Jaguars halt Colts' AFC South win streak in 51-16 pounding
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Indianapolis Colts no longer have a stranglehold on the AFC South.
At least not while Andrew Luck remains on the sideline.
Blake Bortles threw for three touchdowns and ran for a score -- all in the second half -- and the Jacksonville Jaguars beat Indianapolis 51-16 on Sunday to end the Colts' 16-game winning streak in the division.
It was the longest division streak in NFL history. Now it's over, ended in lopsided fashion by an unlikely foe.
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"You never want to lose in that fashion," Colts linebacker D'Qwell Jackson said. "It's been one of those funky years where you tend to get things rolling, and then something happens. The longer you play this game, things like that are going to happen."
It's happened two weeks in a row for the Colts (6-7), who lost 45-10 at Pittsburgh last week.
The Jaguars (5-8) scored on offense, defense and special teams in the same game for the first time since 2011, the franchise's most complete game under third-year coach Gus Bradley.
It helped Jacksonville gain ground in the muddled division, remaining one game behind the Colts with three to play.
Indianapolis' previous loss against the AFC South came on Dec. 16, 2012, at Houston.
"Back to the drawing board," said longtime Colts rush end Robert Mathis, who scored Indy's lone touchdown on a fumble recovery in the end zone. "You never want to let a team score 50 points on you. Jacksonville is a lot better football team than what we saw the first time. The last time we got stomped like this was in 2006 and we went on to win the Super Bowl.
"You can climb from the depths, from the bottom of the valley all the way up the mountain top. It can be done. That's what I've told the guys. It can be done."
Indeed, the Colts lost 44-17 at Jacksonville in December 2006 and regrouped to win it all. Of course, that team had Peyton Manning. This team is unsure when it will get Luck back.
"We need to find that switch and hit it," Mathis said. "We're still digging, still clawing. When you win, everything's all right. When you lose, all hell breaks loose. We've just got to keep fighting. I'm not embarrassed because Jacksonville has pro players. Angry and disappointed? I would say that because I know we're a hell of a lot better than what we showed today."
The Jaguars had lost six in a row in the series, but ended that streak with a dominant second-half performance. Jacksonville outscored Indy 42-3 after the break and finished with its most points in a regular-season game. The Jags beat Miami 62-7 in the 1999 postseason.
Seven different players scored for Jacksonville in this one.
Bortles completed 16 of 30 passes for 250 yards, with TD passes to Allen Hurns, Allen Robinson and Julius Thomas. Andre Branch scored on a 49-yard fumble return. Rookie Rashad Greene returned a punt 73 yards for a score.
And Denard Robinson, who replaced injured starter T.J. Yeldon (knee), scored on a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter.
With fans chanting for "We want 50! We want 50!" at the 2-minute warning, Bradley opted to go for it on fourth down. Bortles leaped over the line for his first rushing touchdown of the season.
"There's a lot of stuff going on here that I can't explain," Colts safety Dwight Lowery said. "We do too much stupid stuff."
Injuries have been a factor, too.
Luck missed his sixth start Sunday, his fourth in a row since suffering a lacerated kidney and partially torn abdominal muscle. And backup Matt Hasselbeck is starting to show his age. A week after getting knocked around by the Steelers, the 40-year-old Hasselbeck was sacked three times and left the game late with a rib injury.
By then, Jacksonville had the victory well in hand.
"We've had some tough, tough losses over the course of four years, and this one stings," Colts coach Chuck Pagano said. "This one is tough because we started the way we wanted to start. We had things going the way we wanted them to go, but then it got out of hand. You can't give up big plays -- turnover, fumble for a touchdown, 80-yard pass, punt return for a touchdown. You aren't going to win.
"I don't care where it's at. You're not going to win games doing that."
