Jacksonville Jaguars: Gardner Minshew produces magic in Week 4
Gardner Minshew led the first game-winning drive of his NFL career as the sixth-round rookie’s dream start continued in Week 4.
The battle for the title of ‘steal of the draft’ looks to be over already after Gardner Minshew guided the Jacksonville Jaguars to a stunning comeback win over the Denver Broncos on Sunday.
Jacksonville trailed 17-3 in the second quarter but scored 20 unanswered points to turn the contest on its head.
The Broncos looked poised to claim their first win after Joe Flacco connected with Courtland Sutton on an eight-yard touchdown with 1:32 remaining, but sixth-round rookie quarterback Minshew led his first career game-winning drive, which was finished off by a Josh Lambo field goal, giving the Jaguars a 26-24 victory.
While he was helped by 225 yards on the ground from Leonard Fournette, who produced his best performance since 2017, it was still an inspirational display from Minshew. He is now 2-1 as a starter after thriving in one of the toughest places to play in the NFL against a pass rush that finally rediscovered something close to its best following three weeks without a sack.
Minshew has stirred a great deal of excitement not just in Jacksonville, but across the league. The play versus Denver that encapsulated exactly why was his touchdown pass to Ryquell Armstead that brought the Jaguars within four points.
Showing incredible mobility to avoid the pass rush, Minshew changed direction several times and found Armstead with a wonderful touch throw off his back foot.
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1178436653402095616?s=20
From there Jacksonville had the momentum the majority of the way and Minshew, aided by a roughing the passer call against Denver, was poised and accurate as he led the Jaguars down the field for the decisive score.
The hype around Minshew will only increase after this showing, with the back-to-back wins he has engineered keeping Jacksonville firmly in the playoff race in a wide-open AFC South.
Washington Redskins: Dwayne Haskins struggles in debut. dark. Next
Jacksonville’s season looked to be over before it had the chance to get going when the Jaguars lost Nick Foles to a broken clavicle. Now, after successive excellent Minshew performances in must-win games, there will be increasing levels of discussion as to whether Foles should take the starting job back when he returns.