The Jaguars went up by 11 points in the first half of the AFC Championship Game and took a 10-point lead on a Josh Lambo field goal early in the fourth quarter, but they couldn’t do enough to close out the Patriots and lost 24-20 after two late Tom Brady touchdown passes.
Jacksonville built that early lead thanks in large part to the plays Blake Bortles was making through the air. He was 13-of-15 for 155 yards and a touchdown in the first half and found particular success off play action. The second half saw the Jaguars take fewer shots as they protected their lead and coach Doug Marrone was asked after the game if he regretted the direction the play calling took in the final 30 minutes.
“You can always go back and look at that but the coverage started to change a bit,” Marrone said at his press conference. “We wanted to make sure we were being successful. We wanted to keep with thinking we are going to pop one of these runs. Keep going with it. Obviously we did not pop enough, especially in the second half.”
Marrone was also asked about the conservative path he chose right before halftime when he had Bortles take a knee with 55 seconds left on the clock. The Patriots had just cut their lead to four points and Marrone said “we had to make some adjustments going into halftime” and were getting the ball to start the second half.
They’d get a field goal on that opening possession of the third quarter, but ultimately needed more points than Marrone was able to find on Sunday afternoon.