AFC Playoffs: Jaguars Do the Pepé le Pew to Topple Big-Play Steelers

We've finally discovered what's been holding Jacksonville back all these years.

Instead of shipping them off to London so often, the NFL shoulda been giving them more games at Heinz Field.

Either that, or the Buffalo Bills were more of a defensive juggernaut than anyone imagined.

Or just maybe, Jax did a Dr Faustus and sold something ...

Whatever it was, the Jags were much more entertaining than the sellout crowd in Pittsburgh expected, much less than wanted them to be.

Actually, a better description is diligent.

Coach Doug Marrone saw the beauty of a stripped-down game plan that never asked a player to do more than he could.

 

That included suspect slinger Blake Bortles and Bayou jackhammer Leonard Fournette.

Pittsburgh, meanwhile, seemed like they couldn't wait to meet the New England Patriots and settle a score or two.

Seems like one club had more focus on the task at hand than the other.

So, basically, the Steelers packed a month's worth of highlight reel plays into a game they laced with mind-numbing decisions:

• Four 4th-&-shorts that didn't once drive straight ahead, not even with 6-5, 240lb  Ben Rothlisberger, who's 18 of 19 in his career on 4th-&-1 situations; filled gaps or no, pounding it is Pittsburgh football, dammit;
• A what the hell was that? onside kick that looked more like the Pirates fouling off a squeeze bunt, and
• Letting seconds bleed to a two-minute warning that coulda served as an extra time out after an extra play.

Worse for the Steelers, if their strategy was to let Bortles beat them and contain Fournette, they badly miscalculated.

Bortles -- 14-26, 214 yards, and one TD toss -- wasn't scheduled to beat anyone in Marrone's scheme, while Fournette went off for a routine 25-109 and three TDs.

In other words, the Jags were steady as she goes as compared to Pittsburgh's scamper-&-hamper.

Full marks to Jax.

For the Steelers, though, this one's gonna be a head-shaker for years to come.