JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The streak is over.
The Jaguars completed their second-biggest comeback in franchise history, erasing a 17-point deficit to beat the Raiders 27-20 on Sunday at TIAA Bank Field. For a team that entered having lost nine consecutive games by a possession or less dating back to last season, Jacksonville finally closed a game out.
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It wasn’t easy.
Derek Carr had two chances in the final 3 minutes, 3 seconds but stalled on downs on his first try and had Devin Lloyd pick snatch a lateral on the next with 8 seconds to play to ice it.
“Huge. We’re just looking for one more point, right? We’re just looking for guys to make plays,” Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said. “We’re just looking for opportunities, and I think all of that came through today in this game, and this is a great team win.”
Jacksonville’s defense forced two punts, had a stop on fourth in the final quarter and then Lloyd’s clinching pick, capping a spectacular turnaround from how it started the game.
The Jaguars (3-6) go on the road to face the Chiefs next before their bye week arrives. Heading to Kansas City after snapping a five-game losing streak is a major win for Pederson and the Jaguars. For weeks, Pederson has repeated the same line about how close the team was to turning things around.
“I think more so kind of getting over that hump as far as just that feeling of being able to win these close games. And especially, like I said, being down 17-0 early, there was really no panic,” quarterback Trevor Lawrence said. “We knew we were going to win that game. It was kind of go-time at that point.”
Jacksonville has been close much of the season ... if it could just get past its self-inflicted mistakes. It had one of those early on a botched pitch from Lawrence to JaMychal Hasty that resulted in a giveaway at the Raiders 26 that Vegas would ultimately convert into a touchdown.
The Jaguars fell into a 17-0 hole early in the second half and surged back to grab a 24-20 lead on a Travis Etienne on the first play of the fourth quarter. For a team that had been close in every game this season, such a deficit was foreign ground for the Jaguars.
And they delivered.
“Well, you don’t want to put too much emphasis on wins and losses, but this is a step in the right direction,” Pederson said. “We’ve been really close, as you guys know, over the course of the season. It’s great to see our team finish.”
Trevor Lawrence was sharp. Etienne had a pair of rushing touchdowns and another 100-yard rushing game. The defense, torched in the opening half by Carr and Davante Adams, tightened up after that and held them off.
The comeback was the second biggest in franchise history, trailing only a 21-point hole against the Giants on Nov. 30, 2014. Jacksonville came back to win that game 25-24.
The Raiders, coming off a 24-0 loss against the Saints, lit the Jaguars up immediately. Carr and Adams picked Jacksonville’s defense apart. Carr hit Adams for a 25-yard touchdown on the second drive of the game and then a 38-yard strike on the Raiders’ fourth to push them to a 17-0 lead just four minutes into the second quarter. Adams had both touchdown catches and 146 yards receiving in the first half.
Jacksonville didn’t back down, chipping away at that deficit.
Jacksonville had a nice counter at the end of the half. Carr underthrew a pass in the end zone to Ameer Abdullah that hit Chad Muma in the back or else it would have gone for a touchdown. They settled for a 38-yard field goal from Daniel Carlson to go up 20-7.
Lawrence (25 of 31, 235 yards, TD) got the ball back with 45 seconds and two timeouts left and marched the Jaguars down the field with ease. His 24-yard run got Jacksonville into Vegas territory and Riley Patterson hit a 44-yard field goal as time ran out to cut the deficit to 20-10.
“I think the whole energy this week, we kind of knew we had to go get this one this week,” Lawrence said. “Obviously, you don’t try to put more pressure on yourselves than you need to, but everybody knows that where we’re at right now in our season. We really have to turn this thing around and get some wins. We felt that, and just had a lot of confidence in our prep.”
They struck first in the second half, too. Jamal Agnew’s 52-yard kickoff return gave the Jaguars a short field to lead off the third quarter and Lawrence threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Christian Kirk to get the Jaguars to 20-17.
It got tight at the finish. Patterson doinked a 41-yard field goal off the right upright with 3:08 to go to set Carr up with another chance, but he turned it over on downs. Patterson hit a 48-yarder after that for the final margin, but the Raiders found themselves in a fourth-and-17 after a Dawuane Smoot sack, his second of the game. They attempted a series of laterals, but Foster Moreau’s final heave across the field was snared by Lloyd to seal it.
Etienne had 109 yards rushing on 29 carries. Kirk had a touchdown catch and 76 yards on eight receptions.
“The National Football League is unforgiving when you let up and don’t finish games,” Raiders coach Josh McDaniels said. “The other team plays as hard as they possibly can too, and they got a lot of good players and coaches over there. They earned the right to win today, and we didn’t.”