Jaguars 37, Colts 20: Turnover Mania Puts Gardner Minshew Away

If Gardner Minshew entered Sunday with a chip on his shoulder, it probably ended the day in the hands of the Jaguars' defense.

The Jaguars dominated their former quarterback and the Indianapolis Colts, extending their home wins streak vs. the Colts to nine years and taking sole first place of the AFC South with a 37-20 win.

Minshew completed his first nine passes, dinking and dunking to the tune of 56 yards with no completion going further than nine yards. Minshew played his game, and the Jaguars didn't show enough ability to take away the quick passing game during the first drive, leading to Misnhew completing a three-yard gain to Zack Moss on 4th-and-1.

Minshew's first two incompletions came on back-to-back plays from the 10-yard line, leading to the Colts settling for a 28-yard field goal.

Lawrence and the Jaguars went for their own fourth-down attempt on the ensuing drive, with Travis Etienne picking up seven yards around the edge on 4th-and-1. Two hard counts by Trevor Lawrence forced the Colts to gift the Jaguars 10 yards and a pair of touchdowns, helping the Jaguars get into scoring range.

After an 18-yard gain by Brenton Strange on a tight end screen, Etienne punched it in from two yards out to give him his third touchdown in two weeks. Then, things started getting out of hand.

Josh Allen, who recorded three sacks against the Colts in Week 1, won around the edge and strip-sacked Minshew for his seventh sack of the season, matching his seven sacks from a year ago.

One play later, Etienne scored on a 22-yard run for his fourth touchdown in the last four quarters.

After the Jaguars traded punts with the Colts, the Jaguars' defense forced Minshew into mistake, with Andre Cisco picking him off for his third interception of the season -- just one play after Minshew tried to gift an interception to Devin Lloyd.

Jacksonville responded with their second touchdown following a turnover, this time a 29-yard strike from Lawrence to Christian Kirk to extend the lead to 21-3.

The Jaguars' defense didn't let up in the second half, either. After the Jaguars had a quick three-and-out on offense to start the half, Rayshawn Jenkins made up for an earlier negated interception and picked off Minshew for the Jaguars' third takeaway of the game.

Jenkins' interception marked Sunday as the fourth game this year in which the Jaguars forced three takeaways, and it also set up a 48-yard field goal from Brandon McManus to increase the Jaguars' lead to 24-6.

Jacksonville's defense came back with more negative plays the next drive, too, with Foyesade Oluokun recording a tackle for loss and K'Lavon Chaisson sacking Minshew for his second sack of the season. The sack marked 2023 as the first year in Chaisson's four-year career with multiple sacks.

After the Colts' defensive backs committed pass interference penalties on Calvin Ridley and Kirk, Lawrence connected with Strange for the rookie tight end's first-ever touchdown catch and Lawrence's second passing touchdown of the day.

Sunday marked the second time this year Lawrence has thrown multiple touchdowns, with the first coming in Week 1 vs. the Colts.

Minshew and the Colts cut into the lead for the first time after a 4o-yard completion to Michael Pittman Jr. set up a two-yard touchdown from Minshew to Josh Downs with Montaric Brown in coverage.

Lawrence would go on to throw his first interception in three weeks to Julius Brents on the following drive, but the Jaguars' defense forced their fourth turnover with a Darious Williams interception.

The interception became Williams' third pick in as many weeks and helped the Jaguars become the NFL's top defense in terms of takeaways with 15.

After a third-down sack forced the Jaguars' off the field for the second drive in a row, the Colts drove 72 yards in four plays after Kylen Granson picked up 45 yards early in the drive. It was later capitalized by a three-yard touchdown by Moss, cutting the Jaguars lead to 31-20.

Jamal Agnew put the dagger in the Colts' hearts with a 53-yard return, giving the Jaguars the spark they needed to put the game away after a 49-yard field goal from McManus.

Stats of the Game (10/15/23 vs. the Colts) Via: @theryanmichael

Trevor Lawrence finished the game 20 of 30 (66.7%) for 181 yards (6.0 YPA), 2 touchdowns, 1 interception, 3 sacks and a 91.1 passer rating.

Travis Etienne carried the ball 18 times for 55 yards (3.1 YPC) and 2 touchdowns.

Christian Kirk caught 3 passes for 49 yards and 1 touchdown.

Brenton Strange caught 2 passes for 27 yards and 1 touchdown.

Evan Engram caught 7 passes for 41 yards.

Foyesade Oluokun led the Jaguars with 15 tackles (10 solo) and 1 TFL.

Rayshawn Jenkins, Andre Cisco and Darious Williams all hauled in 1 interception each.

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