Game Report, Week 16: Buccaneers 30, Jaguars 12 – jaguars.com

TAMPA, Fla. – Trevor Lawrence started Sunday.
The Jaguars also got help elsewhere around the NFL. All of that happened early Sunday – and after that, little went right on a difficult Jaguars Christmas Eve.
Lawrence, the Jaguars’ quarterback who cleared concussion protocol on Saturday, started a 49thconsecutive game to start his career. But the Tampa Bay Buccaneers controlled the game from the start and beat the Jaguars, 30-12, at Raymond James Stadium on a gray December Sunday afternoon.
“Somewhere we’ve got to stop this dam from busting wide open,” Head Coach Doug Pederson said, with Lawrence adding: “Every aspect of the game today is frustrating.”
Lawrence added: “We have to take control of it. It’s like we’re all waiting around, waiting on something to happen for us to get out of this funk and it’s not happening. No one’s going to save us. We have to take control and take these games.
“It’s really embarrassing and frustrating. We put a lot of work in to do that and to look like you don’t even practice. That’s what it looks like.”
Lawrence – who left early in the fourth quarter with a right shoulder injury and did not return – threw two first-half interceptions and lost a third-quarter fumble, with all three turnovers leading to Tampa Bay touchdowns.
“It’s bothering me – hopefully nothing major,” Lawrence said after completing 17 of 29 passes for 211 yards and a touchdown.
Pederson said Lawrence’s injury was severe enough that he couldn’t continue, and that Lawrence will be further evaluated either Sunday or Monday in Jacksonville. The Jaguars trailed 30-6 when he left the game.
The Jaguars finished Sunday with four giveaways.
“You can’t pin this all on the quarterback,” Pederson said. “Everybody else practiced. It wasn’t good enough. The sense of urgency wasn’t there. We didn’t execute very well on offense. The turnovers keep piling up, the run game …
“All of that kind of stuff affects the whole process. It’s not one guy. It’s the coaches, myself, players – all in this together.”
Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield threw two first-half touchdown passes to wide receiver Mike Evans, with Tampa Bay taking a 20-0 halftime lead and pushing the lead to 30-0 late in the third quarter. The Buccaneers out-gained the Jaguars, 224-84, in the first half and the Jaguars rushed for 37 yards.
Jaguars tight end Evan Engram called it “unacceptable football.”
“I definitely didn’t see that coming around – just unacceptable on our part,” Engram said.
The Jaguars (8-7) lost a fourth consecutive game. The Buccaneers (8-7) won their fourth consecutive game.
“It’s really bad to put this on the field the last three or four weeks,” Lawrence said. “It’s a problem. You want to be playing the best football at the end of the season going into the postseason. We’re playing our worst. So we need to find answers and we need to find answers quick.
“We have two weeks to figure out. We have two games left. We’ll see what we earn from there.”
The Jaguars remain tied with the Indianapolis Colts (8-7) and Houston Texans (8-7) in the AFC South with two regular-season games remaining. The Jaguars lead the division because of tiebreaker advantages over both teams, with the Texans losing to the Cleveland Browns Sunday and the Colts losing to the Atlanta Falcons.
The Jaguars will win the South if they finish tied with the Colts because they swept the season series between the teams. They will win the South if they finish tied with the Texans so long as the Jaguars have a better record in the division; the Jaguars can clinch that tiebreaker scenario with a victory over the Tennessee Titans in Week 18 or with a Texans loss in either of their last two games.
“We still have two games left and we still control what we get in the postseason,” Lawrence said. “We have to take care of business these next two weeks.”
The Jaguars on Sunday registered two sacks and no takeaways, with defensive lineman Roy Robertson-Harris registering a first-quarter sack and outside linebacker Travon Walker registering one in the fourth quarter. They have 32 sacks and 25 takeaways for the season.
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Injury Report:
Sunday afternoon in Tampa, FL ☁️ Check out live action photos of the the Jaguars vs. Buccaneers game. 🏈
A quick look at the Jaguars’ 23-7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in a 2023 Week 15 game at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville Sunday
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