Game slips away late as Jaguars fall to Indy
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game slip away late jaguars fall indy
Game slips away late as Jaguars <m> fall </m> to Indy
Game slips away late as Jaguars <m> fall </m> to Indy
Late sacks , too much Manning give Colts comeback win .
The Jaguars could n't make the big play and gave up the big play .
That was an all-too-familiar scenario Thursday night in a frustrating 31-24 defeat to the Indianapolis Colts .
The Jaguars battled the Colts toe-to-toe for almost 55 minutes , but with the score tied 24-24 , they could n't finish off the Colts .
First , Keiwan Ratliff fooled David Garrard when he made a coverage move he had n't made all season , intercepted the pass and ran 35 yards for the touchdown .
After the teams traded punts , the Jaguars advanced from their 10 to the Colts 17 with 48 seconds left when Garrard spiked the ball .
Again , the Jaguars could n't come up with the play to tie the game .
Coach Jack Del Rio had already decided to go for two and the victory if the Jaguars had scored a touchdown .
On second down , Maurice Drew ran for 10 yards to the 7 for a first down , but suffered a bruised leg on the play and had to come out .
That caused a 10-second runoff because the Jaguars were out of timeouts so they had a first down on the 7 with 17 seconds left .
Garrard then threw the ball away over the head of Reggie Williams in the back of the end zone because he was trying to avoid an interception .
He later said he regretted not giving Williams a chance to make the play .
`` As I 'm releasing the ball to Reggie I 'm pretty much throwing it away because the safeties are high , and then at the last second , he ( safety ) darts down to my underneath guy and I 'm thinking , he 's not even playing Reggie .
Those are plays you want to say , 'Just give him a chance . '
I thought it was n't the best coverage [ to throw into ] so go to the next down , '' he said .
That left the Jaguars with 12 seconds left , still time for two passes in the end zone .
But Garrard was sacked on second down and the clock ran out before he could call another play .
`` It 's tough .
You do n't want to end the game on a sack when you 're on the seven-yard line .
It 's kind of how the season has been .
So close , so close and then a sack at the end of the game , '' Garrard said .
That was the difference between the Colts ( 11-4 ) clinching a playoff berth with their eighth consecutive victory and the Jaguars falling to 5-10 .
That means they 'll have double digit losses for the first time since they went 5-11 in Del Rio 's first season .
They 're now 24-23 in the regular season the last three years and finished 2-4 in the AFC South for the third consecutive season .
Garrard completed 28 of 41 passes for 329 yards and a touchdown and a 90.4 passer rating .
But he was n't a match for Peyton Manning , who completed 29 of 34 for 364 yards and three touchdowns .
Of the Ratliff interception , Garrard said , `` You do n't want to put your team in that situation where you let the guy pick it off and run it back for a touchdown .
They made a good play .
It was actually man-coverage and he made a smart play by dropping off Dennis [ Northcutt ] .
You never see that in man coverage and that was a smart play by him .
They know we like the slant game so on that down and distance , they watched tape .
He just made a good play . ''
Ratliff , a former Univerasity of Florida standout , said he did n't know if Garrard saw him , but got good blocking once he made the interception and scored easily .
`` I thought we were going to have a shot to win the game , but we came up a little short , '' Del Rio said .
Del Rio added the Jaguars gave up too many `` gim me '' plays like Reggie Wayne 's 41-yard touchdown catch when he was wide open down the right sideline in the first half .
`` That 's one area we 've come up short all year on , '' Del Rio said .
`` We had too many gimmes mixed in there .
That 's kind of plagued us all year . ''
The Jaguars scored touchdowns on their first two drives and then tacked on a Josh Scobee field goal with one second left in the first half for a 17-7 lead at halftime .
Dennis Northcutt , who caught five passes for 127 yards against the Packers last week in his first start of the season , continued to make a big difference in the passing game .
He caught five passes for 68 yards in the first half .
He wound up with eight catches for 101 yards. Ratliff said he was surprised the Jaguars did n't throw to Northcutt more .
The Jaguars got an emotional lift when offensive lineman Richard Collier , whose career ended when he was shot in September , visited the team Wednesday night and came out for the coin toss at the start of the game .
Linebacker Mike Peterson , probably playing his final game at Municipal Stadium , said he had to fight back the tears after seeing Collier .