AFC Championship loss to Patriots still haunts Leonard Fournette
The 2017 AFC Championship Game was a highly-contested battle former Jacksonville Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette will never forget.
Neither will Patriots fans considering New England won the game by a 24-20 margin on a game-winning touchdown catch from former receiver Danny Amendola.
For his part, Fournette had a big hand in the game. He finished with 24 carries for 76 yards and a touchdown. The touchdown gave Jacksonville a 14-3 lead at the time.
However, it was one particular play that went New England’s way that still haunts Fournette. New England ran a trick play in the fourth quarter, where Amendola was the recipient of a screen pass. He threw it to the other side of the field to Dion Lewis.
Lewis ran into open space, and Jaguars linebacker Myles Jack came up from behind Lewis and stripped him on the play. Jack recovered the fumble but the play was blown dead once he was ruled down on the field.
Fournette appeared on Good Morning Football and said he still disagreed with that ruling to this day.
“Myles Jack was not down,” Fournette said. “That’s the famous quote we always say. He was not down. It just brings back so many memories. I know for a fact if we would have won that game, that franchise team still would have been together. You never know what would have happened, how many we could have won. We were still young at the time. We had a lot of vets.”
Looking back at the 2017 AFC Championship and @_fournette has one thing to say:
"Myles Jack was not down." pic.twitter.com/bj0VmY9VkO
— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) June 15, 2023
New England would end up winning the game. However, one has to wonder what things would’ve been like had Jack been ruled up, and the Patriots’ big comeback was stifled.
