Doug Pederson Explains What Jaguars Could Have Done Better on Play Trevor Lawrence Was Injured

There seems to be even split blame between the coaching staff and the player on the play Trevor Lawrence was injured on.

Emotions are high in Jacksonville in the wake of Trevor Lawrence's knee injury vs. the Colts, especially with the quarterback's status for Week 7 vs. the Saints appearing up in the air.

Lawrence left Sunday's 37-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts with a knee injury after rolling out and taking a sack with just over 3:00 left in the game, but the third-year signal-caller said after the game that he was "feeling OK." ESPN's Adam Schefter reported on Monday that it was a knee sprain but ultimately wasn't a serious injury.

Still, the question of whether the Jaguars should have ever been put in that position has been posed seemingly over and over ever since Lawrence went down. On Monday, head coach Doug Pederson explained what the Jaguars could have done better on the play in question: both from a coaching and a player perspective. 

"Yeah. It’s part on us, part on the players. We put our players in situations where we have to understand the situation," Pederson said. "We had talked about taking the short sack in a situation like that if you don’t feel like you can get outside, you go down. Part of that is on the player, and part of that is we can coach better and emphasize that more. 

"The play call, I’m one hundred percent behind the play call. It’s something that a lot of teams do in situations like that to get the quarterback on the edge. Defensively, they’re pinching gaps and they’re edge pressures and it’s a good of getting your quarterback on the perimeter to get the first down and ice the game at that point. As coaches too, we can instruct our quarterback better, coach him [QB Trevor Lawrence] better, and understand that if you can’t get outside, just go down.”

In short, Pederson is saying that Lawrence should have let the play die and should have simply taken a sack earlier in the play. He didn't, though, and the Jaguars will now take questions all week on whether they made the wrong decision in putting Lawrence in the situation to begin with.

"Again, this where we have to communicate with Trevor [Lawrence] better. If he doesn’t extend the play, he goes down sooner. It’s not a 51-yard kick, it’s a 41-yard kick or a 39-yard kick," Pederson said. 

"That’s where we can, as a staff, communicate with him better in situations like that.”