Brunell Does Job in Five Minutes

With another brilliant fourth quarter, Mark Brunell showed why he is becoming one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL. And this time, he even had a victory to go with it.

Brunell drove the Jacksonville Jaguars to two touchdowns in the final five minutes, scoring on a bootleg from the one-yard line with 41 seconds left for a 30-27 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.

Brunell is leading the NFL in passing yards, mostly because he has had to rally the Jaguars (4-6) in the fourth quarter. It finally paid off against a Baltimore team that can’t seem to hold a lead.

“It just shows you a lot about our football team--something we really haven’t shown to this point,” said Brunell, who completed 24 of 37 passes for 354 yards.

The Jaguars had lost five games in the final three minutes this year and didn’t look like they would even be able to make this one close after Vinny Testaverde threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Alexander for a 27-16 lead.

“It was real important for this team to go out and make plays in the fourth quarter, for guys to stand up and make the big play,” said offensive tackle Tony Boselli.

The Jaguars are 3-0 against the Baltimore franchise. They became the first expansion team in 29 years to sweep a series by beating the Cleveland Browns twice last season.

After a curious series of plays by the Ravens (3-7) that got Jacksonville the ball back with 2:31 left, Brunell finished off a 64-yard drive with a one-yard bootleg run.

Brunell, who threw for 175 yards in the fourth quarter, has surpassed 300 yards four times this year.

“As our offense goes, usually I go,” Brunell said. “Until this point, we haven’t been that efficient in fourth-quarter execution. But if you go through that stuff enough times, you learn from your mistakes.”

Bam Morris had 109 yards in 26 carries for Baltimore becoming the first rusher to gain over 100 yards against Jacksonville this season.