‘Anything’s possible’: Jaguars have turned bad starts around before

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jaguars have been here before.

In 2022, Jacksonville looked dead in the water. It dropped to 2-6 after a loss to the Broncos in London, their fifth consecutive defeat.

It was the same record through eight games as Urban Meyer had during his disastrous season in 2021. With another high draft pick within reach, Jacksonville flipped the switch. The Jaguars won seven of their next nine games including epic clashes over the Ravens and Cowboys and ultimately the AFC South. They went on to beat the Chargers in a historic 31-30 wild-card playoff showdown.

While this year’s 2-5 start has been filled with far more lows than highs, the blueprint exists for the Jaguars to do something about it. The Packers (5-2) head to EverBank Stadium on Sunday (1 p.m.) as four-point favorites. Jacksonville is 4-6 in its first game back after London trips, but 2-0 under head coach Doug Pederson.

Jaguars in games after London trip

Quarterback Trevor Lawrence said any big picture talk is tamped down to the very basic, very cliche, one week at a time.

“You really have to put all your effort and focus onto the one right in front of you, which I think we’ve done a good job of doing that. We’ve got to do it again this week. That sounds like a broken record. I know it’s boring, but it is true,” Lawrence said. “When you’re in this position, you can’t look at all the games that you feel like you’ve got to get back. It’s just one at a time because if we can string together a few of those by doing it one at a time, then we find ourselves in a position where we do have a chance and we’re back on track.”

No one is ready to proclaim this version of the Jaguars in line with the Cardiac Cats of Pederson’s first year. That defense was playing better back then, and Lawrence morphed into one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks during that stretch. Jacksonville has shown flickers in the last couple weeks but it needs to show more sustained success and do it against better teams. A win over the Colts came against 39-year-old backup quarterback Joe Flacco. And last week’s 32-16 victory over New England was against perhaps the league’s worst team and a rookie quarterback who was making just his second start.

But a turnaround of that magnitude is possible and has been done before. The Jaguars team in 2022 was coming off a 3-14 season and the mess of Meyer, in the conversation as the worst coach in NFL history. Pederson doesn’t need to beat the drum. A sliver over half of that 53-man roster in 2022 (27 players) are currently on Jacksonville’s 53-man roster. Players like Lawrence and Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker know that it can be done.

“I would say this: anything’s possible. But listen, it’s a one-week-at-a-time mentality as you know, and you just try to go 1-0, you just try to figure out how to win a game this week,” Pederson said. “But I think we can lean and look back on that time and say, ‘Hey we’ve been here before, we know what this looks like. What did we do well then that we can apply to today?’ There’s a lot of ball ahead of us and yet, I think each week now becomes a little bit more important for us as a team.”

This year’s ragged start put the Jaguars in a big hole. The defense has been inconsistent at best and the bottom of the barrel at its worst. Lawrence had the worst four-game start of his career and his big money receivers (Gabe Davis and Christian Kirk) struggled in that stretch. Turnovers (Travis Etienne’s fumble going into the end zone against the Dolphins in Week 1) and injuries (Tyson Campbell, Evan Engram, Foye Oluokun and Andrew Wingard) all spent time on injured reserve) have been killers.

Things have looked better since that disappointing start in numerous facets. The team has found a new star in first-round receiver Brian Thomas Jr. Lawrence has played much better since the 0-4 start and looks far more comfortable now than he did in the first month of the season.

“I do feel like the team is coming together a little bit better. That’s the thing that we have to keep coming, right? We’ve got to keep building and build off of last week,” Pederson said. “Focus in on what did we do well during the week? How did we attack the week as coaches and players? How did we practice and things of that nature? And then ultimately, how did we play?”

The offensive line has played much better and gone two of the last three games without allowing a sack. That’s been a major step forward for the team. Protecting Lawrence is key and so is establishing the run, which the line has allowed the Jaguars to do. Even with Etienne out with a hamstring, Tank Bigsby has thrived in relief.

“Is our offensive line, are they playing well right now? I do believe they are,” Pederson said. “I think that’s been a strength of us the last couple of weeks. You lean on that, just like our quarterback’s been clean throwing the football too. So, you lean on that as well.”