Jaguars offense 'dropped it' in Week 1 20-17 loss to Miami Dolphins

MIAMI GARDENS — Evan Engram didn't have the words right away.

The Jacksonville Jaguars (0-1) had everything going for them. They had a 10-point lead heading into the fourth quarter against the Miami Dolphins (1-0). They had an opportunity to close out the game with a touchdown to go up 24-7.

Instead, running back Travis Etienne fumbled the ball into the end zone, the Dolphins scored quickly on their ensuing possession thanks to an 80-yard catch and run by Tyreek Hill , and the Jaguars had all of their momentum zapped.

When the clocks hit 0:00, the Dolphins were celebrating, the Jaguars were shell-shocked and the scoreboard read 20-17 Miami.

"Just dropped it," Engram finally said. "Just kind of dropped this one."

Fan View: Jacksonville Jaguars fans react to last-second loss against the Miami Dolphins

After starting the game with 162 total net yards on offense in the first half, including a solid 9-of-14, 125 yards, one touchdown performance by quarterback Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville's offense was stymied.

The Jaguars gained just 105 total net yards, failed to convert any of their third downs (0 for 5) and Lawrence completed just three passes for a measly 37 yards.

Sandwiched in between was a — nearly — standout performance by the team's defense. Outside of a couple of explosive plays, namely a 62-yard catch by Jaylen Waddle that resulted in zero points and the aforementioned 80-yard strike from Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa, the Jaguars defense did what they were supposed to.

Engram gave Miami's defense credit, too — they prevented the Jaguars from executing. But it doesn't take away from the fact that the Jaguars' offense let the game slip away.

"They're a good football team, so give them credit, but we dropped some nice plays, so we kind of killed ourselves with momentum," Engram said, adding that ultimately "it's more on our end for sure."

"We just gave it away," Lawrence said in postgame.

Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson put it simply: "It was just kind of a tale of two halves, really. We made plays in the first half, they made plays in the second half, so credit them."

Christian Kirk owns up to mistakes, said the loss simply 'sucks'

Jaguars receiver Christian Kirk didn't make any excuses for the team's performance in the second half of the game against Miami.

He said after in the Jaguars' postgame locker room that, frankly, "it sucks" the team lost that way. It's not something they're used to, either. According to ESPN's Mike DiRocco, the Jaguars were 9-0 last season when they led by double digits at any point in the game.

Jacksonville held a decisive 17-3 lead against the Dolphins on Sunday, but it didn't matter. They dropped the ball. Jaguars receiver Christian Kirk's case? He literally dropped the ball.

Kirk caught one pass for 30 yards in the game, a chunk play that led to the team's second touchdown to put them up 14-0 over the Dolphins. It was a redemption catch after Kirk dropped a deep pass on third down on the previous drive.

That didn't matter. What did matter, though, was Kirk's second drop. The Jaguars had a 3rd-and-5 at the Miami 47 with 11:17 remaining in the game. They led 17-14 and had an opportunity to make it challenging for Miami to continue the comeback.

Lawrence loaded up a pass and threw it to the left in Kirk's direction. Though difficult, Kirk could have caught the football, but didn't and the Jaguars were forced to punt.

"Just bad. It's just bad. I gotta make [the plays]. It's why I'm here and it's just not good enough. I'm obviously a better player than that and I take full responsibility for that and will take all the criticism for it," Kirk said in the postgame locker room.

When allowed by a reporter to excuse his second drop, given the play by the Dolphins defense, Kirk declined to oblige.

"No. Both of them, I gotta make. Simple as that. The caliber player that I am, I need to make those and just gotta be better going forward," he added.

Trevor Lawrence details what went wrong in Jaguars second half vs. Dolphins

Everything seemed to be going well for Jacksonville heading into halftime. The team held a 17-7 lead and had all the momentum.

The game was a tale of two halves as Pederson alluded to.

In the first half of the game, the Jaguars strung together drives just fine. Lawrence completed 9 of 14 passes for 125 yards and a touchdown. Receivers Brian Thomas Jr. and Gabe Davis added 47 yards and a touchdown and 40 yards, respectively receiving.

Running back Tank Bigsby rushed for 31 yards on four carries, including a 17-yard rush in a drive that led to an Etienne one-yard touchdown.

The second half wasn't as pretty.

Lawrence broke down what he thought went wrong in the second half. He said the team had untimely errors, started slow and got behind the chains too often.

The team also began the second half with two straight three-and-outs.

When a drive was put together, they fumbled .

"Then after that it went right back to just kind of stagnant, weren't able to move the ball. We've got to be able to put drives together consistently like we did in the first half," Lawrence said.

In the first half, the Jaguars scored either a touchdown or a field goal on three of their five possessions. Their longest drive of the second half was six plays. All of the rest were either three or four, leading to punts or turnovers on downs.

"We'll have to look at it and see exactly what it was. I don't have all the answers right now. But I definitely know that we had our opportunities, and we really just didn't take advantage of them," Lawrence said.

The Jaguars' defense gave the offense plenty of opportunities. In the first half, Miami either punted or turned the ball over on downs in four of their five possessions. In the second half, Miami scored on three of six possessions, but only one drive resulted in a touchdown. The Jaguars' defense forced a punt twice, escaping with a missed field goal on another drive.

Ultimately, Miami scored just 20 points with their last-second field goal being the deciding points in the contest.

Jacksonville's final drive of the game was a perfect encapsulation of their entire second half: Bigsby run up the middle for no gain, Lawrence sacked for a loss of four, Lawrence sacked for a loss of six and a delay of game penalty before a 45-yard punt to the Miami 40-yard line.

"Offensively, we didn't score any points in the second half. That's something that can't happen if we're going to win a lot of games, which is the plan. So we've got to score more," Lawrence said.

Simple as that, really.

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

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jaguars offense 'dropped it' in Week 1 20-17 loss to Miami Dolphins