'Sacksonville' returns as Jags take down Titans on TNF

Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver D.J. Chark hauls in a touchdown pass behind Tennessee Titans cornerback Malcolm Butler in the first half of Thursday's 20-7 victory at T.I.A.A. Bank Field. It was the Jaguars' first win of the season.

By Mark Blumenthal

For one night, Sacksonville returned to T.I.A.A. Bank Field.

The Jacksonville Jaguars defense imposed its will on Marcus Mariota and the Tennessee Titans on a rainy Thursday night in front of a national audience and brought back memories of 2017 and being one quarter away from playing in Super Bowl LII.

The Jaguars sacked Mariota nine times and Gardner Minshew II threw a pair of touchdown passes in a 20-7 victory over the Titans to claim their first victory of the season and save their season from sinking further into the sunset.

 “This is a division game at home. We were 0-1 in the division and 0-2 on the season,” said veteran defensive lineman Calais Campbell, who claimed his first three sacks of the season. “This was a game that was very important. We played with a sense of urgency, we played like it was important and it showed. This is a demeanor we have to have at all times.”

“Defensively, when you look at two weeks ago, the way we opened up, that’s not who they are,” Jaguars coach Doug Marrone said. “They feel that way, but you are what you are when you play. I think they had a little chip on their shoulder. I thought they did a nice job last week. I think they followed it up really well in this game. I thought our defensive line played extremely well.”

And the performance was reminiscent of the 2017 season when the Jaguars recorded 55 sacks, including two games of over nine sacks. All this came against a highly touted Titans team that had beaten the Jaguars the last four games, including twice in the 2017 AFC South championship season.

All of it, too, came on a contentious week when star cornerback Jalen Ramsey reportedly asked for a trade from the team, displeased with how he felt things were going with the team defensively. Ramsey refused to answer questions about his trade request made by his agent, though rumors have surfaced Ramsey could be traded as early as today, though he would not be eligible to play a game this weekend.

“This defense has always been elite, the guys on this team are talented, and we put in work on the field,” Ramsey said afterward. “We see the defense worked hard today and got nine sacks in tonight’s game, so I say we stepped up to the plate when we needed to. I was excited out there with them and (was) able to get a good win.”

Minshew, the sixth-round draft pick by the Jaguars out of Washington State, continued to bring “Minshew Mania” to the First Coast in his second start since starter Nick Foles went down with a broken clavicle in the opening week against the Kansas City Chiefs. Minshew was 20-of-30 passing for 204 yards and threw touchdown passes to tight end James O’Shaughnessy for seven yards and to receiver D.J. Chark for 22 yards, both within the first 8:24 of the game to stake the Jaguars to a 14-0 lead, which held up at halftime.

“We are all building trust right now,” said Minshew, giving credit to the play calling of offensive coordinator John DeFilippo in the victory. “Whether it’s me and ‘Flip’, ‘Flip’ and everybody, or me and the guys on the field, all you can do is try and earn that trust every day and when you do that, you get more opportunities to do fun things like that.”

The victory was as complete a win as the Jaguars have seen in a while. The win was only the third for the Jaguars in the last 15 games. A loss to the Titans would have put them at 0-3 and asking more questions about the direction of the team the rest of the season, especially if the Titans had improved to 2-1. Going into this weekend, Jacksonville was the only team in the AFC South without a win.

“Everybody on this team is putting in the work and it’s showing,” Chark said afterward.  In talking about Minshew, Chark, who has become a favorite target of Minshew’s with a touchdown pass in the first three games of the season, something no Jaguars player has done since Jimmy Smith pulled it off in the 2008 season, said, “We have a lot of confidence in him. He is definitely holding it down, and a lot of people are surprised, but we weren’t because we know the type of character he has and the way he works.”

“D.J. has been awesome,” said Minshew, who is 65-of-88 passing for 692 yards and five TDs against one interception. “He’s playing with a lot of confidence right now and I have a lot of confidence in him. When he’s one-on-one, I’m going to give him his shot.”

Before Minshew threw his touchdown pass to Chark, he got the ball to O’Shaughnessy after Titans punt return Adoree Jackson muffed a Logan Cooke punt and Leon Jacobs recovered the muff at the Titans’ 7. One play later, Minshew had his TD connection with O’Shaughnessy and the Jaguars were on the board.

The Jaguars went 62 yards on six plays on the next drive and Minshew finished that drive with a perfectly placed pass to Chark, who out-dueled a defender for the score, making it 14-0.

The defense took it from there – beside the three sacks by Campbell, Jags’ first-round pick Josh Allen and Dawuane Smoot had two sacks each, Taven Bryan, last year’s No. 1 Jaguars pick, had one sack and Jacobs and Marcell Dareus shared a sack.

Josh Lambo kicked field goals of 40 and 48 yards in the second half with the Titans scoring their lone points on a 1-yard plunge by former Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry, who starred on the high school gridiron at nearby Yulee High with 12:04 left.

Marrone admitted to getting aggressive with 3:23 left in the game when he went for it on fourth down at the Titans’ 4 instead of taking the sure Lambo field goal that would have made it a 16-point game. Minshew missed his mark on the fourth-down pass to Dede Westbrook, handing the ball back to Mariota.

Mariota took the Titans down the field for four first downs, but with no timeouts to call, the drive stalled at the Jaguars’ 37 at the end of the game.

Asked if the “Sacksonville” moniker is back, Jaguars defensive lineman Yannick Ngakoue stated, “What you think? That’s all I want to know. Sacksonville’s back, baby! It’s back!”

The game was not without its sloppiness as the teams combined for 13 penalties for 131 yards, and a number of holding calls that prompted New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to Tweet, “I’m turning off this game. I can’t watch these ridiculous penalties anymore.”

The Jaguars do not play again until heading to Denver to face off with the 0-2 Broncos on Sept. 29. Meanwhile, it is unclear whether Ramsey will still be Jaguar at that point.