we can do better to help this team
Coen said he thinks Lawrence is playing better than the stats alone indicate. On a 46-yard completion to Brian Thomas Jr. in crunch time against Houston, Lawrence changed the call at the line of scrimmage. That play helped Jacksonville score the eventual winning points one play later. Lawrence also had a powerful run on third down to pick up a first on that drive.
Coen said that Lawrence will continue to get better as he buttons things up like footwork and timing.
“It’s not a negative, it’s just, hey man, we’ve got to make these throws and how can we help you, from a footwork standpoint or an accuracy standpoint, some of those things,” Coen said of Lawrence.
“There are some tight window throws too that are difficult, but I’ve been very proud of Trevor, the preparation, the way that he has gone about it and then the scramble that he made on a critical third down yesterday, there is a lot of resiliency out of him and that group in general.”
Drops still an issue
Lawrence’s average passing numbers would no doubt look better if he had better play from his receivers.
Dropped passes were a massive issue in Week 2 against the Bengals, with Dyami Brown and Thomas Jr. struggling the most. Those continued on Sunday against the Texans. Parker Washington dropped back-to-back passes. Thomas had multiple issues, be it with running the wrong route or struggling to hang on to passes.
PFF credited the Jaguars with five drops on Sunday, pushing their league-leading total to 15 through three weeks. PFF credited Thomas with just one drop, saying two other passes he couldn’t hang on to were contested. To make things more challenging, Brown left the game Sunday with a shoulder injury, which could force Jacksonville to shake things up and potentially move Travis Hunter up to the No. 2 receiver behind Thomas.
Coen said he has stressed the importance of “not letting the ball cross our eyes,” and thinks that could be what has happened to receivers at times this season.
“It’s not the way it is, it’s just, who knows, the moment, whatever it is, the time. I don’t know. So, something that ultimately we have to continue to work on, and if we don’t show the effort of improving it in practice, then it’s not going to just happen on Sundays.”
The upside of this team has been the defense responding to the challenge when the offense hasn’t played well.
“The defense could have easily been pointing fingers at the offense. There was not a peep, there was just, let’s go back to work, let’s get out there and go and execute and we’ve got to go make a play,” Coen said. “To go and win a division game like that, a physical, tough finish comes down to the wire.”