Alternate Brian Thomas TD angle highlights Trevor Lawrence's off-the-charts talent

The Jacksonville Jaguars lost to the Miami Dolphins 20-17 in Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season. While there's nothing fun about dropping a game, there were several bright spots. One of them was Trevor Lawrence's connection with wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr., which was on full display during a touchdown throw.

With 6:21 left in the second quarter, Lawrence put together an eight-play, 55-yard drive that ended on a 14-yard touchdown pass to Thomas.

But as impressive as the touchdown was, that angle didn't do the throw enough justice. Here's an alternate look at the play. You can witness Lawrence's anticipation and accuracy.

As you can see, the pass went over three defenders, and Lawrence put it only where Thomas could reel it in. That wasn't the only time No. 16 looked for the rookie receiver, though. Earlier in the game, the Jaguars dialed up a deep shot.

While Thomas wasn't able to come down with the catch, he drew a defensive pass interference call that got the Jaguars to the Miami one-yard line. Running back Travis Etienne proceeded to punch the football into the end zone.

As far as debuts go, Thomas' was pretty good. He finished with four receptions for 44 yards with one touchdown. On the other hand, Lawrence went 12-of-21 for 162 with one touchdown and no interceptions.

The Jaguars must trust Trevor Lawrence to win games

But as good as Trevor Lawrence looked early in the game, he only attempted seven passes in the second half. This would be understandable if he were a bad quarterback but No. 16 has routinely shown throughout his career that he can come through when needed.

Granted, Lawrence went 3-of-7 for 32 yards in the second half but his statline would've looked much better and the Jaguars would've probably won if it weren't for a couple of drops by Christian Kirk and Evan Engram. Later with the game on the line, the star quarterback was sacked twice, effectively eliminating any hopes of edging the Dolphins out.

The day after the loss, Doug Pederson said that nothing impeded the team from dialing more throws or calling Thomas' number more often. This makes the decision to abandon the pass even though they had success even more infuriating.

"You look at the tale of two halves. Offensively, I felt like in the second half we did some good things in the run game to try to stay ahead, which we did, "Pederson said. "But there was nothing in the game plan that took us away from not throwing it to Brian, or not throwing it to Gabe or Christian. If you go back and look, at some of the third downs that we had, they were in unique situations. They were third and really long and gave up a couple sacks in those situations too.

Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne certainly played a role in the loss to the Dolphins, but Doug Pederson most definitely deserves plenty of the blame for mismanaging the game. If he wants to get their first win of the year in Week 2, maybe it would be a good idea to turn to his star quarterback.

After all, didn't the Jags gave Lawrence a top-market deal to lead the team to the promised land?

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