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The Jacksonville Jaguars blew up the AFC championship in January. They had a 20-10 lead in the fourth quarter and offered the New England Patriots a trip to the Super Bowl. Yes, the Patriots were lucky that Myles Jack was excluded from what could have been a touchdown, but the Jaguars let New England into the game by playing with fear.
"We have become rather complacent and conservative. And I think that's the reason we lost, "said Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey during the summer.
Now it's a new season and the Jaguars are trying to do it right. During the second week, they showed that they had learned from these mistakes and that is why they won a 31-20 win.
Lesson 1: Keep bringing warmth in defense
The defense of the Jaguars is the nightmare of a quarter. He relies on a pass that had 55 bags in 2017 and a second on Pro Bowlers Ramsey and A.J. Bouye corner corners.
But the Jacksonville elite defense pushed back its patent aggressiveness to avoid the big game in January, and this allowed Tom Brady to pick them slowly. This was not the case on Sunday.
The Jaguars continued to claim blitzes, stuck on men, and it worked.
D.J. Hayden killed a fourth quarter of the Patriots with a bag of Brady in a corner blitz. Dante Fowler ended another trip with a shoulder bag.
There is a reason why teams change to prevent. Aggressiveness can lead to quick results, such as the 29-yard Patriots touchdown at the end of the fourth quarter.
But the Jaguars kept their defensive identity and it worked most often.
Lesson 2: Keep stretching the field with Blake Bortles
The offensive has become a painfully predictable disaster in the AFC championship with short at each first, and throws every third down.
"I'm thinking of critical moments, like last year's playoff game – not in a team, because we would have trusted [Bortles] – but I think that as an organization, we should have trusted him more to continue throwing it, "Ramsey told GQ. "We started running first and second in third place every time we were there. [The Patriots] caught at that. "
This time, even with the seemingly under-covered match and the Jaguars up 11 percent in the fourth quarter, Bortles was still starting. He even took the Patriots by surprise, sometimes. In the final part of the game, the Jaguars connected on a 22-yard line on the right touchline against a Patriots defense that assumed the offense would be lost.
Earlier in the fourth quarter, a pass to Dede Westbrook in a shotgun squad burned the Patriots for a 61-yard touchdown.
As for preventive defense, there is a double-edged sword that comes with late throws. Incompletions stop the clock and mistakes give life to the opponents.
The Jaguars had two turnovers in the second half, which threatened the Patriots to return.
But Jacksonville won because it sticks to how the big lead was built in first place. And it was via Bortles' arm, who finished with 377 yards passing and four touchdowns. It also helped Bortles run for 35 yards – something the Belgian coach, the Patriots coach, warned was a danger earlier this week.
The Jaguars avoided the big moment of January, but this time it looked like a team ready to face every Goliath on its way.
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