Sunday 14 January 2018 23:25, UK
Leonard Fournette ran for three touchdowns and Telvin Smith returned a fumble 50 yards for a score as the Jacksonville Jaguars edged out the Pittsburgh Steelers 45-42 in a thrilling, high-scoring AFC divisional playoff game on Sunday.
Jacksonville now advance to the AFC Championship for the first time since 1999, where they will face the New England Patriots, who dominated the Tennessee Titans 35-14 on Saturday night.
Fournette, who finished the game with 109 yards on his 25 carries, left the game in the second quarter with an ankle injury but returned in the second half.
Steelers receiver Antonio Brown also impressed in his first appearance since Week 15, when he injured his left calf against the Patriots - he finished with 132 yards on seven receptions, with two touchdowns. His second, in the fourth quarter, was an incredible grab to bring the Steelers to within one TD of the Jaguars.
Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger set a franchise playoff record with 469 yards passing. He had five TDs in the game, but it still wasn't enough to see off the Jaguars.
Jacksonville took a 7-0 lead on the game's opening possession with Fournette's first TD, while a superb toe-tap interception by Myles Jack set up his second - his longest, from 18 yards out.
TJ Yeldon then boosted the Jaguars lead to 21-0 with a touchdown run of his own in the second quarter before Pittsburgh finally got on the board with a 23-yard touchdown pass from Roethlisberger to Brown.
Jacksonville regained the momentum when Yannick Ngakoue strip-sacked Roethlisberger and Smith picked up the loose ball and ran 50 yards for a TD. But Roethlisberger answered on the next drive with a 36-yard touchdown pass to Martavis Bryant on a 4th-and-11 that cut the lead to 28-14 at the half.
A 19-yard touchdown pass from Roethlisberger to Le'Veon Bell in the third quarter brought the Steelers to within one score for the first time.
But, back came the Jaguars - Blake Bortles found Keelan Cole with a 45-yard deep pass, setting up Fournette's third touchdown of the game from the three-yard line.
Brown's incredible catch for his second TD made it a one-score game yet again, but the Jaguars again stretched further out in front with Bortles finding Tommy Bohanon for a 14-yard TD.
Pittsburgh refused to quit, and a lateral by Roethlisberger to Bell late in the fourth quarter made the score 42-35. They then attempted an onside kick, but the Jaguars recovered and all but clinched the game with a 45-yard Josh Lambo field goal.
Roethlisberger rounded out the scoring with a garbage time TD to JuJu Smith-Schuster off the penultimate play. But the game was lost and the Steelers' season done.
