When the Jacksonville Jaguarswent to a nickel defense in the final 23:48 of their game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Oct. 4, there was no one left on the sideline who could play in the secondary.
Antonio Johnson and Rayuan Lane were the safeties. Travis Hunter and Jarrian Jones were the outside cornerbacks. Jourdan Lewis was in the slot.
That was it. And the situation got nerve-wracking at the end when Bengals' quarterback Joe Burrow completed 10 of 14 passes for 126 yards on his last two possessions, including three in a row for 68 yards to take the ball from his own 17-yard line to a first down at the Jaguars' 21 with 1:32 left in the game.
But exhausted physically and mentally, the Jaguars' secondary summoned the skill and courage to put
a stop to Burrow's rally and preserve a 22-17 victory at the Bengals' Paycor Stadium.
The key was the final four plays when Jones covered one pass well to force an incompletion, broke up another and Lane tackled running back Chase Brown 1 yard shy of the first-down marker at the Jaguars' 11 to turn the ball over on fourth down and enable Trevor Lawrence to run out of the clock with two kneel-downs.
"It was a tough one, but we got the job done," Hunter said of the Jaguars (3-1) snapping a four-game losing streak against the Bengals (2-2).
"Whenever somebody goes, you have to be ready, next man up, with no jitters," Lane told Bucky Brooks on the Jaguars' post-game radio show. "We have a great locker room, guys who love each other, go out and play hard."
Jaguars had to put two CBs' on inactive list
The war of attrition in the Jaguars secondary started when starting cornerback Montaric Brown (hamstring) and backup corner Christian Braswell (knee) were ruled out for the game in the final injury report on Oct. 2. Rookie safety Jalen Huskey was a healthy scratch on the inactive list released 90 minutes before the game.
It got worse. Caleb Ransaw, who backs up Johnson at safety, hurt his knee in the first quarter and didn't return. And with 8:48 left in the third quarter, Lane and Murray collided trying to defend tight end Mike Gesicki on a 15-yard TD reception from Burrow, and Murray went to the ground.
Murray was taken in to be evaluated for a concussion and didn't return.
The Bengals had their own problems. Wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase, who had torched the Jaguars for 25 receptions for 314 yards in his previous two games against them, had three receptions for 27 yards before coming out in the second quarter after a legal hit by linebacker Ventrell Miller sent Chase to the concussion protocol.
Tee Higgins (11 receptions, 157 yards) and Chase Brown (11 for 71 yards) stepped in for Chase, and Meyers had seven receptions for 82 yards.
Jags secondary looked lost, tired until the end
Murray's loss left the Jags secondary with five survivors. They struggled when Burrow led the Bengals on a 79-yard drive and scored on a 1-yard plunge with 3:33 left (Burrow completed 7 of 7 passes for 64 yards) and then looked lost and confused as he went from his own 17 to the Jaguars' 21, with no timeouts left, in only three plays: Completions of 29 yards to Tinsley, 18 yards to Gesicki and 15 yards to Meyers.
There were 68 seconds left in the game and the Bengals fans were rocking.
Here's the sequence of the final four plays the Bengals ran from the Jaguars' 21-yard line:
- First down: With Foye Oluokun and Josh Hines-Allen bearing down, Burrow tried to hit wide receiver Dohnte Meyers over the middle, but Jones broke it up.
- Second down: Burrow had tight end Mike Gesicki open in the end zone but threw the ball short and into the ground. Travon Walkerwas close to pushing guard Dylan Fairchild into Burrow.
- Third down: Burrow tried to find wide receiver Mitchell Tinsley on a corner route but Hines-Allen rushed Burrow hard and Jones was able to break up the pass.
- Fourth down: Hunter was playing press coverage on Gesicki on the left and Lewis lined up opposite Meyers on the slot. Johnson and Lane were defending the middle of the field. Burrow had running back Chase Brown run a circle route on the right, past Olukun. With tight end Tanner Hudson staying in to chip Hines-Allen, Burrow had time to hit Brown in stride but Lane came barreling up and made the tackle with Brown 1 yard short of the first down.
Lane said there was no magic to the play. He simply let his instincts take over.
"It's football at the end of the day," he said on the postgame radio show. "I've been playing since I was 5, along with everyone else on this team … just go out there and let it fly."
Jaguars allowed most passing yards since 2024
The final numbers told just how busy the five DBs who finished the game were. Jones and Lane tied with Oluokun for the team lead with seven tackles (Lane's final stop was his sixth solo tackle), Lewis had five tackles and Hunter and Johnson had four each. Jones had three pass break-ups, Hunter two, Lane one and Lewis one, coming on his interception in the third quarter.
Burrow completed 39 of 54 passes for 428 yards, the most allowed through the air by the Jaguars defense since Jared Goff and Hendon Hooker combined for 449 yards on Nov. 17, 2024 in a 52-6 victory over the Jaguars.
But the Jaguars beat the Bengals for the first time since 2019, and the five-point final margin was the only number that counted.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jaguars had five to survive in the secondary in 22-17 victory over Bengals
