Late in the third quarter Sunday, the Jaguars appeared to be on the verge of suffering yet another blowout loss in the Music City.
Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill was dicing up the Jaguars in a virtually clean pocket that led to a quick 14-0 lead in the first quarter.
With time to spot receivers, Tannehill completed his fourth touchdown pass of the day, an 18-yard spiral in the middle of the end zone to Adam Humphries that extended the Titans’ lead to 30-17 with just more than two minutes remaining in the third quarter.
Perhaps, the Jaguars would had packed it in at that point had it been 2018 or last season. Down by 13 in a stadium they have not enjoyed a win since 2013, the fight would have been over for all practical purposes.
The Jaguars probably would have accepted at that point that their luck isn’t right in Nashville. It would have been an easy excuse, especially considering they were routed 42-20 in Nashville last season. And in 2018, they got hammered 30-9 by the Titans when Yulee native Derrick Henry rushed for 238 yards and scoring four touchdowns.
But this 2020 team is different.
Similar to last week when the Jaguars overcame a woeful start to pull out a remarkable 27-20 win against Colts at TIAA Bank Field, they showed their resiliency Sunday against the Titans in the fourth quarter.
The Jaguars still lost 33-30 that extended the franchise’s losing streak to seven games at Nissan Stadium. But they fought until the end.
Quarterback Gardner Minshew, who passed for 339 yards, tossed two fourth-quarter touchdown passes to Keelan Cole and Chris Thompson to tie the score at 30.
The Titans had to turn to veteran kicker Stephen Gostkowski to make a 49-yard field goal with 1:41 remaining to clinch their win.
The Jaguars showed Sunday they have the firepower to tussle with any team in the league. They can fight back from a poor start or from a two-touchdown deficit.
“I mean, you see resilience when we’re in there,” Minshew said. “But we also learned that we’ve got to start faster. We don’t need to be getting down 13 in the first place. I think if we jump out and play every quarter like we played that fourth, we’re going to be a good football team.”
It takes time for a young team to jell with 14 rookies, including running back James Robinson and cornerback CJ Henderson, who both start. But a 1-1 start is a confidence booster, considering the Jaguars to picked to be one of the worst teams in the league after having a mass exodus of veteran talent that included Yannick Ngakoue, Calais Campbell and A.J. Bouye.
“I really feel close to this football team, and you can see the chemistry,” coach Doug Marrone said. “You can see the way they work with each other and bring each other up and keep a mindset about themselves. You know, it’s just — like I said before, I knew this in camp. I think we’ve got to do a better job, us as coaches, to get them off to a good start, get them in position. So we’ll work on that because the one thing I don’t think — I know I don’t worry about is how hard they play.”
The Jaguars still have to get all three levels performing at the same efficient level. Right now, the offense is playing up to expectations, but the defense and special teams must perform better.
The Jaguars’ two sacks are the third-lowest in the league. However, the Jaguars held Henry to 84 yards rushing and no touchdowns. He came in averaging 127 yards in four games against the Jaguars in Nashville.
On special teams, rookie Chris Claybrooks muffed a kickoff return and a punt. Kicker Josh Lambo, who is usually efficient, missed an extra-point attempt in the third quarter and made a poor squib kick that enabled the Titans’ to recover at the Jaguars’ 49 that set up Gostkowski’s 51-yard field goal at the end of the first half that extended the Titans lead to 24-10.
Ahead, however, are winnable games against a young, rebuilding Miami Dolphins team this upcoming Thursday at TIAA Bank Stadium and then the Cincinnati Bengals on the road in Week 4 on Oct. 4. The Dolphins and Bengals are both 0-2.
“I think honestly we feel like we can go toe to toe with anybody,” receiver DJ Chark said. “It doesn’t matter. Our offensive line is going to move people off the ball. James is going to run hard. Our receivers are all capable of making plays, and they understand that we expect plays to be made every time the ball is in the air. It’s our ball or nobody’s ball, and Gardner is out there making great decisions. I think it’s just the mentality that we have, whether it’s 30-17 or it’s a tie game. We understand that we only control what we can control.”
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