JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jack Del Rio was pumping his fist and screaming kudos to his players as the Jacksonville Jaguars jogged toward the locker room with a 14-3 lead.
It was a premature celebration, especially against the league’s only unbeaten team.
Kerry Collins threw three touchdown passes, Albert Haynesworth dominated defensively again and the Titans improved to 10-0 with a 24-14 victory over the Jaguars on Sunday.
Tennessee overcame a 14-3 halftime deficit, got solid play from third-string cornerback Chris Carr and extended its franchise-record winning streak in the regular season to 13.
“It’s great,” Haynesworth said. “People keep counting us out and we like proving the world wrong, I guess.”
The Titans swept the season series against AFC South rival Jacksonville for the third time in seven years and won their seventh consecutive regular-season road game.
After dropping third-down passes and committing costly penalties in the first half, the Titans regrouped at halftime and handed Del Rio the second-worst collapse of his six-year coaching career.
“It’s very frustrating,” Jaguars safety Gerald Sensabaugh said. “We pretty much shut them out the whole first half, came in and felt like we had a lot of momentum going our way and then went back out and gave up a few big plays.”
The Jaguars (4-6) lost for the fourth time in six games, fell six games behind the Titans and probably ended any chance they had of returning to the postseason.
“We wanted to knock Jacksonville out of contention and out of the playoffs, and we did that,” Haynesworth said.
Collins, Haynesworth and Carr deserve much of the credit.
Collins directed consecutive touchdown drives to open the third quarter, turning an 11-point deficit into a three-point lead.
He sealed the victory with a perfect 38-yard TD pass to Justin Gage with 3:57 remaining. Collins and Gage also hooked up for a 56-yard score in the third period — the only third-down conversion for the Titans. They were 1-of-12 on third down.
“That makes it even worse,” said Jaguars cornerback Drayton Florence, who was beaten on the 56-yarder.
Haynesworth, who had two sacks in the opener, was in the backfield on just about every play and finished with seven tackles, a sack and a forced fumble.
“They were definitely turning their dials up a little bit and we didn’t match it,” Jaguars quarterback David Garrard said. “That’s unfortunate because we had a perfect opportunity.”
