JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Fans may still be celebrating Jacksonville’s stunning win, but Doug Pederson has already moved on.
The Jaguars shocked the Ravens 28-27 on Sunday, a comeback that infused the franchise with much-needed confidence coming off the bye week. Jacksonville is 4-7, not an awe-inspiring mark by any means but a step in the right direction. It was the type of win that Pederson has stressed his team was capable of pulling off — if it continued to trust the process and limit its mistakes.
Recommended Videos
That happened against the red-hot Ravens.
Quarterback Trevor Lawrence played as well as he has in the NFL. The defense had a late takeaway. Even a fumble that would have done in Jacksonville had Baltimore fallen on it was recovered by rookie center Luke Fortner. It was just one of those days, the type of that hasn’t happened often enough for the Jaguars. They’ve now won two of their last three games with a winnable Week 13 clash against the Lions (4-7) on tap next. Only one of those seven losses has come by more than one possession, a 27-17 defeat at Kansas City.
“I think it’s big, this is a week-to-week business. Short term memory, you come in on Monday, you watch it, you make the corrections, and you put it to rest as you’re onto the next,” Pederson said.
“You got to erase what you did last week, remember, but I think at the same time, you got to move forward and approach this independently of last week. It’s another set of challenges for the team, you got to go on the road, you got to do it again, you’re going to be in a dome, it’s loud. This team has won here lately and they’re playing much better as well. It’s another good challenge for us.”
The Jaguars were staring a two-game losing streak in the face early in the fourth quarter on Sunday. They looked ragged after halftime, punting it away twice and losing a fumble. Baltimore took a two-possession lead on its opening drive of the fourth quarter and seemed on the verge of putting Jacksonville away. If Lawrence’s history had shown anything, it was that leading a comeback against a team like the Ravens was unlikely.
The perfect scenario followed.
Lawrence was poised and consistent in leading three scoring drives in 13 minutes. The defense delivered a major play (Andrew Wingard forced a fumble that Tyson Campbell recovered) and Jacksonville dodged a 67-yard field goal attempt by Justin Tucker to complete a comeback that didn’t seem realistic.
“That’s a well-coached team, disciplined group,” Pederson said of the Ravens. “That’s the type of game that, chances are, they’re going to pull that game out and win that game. Just a credit to our guys for hanging in there. Sixty-minute football game, battling to the end.”
Lawrence’s play the past month has been special. In that 2-1 stretch (wins over the Ravens and Raiders and a loss to the Chiefs), Lawrence is 83 for 108 passing (77%) for 815 yards, six touchdowns and no interceptions.
“He played well. He played tough. He played smart, took care of the football, other than one strip sack there towards the end late in the fourth quarter. I thought, man, I thought he played really well,” Pederson said. “He made some really big throws, took a step in the right direction as I mentioned after the game. Great for his confidence, a win like that and the way we won, I think can just build more confidence within the team.”
Lawrence led the Jaguars on a 14-play, 75-yard march that ended with a 1-yard touchdown throw to Jamal Agnew. Outside of the touchdown toss on that drive, Lawrence had one of the best throws of his career to set it up. His strike to Zay Jones on fourth-and-8 came between two defenders, a ball that only Jones could have caught. It covered 27 yards and Jacksonville scored five plays later.
He authored another two scores after that, a 29-yard field goal by Riley Patterson and a 10-yard touchdown to Marvin Jones Jr. with 12 seconds left. Lawrence then fired a bullet to Zay Jones on the two-point try to stamp the biggest win of his NFL career.
Pederson said there was positive news on running back Travis Etienne, who left with a foot injury after his second carry and didn’t return. Pederson said the team was being overly cautious Etienne suffered a Lisfranc injury in the same foot in the preseason last year and missed his entire rookie season following surgery.
“He’s going to be OK,” Pederson said. “He just got rolled up on his surgically repaired foot and just caution and precaution and just want to make sure he was and will be 100% moving forward and was more precautionary than anything else.”