Game Recap

Jacksonville Jaguars at Denver Broncos

Sunday, October 12, 2008

*Jones-Drew drives Jaguars past Broncos*

DENVER (Ticker) -- Maurice Jones-Drew rushed for 125 yards and two touchdowns Sunday as the Jacksonville Jaguars held on for a 24-17 victory over the Denver Broncos.

Jones-Drew gave Jacksonville (3-3) a 10-7 lead with his 1-yard TD run in the second quarter. The Jaguars went ahead, 17-7, in the third when Jones-Drew ripped off a 46-yard scoring run just over a minute into the quarter.

"We run that play all the time," Jones-Drew said. "We call it God's play, because if God played football, it would be the play that he would run."

Trailing, 24-10, in the fourth quarter, Denver (4-2) scored on an 11-yard TD pass from Jay Cutler to Daniel Graham with 9:19 remaining.

After trading punts, Jacksonville took over at its own 27-yard line with 5:46 remaining. But Denver could not stop the

Jaguars, who did not relinquish possession to seal the victory.

"I think we wore down a bit," Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan said. "We got a little tired and tried to strip the ball when they were pushing. They made the big plays."

David Garrard finished 25-of-34 for 276 yards and a touchdown for Jacksonville, which rebounded from a last-minute loss to Pittsburgh last week.

"I'm just real happy because we came into the game 2-3 with our bye week in front of us," Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio said. "It was the biggest game we had this year in terms of needing to find a win to stay alive and come out here with a win."

"(Del Rio) said it was the turning point in our season and we had to answer," Garrard added. "The defense got a big three-and-out late in the game and we were able to run out the clock. It was good to get back to Jaguar football."

The Broncos scored first on their opening possession, driving 80 yards in 10 plays. Cutler was a perfect 7-for-7 on the drive, completing an 11-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Stokley.

Jacksonville turned the ball over on the following possession, when Fred Taylor was stripped by Broncos linebacker Nate Webster.

However, Denver immediately gave possession back to Jacksonville when Cutler fumbled the ball on the Broncos' first play of the drive.

"You got to be able to move on after something like that," Cutler said. "But when you turn the ball over three or four times, it's hard to score points."

"When you take the football away from someone, its big," Del Rio said. "We were plus-two today, and winning the turnover battle is important to us."

Turnovers haunted both teams in the first half, spoiling good scoring chances. Denver drove to the Jacksonville 16-yard line before Brandon Marshall fumbled the ball, which was recovered by Drayton Florence.

Jacksonville capitalized on the turnover when Jones-Drew scored his first TD of the game.

"We had a chance to control the football game, and we turned it over three times," Shanahan said. "It's hard to win those kind of games."

Jacksonville had a chance to add more points late in the second half, but Garrard lost a fumble at the Denver 27-yard line.

Cutler was 21-of-37 for 192 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.

Michael Pittman, who replaced injured running back Selvin Young, finished with 109 yards rushing.