default-cbs-image

The Jacksonville Jaguars tried as hard as they could to give this game away for about three and a half quarters Thursday night. And then the Tennessee Titans essentially said, "No thanks. You can keep it."

Right from the jump, this was not an especially well-played game. There were 14 combined penalties, seven of which resulted in first downs for the other team. There were also three turnovers, a missed field goal, multiple botched fourth-down decisions and a trick play gone wrong.

The Jaguars even arguably made more mistakes than the Titans. Tennessee's flubs just came at more inopportune times. Jacksonville saw Blake Bortles fumble on a quarterback sneak attempt and get picked off on a throw he never should have made.

The Jags scuffled in the red zone on two different occasions, getting conservative and not really giving Bortles the chance to make a play. Gus Bradley horribly mismanaged the clock at the end of the first half, giving the Titans an opportunity to add points (they didn't score, but Jacksonville's management of the situation was awful). They committed five combined pass interference and defensive holding penalties, gifting the Titans first downs.

But Titans interim head coach Mike Mularkey -- the Jaguars' coach before Bradley -- made two crucial fourth-down decisions that came back to bite his team in the end. Unsurprisingly, Mularkey went conservative with his decision-making both times.

Blake Bortles and the Jags squeaked by with a win. (USATSI)

Leading 13-9 early in the fourth quarter, the Titans faced fourth-and-2 at the Jacksonville 35-yard line. Mularkey sent the Marcus Mariota-led offense onto the field at first, but then he second-guessed himself and called timeout. Ryan Succop and the field goal unit came onto the field ... and Succop yanked the 53-yard try. The Jaguars didn't score on the ensuing drive, but Mularkey's overly conservative decision-making cost his team the chance to add points.

Fast forward just over nine minutes. The Titans, still holding a 13-9 lead, faced fourth-and-an-inch (literally) from their own 24-yard line with 3:49 to go. Mularkey sent the punt team onto the field. OK. You're on your own 24. Sound decision, right? No.

Here's why: First of all, you only need an inch for the first down. If you can't get an inch, you don't deserve to win. Second, with so little time left, it doesn't matter that you would be giving the ball to Jacksonville in field goal range by not converting on fourth down. What does matter is the clock. And if they score after a punt, you're likely to have far less time left on the clock with which to mount a potential game-tying field goal drive to send the game into overtime.

The clock aspect wound up being irrelevant, as Rashad Greene returned Brett Kern's punt 63 yards to the Tennessee 5-yard line. A Blake Bortles touchdown pass to Julius Thomas later, Tennessee was trailing a game it had in hand basically all night.

It didn't help that little-used tight end Phillip Supernaw fumbled on the first play of the next drive, which put the Jaguars right back in field-goal range. The Jags got ridiculously conservative themselves on that drive, pulling the offense off the field after a timeout on fourth down to kick yet another field goal, which extended the lead to six points.

Mariota valiantly led the Titans down the field and had a last-ditch shot to find the end zone from the 23-yard line, but Andre Branch took him down to the ground before he could get the pass off.

Having somehow squeaked away with a win, the Jags miraculously have a chance to make some noise in the AFC South. They're sitting at 4-6, just a half-game back of co-division leaders Houston and Indianapolis. The Jags host the banged-up San Diego Chargers next week before heading to Tennessee to play the Titans again in the first week of December. Coming away with a couple wins would go a long way toward securing a surprising playoff berth.

Here are six more things to know about this AFC South battle: 

2. Bright spots for Tennessee: Titans tight end Delanie Walker had himself a monster game. He was Mariota's primary target all night long, working seam routes up the field off play-action as well as shorter passes. He ended the night having secured 8 of 10 targets and 109 yards receiving.

Oh, and he had another one of those crazy tip-catches, too.

Walker wasn't alone in having a solid night. Running back Antonio Andrews ran well for much of the evening, especially after scatback Dexter McCluster was lost to injury. He totaled 15 carries for 78 yards, an average of 5.2 a pop. He also caught both his targets for 13 additional yards. Andrews wasn't expected to lead or even factor heavily in the Tennessee backfield at the start of the season, but he looks like their best option right now.

3. Let's talk about those jerseys: Man ... the only thing uglier than this game was the gold monstrosities the Jaguars had on. The hilarious people of Twitter had plenty to say about what these unis reminded them of. Here's a few favorite selections:

4. Trick play gone wrong: Remember that botched trick play we mentioned above? It was actually a beautifully designed play that worked exactly as intended ... until wide receiver Bryan Walters tried to throw the football.

Allen Robinson was wide the heck open on this play, as nearly everyone on the Titans fell for Marqise Lee's motion and/or was looking for a possible throwback pass. Robinson, streaking across the field, has a surefire big gain if Walters can fire a strike. Unfortunately, that's not what happened.

(NFL Network)

5. Mariota shows off his wheels: Somewhat surprisingly, it took until the Titans' 10th game of the season (and Mariota's eigth NFL game) for the former Heisman winner to get his first rushing touchdown. Mariota isn't as much of a read-option runner as previous spread QBs, though -- he tends to hang in the pocket and look to throw before taking off to run as a last resort. In seven starts coming into this game, he had run only 16 times. His 18th run of the year was a beauty, as he took off around the end on a read-option play, hit the corner, and turned on the jets before diving for the pylon. 

6. Welcome back, Julius: Thomas has had a relatively anonymous season for the Jaguars since signing for big money in the offseason. He missed time at the start of the season due to injury, and since his return, he has been a clear third option behind Robinson and Allen Hurns in the passing game. But he made his presence known in this one. 

Thomas was targeted eight times, and he caught five passes. They only went for 28 yards, but one was the winning touchdown in the area where he has been so dangerous throughout his career.

7. Mularkey's revenge game goes wrong: It has to be especially tough for Mularkey to lose to the Jaguars, considering he was fired after one season as the head coach in Jacksonville. His Jags went 2-14 in 2012, but it's not like Gus Bradley's group has done much better since then.