On a night filled with Jacksonville Jaguars mistakes, perhaps none was more devastating than the brutal clock management in the final seconds of the second quarter.
After a 36-yard pass to Zay Jones put the Jaguars five yards away from goal line, the Jacksonville scrambled to the line of scrimmage, but inexplicably decided not to spike the ball with 12 or 13 seconds left. Instead, quarterback Trevor Lawrence fired a short pass to Parker Washington, who was tackled in bounds, killing off the remaining seconds.
The final sequence of the first half summarized the entire half for the Jacksonville Jaguars. 🏈🤦 #SNF pic.twitter.com/PoATGXliIo
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) December 18, 2023
After the game, Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said the team is “going to stay aggressive” in those situations rather than spike. The issue was that the Ravens saw the play coming.
“Their guy running a flat route in bounds – a play we had anticipated,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said after the game. “It’s just a play people run in that situation with no huddle, and Marcus [Williams] made a great play.”
“[We’re] anticipating that we’d get out of bounds,” Pederson said. “In that situation right there, you get to the sideline or you score. We did out-leverage the defense. They made a nice play, tackled him inbounds. When the pass was completed, I thought we had a good chance of getting to the front pylon.”
Instead of cutting into Baltimore’s lead, it was the fourth drive of the first half for the Jaguars that went inside the Ravens’ 40-yard line and ended with zero points.
