Washington quarterback Josh Johnson came into Sunday’s game with five career starts and his team had lost them all.
Johnson now knows what it’s like to start for a winning team. Dustin Hopkins hit a 36-yard field goal as time expired and Washington beat the Jaguars 16-13 in Jacksonville.
The win ends a four-game losing streak for Washington, gives them their first win after trailing at halftime in two years and allows them to avoid official elimination from the playoff race. They’ll take their 7-7 record into Tennessee next Saturday to see if they can stay alive a little bit longer.
Johnson was 16-of-25 for 151 yards and hit Jeremy Sprinkle for a game-tying touchdown in the fourth quarter. It looked like the Jaguars might drive for at least a go-ahead field goal of their own as they pushed the ball across midfield after a 25-yard run by Leonard Fournette, but Fabian Moreau picked off Cody Kessler to give Washington the chance to win the game.
They did that with 38 of the 71 yards that running back Adrian Peterson gained over the course of the game, including a third-down conversion that meant Jacksonville would have no chance to get the ball back.
It’s hard to imagine the Jaguars would have done much with the ball had they gotten it back. Kessler was sacked six times and lost a fumble as the unit put up 192 yards for the day. Kessler’s scrambles -- he had 68 rushing yards -- were the most effective offensive tool that Jacksonville had as he went 9-of-17 for 57 yards throwing the ball. Fournette’s 25-yard run was the 2017 first-round pick’s only touch of the second half, which may be a topic of conversation for Jacksonville after the game.
Other topics are likely to concern the changes to come in Jacksonville as the competitive portion of their season is long over. It will last a little longer in Washington, however.