Jacksonville Jaguars suffered a 35-16 defeat to the Chicago Bears in the first of the Jags two London 2024 games.
Jacksonville Jaguars Head Coach Doug Pederson spoke of his obvious disappointment following this afternoon’s defeat at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Costly mistakes
“Right now, those [mistakes] are things that are plaguing us,” Pederson said. “It’s the mistakes and then being able to overcome the mistake. Those are things that we have to obviously take a look at and correct.
“[I feel} defeated, obviously. I feel for the players and the coaches. We work extremely too hard to be in this position. I feel like the guys, they don’t quit. They keep fighting.
£We have to figure out how to just get out of our way and just play football. I say that, and it sounds easy, but it’s tough. It’s a tough game to play. We didn’t expect to be here in this spot, and, hey, now we have to find a way to get out of it.
When asked what he thought of the performance of his side’s quarterback, the Head Coach admitted:
“He played tough. I mean, he’s just one man obviously, and we’ve got to play better are all-around, everybody, and he included. He knows that. There’s ownership in that. Coaches, the same way. I take full responsibility obviously, but we all need to be better.”
Trevor Lawrence’s reaction
Trevor Lawrence, when asked if he felt the Jaguars lacked focus collectively as a team, responded by saying
“You know, I didn’t sense that. Obviously, the way the game turned out and some critical errors really all the way around would point to that. I felt like we were ready to play. I thought we had a good week. Obviously, everyone deals with the travel over here. Chicago had to do it earlier in the week too. So, I thought even considering that, you know, we had a good plan, good week. I felt like we were ready to go. Then obviously it didn’t go our way. Didn’t make enough plays. Didn’t execute and had just too many mistakes. So, I guess I can’t say that it wasn’t that because I think that definitely can contribute to that, yeah.”
“We’re staying together”
Commenting on whether he felt the team was playing for Head Coach Doug Pederson, the quarterback had no doubt, stating:
“Yeah, that’s our head coach, and we’re a team. This is tough. Losing is hard. It’s hard. So it has nothing to do with that relationship, how we feel about Coach [Pederson]. We’re a group. We’re staying together. We know brighter days are ahead. We just have to keep working, and we have to keep putting our best foot forward. You know, we just have to stick together as a team. We have to play more had complementary. We’re not playing good team football right now. So whatever the answer to that is we have to find it quick. Yeah, no thought of that on my mind.”
Next week is ‘must-win’
On whether next weekend’s London game is a must-win for his side, Head Coach Pederson said:
“I think so. I would say everything here on out, quite frankly. If we want to get back to playing the type of football we know we can play, you’re going to have to win a lot of games moving forward. I would say that, yeah, these games moving forward are just that.
£I think it’s huge for us to be here as a football team, to be around each other, support each other, keep encouraging each other. There’s nowhere for us to go, you know? We’re at the hotel, and we see each other every day. We have to support each other and keep picking each other up.”
The Jacksonville Jaguars Defensive End Josh Hines-Allen admitted that his side needs to get to winning ways as soon as possible.
“We know we have to trust in everybody here, but the urgency needs to pick up, the passion, the love,” Hines-Allen said. “The reason why we do the things that we do need to pick up a little bit more. It starts Tuesday once we get back to practice and focus on the Patriots”
