The first four offensive plays and the first seven defensive plays for the Jacksonville Jaguars on Jan. 4 against the Tennessee Titans were the worst nightmare for coach Liam Coen and more than 60,000 fans at EverBank Stadium.
They involved the best-case scenarios for the hapless Titans: Defensive tackle Jeffrey Simons wreaking havoc and quarterback Cam Ward making big plays passing and running. Those were the only paths to Tennessee being a speed bump to the Jaguars winning to clinch the AFC South title.
It didn’t last long. After Ward scored on a 7-yard touchdown to give the Titans a 7-0 lead, Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence completed five passes in a row for 60 yards and the first of three TD passes in four possessions; and the defense forced five punts, got an interception that Antonio Johnson returned for a touchdown and forced two losses on downs.
The rapid adjustment from their respective slow starts paved the way for the Jaguars’ 41-7 victory that clinched the AFC South, the third seed in the AFC and a home playoff game on Jan. 11 against the sixth-seeded Buffalo Bills (12-5) at 1 p.m. (CBS).
“It was not an ideal start by any means,” Coen admitted after the game. “Simmons kind of Simmon-sed us early on and made a great play. We went backwards on the first drive, which wasn’t ideal. They obviously had a good drive that they put together on us with a critical third-down conversion.”
So how did the Jaguars (13-4) bounce back?
Nothing mysterious, Coen said.
“It’s just the maturity of this team,” he said. “Nobody flinched. Nobody blinked. They just kind of kept doing their job one play at a time. We talked about championship execution throughout the entire game, and I think after that you saw that.
Jaguars keep writing their own scripts
The Jaguars have made a habit of adjusting narratives this season under Coen.
There was big-picture stuff, such as an inability to win on the West Coast or in the Rocky Mountains.
The Jags were 4-0 against San Francisco, Arizona, Las Vegas and Denver.
Then there were questions about the offensive and defensive lines.
Both units have played far better than expected.
Or the issue of whether Lawrence was really the generational quarterback the team drafted as the No. 1 overall pick in 2021.
But during the Jaguars’ eight-game winning streak, Lawrence can make a strong case that he’s playing as well as any quarterback in the NFL.
There were also situations where the season could have gone south: taking a 35-7 loss to the Rams in London into the bye week, giving up a 19-point fourth-quarter lead to lose in Houston, losing No. 1 draft pick Travis Hunter after seven games, which created holes on both sides of the ball and the injuries on the offensive line and secondary.
And in the last two weeks, the Jaguars have bounced back from early deficits, knowing the Texans were waiting to pounce from one game behind and claim the division, if it ended in a tie.
The Jags trailed Indianapolis 10-0 on the road last week and won 23-17. And early against the Titans, there was some unease in the stands.
They needn’t have worried.
Jags made a mess of first possession
Coen elected to take the ball when he won the toss, continuing to buck a trend to defer because of his confidence in the offense to score early.
Not against the Titans. Simmons bulled over the left side of the Jaguars’ line and sacked Lawrence for an 8-yard loss. Then left tackle Cole Van Lanen was charged with holding Jaylen Harrell, pushing the Jaguars back to their own 13.
Lawrence then threw the ball in the dirt on purpose when Simmons and T’Vondre Sweat broke through the Jags line with ease, and was woefully short on a deep ball to Brian Thomas Jr., when linebacker Truman Jones looped behind Lawrence and nearly had another sack.
Cam Ward made it look easy
After a Logan Cooke punt that was out of bounds at the Titans’ 42, Ward completed three passes for 52 yards, including a 39-yarder to Elic Ayomanor on third-and-10, when Ayomanor found a seam.
Ward got another 12 yards on a screen pass to Tony Pollard, then ran in for a touchdown from 7 yards out.
But that score was a turning point. Jaguars linebacker Foye Oluokun fell on Ward’s shoulder and the rookie quarterback had to leave the game, unable to return. The replacement was former Jaguars draft pick Brandon Allen.
He never had a chance. Allen completed 17 of 30 passes for only 72 yards and the Titans had only 135 more yards and eight more first downs. Tennessee reached Jaguars territory only three more times, possessions that ended on Johnson’s 58-yard pick six, a loss on downs and a missed 52-yard field-goal attempt by Joey Slye.
In addition to Johnson’s interception, the Jags got a sack from Dawuane Smoot, tackles for losses by Devin Lloyd, Jarrian Jones, Travon Walker and Rayuan Lane III and three quarterback hits by Josh Hines-Allen.
Trevor Lawrence started cooking
After his two incompletions and a sack on the first possession, Lawrence was 15 of 16 for 181 yards the rest of the first half, and came out of the game early in the fourth quarter after passing 4,000 yards for the season with 22 of 30 for 255 yards.
Lawrence used nine receivers (tight end Brenton Strange had six receptions for 52 yards, and wide receiver Parker Washington caught five for 87 yards). His TD passes covered 23 yards to Washington, 7 to Strange and 5 to backup tight end Quintin Morris, his first score as a Jaguar.
“We went three and out. then just some plays here and there that we didn’t hit on,” Lawrence said. “Whether it’s me and maybe I need to keep progressing or missed a throw, some of the run game targeting, whatever it is, there’s always room for improvement. I think that’s the great thing about our group, is we haven’t ever felt like we made it.”
Van Lanen said there was never a moment of concern on the sidelines, nor were major adjustments made by the offensive coaches.
“I wouldn’t say adjustments … just stop shooting ourselves in the foot,” Van Lanen said. “We know that type of ball is going to hurt us in the long run. We had a conversation, saying, ‘hey, it’s just one drive … just come back and be us.’”
“Us” are now AFC South champions.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jaguars bounce back well from rough starts on offense, defense
Reporting by Garry Smits, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
