The Jaguars played quarterback Trevor Lawrence for the entire first half of Saturday’s game against the Steelers and all four of the full drives he led ended in Pittsburgh territory.
Those drives only resulted in six points, however. Ryan Santoso missed one of his three field goal tries and a fourth down completion to tight end Evan Engram was short of a first down to end another possession.
Lawrence also three incompletions on third downs before all three field goal attempts on his way to finishing the night 14-of-21 for 133 yards. After the game was over, head coach Doug Pederson said he thinks keeping a more even keel would benefit him in the early part of games.
“In Trevor’s case, we’ve just got to get him to calm down early in the football game and settle in. There were some throws that were missed that I know he would want back, and we’ve seen him make those throws in practice, so we know he’s capable of doing it,” Pederson said, via Demetrius Harvey of the Florida Times-Union. “It’s just a matter of just kind of taking a deep breath as he starts the game and settle in. But those are all things that we continue to work on. We’ve got a couple weeks left here in camp, and we’ll try to get better.”
The Urban Meyer fiasco was one of the reasons why Lawrence’s rookie year fell short of expectations and Pederson’s arrival is one of the reasons to think this year will be a more productive one for the top pick of the 2021 draft. Saturday’s outing was a reminder that the process won’t be an overnight one.