After his team blew a 19-point lead against the Texans in a Week 10 loss, Jaguars head coach Liam Coen said that his team could not allow the bad feelings from the loss linger in a way that would hurt them in the future.
Coen can go ahead and hang the “Mission Accomplished” banner because his team showed no hangover from the loss against the Chargers this Sunday. They didn’t punt while taking a 14-6 lead in the first half and then dominated the Chargers in the second half of a 35-6 win.
The Jaguars scored touchdowns on their first three possessions of the second half and ran 29 offensive plays against just four for the Chargers over that span. The last of those Chargers snaps was an interception by quarterback Justin Herbert and it was also the final snap that Herbert played this weekend. Trey Lance took over for the rest of the fourth quarter and the Jaguars replaced Trevor Lawrence with Nick Mullens a short time later.
Lawrence ran for a touchdown in the third quarter and was 14-of-22 for 153 yards, a touchdown and an interception through the air. Running back Travis Etienne ran for two scores and rookie Bhayshul Tuten also scored before leaving the game with an ankle injury. The Jaguars also lost cornerback Greg Newsome to an ankle injury, so they’ll have a couple of players to monitor as they head into a Week 12 game in Arizona.
They’ll head into that game with a 6-4 record thanks to Sunday’s win and that keeps them firmly in the playoff mix at the top of the stretch run. They still play the 8-2 Colts twice, so they could make a late run at winning the AFC South if they can avoid letdowns like they had in Week 10.
Herbert went for a medical check after taking a big hit on a sack late in the second quarter and will likely be asked if there were any lingering issues after he returned to action. Week 12 is a bye week, so he’ll have extra time to recover and the 7-4 Chargers will have extra time to try to figure out what they can do to reverse course when they face the Raiders in Week 13.