The Jacksonville Jaguars had a 17-13 lead early in the fourth quarter and were threatening to extend that lead over the New York Giants. A drive deep into Giants territory was about to break into the red zone when Jaguars wide receiver Christian Kirk took a reverse for what appeared to be a first down.
Instead, Kirk was ruled short of the line much to the surprise of just about everyone.
Kirk with a reverse, doesn't get the first somehow.
Also a no-gain on the next two plays. Turnovver on downs. pic.twitter.com/YOmorBpckc
— Laurie Fitzpatrick (@LaurieFitzptrck) October 23, 2022
“We were under the impression it was first down, but it wasn’t,” Jaguars coach Doug Pederson told reporters after the game. “Those are situations, too, where do you want to risk a challenge, a timeout in those situations where you know it’s going to — at least it’s going to be at worst, it’s going to be third and one or third and a couple of inches. Try to get the first down that way.”
Instead of using a challenge that likely would’ve resulted in a first down, Pederson went with a Travis Etienne run on third down that also could’ve been spotted as a first down but was ruled short.
On fourth down, the always aggressive Pederson made another call that didn’t go his way. Rather than kick a 37-yard field goal that could’ve given the Jaguars a 20-13 lead, Trevor Lawrence was stopped on an attempt to sneak on the fourth down try.
“We were having really a lot of success on the ground,” Pederson said of the decision. “And it was a great situation right there to do that. Credit the Giants, they stopped us.”
Neither the decision not to challenge nor the decision not to kick a field goal were egregious mistakes. If the Jaguars managed to run for a yard on either third or fourth down, it would’ve negated those options. But with hindsight being 20/20, those two calls proved to be the incorrect ones and they were extremely costly.
The Giants took over on downs and eventually took the lead with a 10-play, 79-yard drive that took just under six minutes. A Jaguars three-and-out was followed by a three-and-a-half minute drive from the Giants that ended with a field goal to push the lead to six. And a final drive for Jacksonville ended one yard short of a game-winning touchdown.