Trevor Lawrence, Jaguars rally from 27-point hole to beat Chargers in AFC wild-card round

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Trevor Lawrence’s confidence somehow never wavered. Not after the first interception. Or the second. Or the third. Or even the fourth.

Lawrence followed four first-half interceptions with four touchdown passes — one of the most improbable turnarounds in NFL postseason history — and rallied the Jacksonville Jaguars to a 31-30 win over the Los Angeles Chargers in an AFC wild-card game on Saturday night.

The Jaguars rallied from a 27-point first-half deficit, the third-largest comeback in playoff history.

Lawrence engineered the winning drive, which was highlighted by Travis Etienne’s 25-yard run on a fourth-and-1 play, and put the Jaguars in position for Riley Patterson’s 36-yard field goal on the final play.

“I feel like the running back, when it gets to that point of the game, you’re supposed to be the closer,” Etienne said. “Coach believed in me on that fourth-and-1 to give me the ball. I had to make something happen for my teammates.”

“You couldn’t write a crazier script,” Lawrence said. “We said in the locker room that’s kind of how our season’s going. We’re never out of the fight . . . I’m kind of speechless, honestly, just to see what belief can do and to see when a team believes in each other what you can accomplish.”

Patterson’s kick barely stayed inside the right upright and set off a raucous celebration for a franchise that had gone 4-29 in the previous two seasons.

Lawrence connected with former Giant Evan Engram, Marvin Jones, Zay Jones and Christian Kirk for touchdowns and

added one of the biggest plays when he jumped and extended the ball over the goal line for a two-point conversion with 5:25 to play to bring the Jaguars within 30-28.

Lawrence finished 28-for-47 passing for 288 yards, a shocker considering the way he started.

He became the third quarterback in the Super Bowl era to throw four interceptions in the first half of a playoff game, joining Detroit’s Gary Danielson and Denver’s Craig Morton. Asante Samuel had three of the interceptions. Then Lawrence completed 18 of 23 passes for 211 yards in the second half.

“I didn’t have a choice,” he said. “If we’re going to win that game, digging ourselves a hole like that, you’ve got to score a lot of points. By doing that, your quarterback’s got to play well. So I clearly didn’t have much of a choice.

“These guys have sacrificed way too much for me to be the reason we lose an opportunity. That’s what I was thinking about. I know I’m going to make the plays. I’ve just got to get back on track. The guys around me made plays. It’s not just me.”

The Jaguars, who also turned the ball over when a punt hit Chris Claybrook’s helmet, became the first team in the Super Bowl era to win a playoff game with a turnover differential of minus-five or worse. Teams with that turnover deficit had been 0-19.

“Any time you’re up 27-7 at halftime and you’ve got four takeaways, and you end up winning the takeaway margin [5-0], you know, it’s gonna be a killer,” Chargers coach Brandon Staley said. “I’m hurting for everybody in that locker room . . . We just didn’t finish the game.”