Broncos at Jaguars second quarter recap

The Jacksonville Jaguars opened up the second quarter with a second down, but the Denver Broncos defense found their legs in the secondary breaking up two Trevor Lawrence passes to force a three and out.

Teddy Bridgewater found Eric Saubert for seven, then Javonte Williams powered his way for another seven to get the Broncos out to their own 47-yard line. Williams was stuffed on the next carry and then Bridgewater was initially pressured on second down, but he found a way to escape and hit the open man for four. On third and six, Courtland Sutton’s jersey was very clearly being tugged on and just missed the long reception.

A nice punt by Sam Martin was negated by a special teams unsportsmanlike penalty by Mike Ford gave the Jaguars better field position at their own 27-yard line.

Back-to-back runs by James Robinson setup a short third and two for Jacksonville to begin their next drive. Lawrence threw it up deep to DJ Chark and drew the pass interference call on Patrick Surtain for a 36-yard penalty.

Josey Jewell read a pass to Laviska Shenault in the flat perfectly for an eight yard loss. Robinson was stuffed on the next run to setup a third and a long 16. Von Miller almost got the Lawrence on the next play for the strip sack, but got the ball out barely to throw the ball away. The Jaguars attempted a 52-yard field goal, but Josh Lambo shanked it wide right.

On the Broncos next possession, the questionable calls and no calls continued for Denver as Shaq Griffin basically tackled Sutton as he jumped for the ball and no call was made.

Bridgewater went deep to KJ Hamler on the very next play, but the ball got there a little too late for Hamler to hang onto as the safety hit him directly in the back of the head for no call again. The refs seem to be letting the Jaguars defense play loose, while calling the Broncos defense tight in this game.

The Broncos defense did a good job stuffing the run on first down, but Carlos Hyde gained six yards on second down to setup a third and three for Lawrence. His pass would bounce off Shenault’s hands on third down for a quick three and out.

The next series for the Broncos offense went poorly as Noah Fant whiffed on a block leading to a six yard loss on first down, then Bridgewater found Javonte Williams to get 10 yards back to setup a little easier third and six situation. Williams then picked up a huge block on third down to give Bridgewater enough time to find Sutton sitting in the middle of the field for 16-yards and a first down.

From their own 40-yard line, Melvin Gordon was stuffed for no gain on first down. Bridgewater then evaded pressure to find Sutton deep for a 34-yard gain to the Jaguars 26-yard line.

Bridgewater’s next pass to Noah Fant was in the dirt. He then went to wide receiver turned quarterback turned wide receiver Kendall Hinton for a 15-yard gain down to the Jaguars 12 yard line to bring the game to the two minute warning in the first half.

Outside of the two minute warning, Bridgewater wasted no time putting the Broncos in the lead with a 12-yard strike to Tim Patrick for the touchdown.

Broncos 10, Jaguars 7.

The Jaguars began a two-minute drill with Lawrence picking up a first down and then fired a strike to DJ Chark into Broncos territory with a minute left in the half. Shelby Harris got in on the next play to wreck things, but Bradley Chubb was offsides.

Lawrence’s next pass was nearly intercepted, but Bradley Chubb was hurt on the play. He was down on the ground for a minute in pain, but he was able to walk off under his own power. The Jaguars drive would stall, but they would go for it on fourth and five and convert on a Lawrence 10 yard scramble.

Caden Sterns nearly intercepted Lawrence on the next play, but couldn’t come up with the ball. Bryce Callahan broke the next pass up to force Lawrence’s fifth straight incompletion on the drive. On third and 10, Lawrence had to throw it away due to pressure from Malik Reed and Shelby Harris.

Josh Lambo would come out and miss his second field goal of the day to keep the Broncos in the lead 10-7.

With two timeouts and 20 seconds to go, the Broncos looked to capitalize. On second down, Bridgewater found Noah Fant for nine yards with seven seconds left in the half. Bridgewater’s next throw sailed over KJ Hamler’s head, but Hamler never looked for the ball.

The Broncos would a take a 10-7 lead over the Jaguars into halftime.