Jacksonville Jaguars players and head coach Doug Pederson all said the same thing Sunday after a 31-27 loss to the Cleveland Browns: of course they miss Christian Kirk, but winning without him is a puzzle they better solve quick.
When Kirk went down on the first offensive play against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Jaguars didn’t just lose their leading receiver — the wide receiving corps also lost its leader and Lawrence lost his most trusted target. With Kirk now on injured reserve following surgery on his injured core muscle, those are holes that won’t be filled any time soon.
“There’s no excuses; nobody cares,” Lawrence said Sunday. “That’s the thing about this league. No one really cares who you are missing. There are a lot of teams who are missing players at this point in the season, but 100 percent [we] miss Christian. He’s one of our best players.
“He makes a huge impact on this offense and this team. Of course you miss him, but Christian is on IR, we have to find a way to still win games without him. That’s not going to change in the next few weeks.”
The absence has been glaring on the field. In the Jaguars’ back-to-back losses, Calvin Ridley has been targeted 21 times for only eight receptions. That included a pass from Lawrence that zipped past Ridley’s head for an interception Sunday when the receiver wasn’t looking for the ball.
Another 22 passes were thrown to Zay Jones, only 10 of which were caught. Against the Browns, Jones finished with just 29 receiving targets despite being targeted 14 times.
“You can’t really replace [Kirk], but it’s still the next man up mentality and we didn’t get it done today,” Jones said. “That includes myself, I didn’t play well enough today.”
Even the high ankle sprain suffered by Lawrence likely could’ve been avoided if Kirk was on the field. While rookie receiver Parker Washington has played well in the veteran’s absence, it was the sixth-round pick’s mistake that had Lawrence lunging out of position and under the foot of offensive tackle Walker Little.
“Obviously, we miss Christian,” Pederson said Sunday. “He was a big part of the offense. But where we are in the season, this late, it’s the next man up mentality, so we’ve got to continue as coaches to prepare our players and get those guys ready to go regardless of who’s in there.”
