Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence shattered a franchise record with his first-half touchdown barrage against the Tennessee Titans, showcasing a new level play as Jacksonville surges.
Jacksonville Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence came into the team's regular-season finale against Tennessee on the verge of history, and he got history in the first half.
With touchdown passes to Parker Washington, Brenton Strange and Quintin Morris, Lawrence now has 38 total TDs on the season (29 passing, nine rushing), which breaks Blake Bortles' record of 37, set in 2015.
Jacksonville has been arguably the hottest team in football for the past two months, and Lawrence is a massive reason for it. Including the first half of the Titans game, Lawrence's TD/INT ratio has been 12-1 over the past five contests.
This season hasn't been easy for Lawrence. Even though the former No. 1 pick has only thrown one pick since Thanksgiving, his 12 on the season put him among the league leaders (tied for fifth going into Sunday).
Three of those picks came in the second game of Jacksonville's current eight-game winning streak, a 27-24 overtime triumph over the Cardinals at Arizona.
Since then, Lawrence has been almost flawless.
"Trev has definitely been playing at a high level," Jags coach Liam Coen said on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday.
"[W]hen I first got here, we had a lot of honest, open conversations about what his goals were, where he wanted to go with it, within his career and his position," Coen told McAfee. "[I]t took a little bit of time, and that's why so many of these quarterbacks need that time, right? Timing and circumstances matter."
Part of this has been Lawrence's ability to "let it rip," as Coen puts it.
"We just had some honest conversations about, OK, man, just cut it loose," Coen said.
Of course, Lawrence wouldn't be able to have this success without a supporting cast, and the fact that three different targets caught his first three touchdown passes Sunday shows the depth Jacksonville has.
One of those receivers, Washington, is somebody Lawrence complimented recently.
The third-year receiver out of Penn State eclipsed 800 yards on the season Sunday, extending his team lead.
"I think all season he's just done an awesome job with every opportunity he's gotten, and now you look at his role, and what he's been doing for our offense," Lawrence told reporters after Friday's practice. "[J]ust his ability to run every route, to run after the catch, all those hidden yards that he's finding after the catch, has been really big for us. So we got to continue to find ways to get him the ball and let him make plays."