Jaguars show elite toughness in victory at Saints

By Hays Carlyon

Over the course of a 17-game season, NFL teams will occasionally drop their guard.

Even great teams.

Thursday night in the Superdome appeared to be the perfect trap for the Jaguars. Instead, they showed incredible toughness both physically and mentally in edging a desperate New Orleans team 31-24 in front of 70,009 fans to win their fourth consecutive game to improve to 5-2.

The Jaguars went to London after being defeated 37-17 to Houston at home.

They stopped their two-game skid by beating Atlanta at Wembley Stadium. They stayed in London, went from Wembley Stadium to Tottenham Hotspur, and defeated Buffalo.

The next challenge featured a home game against Indianapolis, who at the time joined the Jaguars atop the AFC South standings. After flying back from the long London trip, the Jaguars regrouped and trounced the Colts again sweeping the season series.

Now came a short week and a road game.

I thought they would take a breath. I thought they would let their guard down. I thought they were too fatigued and injured to go beat a decent Saints team in one of the loudest venues in the NFL.

I underestimated their maturity and toughness.

The Jaguars were dealing with a banged-up quarterback as Trevor Lawrence played through a knee injury. Three other standouts were inactive: cornerback Tyson Campbell (hamstring), left guard Walker Little (knee) and receiver Zay Jones (knee).

They overcame. What a magnificent performance by the players, as well as coach Doug Pederson and his staff.

The Jaguars scored on their opening drive of the game, going 75 yards in 10 plays and taking 5:16 off the clock. Running back Travis Etienne scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 2-yard run.

The Jaguars went on to build leads of 14-3 and 17-6. That’s the mark of a great team. The Jaguars are consistently getting ahead. They surged to a 21-3 advantage over Indianapolis a week ago and led the Bills 18-7.

They are also showing signs of being clutch.

After New Orleans tied the game at 24, Lawrence found receiver Christian Kirk on a short pass over the middle that turned into a 44-yard touchdown thanks to a dazzling run by Kirk. The score put the Jaguars up 31-24 with 3:08 to play.

The offensive line was been a sore spot for the team so far but played its best game Thursday night in difficult circumstances. The Saints are loaded along their front seven, entering the game ranked fifth in total defense and sixth in scoring defense at 16 points per game.

The Jaguars operated at a clean level. The offense was only called for two penalties for 10 yards.

The offensive line did a brilliant job protecting Lawrence, showing how much he means to them. The Saints didn’t record a sack or even a quarterback hit.

Lawrence even ran for big yardage, breaking five carries for 63 yards. That isn’t counting three kneel downs in Cristobal formation that lost 4 yards combined at the end of the game.

“The guys up front did a heck of a job blocking and giving me opportunities down the field,” Lawrence said. “Then when I needed to scramble, I had clean lanes. I don’t know if that was part of the Saints plan to bring those pressures with me maybe not being able to be as mobile, but the lanes opened up and presented itself and I took advantage.”

Defensively, the Jaguars showed their toughness again. The defense has now played six great games. Middle linebacker Foye Oluokun intercepted Saints quarterback Derek Carr and returned the ball 24 yards for a touchdown that gave the Jaguars a 24-9 lead with 6:47 to play in the third quarter.

The Jaguars can take a breath now. They’ve earned it.

They have built a 1 ½ game lead in the AFC South.

They are 13-5 in their last 18 games dating back to last season and including the playoffs.

The Jaguars are evolving from a talented team to a talented and tough squad.

It is beautiful to see.

Enjoy the rest, fellas.

(You can email Hays at [email protected] and follow him on X @HaysCarlyon).