Trevor Lawrence Miserable Again as Jaguars Lose Second Straight

By Hays Carlyon

Now, I’m concerned.

I gave Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence a pass after a five-turnover performance in last week’s loss at Philadelphia played in constant wind and heavy rain.

I expected the second-year veteran to bounce back.

Instead, he got worse. Lawrence turned in a miserable performance in an awful 13-6 loss to the previously winless Houston Texans on Sunday at TIAA Bank Field. The Jaguars (2-3) fell from first place in the AFC South to third behind Tennessee and Indianapolis.

We’re five games in. The Jaguars have lost three games. Lawrence is directly responsible for all three.

He missed wide open touchdown throws in the season-opening 28-22 loss at Washington, a loss that looks worse by the week as the Commanders are 1-4.

He never gave the Jaguars a chance against the Eagles, losing four fumbles with a pick.

However, Sunday might be Lawrence’s most alarming outing.

He made arguably the worst decision and throw of his young career in the third quarter.

The game went to halftime tied at six. The Jaguars got the ball to start the second half.

Lawrence connected to a 28-yard pass to tight end Evan Engram and a 17-yard pass to receiver Marvin Jones.

A 9-yard run by running back Travis Etienne gave the Jaguars a second-and-1 situation at Houston’s 7-yard line. Lawrence rolled right and instead of running for 2 yards and a first down or simply throwing the ball away, he forced a pass into the end zone. Texans rookie cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. intercepted the pass.

Lawrence made a massive mistake in a game where obviously points were going to be at a premium.

But there was still a bunch of game left.

You want to see a response. Instead, there was a whimper.

After the interception, Lawrence completed 10 of his final 23 passes for 91 yards with another interception on the game’s final play.

My concern is the lack of a competitive response.

Lawrence didn’t respond well to costing his team the Philadelphia game.

He didn’t respond well to making a critical mistake Sunday.

The time for excuses is over. Lawrence has been given his last pass for a while.

The Jaguars need to start seeing consistent solid-to-spectacular play out of Lawrence.

This team is too good around him for him to be lousy three out of every five games.

No one expects perfection. No one expects Lawrence to be elite already.

But it is fair to expect that he isn’t going to be regularly costing the team wins.

Jaguars coach Doug Pederson introduced a saying after the Jaguars beat both Indianapolis and the Los Angeles Chargers on the road: “So what, now what?”

After Sunday’s stinging loss, another familiar mantra has replaced it: “Same old, same old.”

Until Lawrence stops missing open receivers and making terrible decisions, the Jaguars will remain the same old pretender.

That’s a shame because the Jaguars appear to be good enough to get on a winning streak if the generational franchise quarterback would stop killing them.

(You can email Hays at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @HaysCarlyon).