Doug Pederson believes he still has the support of Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan despite the team’s tough loss to the Chicago Bears in London on Sunday.
The Jags fell to 1-5 on the year as they were marred by costly penalties and mistakes while surrendering four touchdown passes to the exceptional Caleb Williams in a 35-16 loss to the Chicago Bears.
Pederson was asked during his news conference if he felt he still had the support of owner Khan, who emphasized his support for his head coach and general manager Trent Baalke during an interview with the Florida Times-Union on Saturday.
I was just with him, and I do,” he told reporters.
Jacksonville will now remain in the UK as they prepare to take on the New England Patriots at Wembley Stadium next Sunday, with Pederson admitting it is likely a must-win.
“I think so,” Pederson said. “I would say everything from here, quite frankly. If we want to get back to playing the kind of football we know we can play, you’re going to have to win a lot of games going forward. I would say that. yes, that’s what these games are moving forward.
“I feel for the players and coaches. We work extremely hard to be in this position. I feel like guys, they don’t go away. They keep fighting.
“We have to figure out how to get out of our own way and just play football. I say it and it sounds easy, but it’s hard. It’s a hard game to play. We didn’t expect to be here in this place. , and, hey, now we have to find a way out of it.”
Jags quarterback Trevor Lawrence also insisted the locker room remains behind coach Pederson amid the team’s disappointing start to the bottom of the AFC South.
“Yeah, that’s our head coach and we’re a team,” he said. “This is difficult. It’s hard to lose. It’s difficult. So it has nothing to do with that relationship, how we feel about coach (Pederson). We are a group. We are together. We know that brighter days are ahead.
“We’ve just got to keep working and we’ve got to keep putting our best foot forward. You know, we just have to stick together as a team. We need to play more complementary. We are not playing good team football right now. So whatever the answer to that is, we’ve got to find it quickly. Yeah, I’m not thinking about it.”
The Jaguars committed eight penalties for 43 yards on the day, most notably a 3 in the second half that would end with Keenan Allen’s three-yard touchdown run to make it 28-10 after a Gabe Davis score gave Jacksonville hope. .
Within that was an unforgivable penalty for having too many men on third-and-long that somewhat defined the Jaguars’ season.
“Those are the penalties that really hurt,” Pederson said. “Not taking anything away from the players. They play hard. They bring it all out on the field.
“We continue to talk. We’ll just keep showing them. We had 12 players on the pitch and there was a substitution change. I put that one on us as a trainer. It’s on us.
“So everyone has a piece of it. It’s not just coaching, it’s not just players, it’s all of us, and that’s where we have to start.”
Pederson acknowledged that his team needs to get better at handling playmaking adversity as early mistakes snowballed into another mistake-filled game that will leave the Jaguars playing catch-up.
“Those are the things we have,” he said. “It’s kind of obvious, right? Right now, these are things that plague us. It’s the mistakes and then being able to overcome the mistake. Those are the things that we obviously have to look at and fix.”
Despite his side’s start, Lawrence reiterated his belief that the Jaguars can still turn their campaign around.
“We’ve got another 11 games, so there’s definitely a way back,” he said. “We have to raise ourselves. Nothing will come of it here, so we have to take care of our business. But, yes, it’s a long season and we’ve got a lot of football left. “
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