Urban Meyer is currently on the field for his first ever NFL game, and though it’s a preseason game, he understands that there is a lot of work to be done. During halftime, he was pulled to the side to share his assessment of rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who had a solid debut that still could’ve been better.
“I saw good plays,” Meyer said about the rookie. “I saw a guy who made a couple nice plays on third down. I think he held the ball a little bit a couple times, which you would expect out him maybe. Instead of anticipating the throws [he was] holding on to it a little bit but we have a long way to go.”
As we’ve previously mentioned, Lawrence made two notable third-down conversions in his debut, displaying the poise we’ve known him for. However, there were times where he took sacks that led to significant losses, but that can be cleaned up down the road in practice.
As for the rest of the team and their first-half performance, Meyer liked some of the things he saw on defense, but wasn’t too thrilled about a few penalties the Jags received on special teams.
“Defense is hanging in there, a little upside down,” he said. “You miss a fourth-and-1 and then also two penalties on kickoff returns coming out of your own endzone. I thought some good things, but my gosh, when we are twenty yards and no points … We are going to have to have a good second half.”
The Jags ended the half down 13-0, and with 4:28 left in the fourth quarter, the score is now 23-6. Their lone touchdown came through a 5-yard reception to Tavon Austin (from C.J. Beathard) early in the fourth quarter, which put the Jags within 10 points at the time (16-6).