Jaguars’ historic wild-card win is a testament to the power of belief

Yes, the Chargers collapsed in the wild-card round. But the Jaguars’ historic comeback was more about Doug Pederson’s belief in his team.

Yes, the Chargers Chargered.

But did we expect the Jaguars to… Jaguar?

Not like this.

Down 27-7 at the end of the first half and 27-0 with even 25 seconds left in the first half, seemingly demolished and disheartened by Trevor Lawrence’s four first-half interceptions and three third-quarter interceptions (the only first-quarter interceptions Lawrence had thrown in his NFL career), the Jaguars could have just laid up and folded over. It was a great story that they were hosting a playoff game with new head coach Doug Pederson, one year after Urban Meyer took a brontosaurus dump all over the franchise. Maybe it was time to wait ’til next year.

The only people who didn’t seem to take that in was Pederson and his team. They outscored the Chargers, 31-3, after they were down, 27-0, and there’s absolutely no excuse for that from the Chargers’ side. Head coach Brandon Staley is going to hear a lot of noise about his future with the team, and that’s justified.

But this is not a story about another Chargers collapse — this is a story of how Pederson instilled an unwavering belief in the same building that had been so beaten down by Meyer’s arrogance and incompetence. Pederson, a lightly-recruited coach after the Philadelphia Eagles fired him in January, 2021, and he subsequently took a year off, put this in motion from the start: We are going to believe in our ability to win, no matter the setback. And it didn’t take long for the belief to take effect. This mostly young team was hungry for exactly this message, and you could see it on the field.

Because in the toughest possible situations, you saw the new Jaguars fighting back — not just fighting back to feel better about their ultimately futile efforts, but fighting back because they believed that they were to win.

Saturday’s comeback was one for the books — the third-largest postseason comeback in the history of professional football — but this has been going on for a while. Especially at TIAA Bank Field.

So, in the most improbable situation, Pederson’s team believed in the impossible — and then, they made it happen.

“I’m proud of you for this reason,” Pederson told his team after the game. “You have faith in yourselves. You have faith in each other. You keep encouraging each other, like we talk about all the time. And you believe. Belief is about understanding that you can get it done, and then, it gets done. It just can’t happen, and then you have belief. That’s what faith is about, and you guys have it.”

That belief was never more evident than on running back Travis Etienne’s 25-yard run with 1:27 left in the game. Down 30-28 at the Chargers’ 41-yard line, the Jaguars were seeming to just want to convert the fourth-and-1 and keep pounding the ball down the field so that Riley Patterson would have an opportunity to kick a game-winning field goal. Lawrence came to the line of scrimmage, killed the original call, and then, Pederson called a time-out.

And then, as the Chargers clogged the middle of the formation awaiting a quarterback sneak, Etienne took the ball and bounced outside for what was basically a game-winning run.

We had seen the Jaguars run this kind of T-formation stuff before under Pederson. But not in this type of situation. Pederson has always had a belief that his calls will work (we all remember the Philly Special), and this was a risk of nearly that magnitude.

“I was just trying to win the game,” Etienne said. “I was just trying to ice the game. I’m happy coach called my name, honestly, called my number. And I feel like anytime coach calls my number I’m ready and I was able to show it with that play.”

Pederson explained the process of the play.

“I just didn’t like the look that we had for the play we had called, and so I just took the time-out. We reloaded, regrouped, put our heads together, came up with that call, and just a great effort by Travis to obviously hit an off tackle there and get the first down and more.

“Listen, if they’re outside, you go inside. If they’re inside, you go outside, and Travis is a heck of a back that can do that, and with his speed and ability, made a great play in that moment.”

Lawrence gave further insight into the architecture of the situation.

“We actually had a different call on before, and he didn’t like the look that the defense was in. It was probably smart, looking back at it. Just got the time-out off. I was kind of mad at first because I thought it was going to work. Then [Pederson] told me, and I was like, all right, sounds good. So, then he got the new call in, and just get the ball in Travis’s hands, and he makes a play like that, wins the game for us essentially. Obviously Riley won the game, but putting us in position there. It takes a lot of guts there, fourth-and-1 and game on the line, and just the guys up front, they just mashed them. They set the edge, and Travis was rolling.”

Patterson kicked his 36-yard game-winner two plays later, but you could say that the Jaguars had already won. Not just because they executed, but because they believed. They believed before they hit the field, they believed when they were making their comeback, and they believed when it was time to put the game away. The Jaguars were on the wrong side of the score on every offensive play in the second half, and they still won this game.

Yes, this was about the Chargers’ collapse. But it was even more about a structure of manifestation and belief instilled by Doug Pederson that paid enormous dividends when it was needed most.