Why Trevor Lawrence’s Comfortability in Jaguars’ Offense Bodes Well for Texans Rematch

Lawrence’s improved play has elevated the Jaguars' offense down the stretch. Can he do the same vs. the Texans?

When the Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans squared off on October 9th, the offense looked like a shell of what it is today. 

As a team, the Jaguars only put up six total points, with quarterback Trevor Lawrence posting two critical interceptions that cost them a chance at the win.

Since that performance, Lawrence and the Jaguars offense have turned a new leaf. Sparked by Lawrence and the improved play of the wide receivers, the stretch run has featured some of the team’s best football of the season to this point. 

Offensive coordinator Press Taylor made clear established connections, combined with Lawrence’s improved ability to quickly dissect coverages, and make plays with his legs have been the catalyst for major improvement.

“Probably all of it,” Taylor said on Thursday. “All of it combined at the right time, I guess, but certainly Trevor. That’s maybe 1A of it. Trevor’s comfort with the offense, maybe even us as game planners and play callers have a feel for what everybody’s really good at as we go through this. 

"You have an idea of what you think you’re going to be going into a season, going into each game, and everything kind of takes on a life of its own and expresses itself a certain way, so you’ve got to be able to adjust and adapt to that, and I think we’ve done that. As Trevor gets more and more comfortable, trusts the system, trusts what he’s seeing, plays with conviction, plays with confidence he’s kind of playing with right now, then everybody gets involved, and everybody gets a little piece, and that’s what we want to be as an offense.”

Comfortability on the offensive side of the ball will bode well against a Texans defense that has also had more time to gel as a unit within their zone-heavy scheme. 

Though it hasn’t reflected in the win column, this is a Texans team that won a 13-6 slugfest back in Week 5 and shouldn’t be underestimated. For offensive coordinator Press Taylor, forcing them out of the Tampa 2 coverage will be of the utmost importance.

“If you have a two-high shell, you’d love to say you’re going to run really well,” Taylor said. “They do a good job of moving their front, the backers playing downhill, the safeties filling from depth and making plays. You want to make them pay in the run game, obviously, but we need to be better, more efficient in the pass game. There were things that maybe we wish we had a few more answers, a few more concepts that we could’ve gotten to just because we were missing certain things, let’s go to something else rather than keep trying to hit this and coming up short. 

"Maybe we go down to something else and move forward or maybe we just weren’t great on the details of the play or the progression of the play or whatever it may be of just consistently staying on the field, moving the football, to force them to feel like they need to be something else.”

With the Titans dropping yet another matchup against the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday Night Football, the Jaguars are presented with a prime opportunity to form a tighter grip on the AFC South with a victory. All eyes will be on the surging Jaguars offense in an important divisional matchup.