Jaguars Go to Playoffs on Right Foot

The Jacksonville Jaguars got their momentum back in time for the playoffs. Now they must wait to see if Mark Brunell will join them, too.

Rookie Jonathan Quinn stepped in for an injured Brunell and threw for a touchdown and ran for one Monday night as the Jaguars defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, 21-3.

It was a nice momentum builder for next Sunday’s playoff game against New England.

But the Jaguars know their hopes rest not on Quinn, but on Brunell, who missed his third game in a row because of a severe high ankle sprain.

“We’ll just have to see,” Coach Tom Coughlin said. “He has to show a little more strength in that [ankle] area. He has to show he can push off and take a hit and protect himself. He’s made outstanding progress.”

Until then, the Jaguars (11-5) can breathe a sigh of relief. By beating the Steelers (7-9), they avoided joining the 1969 Rams and 1943 Redskins as only the third division champion to enter the playoffs on a three-game losing streak.

“It was very, very important for us to win tonight,” Coughlin said. “We talked all week about the confidence and momentum that would feed from a win. If you studied the faces of the teams that won and lost [Sunday], you could see the difference.”

Quinn’s 10-for-19, 192-yard performance helped the Jaguars enter the playoffs with momentum.

His first scoring play came after he escaped a collapsing pocket and spun toward his left and into the end zone for a 15-yard run helped by a great block from receiver Jimmy Smith.

On the next drive, Quinn connected with Keenan McCardell for a 64-yard gain, then converted on a nine-yard screen pass to Fred Taylor for a touchdown.

Taylor scored again in the third quarter on a 12-yard run to finish the season with 17 touchdowns, tied for second in the league with Minnesota rookie Randy Moss.

The victory eased the tension of an awkward week around Jaguars camp, in which they clinched their first division title on the same day as a 50-10 loss to the Vikings.

“Last week, we got whipped,” Quinn said. “We definitely didn’t want to go out like that. We had to have some momentum and this game was very important.”