Turnover-riddled showing by Jaguars allowed Eagles to dictate 29-21 loss

PHILADELPHIA — It's not easy playing in cold, rainy and windy conditions.

It's even harder to do that when making the mistakes the Jacksonville Jaguars did against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday during a 29-21 mistake-riddled loss.

The weather was nasty, something that dictated how both teams played throughout the game, but that wasn't an excuse, especially for a team that resides in the state of Florida.

"We’re going to be in games like this where the conditions aren’t going to be favorable," Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said. "We just have to do our part to hang on to the ball.”

Similar to the team's Week 1 loss to the Washington Commanders, the Jaguars' (2-2) loss to the Eagles (4-0) featured far too many self-inflicted mistakes, at least by one side of the football.

More Jaguars game coverage:

• Game recap: Looking back at Jaguars vs. Eagles

• Takeaways: Jaguars sloppy in 29-21 loss to Philadelphia Eagles

• More: Frenette: F-F-ailures on both sides of the ball costly in 29-21 loss to Eagles

"We just have to focus on us," Pederson said. "Anytime you make the mistakes we did, turn the ball over like we did, and where we turned the ball over, you’re not going to keep good teams out of the end zone. That’s really the difference in the football game."

Offensively, the Jaguars didn't do enough to win, and it gave the Eagles far too many opportunities, even after jumping out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter of action.

Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence turned the football over a career-high five times, something he took full ownership of during his post-game press conference.

“I would start by saying I have to play better. Our defense gave us a chance to win it at the end of the game. I let those guys down and just had too many turnovers," Lawrence said. "Obviously it starts with me. … no one else to blame there."

Lawrence lost four fumbles. Two occurred during the second quarter and two near the end via strip sacks by Eagles linebacker Haason Reddick. Lawrence later threw an interception to cornerback James Bradberry in Eagles territory.

The score was 20-14 as Jacksonville looked to take a lead prior to the misstep.

Lawrence finished 11 of 23 for 174 yards and two touchdowns, both to Jamal Agnew. Lawrence also had the one interception, his second of the season. Last year though four games he had seven interceptions, so it's still quite an improvement.

In the team's post-game locker room, Lawrence went up to a few players, including Jaguars offensive lineman Jawaan Taylor, to apologize for his performance today.

"He's a great teammate, great leader," Taylor said when asked about the interaction with Lawrence after the game.

Still, Taylor didn't want to put everything on the second-year QB, noting the entire team, including himself, has to play better.

"We all gotta be better, I gotta be better for sure," Taylor said. "Just trying to look forward to putting this game behind us, watch the film, get everything corrected to move to next week."

Taylor was responsible for blocking Eagles linebacker Haason Reddick on the two occasions where Lawrence was stripped of the ball in the fourth quarter.

Lawrence turnovers, mistakes on offense allowed Eagles to dictate game

Due to turnovers, the Jaguars were only able to possess the football for 20:09 of the contest, giving the Eagles nearly double their time of possession at 39:51.

Giving the Eagles that many plays essentially allowed them to dictate how the game was going to end, able to move the ball when they wanted, how they wanted.

For Jacksonville, they didn't have that luxury, unable to play the type of football they'd have liked. Jaguars running back James Robinson had eight carries for 29 yards, and Travis Etienne also carried the football eight times, for 32 yards.

In all, the Jaguars had 19 rushes for 71 yards, their lowest rushing total of the season. They carried the football 18 times against the Commanders, but for 123 yards.

When asked about the team's lack of a ground game, Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson simply cited the turnovers.

“You’re trying to get the ball to this guy and that guy and stick to your plan. You just can’t turn the ball over like we did," Pederson said. "You just don’t get enough opportunities.”

Jacksonville ran just 46 plays on Sunday, compared to the Eagles' 77.

Philadelphia used a ground-and-pound method on Jacksonville to control the clock.

In total, the Eagles accounted for 210 yards and four touchdowns on 50 carries. Entering the game, Jacksonville allowed a league-low 55 yards per game on the ground. Eagles running back Miles Sanders rushed for 134 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries.

"We have to be better on the defensive side," Pederson said. "We have to stay in gaps and somehow try to slow down the rush as best we can. That’s how you win games at the end. When you have the lead, you just run behind the offensive line. As long as you make first downs and stay on the field, you have a chance to win the game.”

Jaguars defense puts up fight, makes most of opportunities

The Jaguars' defense stopped the Eagles' offense on six of their 11 possessions of the game. That included an interception — a pick-six by safety Andre Cisco — three punts and two stalled drives due to a turnover-on-downs.

Otherwise, Philly scored on five other possessions — four touchdowns and one field goal.

Still, with an inability to stop the run thanks to the Philly ground game and heavy run-pass offense (RPO) play style on offense, Jacksonville struggled to keep up.

After the game, Jaguars safety Rayshawn Jenkins said in the locker room the team hadn't seen an RPO-style offense all season, and were anticipating it from the Eagles on Sunday, but they'll need to be better moving forward.

"I knew it could potentially pose some problems because we haven't seen it yet. But now that we've seen it, I have no doubt in the world that we're going to be able to adjust that anytime for this season," Jenkins said.

Though Jacksonville got to Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts two times during the contest, the team was unable to stop the Philly offense, surrendering 401 total net yards. Hurts completed 16 of 25 passes for 204 yards and an interception. He ran the football 16 times for 38 yards and a TD.

At pivotal moments throughout the game, the Jacksonville defense came up big.

Setting aside the pick-six, the defense was able to prevent the Eagles from scoring at the end of the contest with Jacksonville trailing 29-21. It gave Lawrence and the Jaguars offense 1:54 seconds to potentially drive down and tie the ball game.

They couldn't get it done, with Lawrence stripped for a final time, giving the Eagles the ability to take three knees and exit the game.

"Our defense did a great job keeping us in the game and giving us opportunities," Jaguars receiver Christian Kirk said. "So, I think it was on us offensively and we got to be better. For us, we hold ourselves to a high standard."

Kirk, Lawrence remain confident they'll rebound

With just four games in the books, there's little reason for the team to panic now, especially after playing as well as they have the past two weeks.

At no point during the contest did Lawrence lose confidence in the team, he said after the game. He understood the team always had a chance, even at the end of the game.

"The back and forth and ebbs and flows of the game, I actually think we managed them well except for the turnover there at the end. After all that had happened, we’re down two scores on the second to the last drive, and we go and score in 1:30," Lawrence said.

"We get a 68-yard drive that gets us back in the game, so I had all of the confidence there. I think everyone did. We had a chance to go win it, but it was the same thing in terms of another turnover. I never really lost confidence, but like I said, you can’t win a game doing that.”

Kirk reiterated the season's still young, and they'll have plenty of opportunities to make up for Sunday's loss.

"It's Week 4. This season's so long. You want to be playing your best football as the season ends, going into the back half of the season," Kirk said. "So, for us, if we can just keep seeing a trend of getting better every single week in certain areas, then that's what we want to look for."

The Jaguars have remained steady in terms of not staying too high nor too low when winning or losing a contest. That remained true Sunday.

"It's a true tell-tale of the type of guys we have in this locker room," Kirk said. "Coming in on Monday, watching the film, flushing it and we'll be able to tell how we're able to respond and what kind of guys we have, what type of team we have.

"The short four games that we've had, I know we're gonna bounce back. So, I know this team's hungry, I know there's a chip on our shoulder. We're obviously mad about how today went, so we're gonna use it effectively."

The loss dropped the 2-2 Jaguars into a tie atop the AFC South with the Tennessee Titans. However, the Jags' 2-0 conference record gives them an edge over the Ttians, who are 2-1 in the conference.

The Jaguars can take further command of the AFC South against the Houston Texans next week.

The Texans (0-3-1) will play the Jaguars at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville at 1 p.m. on Oct. 9.

Demetrius Harvey is the Jacksonville Jaguars reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on Twitter at @Demetrius82.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Mistakes lead to Jaguars 29-21 loss to Eagles on the road in Week 4