The Jacksonville Jaguars were humiliated on Monday Night Football, but coach Doug Pederson isn’t ready to wave the white flag.
The Jaguars (0-3) are one of three remaining winless teams as they enter Sunday’s road game against the Houston Texans.
The 47-10 road loss to the Buffalo Bills represented a severe whipping for Jacksonville. But Pederson said nobody is hanging their head.
“I think the confidence is still there,” Pederson said Wednesday. “I think the confidence is high. I do feel that we have to just focus on us internally and keep things nice and tight, eliminate the mistakes that are happening and try to play our best football.”
Jacksonville badly needs a victory against the first-place Texans (2-1) to turn the AFC South into a race. Dropping to 0-4 would not be a good development for the Jaguars’ playoff aspirations.
Still, Pederson has been around long enough to know there is plenty of time for a turnaround.
“It’s not the end of anybody’s season, obviously it’s Week 4,” Pederson said. “We just got to figure out a way to play good football and right now, the tape shows that we’re not and we’ve got to fix that.”
The Jaguars have been outscored 85-40 in their three setbacks and questions are heating up about Pederson’s future and the play of quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
Lawrence, the No. 1 overall pick in 2021, is completing just 52.8 percent of his passes and has been sacked 11 times. The loss to the Bills marked the eighth straight game Jacksonville lost when Lawrence was the starting quarterback.
In the offseason, the Jaguars gave Lawrence a five-year, $275 million extension — the type of deal that goes to an elite quarterback.
Lawrence’s performance hasn’t come close to that level, particularly with Jacksonville’s offense ranking 30th in scoring (13.3 points per game) and 27th in total yardage (276.3).
“I’ve got to play really well for us to win,” Lawrence told reporters. “That’s the NFL. The quarterback has to play well every week in order to give us a shot to win. I don’t feel like I’ve done that consistently enough. So I put that on myself.”
–Field Level Media
