'Take a deep breath': Jaguars' Pederson wants to see offense settle after loss to Steelers

The Jaguars fell to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday night, dropping their third-straight preseason gane, their ninth loss in their last 10 preseason matchups. Their last preseason victory came against Dallas Cowboys in Week 3 of the preseason in 2021.

The team's third preseason game offered some further insight into the team's starting units, both offensively and defensively. They both played throughout the entire first half, with the team's defensive unit playing one series into the second half.

On Saturday night, Jacksonville's starting offense was a mixed bag of sorts, unable to finish on crucial drives, but still able to make good on key third-down situations.

For the night, they'd convert five out of nine of their third downs, something that encouraged head coach Doug Pederson.

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"That was something we talked about this week and wanted to do better in, is the third-down scenarios," Pederson said when asked about the efficiency in those situations. "And I felt like the first unit was able to do that tonight."

Still, the team's performance offensively, particularly with the first-team unit, left a bit to be desired. The team missed some opportunities, Pederson said, something the team will need to learn from and correct.

Instead of converting drives into touchdowns, the team was forced to settle for field goals, including on its first three possessions of the game.

Jacksonville's only touchdown of the night came on a four-yard run in the fourth quarter by backup quarterback C.J. Beathard.

"Not good enough," Pederson said about the team's lack of scores in the red zone. "We got to finish drives with with scores. It's something we talked about and worked on quite a bit with the red zone. And we just got to keep working."

The Jaguars finished the game with 97 rushing yards, including 3.2 yards per carry on the night. During the first half, when the starters played, Jacksonville finished with 61 rushing yards, an average of 3.6 yards per carry, including 29 yards from second-year running back Travis Etienne.

Entering the game, Pederson made it a point of emphasis to run the football in the red zone, attempting to see what the team could do from that area of field. The starting offense was only able to muster five yards in the red zone, a far cry from what they wanted to accomplish on Saturday night.

"The offense understands that one, we've got to run the football in the red zone, number one, and we tried to do that tonight, and that wasn't good enough," he said. "We've just got to keep plugging away and look at it and get better and make sure we get the right guys in there and get ready here in a couple weeks."

As for starting QB Trevor Lawrence, his night was a mixed bag, much like the offense. Though he finished the game with an admirable 133 passing yards, completing 14 out of 21 of his passes, he still had a couple of plays that led to some mistakes early on in the contest. Pederson said that Lawrence, and the offense, just needs to settle in a bit early on.

"In Trevor's case, we've just got to get him to calm down early in the football game and settle in. There were some throws that were missed that I know he would want back, and we've seen him make those throws in practice, so we know he's capable of doing it," said Pederson.

"It's just a matter of just kind of taking a deep breath as he starts the game and settle in. But those are all things that we continue to work on. We've got a couple weeks left here in camp, and we'll try to get better."

Defensively, the Jaguars played the majority of its starters into the third quarter. One starter that was expected to go, but ended up sitting out was cornerback Shaq Griffin, who missed the game due to some back tightness he experienced after waking up this morning.

Pederson indicated after the game that Griffin should be fine, but with the team being this close to the end of training camp, there was no need to push him to go against Pittsburgh.

In all, the Jacksonville defense held up fine against the Pittsburgh offense. During the first half of the contest, Jacksonville allowed just six first downs, including four that came during the final drive of the second quarter.

The team also allowed just 136 net yards, including 22 net rushing yards during the first half of the game. Still, Pederson and his staff would give the Jacksonville defense one extra drive coming out of halftime, in part because of the way that the Steelers were able to drive down the field in a two-minute situation, scoring an 11-yard touchdown via Steelers rookie QB Kenny Pickett, an 11-yard pass to RB Benny Snell.

"Other than the two-minute drive at the end of the half, I thought they played well," Pederson said of the team's defense. "I don't have the stat book in front of me, but I think someone told me it was maybe 1.2 yards per attempt in the running game. I really felt like they got after them early and often. Two-minute drive, though, is something that we've got to get better at."

Jacksonville held the Steelers to just 24 total rushing yards on the night, an average of 1.7 yards per attempt, including 10 yards from QB Mitch Trubisky. In all, it was a good night for the team's starters on defense.

The worry spot for Jacksonville on Saturday night would come in the kicking game, however. With kicker Ryan Santoso as the only placekicker on the roster after the team waived/injured Elliott Fry earlier in the week, he entered the game with high expectations.

On the night, though, Santoso missed two key field goals, including a potential game winner near the end of the contest, a 57-yard attempt. He would nail a 53-yard field goal earlier in the game, while missing a 51-yard attempt early on.

For Pederson, he wants to see more.

"Yeah, obviously not good enough," Pederson said of Santoso and his misses on Saturday night. "We had a chance to win the game, had a chance to start the game 3-0, and it's disappointing. But I know he'll battle back this week and try to correct it."

Ultimately, the Jaguars weren't able to hit the game-winning field goal, falling short by just one point, 16-15.

Demetrius Harvey is the Jacksonville Jaguars reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on Twitter at @Demetrius82.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jaguars HC Doug Pederson wants to see team learn from Steelers game