JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jaguars are back atop the AFC South standings but they got a big scare at the finish.
Jacksonville kept its momentum rolling and quashed any sort of Minshew Magic with a 37-20 romp over the Colts on Sunday at EverBank Stadium. The defense harassed ex-Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew and Travis Etienne did the heavy lifting on offense early to shoo away the Colts and take sole possession of first place in the division.
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It wasn’t without a bit of a scare.
Quarterback Trevor Lawrence left the game late after a sack with 3 minutes, 4 seconds to play after going down awkwardly on a sack. The team said he was questionable to return with a knee injury. Lawrence didn’t have to return — the team was up 14 at that point and trying to bleed the clock — but that play put a bit of a damper on what was a dominant display in a season sweep of Indianapolis.
“Yeah, just felt something, you know, just some discomfort in my knee when I went down,” Lawrence said. “I don’t know if it was twisted or landed on or what. I kind of felt it right away. Put a little pressure on it. Realized I could get up. So I was just trying to get up and get off the field.”
Jacksonville (4-2) stacked another superb defensive performance together — that’s five in six weeks — and had four takeaways in a powerful showing on that side of the ball to stretch the Colts’ misery in town into next season. Jacksonville has an NFL-high 15 turnovers through six games and they cranked out another excellent showing after spending two weeks in London.
The travel hangover was a real concern for coach Doug Pederson, but Jacksonville overcame those questions.
“The effort, intensity, guys responded really all week. It is hard, it’s hard when you’re over there for 10 days, your bodies are used to that time change,” he said. “Coming back here, it takes a while. It takes several days to get back on east coast time. But the guys handled the week extremely well. Proud of them, they had a lot of energy today. That was really good to see. We’ve got a short week, so we got to keep that rolling.”
Minshew, a fan favorite during his time in Jacksonville, tried to string together some second-half magic with a pair of touchdown drives, but he threw a costly end zone interception, and the Jaguars stayed a step ahead until the finish.
Indianapolis hasn’t won in Jacksonville since 2014 and saw its best chance at that slip away before halftime. The Jaguars scored three touchdowns in 13 minutes and never let the Colts get closer than 11 the rest of the way.
Jacksonville won its third straight game and has a quick turnaround this week. The Jaguars visit New Orleans on Thursday night in their first primetime game of the season. Will Lawrence be under center for that game? Pederson said he didn’t have an update on his status and defended the decision to still
“In situations like that, you’ve seen it work a million times. A million and one, it didn’t work,” he said. “We were able to get three points out of it. From that standpoint, it was effective. Look, is there a little bit of risk there to run your quarterback? Yes. But at the same time, the reward is you get the first down, and you stay on the field and ice the game in those situations. Definitely wouldn’t change the scenario or the situation. We can coach that a little bit better and ask him maybe to go down a little bit sooner.”
The defense stays hot
Jacksonville has been excellent on that side of the ball every game this season except in Week 3 against Houston. It never allowed Buffalo to get in synch in London and kept that going against Minshew and Indianapolis. Starting in place of injured rookie Anthony Richardson, Minshew looked sharp on the first drive of the game but dissipated the rest of the way.
Mixing up short and intermediate throws, Minshew hit his first nine passes and helped the Colts bleed eight and a half minutes from the clock. That drive ended with a 28-yard field goal by Matt Gay.
Jacksonville harassed Minshew into a career-worst day after that.
The rush wasn’t overpowering but it was effective enough to force three sacks — Josh Allen and K’Lavon Chaisson had solo sacks, while Travon Walker and Roy Robertson-Harris split one — three interceptions and a fumble recovery.
Allen’s strip sack of Minshew popped the ball out and it was recovered by Angelo Blackson. Andre Cisco had his third interception of the season and Rayshawn Jenkins had his first. Darious Williams picked off his third pass in as many games with an end zone interception early in the fourth quarter to erase any thought of a Minshew-led comeback. Jacksonville turned three of those four turnovers into 17 points. Jacksonville didn’t give much of anything to running back Jonathan Taylor (eight carries, 19 yards). He was more effective as a pass catcher (five carries, 46 yards).
“Yeah, defense sometimes doesn’t get enough credit for that. The takeaways are something that we as a team talk about. They talk about it as a defense,” Pederson said. “It just shortens the field for your offense. Pass rush again today, there was pressure on Gardner, putting it in places that he maybe didn’t want it to go. Again, just a great team effort on defense to play the way they did today.”
Etienne’s stock rising
For the second week in a row, Etienne gave the Jaguars — and fantasy football owners — a jolt. He scored twice in the span of 16 seconds, a 2-yard run and then a 22-yard burst on a direct snap to help turn a 3-0 deficit into a 14-3 lead just 59 seconds into the second quarter. Etienne’s growth has been explosive for an offense that has been looking for big plays.
He helped swing last week’s game against Buffalo with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns and built off of that against Indianapolis. Etienne finished with 83 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 21 touches.
“It was very big, just to go in there and get a lead early in the game, just trying to build up the momentum,” Etienne said. “The defense was playing lights-out, they get stops, and we just try to go out there and score more points.”
And for fantasy owners — a playful social media post Etienne shared after beating the Bills — Etienne has been a gamechanger. He entered the Colts game averaging 18.4 fantasy points a game. Etienne has five touchdowns this season through six games. He scored five times all of last season.
Lawrence finished 20 of 30 for 181 yards and touchdown passes to Christian Kirk and rookie Brenton Strange.
No magic this time
Minshew threw a career-worst three interceptions but did give Jacksonville a little bit of a scare. He had a 2-yard touchdown pass to Josh Downs and then set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Zack Moss seven minutes later to get Indianapolis within 31-20. But Jamal Agnew ripped off a 53-yard kickoff return on the following play and Brandon McManus hit a 49-yard field goal for a bit more breathing room. McManus added a 51-yarder after that to cap a 3-for-3 day.
Minshew was 33 of 55 for 329 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions.