Andrew Luck tossed three touchdowns, and the Colts survived a scoreless second half to defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 29-26 on Sunday afternoon in Indianapolis.
Facing third-and-1 from the Indianapolis 35, Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles connected with wide receiver Rashad Greene, who lost the ball and helped the Colts clinch the game. A lengthy replay review overturned the call on the field that Greene was down by contact.
Luck passed for 285 yards, and Indianapolis (4-5) has won three straight. Jacksonville (3-6) has lost five in a row.
Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo hit a 55-yard field goal to cut the Colts' lead to 29-26 with 4:03 left in the game.
The Colts came back on the field with the three-point lead and went aggressive with a 35-yard pass down the sideline from Luck to T.Y. Hilton on first down. But Jacksonville came up with consecutive stops, and Adam Vinatieri missed a 52-yard field goal way right to give Jacksonville yet another shot.
Luck cooled off in the second half, and the Colts' running game was nonexistent, helping Bortles stage a rally.
Jacksonville pulled to within a touchdown at 29-23 in the middle of the third quarter. The Jaguars capped a grinding 17-play drive with a 1-yard touchdown pass from Bortles (320 passing yards) to running back Leonard Fournette. On their next possession, Lambo missed a 52-yard field goal attempt wide left, his first miss of the year.
But Telvin Smith got it right back for the Jaguars on the first play of the fourth quarter, picking off a Luck pass at the 26. Luck's toss went through the hands of Mo Alie-Cox, and Smith snatched the ball while also keeping two feet inbounds.
Fournette, playing in his first game since Week 4 due to a chronic hamstring issue, had 24 carries for 53 yards, plus five grabs for 56 yards while scoring two total touchdowns.
Luck completed 16 of 20 passes for 217 yards with three touchdown passes in the first half as the Colts built a 29-16 lead.
Luck joined Peyton Manning and Tom Brady as the only quarterbacks in NFL history with six games in a row with three-plus TD passes.
Tight end Eric Ebron caught a pass crossing the middle and cruised 53 yards down the right sideline to open the scoring in the first quarter. He also scored on a counter handoff. Ebron had three touchdowns in the first 21 minutes of the game.
Fournette was bottled up early, averaging 2.9 yards on 13 first-half carries. The Jaguars rushed 34 times in the game for 91 yards (2.7 yards per carry).
Jaguars center Brandon Linder was helped off the field in the third quarter with a right knee injury and carted to the locker room. He did not return.
--Field Level Media
Jacksonville | Indianapolis | |
Leonard Fournette | Player | Jordan Wilkins |
24 | Attempts | 1 |
53 | Yards | 53 |
2.2 | Avg Yards | 53.0 |
1 | Touchdowns | 0 |
11 | Long | 53 |
Jacksonville | Indianapolis | |
Donte Moncrief | Player | T.Y. Hilton |
3 | Receptions | 3 |
98 | Yards | 77 |
32.7 | Avg Yards | 25.7 |
1 | Touchdowns | 0 |
80 | Long | 35 |
Yards | Scoring | Defense | ||||||
Team | Tot | Rus | Pas | TD | FG | INT | Sck | FF |
Jacksonville | 415 | 91 | 324 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0 |
Indianapolis | 366 | 81 | 285 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1 |