JAGUARS HEAD COACH DOUG PEDERSON
POSTGAME MEDIA AVAILABILITY
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 2023
(OPENING STATEMENT)
DOUG PEDERSON: My hats off to our guys, our team. I told them after the game that other than
obviously winning the Super Bowl a few years ago, greatest coaching victory as a team, this one is right
up there with it. My hats off to our guys for just battling. As deep a hole as we dug in the first half, there
was – you guys have been around our team, you know there’s no quit in our guys. They did an
outstanding job, obviously, in the second half, and K Riley [Patterson] kicking that ball at the end was
obviously a thing of beauty.
Q. Doug, from your perspective having played quarterback, can you relate and give us some
appreciation for what QB Trevor Lawrence did tonight with throwing four picks and rallying back
throwing four touchdowns?
DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, I sure can. I played with one of the greatest quarterbacks ever in Brett Favre
and there were times he didn’t have a great first half and came back in the second half and could light it
up. That’s what I love about Trevor [Lawrence] and his demeanor and his aggressiveness and the ability
to just forget and move on. But he’ll be the first one to tell you that it’s not about him, it’s the guys
around him, too. [They] made plays, the protection was good, receivers were doing a nice job being
where they needed to be. But from an individual standpoint, this is really a great performance by our
quarterback.
Q. What does it say about this team that they never flinched, down that much and just kept fighting
back?
DOUG PEDERSON: I mean, it’s everything. That’s just what I told them at halftime, it’s kind of like our
season. We’ve put ourselves in a hole at times, and we’ve worked ourselves out of it at times. Just to
have the resiliency and the fight and the desire and the ability to continue to play, because it could have
easily gone the other way, and that’s what I’m so proud of these guys for. Everything is on the line, and
they go out and get the job done.
Q. Quarterbacks make their reputation, they become elite guys in the playoffs. What does this
performance today say about QB Trevor Lawrence and where he’s headed and what he can do for this
franchise?
DOUG PEDERSON: I’ll just keep saying it, it’s a step in the right direction for him and for our team and for
our franchise. We love having Trevor [Lawrence] as our quarterback. He never flinches. You saw the
emotion on the sneak, on the goal line. I think – was that the two-point conversion? You saw the
emotion and that’s who he is. I just love the fact that he’s leading our football team, but it’s a step in the direction that we want this organization to go, we want him to go, our team to go. We’ve just got to
continue to build on that.
Q. What type of tactical adjustments were you able to make at the half that allowed you and your
team to come all the way back?
DOUG PEDERSON: I think one of them was just we had to kind of go up-tempo and be on the ball a little
bit more in the second half. When we got down so many scores there, three scores at least, and we just
felt like we needed to get a spark and be up-tempo. We were just more efficient in the passing game,
and that’s what it takes. Sometimes it just takes the guys the desire and the want-to to play better on
offense, and they did, but I really think the up-tempo stuff helped us in the second half to kind of get us
back in the football game.
Q. Could you talk about calling the time-out? Did you just not like what you saw from the Chargers’
defensive front on the 4th-and-half yard and then electing to go outside?
DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, I just didn’t like the look that we had for the play we had called, and so I just
took the time-out. We reloaded, regrouped, put our heads together, came up with that call, and just a
great effort by [RB] Travis [Etienne Jr.] to obviously hit an off tackle there and get the first down and
more.
Q. So you’re okay with the risk of it, going outside?
DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, sometimes – listen, if they’re outside, you go inside. If they’re inside, you go
outside, and Travis is a heck of a back that can do that, and with his speed and ability, made a great play
in that moment.
Q. Did you tell K Riley Patterson anything in particular before he went out there, or did he say
anything that comes to mind?
DOUG PEDERSON: No. Didn’t say a word to him.
Q. He [K Riley Patterson] has made 17 out of 18 since that Chiefs game. Has this guy become very
reliable I would suppose?
DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, you know, obviously this is a big moment for him, and for him to make that kick
under these circumstances is great for his career, too. I’m just proud of him for battling through what
he’s – a little shaky start to start the season, but he’s really locked in here at the end of the year, and
nothing greater than that kick here at the end.
Q. The question is on the two-point conversion, you saw that they got the penalty. Was it one of those
things you had to really think about, should I go for the two-pointer or was it never a doubt?
DOUG PEDERSON: There was never a doubt, never a doubt. I trust in the players, trust our decision, felt
good about our call that we had. What it does is it – either a field goal wins or you’ve got to score a
touchdown to win. And so you get in these moments – listen, you trust the players, and you want to win
the football game. You want to do it for them. They battled their tails off, so there was no hesitation on
that.
Q. Would you have gone for two without the penalty?
DOUG PEDERSON: Probably not.
Q. Coming back from halftime, what’s your strategy when you come back from halftime knowing that
the score was 27 to 7? What was your strategy?
DOUG PEDERSON: Strategy was just one play at a time. We knew the defense was starting the second
half, so we felt like defensively we had to get off the field at some point. We tried to create takeaways,
turnovers, things of that nature, and if we could, offense just had to regroup and score. We talked about
possibly having to score every time we touched the ball, every possession in the second half. So that was
the strategy. We just had – it had to be a one-play-at-a-time mentality.
JAGUARS QUATERBACK TREVOR LAWRENCE
POSTGAME MEDIA AVAILABILITY
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 2023
Q. Four first-half interceptions, probably the worst half of football you’ve played maybe in your
football life so far, but you managed to bounce back, lead the team to victory. How were you able to
do that? What did Coach Doug Pederson tell you and what did you tell yourself?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: I mean, I said it after the game. Kind of just sums up our season, the game tonight.
For myself, obviously yeah, definitely the worst half of my football life, of a lot of people’s football life,
too. Some type of history probably in that stat. Really, I felt like only one of those plays was a big
decision. I felt like I was seeing things all right. They made a couple great plays. There was one where
Zay [Jones] got tangled up for whatever – we’ll leave it at that. The guy made a good play, though, on the 4th down early in the game. And then the one when we were backed up was a bad decision. I felt like I was seeing it all right and I just needed to settle in. We didn’t get any momentum going, couldn’t get a drive going. Really just felt like we needed to settle in, and then our defense kept getting stops for us, and I knew once we get the ball and get rolling for that first score like we did at the end of the half. Once we kind of got that and got the momentum back, felt good about – we’ve been in that situation before, not that many points but similar situations. That’s the thing, just the belief in this team. It’s kind of – it’s really cool to see what can happen when everybody believes. I wouldn’t have been able to do what I did today and what the offense was able to do in the second half to bounce back, also the defense, if we didn’t believe in one another. I threw four picks in the first half, and those guys beside me on offense and the guys on the other side of the ball didn’t ever lose faith in me, and that’s one thing that makes it easier, when you know you’ve got guys that believe in you, no matter what the circumstances are.
Q. Head Coach Doug Pederson’s play call on that 4th and 1, the handoff to RB Travis Etienne Jr., him
calling time-out right before to get you guys settled down, can you talk about the confidence you guys
had when you were lined up for that and the confidence in Doug and his play call?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: Yeah, we actually had a different call on before, and he didn’t like the look that the
defense was in. It was probably smart looking back at it. Just got the time-out off. I was kind of mad at
first because I thought it was going to work. Then he told me, and I was like, all right, sounds good. So,
then he got the new call in, and just get the ball in Travis [Etienne Jr.]’s hands, and he makes a play like
that, wins the game for us essentially. Obviously Riley [Patterson] won the game, but putting us in
position there. It takes a lot of guts there, fourth-and-1 and game on the line, and just the guys up front,
they just mashed them. They set the edge, and Travis was rolling.
Q. Some close losses early in the season for the Jags, but where did the belief to battle out of a deficit
like that one come from?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: I think we’ve always had it, and we just weren’t on the right side of them for a few
weeks, but I really think we never stopped believing. That was the main thing. We had five losses, those
five losses in a row all one-score games, had opportunities to win it, and even after that fifth one, it’s
like, we never wavered, never lost belief. Coach [Pederson] didn’t lose belief in us. That’s how we dug
our way out of it, and same thing we did tonight. That’s why I said it kind of epitomizes our season.
You’re never out of it, and I think that’s the one lesson that we’ve all learned. I know I’ve learned this
year is just, like I said, when you believe and everybody believes, it’s cool what you can accomplish, and
tonight was one of those games.
Q. How do you top what you guys just did tonight and what you did tonight?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: Hopefully we don’t have to. Hopefully we play a little bit better next week. The
defense, hopefully they play just like they did tonight. They did a great job. But offensively you can’t turn
the ball over that many times and expect to win. We found a way tonight, but it’s probably not a good
formula moving forward. So, I know for me personally, it shouldn’t take that type of second half to go
win the game. If you just play better in the first half and take care of the ball. I didn’t play my best
tonight, so I’m going to watch the tape. There’s going to be so much to learn from, but honestly, you
couldn’t write a better script than to win a game like that tonight. Makes it more special, but don’t want
to do that again. We’ve got to take care of the ball. That’s where it starts. I think besides that, it was a
pretty – all phases played pretty well besides just the turnovers on offense. I think we can be – I know
we can be better on 3rd down. We weren’t great tonight. That’s another area to improve on, but took
advantage of our red zone opportunities, scored on most of those or all of those. Yeah, just hang on to
the ball.
Q. Your receivers said that as the interceptions and turnovers were piling up that you kept the huddle
level, kept a level mindset. How do you do that inside your own head? How do you keep your head
level?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: Yeah, like I said, I didn’t really — honestly didn’t have a choice. We’ve come this far,
and those guys are depending on me. To win games in general in this league but especially in the
playoffs, the quarterback has to play well. Wasn’t playing well, and I knew it was going to take a lot to
turn it around, but there’s no – I told the guys in the huddle, there’s no 27-point plays. It’s going to be
one play at a time. That’s what it took, one play at a time, all the way down the field, just again and
again and again. All we can do at this point is just try to score every drive, then trust our defense. If they
get a stop, great; it gives us another chance to score. If they don’t, great; we’ll get the ball back and go
score again. So that was our mindset, and you’ve got playing with confidence. That was the one thing,
just self-talk in my head going back and forth. It’s tough when you’re struggling and not playing well, but
if I don’t continue to be myself, we don’t have a shot to win because then I’m going to miss the plays
that I usually make. I just had to keep my confidence. Missed a few throws, I think where some of those
turnovers where I was being a little cautious. After that I felt like I kind of got back on track and settled
in.
Q. Just to piggy-back on that a little bit, is that a learned thing, to be able to overcome that kind of
failure? Could you do that back in high school or college? I know you didn’t have this kind of failure in
high school or college, but would you have been able to have that second half last year even?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: It’s kind of hard to say. Probably not. Like I said, just really it’s – I was able to turn it
around and play well in the second half, but it all stems from the collective belief of the team. When you
get in that situation and you don’t — and you feel like everyone doesn’t really believe you’ve got a shot
and things start to crumble around you, whether that’s defense, offense, that’s kind of when you’re in
trouble and it doesn’t feel like you’ve got a shot to win it, and there was never that feeling. Even at
halftime, I think it was 27-7, down 20, and Foley [Folorunso Fatukasi] brought everybody up, and he’s
like, we’re going to win this game. We’re going to find a way to win this game; you’ve got to believe it.
And we all believed it. We really did. That’s the crazy thing is it’s easy to say it after, but you really don’t – if you don’t really believe it. Man, I don’t really know what else to say. I’m kind of rambling because it’s
just a special night. I’m just proud of the group, this city. It was a special night for a lot of people, and
just thankful for everybody that played a part in it.
Q. Why do you think this team seems to thrive on doing things sort of the hard way? Like coming back
from 3-7 to win the division, and then something like this?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: I don’t know, Coach [Doug Pederson] showed a video — I don’t know if you guys
heard of Jocko [Willink]. You guys can look it up. It’s this video where he talks about “good.” And it’s like,
no matter what happens, that’s your response: “good.” Threw four picks in the first half, good. He
showed that back in – I don’t know if it was training camp or during the season maybe when we were on
that losing streak. I don’t know when it was. But that’s just been our mindset. Then we say it on the
sideline joking around. One of the linemen, I forget who it was, said to me after I threw three or four
picks, he was like, “good,” just looking at me, like all right, not the time. But it’s just the mindset of this
group. Like I said, you can’t make a living on doing it the hard way all the time, but you’re going to have
to sometimes, and we had to tonight, and we were able to get it done.
Q. You’ve played in a lot of big games in your life. This is your first career playoff game. Where does
this one stack up for you with the games that you’ve played in?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: It’s up there. It’s a special one. Definitely one I’ll never forget. First playoff win. Like
we talked about, obviously, the ups and downs of the game. I mean, it kind of speaks for itself. It’s
special, and there’s something about this team, just the way we’ve been able to stick together, it’s really
honestly kind of leaves you speechless sometimes. I’ve said it a million times, but just the belief, it’s
really cool. I’m proud to be a part of it. It’s just the beginning for us.
JAGUARS K RILEY PATTERSON
POSTGAME MEDIA AVAILABILITY
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 2023
Q. Riley, talk a little bit about the way you’ve kicked since the Kansas City game. I’m wondering, was it
just the positive stuff going through your mind when you got to the point when you know you’re
going to go out there and try it, and did Logan Cooke say anything reassuring to you in any way or any
other teammates before you kicked it?
RILEY PATTERSON: Logan [Cooke], after I got him away from the ref, he said, “Oh, just like a Wednesday
practice”, which I had no idea. He told me afterwards. I couldn’t hear a thing he was saying. I was kind of
locked in at that point. But I had no doubt, all the faith in the world, everybody on the line, Ross
[Matiscik], Logan [Cooke], perfect snap, perfect hold, and it was really pretty flawless. It was awesome.
Q. At what point did you feel like this might come down to me to kick a field goal to win this thing?
RILEY PATTERSON: Yeah, when we got about 10 points down, I was like, okay, well, we have an opportunity to maybe tie this up with a field goal going into overtime. We ended up getting that two-
point conversion in, and I’m like, wow, we could win this on a field goal. But at the same time, we’re professionals and try not to think too far ahead, just kind of stay in the zone and keep my heartbeat
down and stay locked in as much as I can.
Q. Do you remember the last time you had to kick something like that in that moment, where moving
on was important, not just another game, but this is playoffs? Anything as important as this?
RILEY PATTERSON: The Cowboys game was definitely a big game, and I think we really needed that
game, so putting that one into overtime, that field goal was really big. But to win it, back in college
against Houston my senior year, last game at home, that was a big moment, and that was kind of our
rival, so that was huge. That was a lot of fun. This is pretty sweet, though. Playoff game at home, like it
doesn’t get much better than that. You dream of stuff like this as a kicker.
JAGUARS LB FOYE OLUOKON
POSTGAME MEDIA AVAILABILITY
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 2023
Q. What was the probability of coming from behind down 27-0, and if you had to pin it on a moment
in the second half, when did it turn?
FOYE OLUOKUN: It was gradual. I mean, the odds, I told the boys, I don’t like my odds but I love my
chances. As long as there’s a little probability of winning at all, we’re going to keep fighting. We saw the
tables start turning, we had momentum, we kept that, we keep getting the ball back to the offense and
they started rolling. I couldn’t pinpoint an exact time, but when we started making them punt and we
started scoring. I think that touchdown to Evan [Engram] maybe over the middle, once we saw we had a
larger chance, might as well take it.
Q. This was your first career playoff game. Is this one, especially with the way it went, one that you’ll
remember forever?
FOYE OLUOKUN: Yeah, probably. That was crazy. We were down and we won. I just love the boys, [we]
came together as a team when things got hard. We were in the locker room, everybody was pretty calm
and we said, we’re not playing well, let’s play better. Everybody said we’re going to play better for our
brothers, buy some more time for our brothers, and when we came together like that, everybody’s
accountability went up and we all played hard and came out with a win.
Q. When the offense starts getting it rolling like they did in the second half, what does that do for you
guys as a defense?
FOYE OLUOKUN: It’s cool to see them start going. It turned from stops to let’s get three-and-outs, like
let’s get the ball to them as soon as possible, keep the ball in their hands because they’re going to do
something special with it. We were on our P’s and Q’s because we waere mad about letting them drive
that one drive that they missed the field goal on. Our job when the offense was rolling was to get the
ball back to them as soon as possible, and they’ll just take the game over.
Q. You all have been here before toward the end of games. How much did all of those experiences of
games coming down to the last three minutes here at home help you all get back into this game?
FOYE OLUOKUN: Yeah, I mean, we were down 20 something, a lot, and we’ve been down a lot a lot of
times. Obviously earlier in the year we came back and lost, and then later in the year as the middle of
the year went on, we came back and won. It’s the same energy, let’s just make this game close, and if
we do the right things to end the game. We went into half, we got a touchdown, we came back, we got
seven, came back after halftime, I think they might have got three or something, but we kept fighting,
made that game closer and closer, just chip away. That game is close, we’ll take our shot at the end of
the game, and that’s what we did. I told the boys we just need one stop and we’re going to win it. We
had that stop, they went down, kicked the field goal, and that’s just situational football.
Q. What changed at halftime? They obviously had a few short fields going into the half and things of
that nature, but after halftime you previously mentioned that you guys had more of a sense of
urgency, it was more about getting three-and-outs. Did anything change as far as coverages, the game
plan, anything along those lines, or was it just hey, play better?
FOYE OLUOKUN: Yeah, kind of play better. We had seen the plays that they run to our specific
coverages, so we kind of went over how to match the routes and get a little bit of a different nuance
within the pass rush, but really just execute our plays. We put some plays in for this week, and we
needed to execute them.
Q. What was the conversation among the defense in the first half when you saw interception after
interception that had you guys on your heels defending the red zone? How did you guys rally a bit
when things were seemingly coming downhill on you guys?
FOYE OLUOKUN: Yeah, we’ve just got to keep them out of the end zone in those situations. Offense, we
were just waiting for them to start going. If we just made a couple stops when we were put in those
situations backed up, offense is going to capitalize off of that, so our job in those situations is to keep
them out of the end zone, and we weren’t doing it at first. So, we came in at halftime, we’re like, we
need to play better, we need to communicate better, get there with more urgency, tackle better. I know
I missed a tackle maybe first drive, second drive. Just do what we’re supposed to do, and when the
offense gets rolling, they’ll do that.
Q. The penalty against the Chargers allows you guys to go for two instead of kicking the extra point,
and then the field goal ties it. Trevor gets the two-pointer. How does that change everything?
FOYE OLUOKUN: We didn’t even think about that. I told the boys while they were driving to score that
touchdown, we get one stop, we’re going to win the game. One stop to win it. We had the momentum
at that time, offense was rolling. Whether they scored a touchdown and made it a three-point game, I
felt like if we get a stop, they’re going to score seven. We knew if we got that stop, we’re going to win
the game. When it was two points instead, it was even further; let’s make this three-and-out, get the ball back to them, and then offense had do what they needed to do, run that clock out, kick the game-
winning field goal.
Q. The Dallas Cowboys game that you came from behind in double digits, do you feel that that game
itself probably provided you with a lot of momentum going into the final year that you had such an
incredible contest tonight to pull it out under unbelievable circumstances?
FOYE OLUOKUN: Kind of like we were talking about earlier we had a lot of close games this year. The
Giants game, I think maybe we came back in the Ravens game, the Raiders game. We did those earlier.
Then that Detroit game happened, and we just knew the kind of energy and fight we needed to have for
four quarters, and we knew if we brought what we were supposed to bring to the table, anything was
possible. Yeah, that Dallas game was cool to see, but we had kind of learned our winning equation a
little bit earlier than that. It was just our accountability on doing that. That’s just kind of how we are as a
team right now. We just keep fighting all the way through, no matter what’s happening in the game.
We’re going to put ourselves in what we feel is the best chance to win, regardless of what happened in
the beginning.
JAGUARS RUNNING BACK TRAVIS ETIENNE JR.
POSTGAME MEDIA AVAILABILITY
SATURDAY, January 14, 2023
Q. (On the play of Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence)
TRAVIS ETIENNE JR.: “He put himself in a bad situation, but I mean at the end of the day, we still have a
whole another half left, you know. Trevor [Lawrence] is a guy who is next play, that is football mentality.
You can’t let the last play beat you multiple times. Trev showed tremendous willpower and mental
strength to keep playing and on focusing on the task at hand.”
Q. You’ve played with him (Lawrence) a long time and he’s never had a half like that. Did you think
that, at some point, things were just going to get away from him?
TRAVIS ETIENNE JR.: I mean when you are playing the game, you are not thinking about losing. We had
the whole half left. It never crosses your mind as a competitor. I was thinking how I can be better to help
Trev. How I can get into a better position to help him not make those plays? That is where my mind
goes. Trev, his mind goes just to take it one step at a time. I feel as if when we try to do too much, that’s
when we get in our own way. He had to simply (it) and the big plays came.
Q. Walk us through that 4th and 1 run for you. What did that mean to you?
TRAVIS ETIENNE JR.: I was just trying to win the game. I was just trying to ice the game. I’m happy coach
called my name, honestly, called my number. And I feel like anytime coach calls my number I’m ready
and I was able to show it with that play.
