What Jaguars' Doug Pederson Told Star After Key Blunder in Week 1 Loss

What did Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson say to Travis Etienne after his fumble against the Miami Dolphins?

Sep 8, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars running back Travis Etienne Jr. (1) fumbles the football after a tackle from Miami Dolphins safety Jevon Holland (8) during the third quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The biggest play of the Jacksonville Jaguars 20-17 loss to the Miami Dolphins in Week 1 was a characteristic self-inflicted mistake.

With the Jaguars leading the Dolphins 17-7 in the final minutes of the third quarter, star running back Travis Etienne seemed poised to put the nail in the coffin with his second touchdown of the day.

Instead, Dolphins' safety Jevon Holland made an incredible effort play and punched the ball out from behind before Etienne could score. One play later, the Dolphins scored on an 80-yard touchdown pass to Tyreek Hill to cut the Jaguars lead.

"I just told him keep his head up. He's a good player. We're going to give him the football a lot this season. It's Week 1. Learn from it and we'll be better," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said after the game.

Pederson wasn't the only member of the franchise to give Etienne words of encouragement after the game-shifting play, with former Clemson Tigers teammate Trevor Lawrence doing so as well.

"I mean, obviously turnovers are killers, especially down in the red zone, but I thought Travis (Etienne Jr.) did a good job of bouncing back and keeping his head in the game. Stuff like that is going to happen at times," Lawrence said.

"We preach taking care of the ball, not doing it, but I've been in that same position, and that's what I told Travis. I've done it before, too. So no one is pointing the fingers. 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. 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 the second half besides on that drive."

The Jaguars will look to bounce back next week, and the message will be that this loss is about more than just one play.

"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. I took a bad sack on second down on our last drive that we got that put us in a tough third down," Lawrence said.

"There's plays all over the place that we've got to make and that we can't -- it's more mistakes, though than the plays you've got to make. It's more don't beat yourself, and I think you look at the whole game and that was where we struggled. We made a lot of great plays, and our defense did a good job of holding a really explosive offense, and offensively we didn't score any points in the second half. That's something that can't happen if we're going to win a lot of games, which is the plan. So we’ve got to score more.

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