For weeks, the Jacksonville Jaguars have looked like the AFC South’s best team.
They gained momentum in November and December as the Tennessee Titans reeled. When the teams met last month, Jacksonville cruised to a double-digit victory on the road. The Jaguars had the healthier, stronger roster on paper led by a Super Bowl-winning coach in Doug Pederson.
Jacksonville winning the division felt inevitable, and now it’s finally happened.
“I’m so proud of the guys for the way they have just all season long just hung together,” Pederson said, “and through the face of adversity at times and even through some of the high moments, we just stayed the same.”
Trevor Lawrence threw for 212 yards and a touchdown and Josh Allen returned a fumble for a score late in the fourth quarter as the Jaguars (9-8) clinched their second-ever AFC South title with a 20-16 win over the Titans Saturday night.
With the victory, Jacksonville will be the AFC’s No. 4 seed in the playoffs, set to host the yet-to-be determined fifth seed in the wild-card round.
The Titans (7-10) appeared to be on the fast track to winning the game, holding a 16-13 lead midway through the fourth quarter. They were effectively moving the ball to keep the clock ticking. But at the 2:51 mark, Jaguars safety Rayshawn Jenkins had a sack fumble on quarterback Joshua Dobbs that was recovered for a 37-yard touchdown by Allen.
“I saw Rashawn coming off the edge and honestly, (my) jaw dropped,” Lawrence said of watching from the sidelines. “I was kind of speechless.”
The Jaguars had cut their deficit to three after picking off Dobbs at the end of the third quarter. Cornerback Tyson Campbell intercepted an underthrown ball by the sixth-year quarterback intended for Treylon Burks, and returned it to the Titans 25. Jacksonville turned the takeaway into a 36-yard field goal by Riley Patterson.
The Jaguars‘ defense and special-teams unit carried the slack of the team’s offense, which struggled. Lawrence missing a wide-open Zay Jones (four receptions, 21 yards) in the end zone in the third quarter highlighted a night Jacksonville went 0-for-2 in the red zone. The team’s 222 yards of offense also marked its second-lowest output of the season.
But the Jaguars had at least two takeaways for the fourth time in five weeks. Three of the Titans‘ six second-half drives Saturday started at their own 10 or worse, a credit to Jacksonville’s stellar punt coverage.
“I think defense and special teams won this football game for us,” Pederson said.
The Jaguars’ victory concludes their stunning regular season. Jacksonville started the year 2-6, including 0-for-5 in October. But the team rallied to win six of the next eight games, including four in a row, to set up a division title in Week 18. The Jaguars will now head into the playoffs on a five-game winning streak, their longest streak in 17 years.
“We never lost faith or belief in ourselves,” Lawrence said. “Really how we got here was taking it one week at a time.”
Saturday’s victory is also another milestone in a remarkable turnaround in Jacksonville under Pederson. The Jaguars’ nine wins is more than double their total from the previous two seasons combined (four), and they’re the first team in NFL history to make the postseason after consecutive seasons of at least 14 losses, according to NFL Research.
One of Pederson’s first tasks after arriving in Jacksonville? Regaining the trust of the team. He said it had been broken when he accepted the job.
“I just think Doug is an incredible leader,” said receiver Christian Kirk, who had a team-high 99 receiving yards and a touchdown on six receptions. “One of the (traits) that he has is just connecting with everybody. … He treats us fair. He sticks to his word. He’s always thinking about us and puts us first. Having a coach like that who’s always going to put you in positions to succeed, it’s pretty easy to buy into.
“And he keeps manifesting it, and telling us that it’s always going to be about us and it’s going to come down to Week 18,” Kirk continued. “He’s saying these things that maybe in other times, guys may not believe, but when it’s coming to fruition and starts happening, it’s pretty easy to buy into that.”
With the win, Jacksonville ended Tennessee’s season. The Titans (7-10), who end their 2022 campaign on a seven-game losing streak, had won the previous two AFC South crowns. This also marked the first series sweep for the Jaguars over the Titans since 2005.
Jacksonville’s previous AFC South title came in 2017, when it made a run to the AFC championship game. Jacksonville also won back-to-back division crowns in 1998-99 as part of the AFC Central division before the NFL’s realignment in 2002.
“We earned that moment,” linebacker Foyesade Oluokunn said of winning the AFC South. “”It was like, ‘Yeah, we did that.’ Everyone was happy as hell. So we’re just trying to build off of that.”
Ben Arthur is the AFC South reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat writer for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.
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