The Jacksonville Jaguars generally avoided mistakes and allowed the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense to be the ones to self-destruct with two pick sixes in the third quarter in a 23-9 upset in Week 5.
Ben Roethlisberger’s worst game ever leads to 30-9 Jaguars rout
The Jaguars defense picked on Ben Roethlisberger in the second half.
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Jacksonville has been a difficult team to figure out in 2017 with unpredictable ups and downs on a week-to-week basis. After losing to the New York Jets in a game filled with errors last week, the Jaguars were big underdogs against the Steelers.
But the defense has been consistently strong throughout the season for Jacksonville and did most of the Jaguars’ scoring by itself with touchdowns on back-to-back drives.
The first interception was taken by Telvin Smith off a deflection from the line of scrimmage and taken 28 yards for a touchdown. On the next drive, Jalen Ramsey deflected a pass into the arms of Barry Church who took it 51 yards for another touchdown that gave the Jaguars a 20-9 lead.
Ben Roethlisberger finished the game with 312 yards passing, primarily targeting Antonio Brown who posted 10 receptions for 157 yards receiving. But Roethlisberger also threw a pair of interceptions to Tashaun Gipson and one to Ramsey early. The five interceptions are a career worst for Roethlisberger who hadn’t thrown four since the 2008 season.
After the game, he made comments that seemed to suggest he has doubts about how much longer he should play in the NFL, although at least one reporter there believed he was speaking facetiously.
The last pass of the game for Bortles came in the middle of the third quarter before the pair of pick sixes allowed the team to focus entirely on the run.
Jacksonville ended the game with 18 consecutive running plays, milking clock and grinding away with Leonard Fournette, who had 181 rushing yards and two touchdowns, including a 90-yard burst in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
The Steelers and Jaguars are both 3-2 after Sunday, and both are difficult to figure out.
When Jacksonville is clicking, it has a defense that’s a nightmare to score on and an offense that can grind away with Fournette. But then it can also be a team that struggles to move the ball with Bortles and makes egregious errors.
Pittsburgh earned impressive wins over the Vikings and Ravens but now has bad losses to the Bears and Jaguars on the record.
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