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Jaguars react to Lawrence hit, loss to Houston Texans: 'I'm just glad Trevor's going to be fine'
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- Jaguars react to Lawrence hit, loss to Houston Texans: 'I'm just glad Trevor's going to be fine'
Trevor Lawrence slowly walked down the tunnel with his wife Marissa, leaving the EverBank Stadium soon after the clocks hit 0:00.
Lawrence sustained a concussion in the first half of the Jacksonville Jaguars ' 23-20 loss to the Houston Texans .
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Lawrence was hit late by Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair as the quarterback attempted to slide on a scramble. The hit resulted in a bench-clearing brawl. Two players, including Al-Shaair and Jaguars cornerback Jarrian Jones , were ejected from the contest.
Via the pool report with referee Land Clark, he noted that Jones punched a player. Clark, when asked why Houston players were not ejected for leaving the sideline bench area and crossing the field said that "there was no action observed that rose to the level of disqualifying. They were mostly restraining their own players."
FINAL: Trevor Lawrence concussion overshadows Jacksonville Jaguars 23-20 loss to Houston Texans
Tight end Evan Engram didn't hesitate. He immediately came to Lawrence's defense, shoving Al-Shaiir to the ground before being joined by fellow TE Brenton Strange and later pulled off of the Texans player.
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The benches cleared after that.
Engram drew a flag for unnecessary roughness.
"It was a dirty hit. Obviously those hits are always in question. Trevor was going down and I saw it out of my peripheral. I got a pretty clear view of it, and in that moment, just instincts. It just didn't feel like a clean hit, so just go stick up for my quarterback," Engram said in the postgame locker room.
Engram said he saw Lawrence sliding and then saw the hit. At that point, Engram said, his reaction or emotions just "took over."
"I just knew it was wrong. It was just a dirty play and you stick up for your guys. It is just how it goes," he said.
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The hit overshadowed the rest of the game on either side of the ball. Houston pulled away, and Jacksonville battled back. They lost, but the result wasn't at the forefront of anyone's mind after the game.
"It's a play that nobody wants to see in our league, obviously, because you see what happens after the fact and it just escalates," head coach Doug Pederson said.
"I've got a lot of respect for [ Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans]. I know he doesn't coach his team that way. We don't coach our team that way. It's unfortunate, it really is. It's unfortunate. I'm just glad that Trevor's going to be fine. He'll obviously be in the protocol, but it just is an unfortunate play."
Ryans reacted similarly after the game, noting that the hit was "unfortunate."
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"It's not what we're coaching. Want to be smart in everything we do and not hurt the team, get a penalty there. Have to be smarter when the quarterback is going down. Unfortunate play. Not representative of who Azeez is," said Ryans.
Pederson also noted that his team, particularly Jones, can't do what they did, either. But, a quarterback getting hit at that magnitude, it "just escalates."
"Obviously, Jarrian [Jones] on our side, he can't do what he did either. That's unacceptable as well. I know the league will probably send out fines for both players and maybe some others," said Pederson.
Jaguars players come to Trevor Lawrence 's defense after hit
Jacksonville Jaguars tight end Brenton Strange (85) goes after Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair (0) after a late hit on Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence during the second quarter of an NFL football matchup Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]
Engram wasn't the only player put off by the hit that Lawrence took. Several other teammates, including Anton Harrison , Strange, Josh Hines-Allen and many more took exception.
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Hines-Allen called the hit Al-Shaair put on Lawrence "dumb," noting that his first thought was to go get the Texans linebacker.
Receiver Brian Thomas Jr. had a similar reaction.
"My first reaction was just, defend Trevor. Make sure Trevor was okay and go from there," Thomas said after the game. "We all defend each other, we all love each other, so that's what we're going to do. We're going to protect each other."
Thomas said that the hit rallied the offense.
Center Mitch Morse talked about the team's rally after Lawrence went down, playing with more intensity than before, whether intentionally or not.
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"I think it wasn't like some huge [explicit] moment. I can't speak for [OL] Brandon [Scherff], right? He's a beautiful football player. It's the way he plays. But I think it was emotionally charged," Morse said in the postgame locker room.
"You'd be remiss to say it wasn't, but we also understood that you could use that constructively or you can get outside of yourself and then it could have gone worse for us."
Jaguars defensive end Travon Walker called the skirmish a "team bond" moment, adding that the hit was unacceptable.
"That's why you saw what happened," he said.
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Trevor Lawrence sustains second concussion of pro career
Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence is shaken after a hit from Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair during their Dec. 1 game at EverBank Stadium. Lawrence was later diagnosed with a concussion and ruled out for the season.
This marks Lawrence's second concussion sustained in the NFL. He suffered a concussion in Week 15 last year against the Baltimore Ravens .
Lawrence played the following week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers . It's unclear whether he will play next week on the road against the Tennessee Titans .
Pederson was not ready to say whether Lawrence would be shut down for the rest of the season.
"It's 30 minutes after the game, so I haven't thought about that," Pederson said.
Lawrence played through multiple injuries last year and is playing through another severe injury this year. Lawrence has a serious shoulder injury, that left him questionable to play this week, in addition to the concussion now.
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This was his first game back after missing the previous two for the shoulder injury.
Pederson said that Lawrence will be fine, noting that he didn't get a chance to talk to him after the game, but did at halftime.
Demetrius Harvey is the Jacksonville Jaguars reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @Demetrius82 or on Bluesky @ Demetrius .
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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jaguars' teammates react to Trevor Lawrence hit, fight after Texans loss
