Jaguars vs Steelers Rewatch: Observations from Preseason Week 1

After providing our initial takeaways and lingering questions from this week’s preseason home opener, we take a closer review of the performance after evaluating the televised gameplay. In this week’s write-up, we focus primarily on the starting defense, offense, and a few additional notable player performances.

As a note, this review is based on non-All-22 film and (normally) published before PFF grades are released to remain truly uninfluenced and unbiased on what we see. This style of review knowingly places some limitations on evaluating secondary play without confirming the full coverage looks.

With that said, let’s get into some takeaways from the Jaguars’ 31-25 preseason loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Offense

Quarterback Evaluation

• Trevor Lawrence, playing only one drive, had a reasonably sharp day, driving the starting offense down the field despite multiple offensive penalties putting the team behind the sticks. The only potentially negative from his day was the “hospital ball” thrown on the glance route, where Lawrence accurately hits Brian Thomas Jr. and doesn’t really stare him down. The safety makes a great read and break. However, I do question if the timing could have been slightly better, with the outbreak of Etienne’s route to pull the LB out of the throwing lane sooner, or a faster break by Thomas. This obviously can’t be the norm, with your WR1 taking to many hits such as this, wherever the issue lies.

• Outside of this play, Lawrence’s throws were decisive and accurate, getting the ball out quickly and allowing the receivers to use their legs to work down the field.

• Backup Nick Mullens had an up-and-down day, with the good being his two field goal drives and being generally efficient at getting the ball to his playmakers. However, his Trenton Irwin underthrow that was dropped and the Parker Washington underthrow on third down stick out. The Irwin drop would have likely been a touchdown if thrown both out and in front of the receiver, and the Washington underthrow resulted in a PBU.

Run Game Evaluation

• Upon second watch, I actually think the offensive line did generally well in opening holes on the opening two drives (considering the Steelers’ defenders not playing). However, a missed assignment by Dyami Brown on an early Travis Etienne run resulted in a tackle just past the line of scrimmage. Chuma Edoga and Robert Hainsey worked well together on their initial combo block that should have sprung the Etienne rush. Hainsey did fail to hold his block on the second Etienne rushing attempt, which may have gone for much longer. Walker Little and Anton Harrison, for the most part, held their own in the running game.
• Etienne rushed for just 6 yards on two carries. He arguably missed a cutback lane on his second rushing attempt that likely would have gone for a longer rush. Etienne had a much bigger day in the passing game in this one, catching a 10-yard reception – the second longest reception of the starting...