Jaguars lose 23-20 to Jets in overtime

In a game where both teams played incredibly sloppy, the New York Jets were able to pull off an overtime win over the Jacksonville Jaguars by a score of 23-20. Standing at 2-2, the Jaguars are now in a three-way tie for first place in a horrid AFC South, with the Texans beating the Titans earlier in the day.

The game began with a three-and-out by the Jets, where Myles Jack was involved on every stop. The Jaguars responded by driving down the field and scoring on a short play-action pass to Leonard Fournette, his fourth NFL touchdown and first receiving touchdown.

New York Jets running back Bilal Powell broke free on a 75 yard rushing touchdown on the next drive. While it looked like he was down by contact by either Telvin Smith or Calais Campbell near the line of scrimmage, the officials didn’t have enough evidence to overturn the ruling on the field.

The rest of the first half was relatively boring, minus a handful of sacks from Yannick Ngakoue and Calais Campbell. Quarterback Blake Bortles threw more inaccurate passes than I could count on one hand, both teams were heavily penalized, and the first half ended on a fake punt from New York that ended in a missed field goal — The score was 10-10 at halftime.

Right after the half, Jets running back Elijah McGuire ran for a 69 yard touchdown — The second huge rushing touchdown for the Jets on the day — The first time since 2002 that the Jets have had two 65+ yard rushing touchdowns in a game. The Jaguars were unable to answer on their following drive, as Bortles continued to look shaken by pressure and Chris Ivory couldn’t make anything happen for the run game.

The Jets then realized how to win on defense — Make Blake Bortles mess up. After putting 10 in the tackle box, Kony Ealy tipped-and-picked a pass from Bortles, putting the Jets in the redzone. The Jaguars defense was able to hold New York to a field goal, but with only 34 seconds left in the third quarter and no momentum whatsoever, the Jaguars were down by 10 points.

Despite a flashy run play from Bortles on the following drive, the offense couldn‘t put anything together. On third down, in field goal range, Bortles threw a screen to Corey Grant five yards behind the line of scrimmage, with what looked like eight defenders in the tackle box. Jason Myers missed a 52 yard field goal right after that, to make things even worse.

The Jaguars defense was able to create some momentum in the latter half of the game. Myles Jack recovered a backwards pass from Josh McCown and returned it 82 yards for a touchdown, sparking some life for the Jaguars. The defense regained their momentum from Jack’s touchdown, and after a dropped pick-6 from Tashaun Gipson, the Jaguars forced the Jets to punt with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter.

The Jaguars weren’t able to create anything on offense on their next drive, but A.J. Bouye recorded his second interception of the season at the Jets 35 yard line with just over three minutes left in the game. Although the Jaguars were able to push into the redzone, Leonard Fournette was taken off the field due to a potential leg injury and the offense was unable to score — Myers hit a field goal and tied the game at 20, with 46 seconds left.

The Jets began to drive down the field, until Dante Fowler Jr. recorded a strip-sack (that was recovered by Josh McCown) taking this game to overtime.

Overtime was far from exciting, as no team came close to scoring until the end. With under two minutes left, Paul Posluszny was called for taunting on a punt, putting the Jets at the Jaguars 30 yard line. After a couple of run plays to make a field goal a little easier, Jets kicker Chandler Catanzaro hit a field goal from 41 yards away to win the game: Jets 23, Jaguars 20.

Bortles finished the day 15-35 with only 140 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. He had at least four passes batted down at the line, on my count.

Although the momentum was there from a late-game resurgence from the Jaguars defense, Bortles’ miscues cost the Jaguars what should have been an easy win over a talent-deprived Jets team.