Jacksonville Jaguars coach Doug Pederson planned to keep the starting offense in for an entire half against the Miami Dolphins in a preseason game Saturday night. After two drives, he’d seen enough.
“They attacked it the right way,” Pederson told reporters after the game. “That’s what we wanted to see as an offense. That’s what I wanted to see was just the execution.”
On the Jaguars’ first drive of the game, they picked up 78 yards on 12 plays before a Tank Bigsby fumble at the goal line turned the ball over to the Dolphins. On Jacksonville’s next possession, the offense drove 80 yards in 12 plays and capped the drive with a touchdown.
“We talked about starting fast,” Pederson said. “We didn’t start fast against the Cowboys a couple weeks ago, so we wanted to come out and do that and we did, and unfortunately the turnover, Tank will learn from that. Something we have to eliminate, obviously, in the red zone, but [I’m] pleased with the way the offense executed those first two drives.”
Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence finished his day with eight completions on 10 attempts for 92 yards. Three of those completions were to Calvin Ridley, two to Zay Jones, two to Luke Farrell, and one to Christian Kirk.
The Jacksonville rushing attack also found plenty of success aside from Bigsby’s fumble. Jaguars running back Travis Etienne Jr. had 39 yards on eight carries while Bigsby had 37 yards on six attempts.
“It started up front with the offensive line,” Pederson said. “I felt like we were playing on their side of the ball, on their side of the line of scrimmage for those first couple of drives. … A fourth down conversion in there, not many third downs, which is obviously good. But I thought overall this was a really good result for them, being the last preseason game, getting ready for the regular season.”
The Jaguars finished the 2022 season No. 10 both in points scored and total yards. The team has never finished No. 1 in the NFL in either statistical category.
