How Jaguars' Disjointed Offense Summarized Their Performance

The Jacksonville Jaguars' offensive issues were summed up by a pair of timeouts wasted in the first half vs. the Cleveland Browns.

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence (16) talks with head coach Doug Pederson, left, as quarterbacks coach Mike McCoy looks on during the third quarter of an NFL football matchup Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. The Browns defeated the Jaguars 18-13. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union] / Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

With the Jacksonville Jaguars four yards away from pay-dirt in Sunday's loss to the Cleveland Browns, the Jaguars' worst tendencies crept up at the worst time.

After getting the ball down to the two-yard line, the Jaguars suffered a two-yard loss on a run. Far from ideal, but not a play that shuts down a chance to score a touchdown.

But in the span of the next few minutes, the Jaguars would see themselves have to use two of their three first-half timeouts to avoid potential delay of game penalties.

All of the sloppy, unorganized and disjointed aspects that have haunted the offense since the start of the 2023 season crept up at the worst time.

"Just the situation. The situational awareness. Clock was running down. It can't happen. It just can't happen," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said after the game. "Had to take the two timeouts.”

The two timeouts aren't the reason the Jaguars lost, though you can certainly argue they are the reason the Jaguars were not given a chance to put together an end-of-half drive for points due to a lack of timeouts. But the two plays showed the worst parts of the Pederson era.

For an offense in their third season together, one would not expect for these kind of mistakes to creep up. But on Sunday, they did in droves.

So, where does the blame go?

Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence took the blame for the first one, noting that his process in and out of the huddle isn't what it should of beem.

“Yeah, I don't know, to be honest. One of those was on me, the clock was rolling and it was after a big play. We didn't have the urgency getting out of the huddle, getting up to the line and seeing the play clock. I own that one, and we took the first time-out," Lawrence said.

As for the second one, Lawrence had a different explanation.

"After that, it's just communication. We're getting in, getting in late, we're trying to figure it out, and obviously Evan [Engram] went down today before the game, so some things changed, but it doesn't matter. There's no excuses," Lawrence said. "You've got to perform and you've got to be able to adjust. Know the plan. Know the plays that are coming in. If it changes personnels, if whatever changes, we've got to get in faster, we've got to get out of the huddle."

On Sunday, the Jaguars struggled to do the little things right on offense. Simply getting plays in and out of the huddle were issues, which sums up the state of the Jaguars' offensive unit.

"This is a team that's really good up front. You want to know where you're going protection-wise, you want to have time to communicate, you want to have time to get out of the huddle quickly so you can communicate, and they do have some pressure stuff that's really good that you have to be able to diagnose, and if you don't have time, it makes it really hard," Lawrence said.

"We played behind the clock way too much today, especially in the red zone. We've got to look at it and say, hey, is it me? Am I not communicating good enough in the huddle? Are we not getting our substitutes in fast enough? Are we not listening enough in the huddle? Are we not tight enough? Are we breaking the huddle and asking what we've got? Different things. It's on all of us. We all have to look at that and just put emphasis on communication. It's day one stuff. It's simple stuff.”

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