Trevor Lawrence found answers early on against one of the league's most disruptive defensive fronts. Eventually, the pressure became harder for the Jacksonville Jaguars to overcome.
The Jaguars scored just 13 points in Sunday's 20-13 loss to the Denver Broncos, just a week after Lawrence tossed four touchdown passes in a dominant season-opening win over the Cleveland Browns.
The offensive line wasn't Jacksonville's only issue, but head coach Liam Coen acknowledged Lawrence was getting hit "way too often." Denver's pressure sped up the offense, knocked it out of rhythm and exposed an issue the Jaguars will have to fix quickly.
Broncos pressure knocks Jaguars offense out of rhythm
"We didn't protect great," Coen said after the
game. "I thought he was getting hit way too often.
Jacksonville's early success didn't carry over to the second half. Coen said Denver's pass rush may have forced the ball out earlier than intended at times, contributing to an offense that became "a little out of sync."
Lawrence felt it, too.
"They got after us a little bit and I thought we played on our heels a little bit," Lawrence said in postgame. "We need to be a little bit better to start the game and find some completions and find some momentum early."
Denver's pass rush didn't catch Jacksonville by surprise schematically. Lawrence explained after the game that Denver didn't show anything they weren't expected.
The Broncos simply played well up front, disrupted Jacksonville's timing and made an offense that looked comfortable a week earlier work much harder for everything it got.
After netting 10 points and 153 total net yards in the first half, Jacksonville's offense totaled just 115 yards, 51 total net passing yards in the second half. Jacksonville finished the game with 268 total net yards.
Lawrence finished 17 of 29 for 189 yards and one interception. The Broncos finished with seven quarterback hits, two sacks and 14 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus.
The split is stark when looking at Lawrence's numbers under pressure vs. a clean pocket. Under pressure, Lawrence completed just four of 13 passes for 61 yards (4.7 yards per attempt), while he completed 13 of 16 passes for 128 yards (8.0 yards per attempt) from a clean pocket. aadadad
Jaguars know fixing offense goes beyond protecting Lawrence
Plenty of blame goes around. Jacksonville's offensive line shouldn't be the only focus after the team blew a 13-3 second-half lead.
On multiple occasions, the Jaguars had to burn a timeout because of lineup and communication issues. Lawrence took the blame for that after the game.
"It's on all of us. I got to get us in the right play at times. There's times where I can manage the clock a little bit better and get us in a better play and keep us out of those second [and] long situations. So it's just a lot to learn from," said Lawrence.
Jacksonville also had numerous drops during the contest, including a couple from third-year wideout Brian Thomas Jr. and a key drop by second-year running back LeQuint Allen.
Coen acknowledged the mistakes and accepted responsibility for some of the miscues.
"Those are all critical plays. When you're struggling specifically to create and make a play, we need some of our guys to step up and I got to be better in terms of putting them in a better position to be successful as well," said Coen.
What frustrated Coen the most was thathe didnt' feel the team took their foot off the gas; they simply didn't execute well and weren't in sync enough in the second half of the contest to put Denver away.
"We got to execute better. I got to call better," said Coen.
The Jaguars will have a chance to correct their issues next week against the New England Patriots. The game will mark the team's last true home game before an extensive travel schedule to Cincinnati and then across the pond to London to face off against the Philadelphia Eagles and Houston Texans.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Broncos expose Jaguars' thin margin for error around Trevor Lawrence
