Titans end home woes with win over Jaguars
Marcus Mariota threw for 270 yards and two touchdowns to end his home struggles and the Tennessee Titans had their highest point total of the season in a 36-22 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday night.
Since the start of the 2014 season, the Titans’ home record is 3-0 against the Jaguars and 1-17 against everybody else. The Titans are 3-8 in home games started by Mariota, a second-year pro out of Oregon.
Mariota was 18 of 22 for 270 yards and had a 148.1 passer rating, the second-highest of his career. DeMarco Murray ran for 123 yards and a touchdown.
The Titans (4-4) gained a season-high 494 total yards and won for the third time in four games. They scored on six straight possessions during a stretch that began in the first quarter and stretched into the third period.
Tennessee already led 3-0 before Mariota threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to Kendall Wright on the first play of the second quarter. Rookie Derrick Henry capped the Titans’ next drive by scoring his first career touchdown on a 6-yard run.
Murray added a 14-yard touchdown run 3 1/2 minutes later.
After starting out to his right and encountering traffic, Murray reversed his field, capitalized on a downfield block from Mariota and dove into the left corner of the end zone for his sixth touchdown run of the season.
Jacksonville (2-5) trailed 24-0 by the time it got its second first down of the game midway through the second quarter. The Titans made it 27-0 at the intermission with a 90-yard drive that resulted in Ryan Succop’s 22-yard field goal on the final play of the half.
Blake Bortles threw three touchdown passes for Jacksonville and went 33 of 54 for 337 yards, but much of his production came with the game out of reach. UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY: This is the first time the Titans have reached the midway point of the season without a losing record since 2011, when they also were 4-4. That 2011 team went on to finish 9-7. RARE RECOVERY: The Titans got their first fumble recovery of the season in the third quarter. After Jacksonville’s Marqise Lee muffed a punt return, Titans rookie LeShaun Sims pounced on the ball at the Jaguars’ 35. The turnover set up a 33-yard field goal by Succop.