The Jacksonville Jaguars produced a stunning 28-27 comeback victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, with Trevor Lawrence leading arguably the best drive of his career.
Trailing 27-20 late in the fourth quarter, the Jaguars got the ball back with two minutes and two seconds remaining on the clock, needing a touchdown.
Lawrence, the top overall pick from last year's NFL Draft, led a 10-play, 75-yard drive in 1:48 of game time, threading the needle down the sideline to find Marvin Jones Jr for a 10-yard touchdown with 14 seconds left over.
Instead of kicking the extra point to tie the game and force overtime, Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson opted to leave his offense on the field for a chance to win it with a two-point conversion.
Lawrence delivered yet again, finding Zay Jones in the flat to take the lead and seal the win.
Speaking to the media after the win, Pederson said he had supreme faith in his 23-year-old quarterback, and trusted him when he said he wanted to go for it.
"What have we got to lose?," he said. "This is something I told the staff during that last five or six minutes of the game – we’ve got to think players, not plays, and trust our guys.
"Our guys believe. They believe. Once we scored that touchdown at the end, they wanted to go for two. It wasn’t my decision.
"The players were like 'let’s go'. I got a lot of faith and trust in them, and it was just a well-executed play.
"Trevor today was lights out, he played extremely well. That throw, that catch for the two-point was a thing of beauty. I think as a football team too, a win like this just kind of heads us in the right direction."
The Jaguars have been on the losing end of six one-score games this season, and Lawrence said he is excited for this team to be figuring out how to win.
"We’ve been on the other side, so we understand what that feels like too," he said. "I think we’re just appreciative of where we are, how far we’ve come, kind of what’s in front of us still.
"We said it’s a new season once we got back from the bye week. You can’t win seven games until you win one, and we had to start today.
"Obviously there was some adversity and we had to battle through it, and we just found a way. It was incredible."
He went on to discuss his relationship with Pederson, and how he values the trust placed in him to win the game.
"Just that trust he has in us – we’ve been in that situation a lot and haven’t gotten it done,” he said.
"For him to keep trusting us and keep trusting me and our offense, it was big for us. But I’ve said it before, I’m the same guy. I’ve always been this guy.
"I haven’t always played my best every week, and that’s going to happen sometimes, but I really love the direction that this offense, this team is heading, and we feel really good about who we are."
With the result, the Jaguars are now 4-7, three wins behind the Tennessee Titans for the AFC South lead.
Mahomes' 'scary' ankle injury 'not too bad'
Patrick Mahomes assured the ankle injury he sustained during the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is “not too bad” despite hailing the incident as “scary”.
The quarterback led the Chiefs to their 14th straight win with 34 of his 44 passes completed for 291 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.
The Bucs took them to overtime but the AFC West leaders prevailed to remain unbeaten following a 30-24 victory on Monday.
Mahomes had hobbled off with assistance at one point during the game, leading to concern ahead of the Chiefs' next game against the Denver Broncos, but he has provided some reassurance.
"[The injury was] definitely scary. I think it hurt more just because it's the same ankle I rolled last week, so it scared me a little bit,” he said.
“But once I took my breath and calmed down a little bit, it ended up being not too bad. We were able to go in there at the reset and go back on the football team."
It means it is likely Mahomes will return next week despite the reoccurrence of the injury on the same ankle, with head coach Andy Reid marvelling at the 29-year-old's resilience.
"I wasn't sure exactly where he was going to be with it. He might have the loosest ankles in America. It's ridiculous how he can come back from those things,” he said.
The victory also marked DeAndre Hopkins’ first home game as a Chief, as he finished with eight catches for 86 yards and two touchdowns.
"[Hopkins] is so good at winning one-on-one, so to be able to have him down in the red zone, third-down situations - he does a good job of filling out and finding those windows. You give him a chance down the field and he makes a play,” Mahomes said.
NFL: Chiefs stay perfect with OT win over Bucs
Kareem Hunt finished the game's lone overtime drive with a 2-yard touchdown run that kept the Kansas City Chiefs unbeaten with Monday's 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Hunt powered into the end zone to conclude the 10-play, 70-yard series that gave Kansas City (8-0) its 14th consecutive victory, including play-off games, dating back to last season. The veteran running back finished the night with a season-high 106 rushing yards on 27 carries.
Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, including two to DeAndre Hopkins in the wide receiver's first home game as a Chief, to help the defending Super Bowl champions stay perfect despite the Buccaneers forcing overtime on Baker Mayfield's 1-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Miller with 27 seconds left in regulation.
Tampa Bay (4-5) opted to kick the extra point instead of attempting a potential game-winning two-point conversion, however, and never got the ball back again after losing the coin toss to begin overtime.
The Bucs trailed 10-7 at half-time following Mahomes' 1-yard touchdown pass to Hopkins late in the second quarter, but scored 10 unanswered points in the third quarter to move ahead.
After Mayfield found Cade Otton for an 11-yard touchdown pass early in the period for a 14-10 lead, Tampa Bay's defence forced a three-and-out to help set up Chase McLaughlin's 47-yard field goal with 5:50 left in the third.
The Chiefs stormed back with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns, however. Mahomes capped a 12-play, 70-yard drive with a 7-yard touchdown delivery to Samaje Perine to tie the game at 17-17, then later hit Hopkins for a go-ahead 5-yard strike with 4:17 remaining in regulation.
Kansas City's next possession stalled, though, to give Mayfield enough time to orchestrate a 10-play, 71-yard sequence that ended in Miller's tying touchdown grab.
Mayfield finished 23 of 31 with 200 yards and two touchdowns. Otton led the Bucs with 77 receiving yards on eight catches, while Rachaad White had a rushing touchdown for Tampa in the first half.
The Chiefs received 14 catches for 100 yards from Travis Kelce and 86 yards on eight receptions from Hopkins, playing his second game since being acquired by Kansas CIty from the Tennessee Titans on Oct. 24.
Cowboys quarterback Prescott reportedly expected to miss multiple weeks with hamstring injury
The path to the play-offs is now even tougher for the Dallas Cowboys.
Quarterback Dak Prescott will reportedly miss several weeks with a hamstring injury sustained in Sunday's 27-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
The severity of the injury was determined following an MRI, and reported Monday from multiple media outlets.
Prescott is planning to get a second opinion, and the Cowboys have not decided if they will place him on injured reserve, which would keep him on the sideline a minimum of four games.
Prescott, who signed a record-breaking, $240million contract hours before this season's opener, suffered the injury late in the third quarter.
He was replaced by Cooper Rush, and the seven-year backup will get the start this Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Rush completed 13-of-25 passes for 115 yards and a touchdown against the Falcons, but couldn't rally Dallas all the way back.
The Cowboys ended up losing their third straight game to drop to 3-5, which matches the total number of losses the team had each of the last three seasons.
They now sit in third place in the NFC East, 3 1/2 games behind the division-leading Washington Commanders.
Rush has found some success as a fill-in starter for the Cowboys, though, the 30-year-old hasn't been forced into the starting role since 2022.
In six career starts for Dallas, he's gone 5-1 with 1,281 passing yards with seven touchdowns, four interceptions and an 83.6 rating.
There is some good news for the Cowboys, though, as star defensive end Micah Parsons is likely to return this Sunday after missing the last four games with a high-ankle sprain.
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