By Hays Carlyon
You have to love the NFL.
You have to love the Jaguars, a 14 ½-point underdog, stunning the AFC-favorite Buffalo Bills 9-6 on Sundayat TIAA Bank Field.
You have to love Trevor Lawrence closing his on-field interview moments after the victory with a huge “DUUVAL” that the Jaguars faithful wildly bellowed back to him. There’s no chance the Bills Mafia didn’t hear that heading back to their cars.
You have to our Josh Allen dominating their Josh Allen with a sack, an interception and a fumble recovery.
You have to love Taven Bryan, TAVEN FREAKIN’ BRYAN, generating the interior pressure the Jaguars have sorely lacked for so long and recording two sacks.
You have to love safety Rudy Ford securing an interception, proving he is more than a special-teams dynamo.
You have to love defensive coordinator Joe Cullen’s plan of attack and how well the players executed it.
You have to love the Jaguars winning despite not having standout running back James Robinson (ankle) or left tackle Cam Robinson, who injured his back in warmups.
You have to love Urban Meyer getting what is unquestionably the biggest foundational brick in how he builds a new era of Jaguars football.
This was euphoria.
I didn’t believe they could pull it off. You didn’t believe they could pull it off.
Not until Jaguars defensive end Dawuane Smoot sacked their Josh Allen for a 9-yard loss on third-and-7. Not until their Josh Allen, the losing one, then threw incomplete on fourth-and-16 from the Jaguars 48-yard line with 1:02 left.
The Jaguars ran Carlos Hyde three times. The Bills used their final two timeouts. Punter Logan Cooke then quickly got off a ball with seven seconds left that rolled dead at the Bills 5-yard line with no time left on the clock.
The party was on.
Where this win takes the Jaguars, how could anyone know? This young team is the ultimate rollercoaster. From a horrid performance in a 31-7 loss at Seattle last week coming off a bye to this incredible upset.
We now know the Jaguars (2-6) can beat just about anybody.
The Bills entered the game tops in the league in scoring offense, scoring defense and turnover margin at plus-13.
The Jaguars won the turnover battle by two after entering the game tied for last in the NFL at minus-11.
You have to love the NFL.
You have to love what happened here Sunday if you love the Jaguars.
Hopefully, this upset won’t fade from our minds in the coming months and years.
Hopefully, this win will be remembered as the start of something special in the years to come.
(You can email Hays at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @HaysCarlyon).
When's the last time you heard anyone refer to baseball as America's National Pastime? That label was given to baseball more than a century ago, but it began to fade in the 80s when the boom in football -- and auto racing -- started. The speed and violence in those sports were more appealing, especially to young fans. But baseball kept its head in the sand. The leadership did nothing to speed up the game until the last 10 years […]
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