Last week, after a third straight loss, Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said coaches had “to find the good” and preach positivity to help the team pull out of its slide.
Well, clearly that didn’t work.
After a 30-12 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the coach wasn’t much in the mood for finding silver linings. With 10 turnovers for the Jaguars offense in three games, Pederson instead challenged his team to show a little pride.
“I can’t go out there and do it,” Pederson said. “You know, [offensive coordinator] Press [Taylor] can’t do it. [Defensive coordinator] Mike Caldwell can’t do it. I mean the players at some point have to have enough pride to not turn … listen, they’re not trying to turn the ball over, but there has to be a sense of urgency to have the ball security to protect the football, and it’s not there right now.”
Trevor Lawrence threw two interceptions in the first half Sunday, both of which appeared to be a consequence of miscommunication between the quarterback and his intended targets. That’s been a prevailing theme throughout December for the Jaguars.
Another two turnovers came via fumbles by Lawrence and tight end Evan Engram. There was also a fumbled exchange between Lawrence and running back D’Ernest Johnson that was recovered by Johnson for a five-yard loss.
“You can’t pin this all on the quarterback, right?” Pederson said. “I mean, everybody else practiced. As a team, it wasn’t good. The sense of urgency wasn’t there, we didn’t execute very well on offense, the turnovers keep piling up, the run game, all that kind of stuff. It just affects the whole process. So, it’s not one guy, it’s the coaches, myself, the players, we’re all in this together.”
Thanks to a terrible day for the entire AFC South, the Jaguars are still first in the division with two weeks left. It may even take just one more win for Jacksonville to get into the playoffs. But unless things change significantly soon, it doesn’t look like it’ll matter much either way.
