Doug Marrone, Jaguars Offensive Players Defend 2-Point Attempt in Four Quarter

With the Jaguars down by eight points in the fourth quarter, head coach Doug Marrone made a controversial move to go for two points.

In the ever-changing world that is the NFL, philosophies on how to approach extra point attempts have continued to evolve. The decisions of whether to take the one-point field goal try or the two-point conversion have taken center stage at several points already this season, and that continued on Sunday with the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

Following a two-yard touchdown pass from Gardner Minshew II to DJ Chark with 6:17 left in the game, the Jaguars and head coach Doug Marrone faced a critical decision. With the Jaguars trailing 30-22, the Jaguars had to either kick the extra point with Aldrick Rosas, who had signed with the team on Tuesday, or go for two. 

Much like Marrone did in Week 2 in Houston in 2019, the Jaguars head coach opted to be aggressive and get the two points. Unfortunately for the Jaguars, the Bengals were able to stop a pass to James Robinson short of the goal line. 

"So going for two, you look at it, the time of the game, six minutes, it gives you—you know, analytically, it’s the better chance of winning the football game if you go for two right there," Marrone said after the game. 

"I think with the way the game was going, if you get it now he’s trying to put pressure on them for a different ball game. Now you’re going for the win, which is going to be aggressive, so it gives you a better chance to win the football game. That’s why we went for two.”

With the Jaguars trailing by eight instead of seven or six, the Bengals had a bit more breathing room. The Bengals would then take over four minutes off of the clock with a 10-play drive that ended in a field goal, rendering Marrone's decision less impactful, but still noteworthy.

Perhaps most interestingly, Marrone going for two was a bit of a change from what he had done previously in the game. Marrone coached a conservative game, calling for a Rosas field goal attempt on a makeable fourth-and-2 on the second drive and then doing the same on a fourth-and-inches near the goal line at the end of the half. 

But in this instance, Marrone made the bold, but logical and frankly wise, move to attempt to get within six. Marrone said after the game that having Rosas at kicker instead of Josh Lambo didn't factor in, either.

“Yes, at that point in the game, because of—again, I go back to, I don’t like getting heavy into the analytics, what we do, but it gives you a better chance to win the football game and that’s what we were trying to do with six minutes left," Marrone said. 

"They were moving the football and we wanted to go for two, trying to get a stop and then go ahead and score a touchdown for the win. If not, you miss it and now you’re down by eight, now you’ve got to get the two-point conversion, to tie the game up.”

Marrone isn't alone in his thinking, either. After the game, Minshew said he loves when Marrone puts his faith and belief in the offense, noting that the offense has to make it worth the belief and execute. This is different from the response Jalen Ramsey had last season, when Ramsey questioned Marrone's call to go for two at the end of the Texans game. Instead, Minshew saw it as Marrone having faith in the offense.

Chark had a similar viewpoint. One play after he made a terrific effort to reel in a tough two-yard touchdown, Chark said he enjoyed the call to attempt to get even more points and fight back into the game, but this simply doesn't mean much if the offense doesn't get the intended result.

“I love it, but me loving it doesn’t change the fact that we have to get it. But whatever the play is called, whatever’s called, we have to execute. It was there, we just have to make it happen," Chark said. 

"If we would have gotten it, maybe that would have changed the offensive approach for the Bengals. Maybe they would have been more cautious and maybe we could have made those plays and had a chance to make it a tie game. But any play he calls, I don’t care [if it’s] first, second, third down, going for two, we just have to complete it.”