Jonah Coleman’s 3-yard touchdown run highlighted a dominant fourth quarter in which the Denver Broncos rallied past the visiting Jacksonville Jaguars for a 20-13 victory Sunday afternoon.
The Broncos (1-1) amassed 154 of their 392 yards of offense in the fourth quarter, during which they scored both of their touchdowns to avenge their only home regular-season loss last season to the Jaguars.
Bo Nix completed 22 of 31 passes for 288 yards, a touchdown and an interception. After he had just one catch for two yards in his Denver debut, Jaylen Waddle had eight catches for 137 yards.
Trevor Lawrence completed 17 of 29 passes for 189 yards and one interception for the Jaguars (1-1), who scored their final points on the opening drive of the second half. Parker Washington had seven catches for 98 yards, while Bhayshul Tuten had 65 rushing yards and a touchdown.
After managing six points on its first six drives, Denver finally found the end zone with 11:47 remaining. Riley Moss intercepted Lawrence, and Nix then found Nate Adkins for a 7-yard touchdown that tied the game at 13.
After a missed 54-yard field goal by Jacksonville’s Cam Little, Denver took its first lead on Coleman’s first NFL touchdown, a 3-yard run that put the Broncos ahead 20-13 with 7:21 left.
Jacksonville then punted, and Denver was able to run out the remaining 4:41.
After a slow first quarter highlighted by five punts, Jacksonville opened the scoring on the first drive of the second. Lawrence was a perfect 4-for-4 for 65 yards, including a 32-yard strike to Washington, which set up Tuten’s 1-yard touchdown.
It appeared Denver was quickly going to equalize when Nix hit a 49-yard pass to Waddle down to the 1 on the ensuing possession. However, the Jaguars stopped three consecutive running plays, forcing the Broncos to settle for a 20-yard Wil Lutz field goal.
Denver seemed poised to take the lead on its ensuing possession when it moved inside the 10-yard line on 27-yard catches by Tyler Badie and Troy Franklin. This time, though, an interception by Jourdan Lewis kept Jacksonville ahead.
The Jaguars turned the game’s first turnover into a two-minute drive capped by Little’s 44-yard field goal, taking a 10-3 lead into the half.
Jacksonville started the second half with a drive inside the Denver 10 but had to settle for a 23-yard Little field goal to push its lead to 13-3.
Denver also settled for a field goal on its opening drive of the second half to cut the deficit to 13-6 with 4:58 left in the third quarter.
