In front of a record Wembley NFL crowd of 86,651, the come from behind win helped ease the pressure on Head Coach Doug Pederson as the Jaguars scored 25 consecutive points having trailed 10-0 early in the second quarter.

With second quarter touchdowns in rapid succession from Brian Thomas Jr., Tank Bigsby and Parker Washington in the third and final NFL London 2024 game, the Jags claimed a second win in four games having started the season 0-4. For the Patriots, Sunday’s loss is a sixth consecutive defeat after their opening day win.

Jaguars’ quarterback Trevor Lawrence produced a far superior performance to last weekend’s loss at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The Jacksonville outfit’s linchpin completed 15 of his 20 passes for 193 yards and one touchdown.

Despite Lawrence’s improved performance, it is Parker Washington’s touchdown that will gain most attention, however. He produced the longest punt return in Jaguars history and the longest touchdown in NFL London games history as he ran back a 96-yard return to give the Jaguars a 22-10 advantage at half-time.

As the London NFL series of three games now concludes, the Jaguars will host the Green Bay Packers at EverBank Stadium in week 8, while the New England Patriots will have the New York Jets visiting them next weekend.

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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”

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The game brought the Bears’ international record to three wins from four games, having lost to the LA Raiders 24-21 on their previous visit to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in October 2019.

Coach pleased with win

Chicago Bears Head Coach Matt Eberflus said after his side’s 35-16 win over the Jaguars:

“The guys did a really good job the whole week working the plans. The coordinators did a nice job of that as well, getting those plans implements so they did a nice job there.

“In terms of the game evaluation, I thought that was really good complementary football during the course of us taking the ball away on defence and scoring those 14 points off of those takeaways. A couple good two-minute drives there, really good two-minute drive there at the half for the offense, and then a four-minute at the end of the game to expire it, waste some time there, and do a good job with that.”

Making progress

Commenting of the progress his side is currently making, Eberflus admitted:

“You make the progress, and you want it to be linear but it’s not always that way. But we feel that he took a step in the right direction, our football team took a step in the right direction of playing that complementary football, and him being able to distribute the football and operate. We ran some no huddle and different things in there where he had to operate there at the line and did a nice job today.”

Brian Thomas, who had an impressive game in this his rookie season, was mentioned by the Head Coach in his post-game interview.

“He’s a heck of a player, he really is,” Eberflus said. “I watched a lot of tape on him during the Draft process and he’s good. He’s fast. He can get the deep ball, and he’s going to have an outstanding career, you know, for himself and for the Jags. He’s exciting to watch, and you know, in terms of the three catches, you know, that’s NFL ball, right.? That’s the way it goes sometimes.”

Big impact from Swift

The big impact of D’Andre Swift in the game was also referenced by Eberflus, who said:

“The big thing about Swift is get him out in space because then he can be electric. I was really pleased how he ran the ball today. I think it was in the fives, and I think their run average was in the low fours, I believe, so.

“It was good in both regards in terms of the average. But you need some explosives, and you have to limit those on defence, and I thought we did that on both sides of the ball today. Again, that’s the perimeter blocking, the line, finishing, everything that they do and playing the way we play.”

With the Bears now having claimed three wins in-a-row, moving to 4-2 for the season, the Head Coach feels his side is going in the right direction:

“I think we are in a good spot, I really do. I think we have got a lot of improvement to do. But for the first six games, I think we are in a good spot, and we have to get our minds and our bodies and everything right to go on to these next six games starting with the first one.”

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