Jaguars earn convincing win over Titans to stay alive in AFC South race

Ben Arthur

AFC South Reporter

NASHVILLE — The Jaguars are still alive in the AFC South.

With help from three first-half takeaways, Jacksonville (5-8) topped division-rival Tennessee (7-6) 36-22 on the road Sunday at Nissan Stadium.

The Jaguars would’ve been eliminated from AFC South title contention with a loss. By getting the victory, Jacksonville saw its division title odds jump from 2% to 12%, according to FiveThirtyEight. And the win came in Nashville, where the Jaguars hadn’t won since 2013.

“It means a lot,” coach Doug Pederson said about the victory. “It means a lot to myself, the organization.”

The defense led the charge in the first half.

Jaguars rookie outside linebacker Travon Walker, the No. 1 overall pick, had the first of four takeaways. In the first quarter, he beat a chipping Chig Okonkwo and left tackle Dennis Daley for the strip sack on Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill. The fumble was recovered by defensive end Dawuane Smoot at the Titans’ 20, giving Jacksonville a short field. Jacksonville turned that into a touchdown, courtesy of tight end Evan Engram, who had a monster performance: 11 receptions on 15 targets for 162 yards and two touchdowns.

“It’s kind of euphoric,” Engram said of being in the zone. “That confidence goes up, but it’s also important to stay in the moment, stay centered and focus on your breathing and just be ready for the next play.”

In the second quarter, safety Andrew Wingard picked off Tannehill, who appeared to have a miscommunication with receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine. That led to a 37-yard field goal by Riley Patterson.

And after the two-minute warning in the second quarter, with the Titans in Jaguars territory, linebacker Shaquille Quarterman hit Derrick Henry to force a fumble. Outside linebacker Josh Allen recovered the ball in-bounds, ending Tennessee’s hopes for points. Jacksonville turned that into its second touchdown drive of the day, capped by a 20-yard reception by receiver Zay Jones (8 receptions, 77 yards, TD), whose touchdown was initially ruled incomplete but was reversed after a review.

On a 13-0 run to end the first half, the Jaguars put the nail in the coffin in the third quarter.

Jacksonville had a 93-yard kickoff return touchdown to start the period rolled back by a holding call, but it put together a 12-play, 79-yard drive to reach the end zone anyway to go up two scores at 27-14. After Tennessee responded with a three-and-out dud that netted minus-8 yards, Jacksonville scored another touchdown to push its lead up to 33-19.

Hopes of a Titans comeback grew especially grim in the fourth quarter thanks to Jaguars linebacker Arden Key, who recovered a fumbled hand-off exchange between Tannehill and Henry at the Tennessee 30. It cued the mass exit of Titans fans from Nissan Stadium.

Tennessee rallied back to within two scores late in the fourth quarter, but Tannehill’s desperation fourth-and-18 heave to the end zone sailed incomplete, essentially ending the game with 1:59 left.

The Jaguars had a season-high four takeaways, which led to 20 points.

“They come in bunches,” Allen said of the takeaways. “We were always just waiting for them to make a mistake. And every time they made a mistake, we were able to capitalize.”

Trevor Lawrence (30-for-42, 368 yards, 3 TDs, 121.9 passer rating), who had a career-high in single-game passing yards, also put the offense on his shoulder with a non-existent run game, which netted just 60 yards on 2.4 yards per rush. He led a dominant passing attack that carved up the Titans’ short-handed secondary, playing without starting cornerback Kristian Fulton. Jacksonville’s 36 points marked the Jaguars’ second-highest total of the season.

Lawrence is the first player in Jaguars history with 300-plus passing yards, three passing touchdowns and a rushing TD in a single game.

“I thought Trevor, for the limited amount of practice time this week, played tough, played physical, played smart, made great throws in this football game,” Pederson said of Lawrence, who missed practice Wednesday and Thursday with a toe injury. “He’s been able to handle everything, and now he’s battling the injury this week and put the team sort of on his back like he did again today.

“Just shows the type of player and person that he is. He’s the right leader for us. We’re excited to have him as our quarterback. He can only get better and that’s the one thing I’m most encouraged about, just how much more we can pour into him as he leads this team.”

Ahead of the game, the Jaguars were well aware of their poor record against the Titans. Jacksonville had lost nine of the past 10 matchups with the AFC South rival, including five straight, entering Sunday. According to Engram, the coaching staff showed a video of that history during the week. It went back years. Engram said it motivated the team.

“We came out and we were ready,” Engram said. “We had a great week of practice. We had a fun practice. We just trusted our process and we put our process to the test today. …. We all answered the bell today.”

Jacksonville got a complete effort against Tennessee.

Now, the Jags are still in the hunt for a division crown.

“I know we are building something special, man. We talk about this,” Allen said. “We put it into the air. This is one of the things we had to do to get to where we need to be. Now we have to move on. … We got to go get this next one.”

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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.