Reeling Jaguars lose Trevor Lawrence, 10th game of season

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jaguars are going nowhere in a hurry and they’ll now have to do it for the foreseeable future without franchise quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

The bye week did little to restore any hope that the Jaguars can turn things around, with the Texans beating Jacksonville 23-20 at EverBank Stadium on a chilly Sunday.

The Jaguars made a game of it late, but it wasn’t enough as they hit double-digit losses for the first time since 2021. But the bigger question is the health of franchise quarterback Lawrence, who left the game with a concussion after a violent, cheap shot hit by Azeez Al-Shaair before halftime that led to multiple skirmishes and ejections.

The loss sent the Jaguars to a 2-10 mark, with the only saving grace on deck with two games against the possibly-worse Titans in the coming weeks. Things have gotten so bad in Jacksonville that running backs coach Jerry Mack was announced as the new head coach at Kennesaw State during the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss.

The Jaguars still have the same issues that they’ve had for most of the past year, headlined by an offense that can’t seem to figure it out until it’s too late or not at all. And it likely won’t get a fix anytime soon with Lawrence facing an uncertain future after he was on the receiving end of a violent hit from Al-Shaair that sapped the energy from EverBank Stadium before halftime.

Mac Jones came on in relief of Lawrence and led Jacksonville to a pair of field goals and two late touchdown drives in the fourth quarter. Jones threw a 22-yard touchdown to Parker Washington with 7 minutes, 56 seconds to play and then a 6-yarder to Brian Thomas Jr. with 3:35 to go. But the Texans (8-5) grinded out a couple first downs to get out of Jacksonville with a big AFC South win.

Lawrence was rusty in his return from a shoulder injury but that was an afterthought following a scary hit that knocked him out of the game with a concussion. It’s the second head injury Lawrence has suffered in less than a year. He went into the concussion protocol following a loss to the Ravens on Dec. 17, 2023. Lawrence’s head injury against Baltimore on “Sunday Night Football” wasn’t nearly as bad. Head coach Doug Pederson revealed that in passing in his postgame press conference and Lawrence stayed in to finish the Ravens game. Sunday’s injury against Houston was as bad as it gets.

Scary hit on Lawrence

Lawrence labored for a quarter and a half, including an underthrown ball to Thomas that was picked off by Derek Stingley. Late in the second quarter, Lawrence finally got things moving. He ripped off a 6-yard run to the Texans side of the field when the whole tone of the game changed.

Lawrence pulled up to slide but Al-Shaair went low and drilled a sliding Lawrence.

The quarterback’s arms appeared to freeze up as his head slammed into the grass. Tight end Evan Engram immediately went after Al-Shaair, touching off a melee that took several minutes to defuse. Al-Shaair and Jaguars rookie cornerback Jarrian Jones were both ejected. The NFL will almost certainly dole out multiple fines from the incident.

Offense still too hot and cold

Lawrence finished 4 of 10 passing for 41 yards in his return, but the Jaguars still did little to nothing on offense until it was too late. Pederson said the team made internal changes during the bye week but didn’t reveal what those were. Offensively, Jacksonville looked the same as it has during its recent slide until Jones found his rhythm midway through the fourth quarter.

Lawrence was understandably rusty after having not played since Nov. 3 against the Eagles. Jones moved the Jaguars to the Houston 10 after the Lawrence injury but they had to settle for a 33-yard Cam Little field goal. Jones’ best throw of the game came on a short toss over the middle of the field to Thomas that the rookie stretched into a 56-yard play.

That drive went to the 13 before it stalled and led to a 30-yard field goal from Little. The Texans stretched that lead to 23-6 early in the fourth quarter on a 22-yard touchdown pass from CJ Stroud to Dalton Schultz. Little missed a 55-yard field goal wide right on the previous drive, just his second missed field goal of the season.

Jones played as good as he has in Jacksonville, finishing 20 of 32 passing for 235 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The Jaguars ended a touchdown drought that had stretched for 10 quarters. Washington had a career-best 103 yards on six catches. He also had a two-point conversion grab.