What Does Doug Pederson Think of the Jaguars' "Same Old Problems"?

The Jacksonville Jaguars couldn't close it out against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. Head coach Doug Pederson sounded off on it.

Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson answers questions from members of the media during a combined NFL football training camp session between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Jacksonville Jaguars Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024 at EverBank Stadium’s Miller Electric Center in Jacksonville, Fla. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union] / Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK

Perhaps one of the hallmarks of last season's Jacksonville Jaguars team was their inability to close out games. The best team in the NFL are the ones that can sustain good ball movement and limit good ball movement for all 60 minutes.

It is was separates the San Fransisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs from less successful teams. Understanding the moment can be what separates a winning ball club from a losing one. The gap between "good" teams and "bad" teams in the NFL is not that large. Any football person will tell you that.

The Jaguars are far from a bad team. In fact, they are a good team. They went to the playoffs two seasons ago and started 8-3 last season. They have a proven winner at head coach, Doug Pederson, and a franchise quarterback in Trevor Lawrence. Many pieces on offense and defense.

Against Miami in the season opener, the Jaguars had an opportunity to go up by 17 points late in the third quarter. They quite literally fumbled that opportunity away, which many critics of their performance would describe as the turning point of the game.

For Pederson, though, the inability to close out the game and beat the Dolphins was more than Travis Etienne's fumble.

"I mean, you take that play away, or say you make that play, right?" Pederson told reporters on Monday. "You're in the end zone, it's 24 to 7 at the end of the third, right? Then, you're kicking off as opposed to giving them the ball on the 20. We can stand here and play 'should've, would've, could've' all day long. Bottom line is, we did not do enough to finish the football game. These are all the things that as coaches and players, we need to fix and get corrected before [Cleveland]."

Quarterback Trevor Lawrence took a similar stance in the post-game presser on Sunday.

"We still had plenty of time in the game, and we have to be able to handle the adversity and go score in the next series, and that's the only good drive we had the whole half," Lawrence said. "It's on all of us when something like that does happen; we've got to gather around and make the next play, and we didn't do that. It seemed like we couldn't get any rhythm going in the second half besides on that drive. Yeah, obviously, that's going to be the story, and of course, that's important. That's something that you don't want to do and you can't do, but we had plenty of opportunities after that, and we couldn't get anything going."

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