After starting 2-1, the Jacksonville Jaguars have lost six of their last seven games. Things haven’t probably gone the way the Jags expected since they beat the Indianapolis Colts and the Los Angeles Chargers in consecutive weeks but the Trevor Lawrence told the media Wednesday that he and his teammates haven’t lost sight of what they want to accomplish this year.
“We feel like we’ve been focused“, Lawrence said. “We haven’t lost sight of what we’re trying to do. We had some bumps in the road along the way, a tough stretch. And every day, we’ve never really lost that, that vision of what’s in front of us and what we still can accomplish this year”.
“That’s one thing that this team has done a really good job of is keeping that insight and keeping that in front of our mind of what we can accomplish and what’s still in front of us. The same thing, we got back on Monday. Everybody’s ready to work, we’re treating this like a new season, a seven-game season”.
The Jags will next take on the Baltimore Ravens and although making the playoffs in 2022 seems unlikely, they will surely want to get back into the win column and build momentum toward the end of the season.
With that in mind, here are three things the Jags must do to beat the Ravens in Week 12.
3. The Jaguars must contain Lamar Jackson in Week 12
Lamar Jackson was the league’s MVP in 2019 and has become a better passer since then. However, his ability to take off and break off big runs is still there. This season, the two-time Pro Bowl selection has amassed 666 yards on three touchdowns.
Meanwhile, the Jags had struggled to apply enough pressure on mobile quarterbacks in recent weeks. In Week 10, they couldn’t bring Patrick Mahomes down and you could make the case that Jackson is an even better athlete.
Head coach Doug Pederson met the local media Friday and said that the Jags will need to play sound, mistake-free football if they want to contain Jackson.
“He’s a great player, Pederson said. “And listen, you just gotta go play, and just trust your instinct, trust your technique, trust how you’ve been coached during the week and try to corral the guy. He’s a tremendous athlete, both with his legs and throwing the football. You just got to execute your game plan”.
The problem with dealing with Lamar Jackson is that the Jags can’t devote too many resources to keeping him from running the ball. Otherwise, their secondary run the risk of getting torched.
2. The Jaguars must get Travis Etienne heavily involved in Week 12
It’s hard to justify using a first-round pick in an era in which NFL offenses are built to throw the football, which is why it was kind of puzzling to see the Jags taking Travis Etienne 25th overall in last year’s draft. The fact that James Robinson was coming off a historic rookie campaign made the pick even more baffling. But one year later but the decision looks better with the benefit of hindsight.
Etienne has racked up 725 yards with four touchdowns on 131 carries and he’s on pace to cross the 1,000-yard mark in spite of his slow start to the 2022 season. From Weeks 5 to 9, he toted the rock 86 times for 536 yards and averaged 6.4 yards per carry while doing so. However, opposing teams have started to game plan for the former Clemson Tiger.
Against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 9, Etienne only averaged 3.9 yards per carry and he was limited to 45 yards on 11 carries against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Doug Pederson met with the local media Wednesday and acknowledged that both the Raiders and the Chiefs were able to take away the Jaguars’ ability to run the ball.
“I thought the last two ball games, with the teams that we played, they did that”, Pederson said. “They took away some of that because early on, that was kind of our strength, right? That was a perimeter game and it forces us to adjust and make some decisions that way. But that’s just game planning”.
Getting Etienne involved hasn’t translated into wins this season. However, the Jaguars’ offense runs more efficiently when he’s an important part of the game plan, so the coaching staff needs to feed him early and often.
1. The Jaguars need an efficient game from Trevor Lawrence in Week 12
Trevor Lawrence has improved considerably since the end of the 2021 season but he still has plenty of room for improvement. One of the areas he still needs to work on is consistency. Although he’s cut down on his interception totals, he’s thrown picks in situations when he couldn’t afford to do so.
Back in Week 1, Lawrence had a chance to mount a comeback but fell short. Similarly, he throw picks against the Houston Texans and the Denver Broncos that ended up being costly for the Jaguars. On the other hand, the former Clemson Tiger has had a couple of productive outings.
Lawrence completed 80.65 percent of his passes with one touchdown and no interception against the Raider and followed that up with two touchdowns and no picks against the Chiefs. The sophomore quarterback met with the local media Wednesday and said he feels good about his performance the last two games but thinks he can still be better.
I feel like I’ve played well the last two weeks”, Lawrence said. “But there’s still a few plays every game that I can do better. Whether it’s a missed throw, getting through my progressing, faster protection, all that stuff. There’s always things I can improve on”.
Lawrence doesn’t need to beat the Ravens alone but he needs to avoid making puzzling mistakes and have his third efficient game in a row. If he does and the defense can limit Jackson’s impact, the Jags could win this game.