With a touchdown on a late turnover, the Jacksonville Jaguars edged the Tennessee Titans 20-16 to claim AFC South honors on Saturday at EverBank Field.
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It was a fight without thank you between the two formations of the south of the United States. Whoever won would automatically qualify for the NFL playoffs. The Jaguars (9-8) thus put an end to the hopes of the Titans (7-10).
The tiebreak of the game came in the Titans’ penultimate offensive streak. The pressure was high on quarterback Joshua Dobbs, whose arm was hooked by Rayshawn Jenkins to force a fumble. Josh Allen recovered the ball and ran the 37 yards to the end zone for the touchdown.
The Jaguars then took the lead for the first time in the game, with 2 min 51 s to go. The home side snuffed out the Titans threat afterwards by forcing Dobbs to compromise on a fourth down. Back on the field, Trevor Lawrence only had to tick off the seconds.
The young “Jags” quarterback made history by reaching the 4,000-yard plateau this season. He is only the third center in the franchise to achieve this, after Mark Brunell in 1995 and Blake Bortles in 2015.
Christian Kirk caught Lawrence’s lone pass for a touchdown in the second quarter. Riley Patterson had two field goals to keep his team in the game.
On the Tennessee side, Dobbs found Chigoziem Okonkwo in the paying zone, also in the second quarter. Kicker Randy Bullock also stood out with three field goals, including a very long 51 yards.
Nothing went as planned for the Titans in the second half of the campaign. They concluded the regular schedule with seven straight losses. The Jaguars, meanwhile, have triumphed in their five most recent outings.