Ten touchdown passes over a three-game stretch tends to put a quarterback in special company.
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And thus came to an end the Colts’ 16-game winning streak against AFC South opponents, dropping their record to 6-7 and further draining the dwindling hope of a late-season surge into the playoffs that seems necessary to salvage the jobs of Pagano and possibly GM Ryan Grigson. They were clutch when they needed to be, and that helped spark the second-half explosion.
The Colts failed to score a touchdown on offense on their way to only putting up a score of 16. For Jacksonville, it was a couple of return touchdowns – a fumble and a punt – plus a unsafe Bortles pass to Allen Hurns that was almost intercepted but instead turned into an 80-yard touchdown.
Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles, top right, dives… “Yeah”, he said. “Yeah, I’m hopeful”. Hasselbeck was already dealing with a rib issue coming into the game on Sunday and the team is expected to update his status after more testing on Monday.
Heading into the 2015 regular season, there was a lot of hype surrounding the quarterbacks in the AFC South. Anticipation surrounded the debut of Tennessee’s rookie Marcus Mariota, Indianapolis’s Andrew Luck was poised for an MVP-type season, and Jacksonville’s Blake Bortles was set to follow up a solid rookie campaign. Soon. The Colts are in a swoon. They then proceeded to get the chip beat out of them in Jacksonville, 51-16, yielding a Jaguars franchise-record points while sustaining the most lopsided defeat in series history – and the most humiliating loss of Pagano’s tenure. And backup Matt Hasselbeck is starting to show his age.
In six games this season, Hasselbeck has thrown for 1,444 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions.
“We played a good half, but we didn’t take advantage again of opportunities”, he said. Hasselbeck completed 18 of 35 passes for 252 yards and was sacked three times before giving way to Charlie Whitehurst. Jason Myers missed the extra point – his league-leading seventh miss of the season – and Jacksonville trailed 13-9 at halftime. The Colts played well for a half and only allowed a field goal in the first 30 minutes. The first was a mediocre Jay Cutler game from 2012, in which Cutler had a QBR of 43.8 – not horrendous, though also not what you think of when you envision a 50-point offensive outburst. Jaguars had a season-high 154 yards rushing…. Colts coach Chuck Pagano was looking for someone on his defensive unit to make a big play in the second half but it never happened.
Pagano, though, said he still believes his team is capable of turning things around in time to secure their fourth consecutive AFC South title. At best you should be able to get the first down with a chance for a touchdown and at worst you should be leaving the Jaguars in a bad situation. “We’ve got to bottle that up and keep rolling”. However, head coach Chuck Pagano said he doesn’t know whether Luck will practice.
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Indeed, the Colts lost 44-17 at Jacksonville in December 2006 and regrouped to win it all. On Sunday, the Jaguars were good everywhere defensively.
