Jacksonville Jaguars second-year quarterback Trevor Lawrence connected on a 22-yard touchdown pass with tight end Evan Engram early in the team’s Week 8 matchup against the Denver Broncos. For the rest of the day, Lawrence made more disastrous decisions than good ones.
Lawrence, 23, threw an awful interception at the goal line that negated a scoring opportunity, picked up an intentional grounding penalty that knocked the Jaguars out of field goal range, and threw a game-sealing interception in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
“I mean, listen, we still have a lot of trust and a lot of faith in him,” Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said Sunday after the 21-17 loss. “We’re just going to continue to grow. We’re going to grow together.
“I just told him to keep his head up, stay confident. I want to put the ball back in his hands and just show the trust that we have, that I have in him and that the team has. He knows that we’ve got to be better in a few situations, but again, those are really good learning opportunities for Trevor.”
Lawrence completed 18 of his 31 passes and finished the day with only 133 passing yards and a 52.2 passer rating. After the game, he didn’t mince words when evaluating his own performance.
“Obviously I’m pretty upset and frustrated and disappointed in myself and the way I finished the game,” Lawrence said. “Just have to continue to find ways to win these games, like I’ve said. You know, regardless of mistakes throughout the game, at the end we’ve just got to find ways to rally and go make the play.”
Through eight games this season, Lawrence has 10 touchdown passes with six interceptions.
