Jaguars vs. Steelers: Highlights, game tracker and more

The Jacksonville Jaguars faced the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, Oct. 8 in Week 5 of the 2017 NFL season. Here are highlights from the game.

If you looked at just Weeks 1 and 3 of the 2017 NFL season, you might think the Jacksonville Jaguars are Super Bowl contenders. However, if you look at their other two games, you might think they were winless. It’s been that kind of year to this point. So they needed to try and find themselves as they headed to Heinz Field in Week 5 to do battle with the always dangerous Pittsburgh Steelers.

Coming out of the gate, things were ultimately unsurprising in how they were playing out. Though the Jaguars allowed an early big play by Antonio Brown, their defense held strong and limited them to a field goal on the opening drive. Meanwhile, the Jacksonville offense got nothing of substance going in their first two drives.

However, the tides turned when the Steelers got the ball the second time. They seemed to be building to a long, big scoring drive — but then Jalen Ramsey swooped in to nab an absurd interception and then had the presence of mind to get up for a nice return. That gave the Jags a short field and they drove 47 yards in eight plays as Leonard Fournette leapt over the pile for a touchdown.

A bit of a punting clinic then ensued with neither offense again having much working in their favor. The Jaguars then seemed to make a critical error late in the second quarter when Blake Bortles not-surprisingly was picked off by Ryan Shazier. That set up a Steelers field goal just before halftime to make it 7-6.

Coming out of the half, the Steelers again put together a long drive as they marched for 14 plays down the field. However, they were unable to put the ball across the goal line, thus settling for a field goal to give them the 9-7 lead.

Meanwhile, the Jaguars offense continued to look problematic as they answered with a yard-less three-and-out. But when their defense was playing the way they were, it didn’t matter. On back-to-back plays, the Jaguars came up with interceptions off of Ben Roethlisberger and took both to the house, one for Telvin Smith and the other for Barry Church. That gave the Jags a 20-9 lead in the fourth quarter.

Sure enough, the trend continued. Big Ben and the Steelers could find nothing of consequence, while the Jaguars kept finding life. A long Fournette touchdown late in the fourth quarter punctuated the Jaguars dominant victory.

Highlights

https://twitter.com/steelers/status/917074199276949506

https://twitter.com/steelers/status/917088179257196544

https://twitter.com/steelers/status/917092221471531008

Next: NFL 2017: Picks against the spread for Week 5

At their best, the Jaguars should be able to hold their own against the Steelers. However, Jacksonville has yet to prove that they can reach that level with any kind of consistency. Then again, neither had Pittsburgh coming into this game. Thus, we were presented with an intriguing matchup.