JACKSONVILLE – This was about getting a victory, getting right.
The Jaguars got both in dominant fashion.
Quarterback Trevor Lawrence threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more, and the defense turned in yet another strong performance, as the Jaguars never trailed while beating the Tennessee Titans 34-14 in an AFC South game in front of 67,175 at EverBank Stadium Sunday.
“It feels good to do that and get back on track,” Lawrence said.
The victory came a week after a 34-3 loss to the San Francisco 49ers snapped a five-game winning streak for the Jaguars, who are 4-0 in Head Coach Doug Pederson’s two seasons following losses of 10 points or more.
“This is a resilient group,” Pederson said. “They always seem to work themselves back and fight their way back when they have a setback. They’ve done it and they did it again today.”
The Jaguars (7-3) won for a sixth time in seven games and remained in first place in the AFC South. The Titans (3-7) lost a third consecutive game and for the fifth time in six games.
It’s the fifth time in the last seven games the Jaguars did not trail. They have not trailed in the second half in six of the last seven games.
“We wanted to respond for ourselves and what we believe in our standard is,” Jaguars tight end Evan Engram said. “I think we did that today.”
Lawrence completed 24 of 32 passes for 262 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. His first-quarter touchdown pass to wide receiver Calvin Ridley gave the Jaguars an early lead and his touchdown run on the first possession of the third quarter pushed a 13-0 halftime lead to three scores.
“I thought Trevor played extremely well, obviously bounced back from last week and put together a good performance,” Pederson said.
Lawrence, following a three-turnover performance against the 49ers called it perhaps the worst game of his career.
“We’ve had some adversity, going back the last couple seasons and we’ve been good responding,” Lawrence said. “We have to keep doing that. That’s what good teams do.”
Lawrence’s second touchdown pass of the game to Ridley pushed the Jaguars’ lead to 27-0 late in the third quarter and his second rushing touchdown of the game – his fourth overall – came in the fourth quarter to push the lead to 34-7.
Ridley caught seven passes for 103 yards and two touchdowns.
“It feels good, especially coming off last week,” Ridley said. “We worked hard this week, went out there and got the win.”
Titans rookie quarterback Will Levis, making his fourth NFL start, completed 13 of 17 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions.
The Jaguars registered two sacks, one on the first series of the game by linebacker Foye Oluokun/outside linebacker Travon Walker and one by outside linebacker Josh Allen/safety Andre Cisco in the second quarter. They also forced two turnovers, with Oluokun recovering a botched snap at the Jaguars 43 midway through the first quarter and long snapper Ross Matiscik recovering a fumbled punt in the fourth quarter.
“It was definitely a race to the quarterback,” Walker said.
The Jaguars, who entered the game tied for the NFL lead in takeaways, now have 20 for the season. They have 20 sacks for the season.
“I don’t think we’ve talked enough about the defense,” Pederson said. “They’re the ones that have kept us in the majority of our football games this season. They did a nice job today. They’re a big, big part of this today.”
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