‘It’s Great To See Our Team Finish’: Jaguars Finally Close Out a Game To End Losing Skid

In a game where the Jaguars were down 20-10 going into halftime, they never took their foot off the gas and secured their third win.

Self-inflicted mistakes, sloppy play, and an inability to finish tight contests have been the storyline of the 2022 Jacksonville Jaguars. For at least one week those notions can be put to rest.

In a second half where the Jaguars outscored the Las Vegas Raiders 17-0, the team showed the resiliency and grit reminiscent of their early season success. For head coach Doug Pederson, this game was a significant step in learning how to win.

“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 on Sunday. 

“We’ve been really close, as you guys know, over the course of the season. It’s great to see our team finish. It’s great to see our defense finish, offensively in the second half and make plays. I mean, special teams the great return to start the second half. It’s all steps in the right direction, right? It’s something now we can build upon. Guys have that feeling, kind of the taste in their mouth. We’ve just got to capitalize and keep improving.”

Sunday marked the third straight game that the Jaguars led in the fourth quarter. Unlike the previous two, the team was able to hold tight and secure a crucial win. Sound execution of the game plan and building upon the lessons of the last two games were critical to changing the narrative.

“I think it’s just a matter of just continuing to build on the game plan that was giving us success in the second half,” Pederson said. 

“Trevor [Lawrence] was in a good spot. The running game was in a good spot. We just had to continue. My mindset in those situations is you still have to be aggressive and get first downs, right? The game is not necessarily over. You are only up four at the time, and you still have to get first downs and try to score as many points as you can. So that’s always going to be the mindset late in the game, especially in games like this. It was really good for our guys to finish this game that way and for Riley [Patterson] to – I know he missed the one, but he came back and hit a bigger kick in my opinion there at the end. Just goes to show, I think how this team is really embracing each other. They’re taking the coaching to the field. Just a great sign of that.”

Being down 17-0 early can cause some teams to hit the panic button and try to do too much to get back into things. For the Jaguars, their ability to stay strong and avoid collapse was a major step forward as they look to regain solid positioning in the AFC South.

“Yeah, it’s interesting,” Pederson said. “When you’re in games like this, you look at that opening drive and really went down the field mix of run, mix of pass plays. Obviously, we had the miscue with the fumble. There were some opportunities even after that. We didn’t get off the field. We gave up the big touchdown to Davante [Adams] there. It wasn’t like we were far off, right? 

"Our guys had a lot of confidence on the sideline. Coaches, we stuck to the game plan and really just trusted our players honestly and kept putting them in those situations to be successful. Didn’t ask Trevor to do anything other than what he has been coached to do. Can you do that all the time? I don’t know if you can, but today it worked. Proud for the guys.”