JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- An incompletion and a sack-fumble for a 14-yard loss is not exactly the way you want to start a potential game-winning drive.
But Trevor Lawrence made up for it.
Lawrence led the Jacksonville Jaguars 75 yards for a touchdown and two-point conversion with 14 seconds to play to give them a 28-27 victory over the Baltimore Ravens at TIAA Bank Field on Sunday.
The drive put the stamp on the game as a defining moment in his career.
"Tremendous job at the helm, just staying cool, being smart with where he is going with the ball," receiver Christian Kirk said. "And like I said, whenever 16's rolling, we're all rolling."
Lawrence was rolling backward after a second-down sack by Calais Campbell put the Jaguars in a third-and-21 situation, but he hit Kirk for 16 yards and then Marvin Jones Jr. for 10. After an incompletion to Zay Jones, Lawrence completed five in a row: Seventeen yards to Kirk. Eight to Zay Jones. One to JaMycal Hasty (after a false start). Twenty-nine to Zay Jones.
And then 10 yards to Marvin Jones in the end zone -- where Jones managed to get one foot and his shin in bounds.
Instead of kicking a game-tying extra-point, Lawrence threw a quick pass to Zay Jones for the two-point conversion. The win was the first in franchise history when the team was trailing by seven or more points in the final minute of regulation. The Jaguars had been 0-175 in that situation before Sunday, according to Elias Sports.
"Trevor today was lights out," head coach Doug Pederson said. "He played extremely well. That throw, that catch with the two-point [conversion] was a thing of beauty."
Lawrence completed 15 of 19 passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter -- including a 27-yard completion to Zay Jones on a fourth down on an earlier touchdown drive.
It was the best performance of Lawrence's career.
He threw for 321 yards and three touchdowns and his 129.8 passer rating was the best in franchise history among quarterbacks who had at least 37 pass attempts.
"He's always showed big poise," Marvin Jones said of Lawrence. "Especially for him being so young, he's always been poised in situations. If it goes bad or good he's going to be the same guy. And I think you need to be like that in order to have success. He didn't bat an eye when we needed it."
One of Lawrence's biggest issues has been his lack of consistency and Pederson has stressed that Lawrence's improvement would come when he eliminated the ups and downs. He's now played three consecutive games in which he has completed more than 70% of his passes and had a passer rating of more than 100. Lawrence now has five of those games this season after having only one as a rookie in 2021.
"I would say these last three games he really has done a really nice job with our system and our offense," Pederson said. " ... He's heading in the right direction and it's just one step in where we want to go."
As for Lawrence, he was pretty even-keeled about the way he played against the Ravens. He's maintained his confidence even when things haven't gone well and he's not letting what happened on Sunday impact it, either.
"I'm really, really proud of this group," Lawrence said. "I'm proud of myself. We've been through a lot here in the past two years, and just battled through the adversity. It's a good feeling. But I've said it before: I'm the same guy. I've always been this guy.
"I haven't always played my best every week, and that's going to happen sometimes, but I really love the direction that this offense, this team is heading, and we feel really good about who we are."