Jacksonville Jaguars: Fourth quarter offense proves costly in loss
By Larry Brake
The Jacksonville Jaguars offense went conservative and it proved costly in their 24-20 loss to New England in the AFC Championship Game.
Everything seemed to be going the way for the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jaguars were defeating the New England Patriots 20-10, going into the fourth quarter. The Patriots played to win the game and Jacksonville played to not give the game away.
New England took the opening drive down the field to go ahead 3-0. The Jaguars got things going in the second quarter by scoring two touchdowns. Marcedes Lewis and Leonard Fournette scored touchdowns to put Jacksonville up 14-3. The Patriots got a second quarter touchdown to cut the halftime score to 14-10. Jacksonville added two field goals to extend the lead to 20-10. Then the game changed drastically.
Myles Jack stripped and recovered the ball to put Jacksonville in business at the 33-yard line. After the turnover, wouldn’t you think Jacksonville might go for the jugular to crush the Patriots’ spirits?
On first down, Fournette ran up the middle for just two yards. In fact, on the next three first downs, it was Fournette up the middle for one yard. On four consecutive first downs, Jacksonville ran the ball for five yards. After losing the lead with the score at 24-20, the sense of urgency crept into the Jaguars offensive play calling.
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The Jaguars defense carried the team throughout the season. Did Jacksonville think that they could put the game into the hands of the defense, again? Is there such a thing as prevent offense? Hopefully, Jacksonville will realize that scoring as many points possible is not a bad thing. While growing up in Oklahoma, one learns early what “hanging half a hundred” means. Most of all, closing out games with strong drives, to score touchdowns, is a learned behavior.
Losing when you are so close, still hurts but look how far they have come. The future looks bright for the Jaguars. Just wait until next year, you have not seen anything yet!