The Jacksonville jaguars’ third preseason tilt against the Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t go according to plan for quarterback Trevor Lawrence and the first-string offense. They were held scoreless in the first half despite some impressive plays that had fans thinking they might be able to secure their first win of the 2022 season.
It was a frustrating performance to be sure, but in the end, it was only an exhibition matchup that won’t count toward the team’s end-of-year standings. One point stood between the Jaguars and the sweet taste of preseason victory, and after the game, Lawrence spoke in the team’s press conference about where the team stands heading into their last scrimmage against Atlanta.
Asked for his evaluation of the first-string offense’s performance in the first half against the Steelers, he didn’t categorize it in apocalyptic terms by any means, but Lawrence was clearly disappointed by the results his unit achieved.
“I don’t like to say too much before I watch [the film],” He explained, “There’s definitely a lot of good things to watch on the tape and learn from. Pittsburgh did a nice job, gave a lot of different looks. There’ll be a lot of different things to learn from, I’d say just obviously [we] want to score touchdowns. Similar theme as last week, got to improve there.”
Lawrence continued his comments by pointing out the positive things he saw in the loss, including the team’s ability to sustain drives and maintain ball control, but made it clear that without putting more points on the board, it’ll be awfully hard for the Jaguars to win games.
“You’ve seen our ability to drive the ball,” Lawrence said. “[Our] time of possession and [keeping] drives going has been great, and that’s something that’s really going to help us throughout the season. But in order to win these games we’ve got to score more points.
“I think I left a few plays out there, got a little antsy with my feet at times, so there’s some things individually to work on and watch, but I think as a unit there [were] more good things than bad especially in that first half with our crew that was out there. I felt good about the things we did, the obvious is just to score more touchdowns, but there’ll be more to learn from for sure.”
As the team continues to develop, they’ll need to lean on Lawrence’s raw talent to help carry them to victory once the regular season starts. With the right mentality in place and a commitment to improving every facet of the starting offense under first-year head coach Doug Pederson’s scheme, Jacksonville may be able to prove that these preseason losses are just normal growing pains for a team that is starting to come into its own.
