Bridgewater plays, but Lions' offensive backups toothless in preseason loss to Jaguars

Detroit — If you spent your Saturday afternoon doing anything other than watching preseason football, who could possibly blame you?

With the Detroit Lions resting most of their starters after a pair of joint practices with the Jacksonville Jaguars earlier in the week, the Lions' offensive backups, led primarily by quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, delivered a listless performance in a 25-7 loss to the Jaguars at Ford Field.

"It was tough," Lions coach Dan Campbell said. "We couldn’t get into a rhythm and it just kind of felt like there was always one guy that would — we were taking turns offensively messing something up. … Offensively, one guy messes up, it’ll mess the whole thing up and it’s rarely do you ever come out on the other side." 

BOX SCORE: Jaguars 25, Lions 7

Bridgewater played most of the opening half before he was relieved by Nate Sudfeld with 1:45 to go in the second quarter. But the game's opening snap proved to be a solid enough indicator for how the day would go for Bridgewater when an unblocked defender, former Lion Jeremiah Ledbetter, sacked the veteran quarterback for a 9-yard loss.

Bridgewater finished his day having completed just 5-of-11 passes for 34 yards. He had two of his longer throws dropped and another completion overturned by a coach's challenge. Behind ineffective blocking, the Lions mustered just 48 yards from scrimmage and four first downs through two quarters, going 0-for-6 on third down in the process. To make matters worse, the Lions turned the ball over twice and fell behind the Jaguars, 12-0, at the half.

Campbell pinned the sluggish stat line on others, more than the quarterback.

"There’s always going to be stuff to clean up, but in my head, it was always about getting him in a flow," Campbell said. "Let’s get him in there, let’s get him used to how we run our offense, our cadence, our formations, our shifts, our motions, and just go play a little bit.

"Look, there’s some throws you wish you had back, a couple of things, but also, I thought he made some really good throws too. We probably had three drops there that could’ve been for conversions, so I thought it was solid."

Detroit's first turnover came when Bridgewater and running back Craig Reynolds botched an exchange with Ledbetter already in the backfield. That fumble was scooped up by linebacker Caleb Johnson, who returned it to the Lions' 28-yard line. Campbell blamed the turnover on the blocking.

Detroit's defense stepped up in response, forcing Jacksonville to cough it up on downs to neutralize the turnover, but the unit wasn't as fortunate near the end of the half, after Sudfeld had an overthrown ball intercepted and returned into Lions territory. Following that miscue, the Jaguars capitalized with a 15-yard touchdown pass from C.J. Beathard to receiver Parker Washington, besting the coverage of rookie cornerback Starling Thomas V.

The Lions managed to get on the board early in the third quarter when Sudfeld steered the offense 57 yards on nine plays, converting a pair of fourth downs along the way, including the 1-yard touchdown toss to Chase Cota to cap the series. But the Jaguars were able to respond with an 11-play touchdown drive of their own, finished off by a 1-yard touchdown run for D'Ernest Johnson, extending the lead back to 11 following a missed extra point.

That quickly turned into an 18-point advantage early in the fourth quarter.

Buoyed by a 47-yard catch-and-run by receiver Elijah Cooks, Johnson bounced a run around the left edge of the formation and bowled over a Lions defender near the goal line for a 15-yard touchdown, his second of the half.

The game ended with the two teams trading punts, prior to the Jaguars taking a knee to run out the remaining time after the two-minute warning. The Lions didn't manage to cross midfield on offense after their touchdown early in the third quarter. They finished with just 131 yards in total offense.

"It wasn't a good day offensively," Sudfeld said. "We didn't put enough together. We were flat."

The Lions will close out the preseason on the road when they travel to North Carolina to battle the Panthers on Friday night.

jdrogers@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @Justin_Rogers