by John OehserFiled under: Jaguars, AFC South
The Jacksonville Jaguars are now where few imagined possible early this season:First place.
The Jaguars, after losing four games by 22 or more points in the first half of the season, rallied for a second consecutive dramatic victory Sunday, beating the Cleveland Browns, 24-20, despite committing six turnovers -- five on consecutive second-half possessions.
The victory and a Colts loss in New England moved the Jaguars into a first-place tie with the Indianapolis Colts.
That's the latest the Jaguars have been in first place in Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio's eight-year tenure.
"This was a huge win," Del Rio said Sunday. "We had to have it. It gets more and more challenging as we go down the stretch here, but good to get a win."
Del Rio said that after correctly noting that the Jaguars now go on the road in four of the next six games, but while that might make it more difficult for the Jaguars to challenge for their first AFC South title, they have shown that it's dangerous to count them out.
"I don't feel like we stole the game, we earned it," Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew said. "The defense, I've never seen a defense play like that in all my years of football, even in high school. We turned the ball over five times, and maybe two times they got it in the red zone and they held them to no points or three points.
"When you do something like that, the defense deserves it. They deserve all the credit, they did a great job."
A week ago, Jacksonville beat the Houston Texans, 31-24, on a last-play, 50-yard Hail Mary touchdown reception by Mike Thomas. This week, the comeback ended in more typical Jaguars fashion, with a 75-yard screen pass from quarterback David Garrard to Jones-Drew just before the two-minute warning to set up the go-ahead score.
Jones-Drew's 1-yard touchdown run two plays later provided the winning points.
"I think this football team has a flair for the dramatic," Del Rio said of a team that is technically in first place because it beat the Colts earlier this season in Jacksonville -- on a 59-yard field goal by Josh Scobee on the game's final play.
The Jaguars won despite a minus-5 turnover ratio, but the Jaguars' defense stopped the Browns on four second-half possessions without points after turnovers.
"There are going to be weeks where the offense carries us on their shoulders and there are going to be weeks where the defense is going to have to step up," said Jaguars safety Sean Considine, whose goal-line interception ended Cleveland's final drive. "I think we as a defensive unit did an excellent job Sunday.
"There were a lot of turnovers. I think we came out and took Cleveland three-and-out a few times in a row after Cleveland really had a chance to jump on us and get the momentum going their way. Defensively, we put a lot of pressure on (Browns quarterback Colt McCoy) and caused one turnover at the end which counted as a huge pay in the game. I think defensively we felt good about what we did."
Said Del Rio, "I think certainly we defied the odds," Del Rio said. "That's not a recipe for success, but it never got away from us because we responded and met the challenge defensively. We held our ground and didn't allow them to take those five turnovers and bury us. That's what typically happens, it's a landslide. You turn it over five times, they turn it into a couple touchdowns, a couple field goals and there's a 20-point spread or worse, and it didn't get to that.
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