Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa had two costly unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on Saturday night. The second one was very costly.
In a 30-26 game, it gave the Jaguars the opportunity to go for two from the one. And the extra yard apparently made a difference in the decision-making process.
After the 31-30 win, Jaguars coach Doug Pederson was asked whether he would have gone for two without the extra yard.
“Probably not,” Pederson told reporters.
Once he knew he had the extra yard, Pederson knew he was going for two. Which entailed quarterback Trevor Lawrence jumping over the line for the score.
“There was never a doubt, never a doubt,” Pederson said. “I trust in the players, trust our decision, felt good about our call that we had.”
Pederson also wanted to have clarity as to what his team needed to win the game, in lieu of going to overtime.
“Either a field goal wins or you’ve got to score a touchdown to win,” Pederson said. “And so you get in these moments -- listen, you trust the players, and you want to win the football game. You want to do it for them. They battled their tails off, so there was no hesitation on that.”
And so, as the Chargers do their postmortem on one of the worst playoff losses in league history, Bosa should get a fair share of blame for blowing a gasket and throwing his helmet to the ground, drawing the penalty.
It also wasn’t a great look for coach Brandon Staley to scramble after it, hand it to Bosa, and watch Bosa slam it down, again.