JAGUARS HEAD COACH DOUG PEDERSON
POSTGAME MEDIA AVAILABILITY
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2022
Q. What were your emotions watching Rayshawn Jenkins on the pick-six and seeing the team
celebrate like that?
DOUG PEDERSON: No flags on the field. Didn’t step out of bounds. Make sure he caught the football.
There were a bunch of things still going through my head. I’ve been a part of, I think, two walk-off
games, one when I was a player in Green Bay. In fact, the guy on the other side of the field, Al Harris,
actually picked it off for us and went into the end zone, and today. This one was obviously a little more
special. Just happy for the guys, man. They never gave up. We talked about it last night at the hotel. We
talked about it again today. We just kept chipping away against a really good football team. That’s a
well-coached unit. They’re obviously one of the top teams in the league. But this win today, I think, kind
of just gives our guys confidence in who they are as a team.
Q. There’s a magic with a franchise quarterback; do you see the belief in Trevor Lawrence in the locker
room? How is that growing and particularly over the last five or six weeks? What’s that belief like?
DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, the belief has always been there. Trevor has done a great job of just running
the show, running the team, doing what he’s capable of doing. Just so happy for him, but really for the
whole team. The guys are starting to believe in themselves, too, and that’s important down the stretch.
Just a tremendous win by everybody, all three phases had a hand in it.
Q. Just want to ask you, the first half their offensive line, I thought, did a pretty good job of keeping
you at bay and obviously they built a lead. What happened in the second half that might have
changed everything around? Was there something you did differently?
DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, no, they obviously have a really good offensive line. They pride themselves on
running the football. They did a nice job in the first half. I just think it’s a lot like last week against
Tennessee. At some point, you just have to wake up and say enough is enough. The guys just hung in
there and made a few adjustments up front as far as staying in base or going nickel defense, things like
that, but other than that, we committed 11 guys to the run, and then it opened up our pass rushers to
get after Dak (Prescott) in the passing game there in the second half, which really helped us on the last
play of the game.
Q. Keeping the composure, even after Trevor’s fumble, and they recovered with whatever time they
had left, you still had three timeouts. How important was it to say, guys, stop them here, we get
another chance?
DOUG PEDERSON: That’s exactly the message we had on the sideline. There are three timeouts, still a lot
of time, we get the ball back with just under a minute to go and a chance to go tie the football game.
What I appreciate about our guys, and really the coaching staff, is how we prepare our players for
situations like that, and there’s no panic. Guys are prepared. My hats off to the staff for putting them in
positions to go win games, or in that case to go tie the game. Just a great effort there.
Q. The two 17-point comebacks this year, what does that say about a team that’s trying to figure out
who they are and how good they can be, that you were able to do that twice, especially against a
team like this?
DOUG PEDERSON: Well, I mean, we saw the game last night, the Minnesota game. I’ve been a part of
games where we’ve been down and you work your way back. Listen, our guys — I don’t really think they
worry too much about where it is, what the score is. I really don’t. I just think they keep focused on their
job and keep getting better at what they’re doing in game, and as I said, we just keep chipping away.
Somewhere, we’re going to get a stop on defense or a takeaway. Somewhere, we’re going to score a
touchdown or a field goal on offense, special teams are going to step up. That’s why you play 60
minutes. So I think it’s just a matter of the guys just kind of trusting in themselves and gaining
confidence as the game goes on.
Q. Tre Herndon had a little bit of a rough day but gets his hand in on that final pass and knocks it up. Is
that the kind of kid that he is and the kind of player he is?
DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, I think Roy (Robertson-Harris) had an impact on that play, too, as a D-line pass
rush. I think he maybe hit Dak’s (Prescott) arm or something, too. So listen, for 60 minutes and however
— 65 minutes or whatever it was in the game, it really doesn’t matter. It comes down to players making
plays, and those guys, those two or three guys at that point made a play, and that’s what games come
down to. It just comes down to a handful of plays, and just happy and proud of the guys for the way they
hung in there.
Q. Yogi Berra had the old saying, “It’s not over until it’s over.” We saw what happened with the game
yesterday with Minnesota and Indianapolis. Is there any kind of a halftime speech when you know
you’re behind by a lot, especially against a top-tier football team?
DOUG PEDERSON: Listen, I’ve been around this game a long time, from my dad coaching me in pee-wee
leagues until now. There’s no magical speeches, there’s no words you can say. It just comes down to the
players; we talk about players making plays. These guys are playing with a lot of confidence. They’re
playing together. We’re playing complementary football. Early in the season we probably weren’t. We’re
doing that now. I guess the biggest thing, too, so if we just continue to focus on us and keep it internal, I
do think that good things are going to happen for this team, and they’re starting to show up. We still
have a long way to go, even with three games. We’re on a short week, playing on Thursday night, on the
road. It’s tough. We’ve got to check out the injury situation. We’ve got our work cut out for us still.
Q. Do you want to see this get to a point where the Jacksonville Jaguars are no longer a trap game,
that people are going to start taking your program a whole lot more seriously?
DOUG PEDERSON: Well, I don’t get into a lot of that as much as I want our team to understand that we
need to be playing meaningful football games in December and January, and we’ve put ourselves in that
position. So I’m proud of the guys for doing that.
Our season could have gone sideways three, four weeks ago, and the guys weren’t going to let that
happen. I don’t get caught up in all the storylines and all that, the shoulda-coulda-wouldas. It’s just a
matter of those guys in that dressing room believing in themselves and getting the job done.
Q. Against this defense you’re going to have to run the ball effectively and Travis (Etienne Jr.) did that
in the stuff he ran with Jamal (Agnew), nice little change up and everything. Talk about how much
that happened Trevor (Lawrence), and then you went back to Travis (Etienne Jr.) almost immediately
right back in the game after the fumble. The confidence you have in that kid obviously is pretty high.
How much did the overall run game help you today?
DOUG PEDERSON: We felt like we had to try to run the ball today. It’s a good pass defense, and they’re
good on 3rd down. We saw the pass rush and how dynamic it is. So we felt like we had to give the run
game a serious consideration today. Offensive line did a nice job. We had some missed direction runs,
too. You saw Agnew on the perimeter and of course (Etienne Jr.) between the tackles and things like
that, and JaMycal Hasty had a couple nice runs in there. Just being able to keep a defense like that off
balance and not really knowing where the run is coming from opens up some of the movement game,
opens up some of the play action stuff. It was just great to see that our guys were able to kind of do that
and create those opportunities offensively.
Q. The ball security on Travis (Etienne Jr.), you just keep working and working —
DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, with Travis (Etienne Jr.), it’s like a quarterback; if you throw a pick, we’re going
to put the ball back in your hands the next time we get a touch. I wanted to make sure that Travis
(Etienne Jr.) knew we still have a lot of confidence in him and we’re going to keep feeding him the
football. He did a nice job after that, and we’ve just got to keep coaching him and making him
understand that listen, ball security is everything.
Q. Four touchdown game today for Trevor (Lawrence); talk about how your receivers today stepped
up big to make that possible.
DOUG PEDERSON: I mean, these guys, it’s an unselfish group. They work hard in practice every single
day. You never know who’s going to get the hot hand in a game. A week ago, it was 17 (Evan Engram).
Zay (Jones) had some nice catches today, Christian (Kirk) down the stretch, Marv (Marvin Jones) got in
the mix, screen to (Etienne Jr.). There’s all kinds of things that took place in this game, but just the way
these guys work with one another, work with Trevor (Lawrence), the way they practice, the way they
study their opponent, study the game plan says a lot about who they are, the type of people and men
that they are.
Q. Cam Robinson, Jawaan Taylor, can you update us on those —
DOUG PEDERSON: Yeah, I’ll check with Ferg (Director of Athletic Training Jeff Ferguson) when I’m done
here. I don’t have any updates right now.
Q. Is there fear that it’s a severe one on Cam (Robinson)?
DOUG PEDERSON: I don’t want to speculate.
Q. Sometimes coaches just get a feeling about a team. What’s your feeling about this team? Do you
have a feeling that it’s a special team? That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to win a Super
Bowl, but do you have a feel about this team?
DOUG PEDERSON: It’s a special team in the sense that I’m seeing this group starting to come together,
playing that complementary style of football. Even going back to training camp, the way we practiced
and the way we did things back then, you had the hope and the glimmer that we would one day be one
of those football teams. It takes time. I’ve said this before; it’s not an overnight fix. But the way these
guys continue to work together, I’m telling you, the way they practice — I know you guys don’t see
practice all the time, but the way they practice, and they practice hard, they just keep believing in
themselves. From that, yeah, it’s a special team. I really don’t think you win games like this if you
weren’t a close group, if you didn’t have the right leadership in the locker room, if you didn’t practice
the way we practice. Hats off to the guys for really buying into all that.
JAGUARS QUARTERBACK TREVOR LAWRENCE
POSTGAME MEDIA AVAILABILITY
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2022
Q. Can you give us your emotions of the game and why you and WR Zay Jones were so connected
today with three touchdown passes?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: I don’t know, honestly. I don’t know why. It’s just one of those days. It’s kind of
how our offense has been working this whole year. You never know whose day it’s going to be. It could
be anybody’s. Obviously, you have things in the plan for everybody. Maybe someone has a little bit
more, depending on who you’re playing, the defense you’re playing. But it wasn’t necessarily a game
where I knew Zay [Jones] was going to have a huge day. It was just kind of how things went, and then we
got some calls in there like the double move on the outside with the long touchdown that we got off the
card, which was awesome. He made a bunch of great plays, so it was awesome.
Q. What did it mean to you seeing the defense get that three-and-out late and give you guys another
chance?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: I mean, just kind of epitomizes this team. We were down 17 at one point, I don’t
know. Before that I think we were down — whatever it was — threw the pick, bad play, defense
responds, holds them, kick a field goal, we get it back, go score, fight back. We go on a little run those
next two or three series offensively. We were just moving the ball up and down the field, and then we
get them down at the end, we’re down by three, have three minutes left on that drive, putting together
a good drive, had a nice run, and then I fumble trying to cut back. Right away I was like, oh, game is over,
fumbled, and I just obviously couldn’t believe it and I was disappointed. Then I look up, well, we’ve got
three time-outs, our defense has been showing up every time we’ve needed them today. So I am
standing there at our defense’s mercy just praying we get a stop, and really believed in those guys, just
what they’ve shown, and didn’t even flinch. I am walking off, they’re all picking me up walking off after
the fumble. They’re like, we got you. That’s just the mindset of this team. No matter what happens
you’ve just got to keep playing. We’ve all seen, I mentioned even like the Vikings game the other night,
you’ve got to keep playing. You never know what’s in store on the next play, and if you’re too busy
thinking about the last one you’re going to miss it. I think that’s a great example of how we were able to
do that today. Just battled some adversity, and it was always the Jags, as [S Andrew Wingard] Dewey
would say.
Q. We did record him coming through the hallway creaming that.
TREVOR LAWRENCE: Again today?
Q. Yes. We do have the video.
TREVOR LAWRENCE: Awesome. I’ll see that later.
Q. When you go back to the Broncos’ interception. I talked to Christian (Kirk), he referenced the
Giants game (where) you guys come up two feet short. When you look at those games, how you’ve
learned from them, but also like you were just saying the resiliency of this team for you to fumble and
no one flinches, how has that changed over the last five weeks with this team? That you guys — that
happens, and not only do you personally flush the play, but everybody seems to flush it.
TREVOR LAWRENCE: Yeah, I think it’s one of those things. We were pretty — this is a newer group. A lot
of us haven’t played together before. A few of us have obviously last season and beyond that, but we’ve
got a lot of new guys, and I think you build that over time, that trust in one another. I think we built it
pretty fast here, but still, it takes time. I think early in the year we kind of had to prove to each other
that we can win no matter what the situation is, and then you look at — I’m trying to even think of the
wins we’ve had. Baltimore is one of them, but especially today. Going back even before that, the Raiders
game, we were down 17. I think we got more and more confidence as the season has gone on, where no
matter what kind of hole we’re in, we’re going to find a way out of it. We just got to keep playing, keep
playing, and I think we’ve done that now three or four times this season to where now when something
bad happens, no one is looking around. We’re all just staying calm. We know we just got to make the
next play. We all know when that time in the game is. All right, we’re down 14. It’s late in the third
quarter. We’ve got to go now. I think we’ve been able to make plays in those big moments where we
have to have them. Obviously, you don’t want to be in that situation every week, but sometimes you’re
going to be. Dallas is a great team. Really, really good team. That’s going to happen. Just to be able to
fight through that, I think that says a lot about this team, how much we trust one another. And then just
kind of icing on the cake, Rayshawn (Jenkins), the game-sealing pick six is incredible.
Q. And where were you on Rayshawn’s (Jenkins) pick-six?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: I was over by our little quarterback section on the bench, just standing there
watching. Big 3rd down obviously. I could just tell the way the play was unfolding kind of had to
scramble. I figured we were going to get a stop there, but then I saw them throw shallow and the ball
got tipped, and when he (Jenkins) caught it, I was just like thinking, okay, we’re going to be in field goal
range, maybe get a 1st down game-winner. And then we just kept rolling. I was like, thank goodness. I
didn’t want to go back on the field. Just end it right now. We all want to go home. Get the win. What
better way to do it than a walk-off by him? He had a crazy — I don’t know what the stats were, but he
had a crazy day today, which was awesome.
Q. Apparently he had never had a pick-six in his life before, going pack to Pee-Wee.
TREVOR LAWRENCE: Good time for it. It was a really good time for it.
Q. It’s a national game; it’s the Cowboys; what do you think people take away from this team that
were watching this game, about this team’s identity, about who they are, about what kind of feeling
you guys have about this team?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: Yeah, I don’t really care, honestly, what people think. I say that; I do think it feels
good to win a game like this. A big game, national game, like you said, against a great team. It feels good
just to show who we are. You can’t lie; that feels good to show people that.
But it doesn’t change anything about us. We’re the same group. We lost five games straight in October
and everyone wrote us off. If you listen to what people say, you’re not really in a good spot. It’s the
same group and we’ve just stuck together. It’s been fun. Right here, three games left, we’ve got a little
run we’ve got to make, and we’ve said that the last couple weeks, and we’ve stepped up to the
challenge. We’ve got to do it again on a short week. This one is short-lived. We’ve got to flush it by the
morning and get ready for the Jets.
Q. Obviously you go into the game with Travon Walker inactive; the Cowboys come up with a double-
digit lead, but like you’ve said, this team is accustomed to adversity anyways. How much did Travon
Walker not playing enter your mind that you’re going to win despite him being out of the lineup, that
you guys can prove to people that you are a legitimate football team on the rise?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: Yeah, today is his birthday, actually. I don’t know if you guys knew that. So I saw
him in the training room and he’s been trying to go all week. Just doing everything he can to play
because he wants to be out there, and (I) saw him in there not suiting up, so I knew he wasn’t going to
play. I saw him today. I was like, hey, we got you. We’re going to get this one for you. That was what I
told him. Saw him after the game and gave him a hug. I was like, I told you. That’s just how this team is.
It’s awesome.
Q. You mentioned about going 0-for-5 in October. When you see the script flip the way it has, talking
about the way the season has gone, does it in any way make you feel like this is a team of destiny at
all?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: I don’t even know what that means. Tough question. (Laughter.) I think that it just
shows what this game is about. You’re never out of it. Obviously, we put ourselves — we’ve been saying
this for a while… We put ourselves in a hole with that little rough stretch we were on, but you’re never
out of it. I think that’s the cool thing about this game is you get to see yourselves fight through adversity,
be resilient, and we’re a lot better for it. Even today just the way we won that game — when you win
games like this, like we did with Baltimore, too, and the Raiders, when you win games like this, it just
builds so much trust in your group. When this comes up again because it’s going to happen again; we’re
going to be down seven or 14 again, and there’s no panic because we’ve been there. Literally that’s what
we say on the sideline is we’ve been here before. That’s what we said today. To answer your question, I
don’t know. We’ve got to finish this year, and we’ve got three games left to give ourselves a shot, and
we’re really only focusing on the Jets now, and that’s what you have to do. One game at a time and see
where we’re at, but we’re stacking up pretty nicely here at the end, so we’ve got to keep going.
Q. The pass that got you into field goal range to tie the game up, tell us a little about that play
because obviously getting that timeout was an important thing. How many different options were
there before you snapped the ball, got the play?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: Yeah, it was an interesting little series of events. Obviously, Evan (Engram) — that’s
one of the plays of the game, getting out of bounds there, throw him a shallow on the hash and he runs
all the way and somehow gets out without getting tackled. Then after that, it was 3rd down and we get
up there and they’re bringing cover zero, then they called a timeout. We would have to – obviously,
they’re bringing pressure, so you’ve got to figure out what play you want to get in. So I was kind of
assessing that. They call a timeout, it gives us time. Then they check out of it. They go out, they go
single-high. They went zone; I thought it was man, so I got my man concept going on the other side, and
it wasn’t man, so I got kind of stuck there, so I scrambled. But then Zay (Jones) did a great job just
making himself available and we made the play, and I think it was right over a guy’s head. Barely got it.
It’s just one of those games where we had to make some plays like that. It wasn’t always pretty, and it
was a pretty crazy little sequence there, though.
Q. You just referenced it a little bit, but how big was the Evan (Engram) play to get out of bounds —
TREVOR LAWRENCE: Huge.
Q. Just the awareness, the situational awareness, the toughness —
TREVOR LAWRENCE: It’s kind of like everybody asked me last week when he (Evan Engram) had a huge
game, is it cool to see him have a game like that? Yeah, but he’s been a great player for us this whole
season. Like I said, it hasn’t always showed up in the stats, but that play, you could argue that helped us
win the game. If he doesn’t get out there, we burn the timeout, there’s not many plays you can run to
get 10, 12 yards and get out of bounds that the defense doesn’t know you’re going to do. Everybody
runs the same stuff. That’s not a situation you want to be in where you’ve got to get out of bounds, you
need 10 yards to get in field goal range, you don’t have any time to get it inbounds and clock it. And that
let us call whatever we wanted to call, and then (I) scrambled and hit Zay (Jones). That changed the
game. Just little things like that. There’s so many plays today that you can look at that if guys don’t
make, we don’t win, and it’s cool to be, like I’ve said before, on this side of it when we make those plays
and win, so it’s cool.
Q. Before I left my house this morning my seven-year-old told me a Jags’ win would make his
Christmas. What does it mean to you that so many people of all ages find joy in your success and the
success of this team?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: It’s one of the cooler things about what we do. Obviously, when things aren’t going
well, you’re under the microscope and it’s not always great, but when you have days like today and you
kind of do what we’ve been able to do the last couple weeks, just to see the excitement. People spend
their hard-earned money to come watch up play, to travel to watch us play. Just to see the fans be able
to enjoy the wins with us, too, when we’re able to do what we did today, it’s special. Like you said,
there’s kids, there’s adults, everybody is really hanging their hat on what we do on Sunday. That’s a
pretty cool position to be in, and it’s great when you can do something like we did today and be able to
just to give them a little bit of joy, so it’s awesome.
Q. Can you just talk about Walker Little, coming off the bench playing left tackle and right tackle
against a guy like Micah Parsons, and what does that say about him?
TREVOR LAWRENCE: Says a lot. If you asked anyone, that’s probably the last thing someone wants to do
going in to play, and these guys just flip back and forth each tackle position going against Micah moving
all over the place. That’s not really what you want to do. But for him, he was pumped to get the
opportunity, and just ready to step up and play. He’s had to do that before last year. I think Cam
(Robinson) went out right before the game we played Buffalo and we ended up beating Buffalo, and he
had to play the whole game at left tackle without really getting any reps in practice. So he’s done that
before, and I’ve got a lot of trust in him, and he’s been great for us.
