Jacksonville Jaguars offensive line, Mac Jones QB sneaks, key to victory

One of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ most frustrating weaknesses this season was arguably the deciding factor in Sunday’s 20-13 victory over the Tennessee Titans in their final home game of the season at EverBank Stadium.

The Jaguars (4-12) converted eight plays perfectly with two or fewer yards left for a first down. Two of those were second-and-two situations, with quarterback Mac Jones hitting Parker Washington in the second quarter for the game’s first touchdown of the game and tailback Travis Etienne converting a second-and-two in the third.

Where the Jaguars and Jones stood out was at third and first. They faced this loss four times and converted on each of them – three times on quarterback sneaks from Jones.

Tank Bigsby also converted a third-and-one and secured the first down on the Jaguars’ first drive with a third-and-two that ended in a Cam Little field goal.

Short-yard conversions led to all 20 points

It’s no coincidence that every third-and-one or third-and-two conversion occurred on goal drives.

“We had a lot of confidence in the way we played — not that we haven’t done that in the past — but we kind of refined it,” center Mitch Morse said. “Then it came to the execution.”

Left defenseman Ezra Cleveland said the team spent much of its practice time last week on short-yardage situations.

“That was a big focus during the week,” he said. “We hunkered down, knew we had to do it, and we did.”

The success rate on third-and-short was a big part of the Jaguars, who made 8 of 13 third-down conversions, a season-high 61.5 percent. It was only the third time this season that the Jaguars converted more than half of their third-down plays.

The Jaguars entered the game with an abysmal 45.5 percent rate of converting third-and-one situations (10 of 22). A 4-on-4 game against the Titans improved that rate to 53.8 percent.

Travis Etienne wanted to sweep the Titans

So why now, after a season that included six games in which the Jaguars went a combined 0-for-6 on third-and-1?

Etienne, who rushed for 49 yards on 15 carries, passing Leonard Fournette and finishing fourth on the team’s all-time rushing list (2,660), said hatred of the Titans played a big part in motivating the team. The Jaguars have now beaten Tennessee in two of the last three seasons.

“We wanted it more,” Etienne said. “They’re a division rival, they knocked us out of the playoffs last year and we just wanted to get them this year.”

Mac Jones becomes the master of QB sneaks

The Jaguars have also found Jones to be effective on quarterback sneaks. He has shown a knack for sliding out of the middle and finding a gap between the center and the guards, and in one instance on Sunday he appeared to surf over a bunch of players.

“Mac does a very good job of finding those gaps,” Morse said.

Jones said he couldn’t remember the last time he was asked to run quarterback sneaks three times in a game.

“I think I did it before,” he said. “I definitely love the quarterback sneak. Mitch (Morse) has a great IQ for that. He really understands the piece. It’s a great piece. It’s a high percentage game. When the conditions are like that, it’s a good game.”

Jones completed 15 of 22 passes for 174 yards and two touchdowns to Washington and Brian Thomas Jr. and had 22 yards on six carries.

“I thought Mac probably played one of his better games today,” Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said. “I thought he did a great job of just putting the ball in play and taking what the defense gave him. There were some really good attacks at the start of the game that kept us on the pitch. Helped us with our third down conversion rate today. Great performance from Mac. He’s one of a lot of guys that was really involved in this win, but he played really well today.”

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Jacksonville Jaguars offensive line, Mac Jones QB sneaks, key to victory

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