Jaguars 31, Chargers 30: Riley Patterson FG in Final Seconds Completes 27-Point Comeback

The Jaguars are heading to the Divisional round after an insanely back-and-forth 31-30 win over the Chargers.

It was always the Jaguars, after all.

Nothing went right for the Jaguars in the first half of Saturday's legacy-defining Wild Card game. Trevor Lawrence threw four interceptions. The special teams unit fumbled a punt at their own six. The Jaguars went down 27-0, not creating a single play on any side of the ball. 

But it didn't matter. Thanks to three second-half touchdown passes from Lawrence and a game-winning field goal from Riley Patterson helped the Jaguars win their first playoff game since the 2017-2018 season, a last-minute 31-30 win over the Los Angeles Chargers.

Lawrence's night started on a disastrous note. The Jaguars all season have thrived on RPO plays that saw Lawrence zip the ball across the middle of the field, but the second play from scrimmage saw Lawrence's RPO attempt be tipped by both Sebastian Joseph-Day and Joey Bosa, landing in Drue Tranquill's hands at the 33 and being returned to the Jaguars' 18. 

Just two plays later, the Chargers turned the turnover into points with a 13-yard run by Austin Ekeler that saw him burst into the end-zone with little resistance.

Lawrence and the Jaguars' offense began to heat up following the turnover, with a 16-yard Evan Engram catch and a 12-yard Travis Etienne run getting Jacksonville to Los Angeles' 36-yard line. 

A pair of incompletions and a short gain on third down led to the Jaguars and head coach Doug Pederson rolling the dice in a big way on 4th-and-7 but, just like the previous drive, the Jaguars gave the game away.

With the Chargers' matching the Jaguars' offensive call beautifully, a free rusher forced Lawrence to hurry a throw toward Zay Jones, who lost at the top of the route on a question no-call pass interference. The pass landed in the hands of Asante Samuel Jr., leading to Lawrence's second interception in his first eight attempts. 

Jacksonville's defense failed to slow the Chargers down until the red-zone on the subsequent drive, with the Chargers marching all the way to the Jaguars' four-yard line and converting their first two third-downs on a 12-play drive that ended with three points.

It didn't get any better from there. After the Jaguars gained just one yard on a three-and-out on the following drive, Lawrence threw his third interception of the first quarter on a poorly executed mesh play. 

The pick made Lawrence the first quarterback in NFL history to throw three interceptions in the first quarter of a playoff game, as well as the first quarterback to throw three in the first quarter of any game since Nathan Peterman did it in 2017.

The Jaguars turned it over two more times after Lawrence's killer third interception: a fourth interception from Lawrence that was caught by Samuel, and a muffed punt after a punt became a live ball after it hit the helmet of cornerback Chris Claybrooks.

The fumbled punt fiasco gave the Chargers the ball at the six-yard line, allowing them to extend the lead to 27-0 and quiet a Jaguars' crowd that was likely looking for the exits by this point.

Through the Jaguars' first six drives, they threw four interceptions and punted twice, recording three first downs and going 0-for-6 in the process. Lawrence started 5-of-18 (27.8%) for 35 yards (1.9 YPA) and 4 INTs in his playoff debut for a QB rating of 0.0.

Lawrence's four interceptions in the first half tied the NFL Wild Card record for an entire game. Lawrence is the 11th QB in NFL history to throw 4 INTs in a Wild Card game. He joins Roethlisberger, Hoyer, Pennington, Favre, Brad Johnson, Stan Humphries, Scott Mitchell, Todd Marinovich, Richard Todd, and Joe Ferguson

Lawrence was able to -- finally -- make something positive happen, throwing a nine-yard touchdown to Evan Engram to cap off a 7-play, 47-yard drive to make it 27-7 going into halftime. 

After the Jaguars forced an opening-drive punt, Jacksonville started to fight their way back with a 14-play, 89-yard drive that saw Lawrence go 8-of-9 for 68 yards and a six-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Jones, taking over seven minutes off the clock and putting the Jaguars right back in the game. 

The Chargers turned a few big gains through the air into a 50-yard field goal to extend their lead to 30-14, but the Jaguars and Lawrence continued to fight and scratch their way back into the game. This time, it was with another Lawrence touchdown, this time a 39-yard frozen rope from Lawrence to a wide-open Zay Jones to cut the lead to 30-20.

Jacksonville's defense then failed to make a game-changing play to continue to ride the momentum, however, with long third-down completions, allowing Herbert to scramble, and a dead-ball penalty on Travon Walker after a sack led to the Jaguars nearly giving up points yet again.

But luck happened to be on the Jaguars' side, with Chargers' kicker Cameron Dicker missing a 40-yard field-goal wide left to give the Jaguars a chance to make noise down the stretch.

And make noise they did. After being down by 27 points earlier in the game, the Jaguars brought themselves within two on a nine-yard touchdown pass to Chrsitian Kirk and a Lawrence dive for a two-point conversion. 

Then the Jaguars made magic happen. 

The Jaguars' defense continued to swarm Herbert, with Roy Robertson-Harris sacking Herber as the Jaguars forced a three-and-out.

Then, Lawrence put together the drive. Two completions for 21 yards to Kirk pushed the Jaguars to midfield, eventually setting up a 4th-and-1 just barely out of field goal range. 

But it didn't matter. Pederson, again, pushed all the right buttons. Instead of calling a dive or a quarterback sneak up the middle, Pederson called the Duval Delight: an outside handoff to Etienne out of a T-formation for 25 yards.

A few plays later, Riley Patterson's 36-yard field goal sent TIAA Bank Field into complete pandemonium, with Jaguars' players storming the field and doing literal backflips following the comeback win. 

 Stats of the Game (1/14/23 vs. the Chargers) Via: @theryanmichael

After after falling behind 27-0, the Jaguars completed the 3rd largest comeback in NFL postseason history to win 31-30.

Trevor Lawrence started the game 5 of 18 (27.8%) for 35 yards (1.9 YPA), 0 touchdowns, 4 interceptions and a 0.0 passer rating.

He finished the game 23 of 29 (79.3%) for 253 yards (8.7 YPA), 4 touchdowns, 0 interceptions and a 142.6 passer rating.

At 23 years of age, Lawrence became the youngest quarterback in Jaguars franchise history to win a playoff game.

With 109 rushing yards, Travis Etienne recorded his 6th game of the season with 100+ rushing yards.

3 Jaguars receivers (Christian Kirk, Zay Jones and Evan Engram) caught 7+ passes for 74+ receiving yards.

The Jaguars defense held Justin Herbert and the Chargers to just 3 points in the second half.

With 13 total tackles, Foyesade Oluokun recorded his 10th game of the season with 10+ total tackles.