'Still learning': Jaguars' Pederson isn't discouraged by Lawrence's Week 1 performance

The Jaguars aren't overly concerned about how quarterback Trevor Lawrence performed in Sunday's loss against the Washington Commanders.

The second-year QB posted a streaky first half. He completed 12 of 24 passes for 131 yards and no touchdowns. After completing the first 4 of 6 passes Sunday, Lawrence completed just 2 of the next 10 passes for 29 yards.

During the second half, Lawrence was markedly improved, completing 12 of 18 for 144 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Of course, what stuck out, in the end, was the last-minute interception thrown to ice the game for the Commanders.

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Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson noted during his press conference Wednesday that some things coaches can do to settle a QB down are to get them in more manageable positions, and make the throws a bit easier, but noted he wouldn't want to "shy away" from anything.

"Maybe trying to find a completion that it's a little bit easier to find, run the football, [a] play action pass ... get them on the move, things like that to just maybe get him in into a rhythm," Pederson said. "A lot of other teams do go up-tempo to try to get their quarterback to settle down or at least get into a rhythm."

Still, the head coach said he felt Lawrence's struggles came in the progression department, needing to be a bit quicker in getting to his next target on any given play.

"Some of the things he can fix is just [to] get through the progression a little bit sooner, maybe throw the ball away a little quicker, take those hits off and things like that," Pederson said.

During the game, Lawrence was called for two intentional grounding penalties. Following the game, Lawrence said on his second grounding penalty, he simply has to be a bit smarter, perhaps just take a sack and live another down.

"I saw [TE] Dan [Arnold], I was just trying to get it near him just to not take the sack. You can’t always avoid them," said Lawrence.

"Sometimes it’s going to happen. No. 1, just need to be smart, and then two, just not put the ball in jeopardy. It wasn’t a fumble but just having an opportunity there to give them the ball at the 50."

Lawrence's struggles could be seen on the team's game-opening drive Sunday when he missed a wide-open Travis Etienne on what appeared to be a wheel route in the corner of the end zone. Instead, the team was forced to settle for a field goal on the drive after another incompletion to receiver Zay Jones.

On Wednesday the QB said he felt there were some consistency issues the team needed to clean up offensively. There were opportunities in the red zone that the team didn't capitalize on, including two instances where the team came away with zero points after reaching it.

"Those are obvious, but then you just break down the game and you're kicking yourself because you had so many opportunities to win the game and you didn't, so that's frustrating," Lawrence noted.

Still, there were some positives to take from Lawrence's play Sunday. Pederson noted the QB was proficient in the pre-snap aspect of plays. That area is typically something a young QB struggles with early on in their career, but Lawrence has been able to handle that part of the game just fine.

"I thought he did a nice job with some of our run-pass-kill alerts, checks, things like that, managing the game that way," said Pederson. "I thought his vision was good down the field."

Lawrence didn't have very many opportunities to go down the field on Sunday, often forced to get rid of the ball earlier than he wanted to due to the pressure that the Commanders were bringing.

But, when he was able to get time, he found receiver Christian Kirk down the middle of the field for the longest play of the game for Jacksonville, a 49-yard pitch and catch.

Much of what happened in Week 1 is typical for a young team, especially led by a young QB. Pederson noted the second-year QB is "still learning," something to keep in mind moving forward.

"We've talked about this before, everything's semi-new, and he's still learning ... each week kind of becomes a new week in the sense of, he's working with these guys day in and day out," Pederson said, noting that Lawrence and the offense are really playing together for the first time in a while.

"We just got to make sure that we're all on the same page, keep working with the skill guys, the backs, tight ends and they continue to push through. But, (Lawrence) trusts us as coaches and we're going to put him in in great positions and then he, ultimately, bottom line, has to go perform."

Lawrence feels like there is some credence to the idea the team's newness on offense presents some challenges, but he doesn't want to make any excuses.

"That's every team," Lawrence said. "Every year you got new guys and you got to adjust and you got to make plays and that's what it comes down to. We have the guys to make those plays. So, at the end of the day, there's really no excuses.

"We just got to go make (the plays). So we missed some this week, but that's why you get 16 more opportunities to go do it."

Lawrence and the Jaguars are onto the Indianapolis Colts this week, the team's home opener at TIAA Bank Field.

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: Doug Pederson, Trevor Lawrence learn a lot after Jaguars' Week 1 loss