Trevor Lawrence's 1st playoff pass picked off, then throws 2 more in 1st quarter

Trevor Lawrence is probably going to play in many playoff games. It's hard to imagine any of the others starting as poorly as his first postseason game.

The Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback threw an interception on the first pass of his playoff career. It was batted at the line, batted again by Los Angeles Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa and intercepted by linebacker Drue Tranquill. The Chargers scored a touchdown two plays later and led 7-0 less than two minutes into Saturday night's AFC wild-card playoff game.

Lawrence came right back and drove the Jaguars into Chargers territory. The Jaguars decided to go for it on fourth-and-7 rather than try a 51-yard field goal, and Lawrence threw another pick. There was some contact between cornerback Asante Samuel Jr. against intended receiver Zay Jones, but no flag was thrown. Jones was late to turn around, and Samuel picked off Lawrence's pass. Jones and Lawrence gestured toward the officials and Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson argued about the no-call, but it didn't change anything.

It had been a long time since a quarterback opened up a game by throwing two straight interceptions. The last time was the 2003 AFC championship game, when Peyton Manning threw interceptions on each of the Indianapolis Colts' first two possessions against the New England Patriots, according to ESPN's Michael DiRocco.

Lawrence wasn't done. On third-and-5, Lawrence made a bad decision. He didn't see Samuel in a shallow zone when he tried to throw it to tight end Evan Engram. Samuel had his second interception of the first quarter, and the Chargers turned that into Ekeler's second touchdown of the first quarter.

Lawrence had not thrown an interception on 222 first-quarter throws in his NFL career, according to NBC. Then he had a meltdown in the first quarter of his playoff debut. Lawrence was the first quarterback to throw three interceptions in the first quarter of a playoff game since play-by-play data was first tracked in 1991, according to Jeff Kerr of CBS. It was the first time a quarterback has thrown three interceptions in the first quarter of any game, regular season or playoffs, since Nathan Peterman in 2017 according to ESPN Stats and Info.

Lawrence's horrendous day continued. He threw another interception in the second quarter, again to Samuel. The Jaguars trailed 24-0 at that point.

Lawrence played very well at the end of his second NFL season. It's not like he hasn't been in big games before, having beaten Alabama in a college national championship game. There was a little bit of bad luck involved in his horrible start. But Lawrence's playoff debut couldn't have been worse.