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Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence continues to have a bit of an inconsistent start to his NFL career. The team is asking a lot of him, and he’s been very aggressive through the air.
Sometimes, that results in some tremendous plays, such as Jacksonville’s first touchdown on Sunday to receiver D.J. Chark Jr. But other times, it leads to turnovers, of which Lawrence had four today — two picks and two fumbles.
Those proved to make the difference in a 31-19 loss to the Arizona Cardinals as Jacksonville moves to 0-3 on the season.
“Gosh, I’m sick because I feel like we should have won that game,” Lawrence said. “But yeah, nothing changes. I thought we got a lot better today. You could tell there were some sparks, we made some plays. The defense, gosh they played great. Especially against the weapons over there that the Cardinals have, you can’t ask for any more out of that.”
The costliest of Lawrence’s mistakes came when the team was nursing a 19-17 lead late in the third quarter. Offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell called a flea-flicker, but the pocket collapsed on Lawrence. Instead of throwing it away, he underthrew a ball off his back foot that was easily intercepted and returned for a go-ahead touchdown by Byron Murphy Jr.
“The pick-six killed us, obviously, that’s all on me,” Lawrence said. “Got to just be smart and eat it, throw the ball away there. It’s all there, though. We’re getting better. It’s just frustrating because we’ve got to finish these games. The past two weeks, I really felt like we could’ve won these past two games.”
Jacksonville went 1-15 last season, and it’s clear that this year’s squad, while more talented, is facing some growing pains early on. The Jaguars will have a short week to try and get things right, as they take on the Cincinnati Bengals on the road Thursday night.
Rookie struggles were to be expected from Lawrence, but if the Jags are going to finally get into the win column this week, he’ll have to find a way to keep the giveaways to a minimum.