JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jaguars are going nowhere in a hurry and they’ll now have to do it for the foreseeable future without franchise quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
The bye week did little to restore any hope that the Jaguars can turn things around, with the Texans beating Jacksonville 23-20 at EverBank Stadium on a chilly Sunday. The loss was Jacksonville’s 15th in its last 18 games.
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The Jaguars made a game of it late, but it wasn’t enough as they hit double-digit losses for the first time since 2021. But the bigger question is the health of franchise quarterback Lawrence, who left the game with a concussion after a violent, cheap shot hit by Azeez Al-Shaair before halftime that led to multiple skirmishes and ejections.
The loss sent the Jaguars to a 2-10 mark, with the only saving grace in the final five weeks two games against the possibly-worse Titans and another against the Raiders, a team Jacksonville is in contention with for the No. 1 draft pick. Things have gotten so bad in Jacksonville that running backs coach Jerry Mack was announced as the new head coach at Kennesaw State during the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss.
The Jaguars still have the same issues that they’ve had for most of the past year, headlined by an offense that can’t seem to figure it out until it’s too late or not at all. And it likely won’t get a fix anytime soon with Lawrence facing an uncertain future after he was on the receiving end of a violent hit from Al-Shaair that sapped the energy from EverBank Stadium before halftime. Head coach Doug Pederson didn’t offer any insight on whether the Jaguars would consider shutting Lawrence down for the remainder of a lost season.
“It’s 30 minutes after the game, so I haven’t thought about that,” he said.
Mac Jones came on in relief of Lawrence and led Jacksonville to a pair of field goals early and two late touchdown drives in the fourth quarter. Jones threw a 22-yard touchdown to Parker Washington with 7 minutes, 56 seconds to play and then a 6-yarder to Brian Thomas Jr. with 3:35 to go. But the Texans (8-5) grinded out a couple first downs to get out of Jacksonville with a big AFC South win.
Lawrence was rusty in his return from a shoulder injury but that was an afterthought following a scary hit that knocked him out of the game with a concussion. It’s the second head injury Lawrence has suffered in less than a year. He went into the concussion protocol following a loss to the Ravens on Dec. 17, 2023. Lawrence’s head injury against Baltimore on “Sunday Night Football” wasn’t nearly as bad. Pederson revealed that in passing in his postgame press conference and Lawrence stayed in to finish the Ravens game. Sunday’s injury against Houston was as bad as it gets.
“Well, look, it’s a play that nobody wants to see in our league obviously because you see what happens after the fact and it just escalates,” Pederson said. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach Ryans [Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans]. I know he doesn’t coach his team that way. We don’t coach our team that way. It’s unfortunate, it really is. It’s unfortunate. I’m just glad that Trevor’s going to be fine. He’ll obviously be in the protocol, but it just is an unfortunate play.”
Scary hit on Lawrence
Lawrence labored for a quarter and a half, including an underthrown ball to Thomas that was picked off by Derek Stingley. Late in the second quarter, Lawrence finally got things moving. He ripped off a 6-yard run to the Texans side of the field when the whole tone of the game changed.
Lawrence pulled up to slide but Al-Shaair went low and drilled a sliding Lawrence.
The quarterback’s arms appeared to freeze up as his head slammed into the grass. Tight end Evan Engram immediately went after Al-Shaair, touching off a melee that took several minutes to defuse. Al-Shaair and Jaguars rookie cornerback Jarrian Jones were both ejected. The NFL will almost certainly dole out multiple fines from the incident.
“Yeah, I mean, it was a dirty hit. Obviously, those hits are always in question,” Engram said. “Trev was going down. I just — I saw it out of my peripheral, I got a pretty clear view of it and in that moment, instincts were just — it didn’t feel like a clean hit, so just go stick up for my quarterback.”
Added Pederson: “It’s a play that really has no business being in our league. I thought the officials did a great job of doing the best they could to get control of it and all of that. Again, getting Trevor in a comfortable situation, getting him back out there, trying to get some momentum on offense, and obviously that happens. It takes a little wind out of your sails, but on the flip side of that too, Mac came in and got us back in the football game. So proud of that too.”
Offense still too hot and cold
Lawrence finished 4 of 10 passing for 41 yards in his return, but the Jaguars still did little to nothing on offense until it was too late. Pederson said the team made internal changes during the bye week but didn’t reveal what those were. Offensively, Jacksonville looked the same as it has during its recent slide until Jones found his rhythm midway through the fourth quarter.
Lawrence was understandably rusty after having not played since Nov. 3 against the Eagles. Jones moved the Jaguars to the Houston 10 after the Lawrence injury but they had to settle for a 33-yard Cam Little field goal. Jones’ best throw of the game came on a short toss over the middle of the field to Thomas that the rookie stretched into a 56-yard play.
That drive went to the 13 before it stalled and led to a 30-yard field goal from Little. The Texans stretched that lead to 23-6 early in the fourth quarter on a 22-yard touchdown pass from CJ Stroud to Dalton Schultz. Little missed a 55-yard field goal wide right on the previous drive, just his second missed field goal of the season.
Jones played as good as he has in Jacksonville, finishing 20 of 32 passing for 235 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The Jaguars ended a touchdown drought that had stretched for 10 quarters. Washington had a career-best 103 yards on six catches. He also had a two-point conversion grab.
“Yeah, I think just going back to doing my job, taking it one play at a time, and just being me and trying to have fun out there,” Jones said. “Obviously, every NFL game pretty much is going to go to the fourth quarter if you’re lucky. We were there. It was just a little too late by me. That’s on me.”