The Jacksonville Jaguars' offensive line is facing adversity early on in Sunday's Week 12 game vs. the Houston Texans, with left tackle Cam Robinson leaving the game with a knee injury and questionable to return.
Robinson, who has started seven games at left tackle this year after returning from a four-week suspension in Week 5, injured his knee on the first drive of the second possession.
Head coach Doug Pederson has stressed the importance of continuity along a struggling Jaguars' offensive line, and losing Robinson obviously impacts that. The Jaguars have had little consistency up front but had finally started the same two lineups two weeks in a row in Weeks 10 and 11.
That was set to continue in Week 12, but now obviously changes with Robinson's injury. With Robinson injured, the Jaguars moved starting left guard Walker Little to left tackle, where he started for the first month of the season. They then moved backup guard Ezra Cleveland to left guard, with Cleveland getting major playing time for the first time since the Jaguars traded for him at the deadline.
"They don’t get much love. It seems like that’s a tough room to be in just for recognition, they understand that and they handle it like champs. They always joke about it, but those guys are doing a great job," Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence said this week.
"Stuff like that doesn’t happen, the offense doesn’t go like that when the guys up front aren’t leading the charge. That’s what they did, they took a lot of it on themselves last week of they’re going to do great in the run game, they’re going to protect all these things, give us a chance to shoot the ball down the field. We were able to do that. It doesn’t go without them and I think sometimes I should mention it more because people don’t understand that, I understand that and we talk about it a lot in our group. We love those guys up because it’s a tough job, it’s the most selfless job on the field. You do your job, you do your job great, and nobody talks about you. You give up a sack, everybody is talking about you. It’s the opposite of other positions, it’s like you do your job the right way, you don’t get much recognition for it. Those guys deserve all the credit, it’s a tough job and they’re doing an awesome job. We’ve just got to keep getting better every week.”
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