Jaguars return fumble for landing, beat Titans for AFC South title

The Jacksonville Jaguars are AFC South champions for the primary time in 5 years, a title secured when Josh Allen returned a fumble 37 yards for a landing that helped them seal a 20-16 victory over Tennessee on Saturday night time.

Rayshawn Jenkins compelled Josh Dobbs’ fumble, and Allen scooped up the bouncing ball and ran, untouched, the opposite approach for a lead that held up in opposition to the Titans in a win-and-in recreation within the regular-season finale for each.

Dobbs fumbled once more on the following possession, and the Jaguars (9-8) began to have fun their most important regular-season victory in franchise historical past.

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“This was a type of video games the place our protection needed to win it for us,” Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence stated. “Us guys on offense, we’re slightly pissed off as a result of we left so much on the market, However in these video games, simply win. Our protection picked us up at this time. They performed nice.”

Jacksonville earned the No. 4 seed within the convention playoffs and can host both the Los Angeles Chargers or Baltimore within the wild-card spherical subsequent weekend.

It’s the 18th time within the final 20 seasons that not less than one NFL staff received its division after ending final or tied for final the earlier yr.

Jacksonville closed the common season with its fifth consecutive victory and have become the fifth staff in NFL historical past to make the playoffs with a five-game shedding streak and a five-game successful streak in the identical season.

“We simply stored believing,” Lawrence stated. “No one ever misplaced religion. All people believed in each other. We by no means began pointing the finger. We misplaced 5 video games straight and we simply acquired tighter.”

Tennessee (7-10) misplaced its closing seven video games, a skid that had nearly everybody writing them off earlier than Saturday’s finale.

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The Titans rested a number of starters final week and basically created a 10-day break to get wholesome. They returned to their bruising model of soccer and seemed like they might pull an inconceivable turnaround — till Dobbs’ turnover modified the sport.

The Jaguars had been 6 1/2-point favorites, in response to FanDuel Sportsbook, and a near-sellout crowd was readily available to witness what many thought could be extra of a coronation than a scratch-and-claw nail-biter.

The Titans didn’t do something spectacular. With quarterback Ryan Tannehill (ankle) out for the season, they leaned on Dobbs — an aerospace engineer who has bounced across the league — to be good with the ball and Derrick Henry to grind out robust yards. And so they relied on a protection that’s been stout in opposition to the run all yr.

It labored for 37 minutes — after which it unraveled.

Henry completed with 109 yards on 30 carries. Dobbs accomplished 20 of 29 passes for 179 yards, with a landing, an interception and the fumble.

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Lawrence accomplished 20 of 32 passes for 212 yards, with a landing and a fumble. Lawrence had two would-be touchdowns within the second half fall incomplete. He overthrew Zay Jones ultimately zone and underthrew Christian Kirk.