After the field goal came through, after the idea of the third-greatest comeback in postseason history became a reality, Trevor Lawrence spun around in circles, head tilted forward, and ran toward his Jaguars teammates like a kid finally getting permission to join his friends recess.
That moment of celebration, that facial expression, that aura, that vibe, that smile would have been remarkable if it hadn’t been on his face most of the night. Sure, Lawrence seemed unhappy with each of the four interceptions he threw in the first half. He would curl his lips into that weird, Peyton Manning-esque smile-frown we all do after buffing off a bag of Sour Patch Kids. After the third, he looked at the video board as if it might hold some sort of powerpoint for quarterback fundamentals that he could use for the second half.
But he also kept walking back to the touchline like he owned the spot, like trudging through quarterback hell and discovering one of the best opposing quarterbacks, best pass-rushing tandems and most expensive secondaries in the league. the 27 points included the plan. And in the midst of a season when players seemed better than ever at finding fake confidence, fake personality, and fake talent in their own quarterbacks, no one seemed to blink. His teammates trusted him. Many fans didn’t turn off their televisions. Somehow everyone knew that this was at least possible. Somehow Lawrence had pulled everyone together.
Lawrence is here to stay, marking a quick turnaround after a disastrous rookie season under Urban Meyer.
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We can name Saturday, and Jacksonville’s 31-30 wild card win over the Chargers, the night Lawrence got into the NFL. And, as the self-help guru says, it took a journey through the worst of it all. Make your choice of platitudes. It’s always darkest before dawn, or as John Wooden said, things go best for those who make the most of how things go. Lawrence became the first player in modern NFL playoff history to throw three picks in a quarter. He was the first since Brett Favre in 2001 to throw a four in a playoff half. Also in the second half he was damn close to perfect. The Jaguars became the first team in NFL history to win a playoff game by a margin of minus five, and it was only the 29th team to do so… ever.
The comeback — from 27-0 in the first half and 30-14 late in the third quarter and still 10 points when he took the ball 8:47 to play — says a lot about Lawrence, but it also says a lot about a franchise that was similarly collectively pushed into the worst possible situation just over a year ago. Had it not been for its owner’s gracious willingness to do what billionaires almost never do – admit a mistake, admit in some indirect way that he was scammed, duped, scammed, lied to, and in the process would have built a promising young franchise on a trip to the next iceberg – maybe we’re talking about what the Jaguars would do with the 2023 draft pick. We might be talking about flying to Duval and having to rescue Lawrence ourselves. We might be talking about Urban Meyer kicking multiple players (gasps). It’s weird to think — to know — that quarterback, that team, that kind of promise, and that (statistically) unlikely streak of six straight wins and seven of eight that ended with a 10-point loss to the Chiefs in week one 10 started existed somewhere in the DNA of a team that went 3 to 14 a year ago.
Stranger still, the Jaguars have managed to artfully limit their time in the abyss of post-Meyer football. From coaching fool to boastful genius. From wasted talent to limitless potential. Jacksonville’s second half was kind of an artful interpretation of that.
The Jaguars’ season wraps up in many ways next weekend in Arrowhead (should the heavily favored Bills and Bengals both win), where before Thanksgiving in the same locker room, coach Doug Pederson predicted all of this would happen. But it really doesn’t matter. The Jaguars were once again able to grow from Patrick Mahomes but still fulfilled their contribution to the football zeitgeist in 2022. They showed us the power to admit our biggest mistakes. They showed us the value of keeping swinging (or, in Lawrence’s case, more of a sting, particularly on the critical two-point conversion attempt in the fourth quarter). They showed us what happens when you let football players be young and fun and whip out the damn T formation on a crucial fourth and one like the Jaguars were going up against the Air Force; like the Jaguars are in a backyard somewhere and not making NFL history.
For the franchise, this moment was as powerful and important as breaking ground in North Florida. A ho-hum 24-13 win over the Chargers wouldn’t have fit into the picture. Some defensive moves, like last Saturday night’s game against the Titans, which initially propelled them into the playoffs, would not have carried the right symbolism.
Several times in their mostly unsuccessful run as a franchise, the Jaguars have come to life before getting laid again. But 2021 was the worst of it. The year before should have cemented them as an outpost of laughter for a decade. And instead, Lawrence came out smiling. There is nothing more valuable.