Since his rookie – meaning Urban Meyer-coached – season, Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence has owned Mike Vrabel’s defenses, and it has not really been that close.
Lawrence, as he did in Sunday’s 35-6 win over Vrabel’s New England Patriots, made mincemeat out of the defense with five touchdowns in five red-zone trips.
He was an efficient 19 of 29 for 182 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Now 4-1 in the last five against Vrabel’s defenses – the previous four games were with Tennessee from 2022-23 — Lawrence is now 122-of-168 for 1,304 yards with 11 touchdown passes and three interceptions, good for a sizzling 109.3 passer rating.
Patriots understand how bad it was
“An old-fashioned ass-whooping. It is what it is,” said Patriots safety Kevin Byard. “We didn’t get a stop at all (in the red zone).”
Added cornerback Christian Gonzalez, “It’s the defense, we’ve got to be better. We’ve got to stop the ball. We can’t let them go five for five in the red zone.”
The New England defense had allowed a league-low 16 points through two games, but this time around, it was all Jacksonville, pretty much from the start.
Mark J. Rebilas - Imagn Images
After a slow start, the Jags converted on eight of their last 10 third downs as the Patriots just couldn’t get off the field.
“They came in with their plan and they executed better than we did,” said Gonzalez.
His defensive backfield mate noted, “We know what we can do, however we did not display that today.”
Trouble at all levels
What the Patriots did display was a lack of play-making on all three levels.
The strength of the defense, its front with Milton Williams and Christian Barmore, got moved backwards repeatedly as Jacksonville’s top two backs averaged a healthy 4.8 yards per carry.
Linebackers Christian Ellis and Robert Spillane combined for just three solo tackles, and down to their No. 3 and 4 edge rushers, Gabe Jacas and Elijah Ponder, managed just one sack for four yards and fewer than five pressures.
Finally, on the back end, the Patriots’ coverage was spotty at best with Lawrence finding all the soft spots in New England’s zone, and receivers running free to move the chains 10 times through the air.
