Through their first five games of the 2021 season, the Jacksonville Jaguars didn’t make a single field goal attempt. Josh Lambo had attempted three and missed them all, and Matthew Wright, elevated to starter after Lambo was out for personal reasons, had missed both of his attempts. But Wright made up for it in the Jaguars’ 23-20 win over the Dolphins Sunday in London — the first win for the Jaguars since their opening game of the 2020 season.
The 1962 Vikings were the last team to go without a field goal through their first five games of a season, but Wright stopped that streak from going any further with a 40-yard field goal in the first quarter.
Then, with 3:40 left in the game, Wright hit this amazing 54-yard field goal on such a draw, Dolphins safety Brandon Jones could be seen celebrating what he thought was a miss. That field goal tied the game at 20-20.
This is insanepic.twitter.com/Wdy1JEewat
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) October 17, 2021
#prematurecelebration pic.twitter.com/oYwgETW5ip
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) October 17, 2021
The Jaguars got the ball back with 1:42 left in the game after the Dolphins made a ridiculous decision to run the ball out of shotgun on a fourth-and-1 attempt, and got the ball to the Miami 35-yard line with the clock running down.
Matthew Wright wins it for Jacksonville 🙌
The Jags’ 20-game losing streak is finally over
(via @NFL)
pic.twitter.com/4z6e67pbPQ— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 17, 2021
Jacksonville’s coaching staff was rightly pilloried at times for their play calls, but the decision to go for it on fourth-and-8 from the Miami 44-yard line with 20 seconds left may have made all the difference.
This came one week after the NFL’s Week 5, which may have been the single-worst kicking week in league history. 25 total kicks were missed, including 13 extra points.