Seven weeks ago, the Jaguars were still that team: loose, entertaining, unreliable. The kind that could light up a quarter and then spend the next three undoing it. Now, they’re a wagon.
After beating the Broncos on Sunday, the Jaguars have ripped off six straight wins. They’ve won 11 regular-season games for the first time since 2007. And with two winnable games to close the season, they have a solid path to the No 1 seed, with the AFC potentially running through Jacksonville.
It’s some turnaround. It was only a couple of months back that Jacksonville contrived to gag away a commanding lead in Houston, sliding to 5-4 and losing four of five. In most Jaguars seasons, that’s the moment where the floor drops out. The murmuring starts. Then the leaking, the in-fighting, the familiar sense of drift. You know how this goes. If there is one unifying thread of Jaguars Football, it’s that their best teams find fresh ways to disappoint.
But this is not an ordinary Jaguars season. Instead of folding, they hardened. A shrewd trade and a well-timed bye week gave the Jags a chance to pause. After adding receiver Jakobi Meyers at the trade deadline, Liam Coen, the first-year head coach, was able to recalibrate his offense. He doubled down on the team’s power-run game, leaned into Meyers’ reliability, and allowed Trevor Lawrence to play his more natural style – tossing the ball downfield and taking off with his legs.
With a re-worked offense and stifling defense, the Jags dismantled the Chargers, albeit while seeing a healthy dose of Trey Lance at quarterback. Then they settled down and hammered the league’s dregs: the Cardinals, Titans, Riley Leonard-led Colts and tanktastic Jets.
Notching wins against the AFC’s lower-half is one thing. But Sunday was different. Behind a poised performance from Trevor Lawrence, the Jaguars walked into Denver and dismantled one of the league’s best teams, emerging with a 34-20 win that rattled the Broncos and the wider playoff picture.
Lawrence was the constant. He completed 23 of 36 passes for 279 yards, threw three touchdowns, ran for another and rarely looked erratic against a defense built to make quarterbacks uncomfortable. A week earlier, he had shredded the Jets with the best performance of his career. But lighting up the hapless Jets is easy to dismiss. Doing it in Denver, on this stage, is more telling about where Lawrence and the Jags are at.
This was not a blowout from the outset. Denver matched Jacksonville punch for punch through the first half and into the third quarter, tying the game at 17-17.
The pivot came on the Jaguars’ opening drive after halftime. Two penalties did the damage. First, a roughing-the-passer call for bodyweight on Lawrence flipped the field position. Then, in the end zone, Jahdae Barron was flagged for pass interference while trying to recover against Parker Washington. The noise rose. Lawrence quieted it by jogging untouched into the end zone for a 24-17 lead.
From there, the Broncos never regained their footing. There was no second-half sorcery from Bo Nix, no late surge to rescue the afternoon. Denver went three-and-out. Jacksonville scored again. A botched handoff between Nix and Jaleel McLaughlin produced the Broncos’ first turnover, which the Jaguars converted into a field goal. When Nix forced a sideline throw late in the fourth quarter, Jarrian Jones intercepted it and effectively closed the game.
Coen was brought to Jacksonville to unlock Lawrence’s potential. He was the prince that was promised, the No 1 overall pick with oodles of potential. The early returns for the pairing were rough. There was an obvious tension. Coen’s choreographed, stick-to-the-bleeping-scheme style did not mesh with Lawrence’s freewheelin’ ways. The Jaguars struggled to get lined up. They struggled to get snaps off. They committed more penalties than any other offense in the league. Once the ball was in play, the passing game was hamstrung by drops, Brian Thomas Jr’s regression and an inability to figure out what to do with Travis Hunter. Despite the big-name firepower, Coen had built his unit around a run-oriented offensive line and tight end Brenton Strange. It wasn’t the flame-thrower attack envisaged when one of the league’s top offensive minds was partnered with Lawrence’s untapped potential
Now, those early teething issues are gone. Meyers has brought a sense of reliability. He does all the dirty work of a receiver: blocking, attacking the middle of the field, creating space for others and making tough, combat catches. Since acquiring Meyers, the Jags are 8th in EPA/Play and fifth in dropback success rate. Sometimes, having a receiver who knows where to be and catch the ball is all that’s needed.
And Lawrence has gone supernova. In his last four games, he has 13 touchdowns to zero turnovers. He’s been encouraged to use his legs more and is making impossible-looking throws with regularity.
Trevor Lawrence: Good at football.#JAXvsDEN on FOXpic.twitter.com/OxryY1Nr4r
— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) December 21, 2025
There is something else, too. There is order to his game – control. Even at his best, Lawrence has always played with a degree of chaos. He makes the difficult stuff look easy, and the easy stuff look hard. But in a tight system with reliable pass-catchers, he’s discovered his mojo. He’s peppering the intermediate area of the field, a place he has struggled throughout his career, and rarely putting the ball in harm’s way.
Pair the remade offense with a defense that feasts on turnovers, and the Jaguars suddenly have the look of a legitimate contender.
The win moves Jacksonville to 11-4, with games still to come against the Philip Rivers-led Colts and the Titans. The idea of the conference’s playoff road running through Jacksonville is no longer a punchline.
MVP of the week
Justin Herbert, QB, Chargers. Sunday offered a nice reminder of what Herbert looks like when he’s not under constant siege. Despite rolling out their 12th offensive line variation of the season, the Chargers limited the Cowboys to a 39% pressure rate, which says as much about the Cowboys’ pass-rush as anything else. But for a quarterback who has routinely been pressured on well over half of his dropbacks, it must have felt like an easy day’s work for Herbert. It certainly looked so. Even with a fractured right hand, Herbert torched Dallas, completing 23 of 29 pass attempts for 300 yards and two touchdowns in a 34-17 win. He added another 42 yards and a score with his feet.
Video of the week
“Chaos.” That’s how Aaron Rodgers described the bonkers end of Steelers-Lions, which resulted in Pittsburgh pulling out a 29-24 win on the road.
A wild way to end Week 16's late slate pic.twitter.com/UiDrdxYhzp
— NFL (@NFL) December 22, 2025
Driving to win the game, the Lions moved the ball down to the Steelers’ goalline. They scored a sure-to-be walk-off touchdown with 25 seconds remaining before it was pulled back for an Offensive Pass Interference call. Then Detroit missed three shots at the endzone, leaving a fourth down for the game – and potentially their season. Jared Goff hit Amon Ra St Brown short of the end zone, who was pushed backwards before pitching the ball back to his quarterback at the eight-yard line. Goff scooped up the pitch and dove across the plane for the game-winning score. But the play was again called back for OPI, wiping off the touchdown and ending the game, though not before the head official offered his best WWE impression, teasing the Detroit crowd that they had won. “I was a part of a game 13 years ago that had this kind of chaos,” Rodgers said post-game. “There were some replacement referees, though.”
Stat of the week
And now for the throw of the year:
CALEB WILLIAMS TO DJ MOORE
— NFL (@NFL) December 21, 2025
BEARS WIN pic.twitter.com/3ShtuowNYm
59.6 yards. That’s how far Caleb Williams’ walk-off touchdown strike to DJ Moore travelled in the air. Saturday night’s finale was a classic. The Bears again stared down a late deficit and again found a way, outlasting the Green Bay Packers to win 22-16 in overtime. Six times now they have trailed inside the final two minutes of regulation, and six times they have walked away with a win, more than any team has managed in a single season since the merger. This time, they needed to recover an onside kick (only the second recovery this season), a blown Packers coverage, and a laser from Williams to get the job done.
Football is better when the Packers v Bears rivalry is alive and healthy. And there is a good chance that we will see a third matchup in the Wildcard Round.
Elsewhere around the league
The playoffs are taking shape. Five teams have now clinched: the Seahawks, Bears, Eagles, Rams and 49ers. In the AFC, only the Broncos and Patriots have clinched, with seven spots still up for grabs.
After Thursday’s disappointing collapse to the Seahawks, the Rams fired special teams coach Chase Blackburn. Special teams have played a part in three of the Rams’ four losses this season, with consistent breakdowns in the kicking game and on returns. It’s the first in-season coaching change Sean McVay has made in his career. “We’ve been focused on that left return, field return, all week,” Seahawks returner Rashard Shaheed said after his touchdown that sparked Seattle’s comeback. “We knew that they had a weak point with their special teams and we were able to circle the punt team and make a big play.” The Rams are first in offensive and defensive DVOA through 16 weeks, but sit 30th in special teams DVOA. You cannot ignore one phase of the game and expect to win close playoff games.
The streak, stubborn as ever, rolls on. The Steelers won their ninth game of the season in Detroit, meaning Mike Tomlin has secured his 19th successive winning season as a coach. With questions about Tomlin’s future growing louder – even “Fire Tomlin” chants at home – he continues to answer the only way he ever has: by winning.
The NFL will investigate a confrontation between Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf and a Detroit fan. Metcalf appeared to punch a Lions fan after exchanging words near the endzone. Metcalf told former NFL wide receiver Chad Johnson that the fan called Metcalf a racial slur and abused his mother. “My words don’t matter because it was on camera,” the fan told the Detroit Free Press. When asked his name, the fan said, “My name is ‘Biggest Detroit Lions Fan Ever that got attacked by DeKaylin Zecharius Metcalf. “What, my full name isn’t is DeKaylin Zecharius Metcalf,” he said. “He doesn’t like his government name. I called him that and then he grabbed me and ripped my shirt.”
If you wanted a reminder about the greatness of Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs served one up in a blowout defeat to the Titans. With Mahomes lost for the season, the Chiefs looked unprepared and disorganized, losing 26-9 to one of the worst teams in the league. The Chiefs lost backup quarterback Gardner Minshew to an ACL injury in the first quarter, forcing former undrafted quarterback Chris Oladokun into action. But despite Oladokun minimizing errors, the Chiefs looked lifeless on offense. Next up, a Christmas Day game against the Broncos. Gather the family around!
The Buccaneers’ season is on the brink. After losing to the Panthers 23-20, Carolina now has sole possession of the division lead in the NFC South. The two will face each other again in a couple of weeks in a game that could decide the division and their playoff hopes. But the Bucs are in freefall. They’ve lost six of their last seven and look devoid of ideas about how to turn the season around.
