Trevor Lawrence is not used to losing, but that’s what the former Clemson quarterback has had to experience a lot of as a rookie with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Lawrence is now 0-4 to start his NFL career – the same number of losses that he had in his high school and college careers combined, where he lost two games at each of those levels.
The Jaguars’ 24-21 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati on “Thursday Night Football” was the toughest loss of Lawrence’s young NFL career thus far, as the Bengals rallied from a 14-0 deficit at halftime and eventually hit the game-winning field goal as time expired in the fourth quarter.
While the loss certainly stings, Lawrence had his best performance as an NFL player to date and saw signs of growth from his team in the game.
“We’re getting better every week,” Lawrence told reporters after the game. “Obviously, that’s heartbreaking, that loss. But we’re getting better.”
“It’s tough,” he added. “We’re growing, we’re getting better, learning a lot. But should have won that game.”
Lawrence didn’t turn the ball over and made some stellar plays with his arm and his legs, finishing the game 17-of-24 passing for 204 yards to go with 36 yards rushing on eight carries and the first rushing touchdown of his NFL career.
“I thought we played better on offense as far as just cleaned up a bunch of things,” Lawrence said. “Turnovers, I thought I did a good job taking care of the ball. Didn’t put the ball in harm’s way. I thought I used my legs good.”
After losing by at least 10 points in each of their first three games to the Texans, Broncos and Cardinals, the Jaguars came oh-so-close to snapping their long losing streak, which is now at 19 games dating back to last year.
Thursday night’s defeat is a tough one to swallow for Lawrence and his teammates, but he believes the team is close to breaking through.
“We’ll have to regroup a little bit. This one hurts,” he said. “14-0 at halftime, come back out and just somehow come up on the wrong side of it. That’s tough, but we’re going to bounce back. I have no doubt. I know what we’re made of, just seeing how we’ve handled the first three weeks. I know nothing’s going to change. But damn, I really want to get a win with these guys because we’ve been working so hard … It’s collectively. It’s everybody. It’s not one side of the ball or anything like that. It’s just all of us finishing, and we’re getting there.
“I’m not even going to say ‘it’s going to take time’ or whatever. We’re right there, and you guys have seen it the last few weeks. I have no doubt, but this hurts for sure because you work so hard. You play a primetime Thursday night game, feel like you have it won and then they go out there and hit the game-winner. So, it happens, but we’re going to keep working.”
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