For Jacksonville, the show goes on
PITTSBURGH — The Jacksonville Jaguars heard the chatter, read the tweets and Instagram posts. And they got a little confused.
Why were the Pittsburgh Steelers talking about the New England Patriots? Didn’t they have to face the Jaguars first before reaching a rematch with the Super Bowl champions?
“I don’t know if they misread the schedule or didn’t play us this week, but they didn’t acknowledge us at all,” Jacksonville linebacker Myles Jack said. “And we didn’t take that too kindly.”
Not at all. That shouldn’t be a problem going forward.
The Jaguars have the NFL’s full attention now.
Dominant at the start and resilient at the finish Sunday, Jacksonville beat the Steelers 45-42 to advance to the AFC title game for the third time in franchise history and maybe, finally, earn a bit of respect.
Leonard Fournette ran for 109 yards and three scores. Beleaguered quarterback Blake Bortles passed for 214 yards and a pivotal fourth-quarter touchdown as the third-seeded Jaguars beat the second-seeded Steelers at Heinz Field for the second time in three months to earn a berth in the AFC Championship Game against New England on Sunday.
The victory in October served notice Jacksonville was ready to put a decade of losing firmly behind. This one sent an even bigger message: Overlook the Jaguars at your peril, something Pittsburgh appeared to do in the run-up. In December, Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin twice hinted at facing the Patriots. Running back Le’Veon Bell posted on Twitter about the pair of “round 2s” the Steelers will face in the coming weeks.
Turns out, one rematch is all the Steelers will get.
“We knew we had this team’s number,” Jacksonville safety Barry Church said. “All we did was feed on the fuel that everybody was providing, the media, everybody was talking about how they’re going to run through us, it’s not going to be like last (time). Blake Bortles this. Blake Bortles that. All he did was dominate their defense.”
A week removed from an ugly performance in a wild-card win over Buffalo in which he passed for 87 yards and struggled with the easiest of throws, Bortles completed 14 of 26 passes and wasn’t sacked by a defense that led the NFL and set a franchise record with 56 during the season. Jacksonville’s 45 points tied the most ever allowed by the Steelers in the playoffs.
Not bad for an offense that at times simply appeared along for the ride as the NFL’s top defense carried the load.
“Blake Bortles has always been criticized,” Fournette said. “It is different now. He has guys that have his back, especially me.”
Certainly looked it as Fournette scored two first-quarter touchdowns. The Jaguars built a 21-point lead and responded whenever the Steelers rallied to cut the margin to one score.
“The guys played with confidence all day long,” Bortles said. “Obviously, what they have on their side of the ball, it’s a good team. We know they’ve got a good offense. We knew we were going to have to be efficient, hold on to the ball for a little bit, so we did it.”
Ben Roethlisberger threw for 469 yards and set a franchise playoff record with five touchdown passes, but threw an interception and lost a fumble that was returned for a score. All-Pro Antonio Brown caught seven passes for 132 yards and two touchdowns in his return from a left calf injury. Bell had 155 yards of total offense and two scores.
“It’s disheartening,” Brown said. “I thought we had the right group of guys.”