PITTSBURGH -- A rookie running back. An inconsistent quarterback. Not much production from the wide receivers. A defense that kept giving up play after play, especially on fourth down. On the road against an eventual Hall of Fame quarterback leading an explosive offense in frozen conditions.
All the ingredients were there for the Jacksonville Jaguars to fall apart at Heinz Field. Yet despite the belief of most of the 64,524 in attendance and likely a large chunk of the national television audience, they didn’t.
The Jaguars never flinched and held on to beat Pittsburgh 45-42 in an AFC divisional playoff game on Sunday afternoon, a victory that will send them to the AFC Championship Game in New England next weekend. That’s a characteristic that they’ll certainly need if they’re going to have any chance to beat the Patriots and advance to the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history.
“I was impressed with the poise,” coach Doug Marrone said. “You go up, they come back. You go up again, they come back. You’re like, ‘We’ve got to go score because we want to keep this cushion and keep this lead.’”
The Jaguars had a 21-point second-quarter lead and eventually saw it dwindle to seven points (28-21) with nine minutes remaining in the third quarter after the third of Ben Roethlisberger’s five touchdown passes.
Blake Bortles answered with a touchdown drive that included a 45-yard pass to the Pittsburgh 3-yard line.
The Steelers cut it to seven points again on what would be the second of Roethlisberger’s three fourth-down touchdown passes. Again, Bortles answered with a touchdown drive.
Each time Pittsburgh got the game close, Marrone kept checking his players as they came back to the sideline. He liked what he saw.
“There seemed to be a level of confidence in there that they were going to be able to do it, where they didn’t seem to be rattled, which is the thing that I look for, especially in games like this, a divisional playoff game,” Marrone said. “You’re looking to see when your players come off to the sideline just how they are, how they’re reacting.
“It’s not the words or anything. It’s kind of what’s in their eyes. You can kind of just tell.”
If anyone should have been shaken, it would've been the players on defense. They ranked second in the NFL in pass defense and scoring during the regular season, but the Steelers rolled up 545 total yards (469 yards passing), both season worsts for the Jaguars. They allowed the Steelers to convert four fourth downs, including three that went for touchdowns.
One of those was a 36-yard pass to Martavis Bryant with 25 seconds remaining in the first half that gave the Steelers some much-needed momentum.
Despite it being the defense’s worst performance of the season, the players stayed calm.
“I really give credit to just everybody just honing in,” linebacker Myles Jack said. “Nobody was pointing fingers. We come back and figured it out, and we just knew it was going to be a slugfest. Pittsburgh, their offense is high-powered. They’ve got Hall of Famers on their side of the ball. You can only contain them for so long before they’re going to make a play.”
That’s exactly what the Jaguars will have to deal with in New England against Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Danny Amendola, James White, Dion Lewis ... you get the picture. The Patriots can come at you in waves, and games can get out of control in a hurry, which was evident during their rout of Tennessee on Saturday night. The Titans led 7-0 before the Patriots rolled off 35 unanswered points.
The Jaguars almost have to treat Sunday as an NBA game. The Patriots are going to make a run, and they have to weather that run and come back with one of their own. On the road. In harsh conditions. Against an eventual Hall of Fame quarterback with an explosive offense.
“You realize that what a great opportunity you have, and to be highly emotional doesn’t help,” linebacker Paul Posluszny said. “We just try to maintain our composure, realize we have the ability to win [and] we have the guys to win. We just need to go out and communicate, execute and do our jobs to the best of our ability.
“Emotions tend to get in the way of that.”