The Jacksonville Jaguars lost a heartbreaker to the Pittsburgh Steelers
By Kathy Clark
The Jacksonville Jaguars once again could not put together four straight quarters of winning football, falling at home to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 20-16.
The Jacksonville Jaguars versus the Pittsburgh Steelers got off to a great start. The offense with Leonard Fournette looked good and the defense looked like the defense of 2017. However, the team on both sides of the ball collapsed in the fourth quarter.
The first half was the best the Jaguars played in 2018. Both the defense and offense looked sharp and the Steelers looked totally inept on both sides of the ball.
The fans, writers, players, coaches, etc thought…The Jaguars are back! The only issue was field goals instead of touchdowns. We take a look at the game quarter by quarter.
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Impressions of the First Quarter – There were no scores in the first quarter but the defense looked like the defense of a year ago. Blake Bortles didn’t throw a pass and the offensive line was blocking well for the run. There was one unnecessary roughness penalty on Yannick Ngakoue.
It wasn’t a big deal at the time but turned out to be a signal of things to come.
impressions of the Second Quarter – To start we ran on third and ten but Josh Lambo, our most valuable player, kicked a 48-yard field goal. This was followed by a 38-yard field goal. The defense held the Steelers to a total of 19 total yards with 5.05 left in the quarter.
The sun was shining on the Jaguars. Jalen Ramsey had an acrobatic interception and Barry Church added a second interception. Josh Lambo kicked another 43-yard field goal and the Jaguars went into halftime with a 9-0 lead and a very positive vibe.
Impressions of the Third Quarter – The game continued to evolve in favor of the Jaguars but signs of trouble were starting to show on offense. Myles Jack’s interception was negated by an unnecessary roughness penalty on Calis Campbell.
To add more problems, Telvin Smith had a 15-yard penalty on the very next play. Happily, Ramsey had another amazing interception. Fournette scored the Jaguars only touchdown and Pittsburg answered with a touchdown of their own. The two-point conversion was not successful. Score Jacksonville 16 and Pittsburgh 6.
Impressions of the Fourth Quarter – This quarter belonged to the Steelers. They changed their defense, according to Tony Romo the game’s play by play announcer, by crashing the defensive ends to the middle to stop the running game by forcing the runners to go up the middle.
Jacksonville’s runners were running directly into the strength of the Pittsburgh defense. Ramsey had a face mask penalty that Romo said was a bad call. Pittsburgh scored two touchdowns and the game was over.
Commentary –This was a heartbreaking loss because the Jaguars looked like the Jaguars of last season through three quarters.
The defense committed too many penalties and the offensive line had difficulty protecting Bortles. However, I put this loss directly on Nathaniel Hackett. Pittsburgh changed their defense to stop the run but Hackett continued to call running plays up the middle that had no chance of success.
Ben Roethlisberger came alive but if the Jags had been more creative with play calling it would have been a win. It looks like time to evaluate coaches and players for the 2019 season.