Thursday Night Football: Jaguars escape New Orleans with 31-24 win
The Saints had their chances, but the final four plays summed up their offensive frustrations for the night and for the season. Derek Carr threw four incompletions from the Jacksonville 6-yard line in the waning seconds with the Saints trailing by seven.
The Jaguars escaped with a 31-24 win, moving to 5-2. The Saints are 3-4.
New Orleans clawed its way back from down 24-9 in the fourth quarter to tie the Jaguars at 24-24 with 6:38 left. The Jaguars, who struggled in the second half with four first downs and 104 yards, responded when they had to.
The Jaguars' go-ahead drive took only two plays and 37 seconds. Jamal Agnew gave them good field position with a 9-yard return of a Lou Hedley punt to the New Orleans 46. Trevor Lawrence completed a 2-yard pass to Travis Etienne before Christian Kirk got a step on Tyrann Mathieu, caught a short pass and ran 44 yards to the end zone.
It gave the Jaguars a 31-24 lead with 3:08 left.
The Saints drove from their own 25 to the doorstep of forcing overtime or winning on a two-point conversion, but Carr threw incompletions to Michael Thomas, Taysom Hill, Foster Moreau and Chris Olave. Moreau was wide open and dropped the ball.
The Saints scored only two touchdowns in five red zone chances, continuing a season-long trend.
Carr appeared to injure his groin on a non-contact play with 3:54 left as he was running away from Foyesade Oluokun and buying time before throwing an incompletion. He went to the ground on one knee in obvious pain but stayed in the game.
He finished 33-of-55 for 301 yards with a touchdown and an interception. His touchdown throw was an 17-yarder to Thomas, the receiver's first touchdown since Week 3 of the 2022 season. Carr's interception was a tipped pass that Jaguars linebacker Foyesade Oluokun returned 24 yards for his first career touchdown.
Alvin Kamara had 12 catches for 91 yards and 17 carries for 62 yards.
Lawrence finished 20-of-29 for 204 yards, with his only touchdown the catch-and-run by Kirk, who made six receptions for 90 yards. Lawrence, who was questionable with a knee injury, also had eight carries for a team-leading 59 yards.
Etienne scored two touchdowns on runs of 2 and 17 yards, becoming the first player in team history with at least two touchdowns in three consecutive games.
