Jags' Coen Uses 2 Words to Describe Wild Win

The term “miracle” is overused in sports, but the Jacksonville Jaguars were on the right end of one Sunday in London.

The Jaguars were down by a point to the Philadelphia Eagles with eight seconds left and Philly kicking off.

At this point, Philly’s win probability was 99.9% per ESPN.

Ninety-nine point nine. It was almost literally impossible for the Jags to win. But Ameer Abdullah returned the kickoff to the Philly 39-yard line. Even after this, the Jags needed to make a 57-yard field goal, something even the league’s elite kickers have trouble doing.

Luckily, Cam Little is elite, nailed the kick, and the Jags won.

Time will tell if this win becomes a “game with a name” the way the “Miracle on Ice” and “Miracle at the Meadowlands” were, but it’s not too soon to say that the Jags won a classic.

They needed a miracle to do it. Yet, when talking about the words he’d use to describe such a unique triumph, Jags’ coach Liam Coen used two that football coaches will throw out after just about any game, win or lose.

“Mental toughness,” Coen said. “It's kind of what we talked about all week, staying the course. Onesecond left on the clock, guys competing to the end when things weren't really going your way.”

Coen knows that, overall, it wasn’t a championship-level performance. Jacksonville committed— and you’re not about to misread this— 13 penalties for 100 yards.

Considering that, the Jags were lucky to be down by just two with eight seconds left.

The offense also floundered in the red zone, failing on all three trips. Not something that’s becoming of a Super Bowl contender, which the Jags were last year when they finished 13-4 and, so far, are again this year at 4-1.

Defensively, the Jags let Philly hang around on third down more than they would have liked, giving up six conversions on 15 attempts.

“It just was a weird kind of vibe game,” Coen said. “Weird.” Weird, indeed. But memorable.

“Nobody flinched. Nobody blinked. Nobody blamed,’ Coen said. “Guys stayed the course and ended up squeaking away with a win.”

The Jags will stay in London for another week, hosting division rival Houston Texans next Sunday.

Houston is off to a rough start at 1-4, but is coming off a 26-3 road win over the Tennessee Titans and just (potentially) bolstered its offense by acquiring Marvin Harrison Jr. from the Arizona Cardinals. 

Regardless of the competition, the Jags and their fans are allowed to admit that, if the team committed 100 yards in penalties and failed to finish in the red zone, it would lose nine out of 10 times.

However, the great teams know how to win ugly, and the Jags just might be close to being one of them.