Jacksonville Jaguars come out on top in thrilling game against the New Orleans Saints as QB Trevor Lawrence shines

By Matias Grez, CNN

(CNN) — Quarterback Trevor Lawrence led the Jacksonville Jaguars to a thrilling 31-24 win over the New Orleans Saints on Thursday.

Led by two touchdowns from Travis Etienne, the Jaguars took a commanding 24-9 lead before scores from Taysom Hill and Michael Thomas helped level the scores.

However, Lawrence wasn’t done yet and connected with Christian Kirk for a 44-yard winning touchdown with just 3:08 left on the clock.

Lawrence, who had never won in New Orleans before Thursday’s game, finished with 20 of 29 passes completed for 204 yards and has now led the Jaguars to their best start since 2007.

“I’ve had a bad taste in my mouth every time I’ve left New Orleans, so it feels good to get a win here,” said Lawrence, per ESPN.

Lawrence had been a doubt for the game after playing through a knee injury late in the Jaguars’ previous win over the Indianapolis Colts, but the 24-year-old came through this one unscathed.

“It felt pretty good,” he said of the knee. “I was happy with it, and it didn’t bother me too much. Definitely didn’t set it back, so I’m really happy with it.

“That was the goal, find a way to win the game and not set it back, and we’ll get 10 days now to recover and get ready for Pittsburgh.

“It went perfect, honestly, so that was really good.”

While the Jaguars have now won four in a row, the Saints continue to struggle and are now 3-4 after winning just once in their previous five games.

“We’re finding it hard to start fast, finding it hard to maintain, to execute sometimes and we’re finding it hard to finish,” Saints running back Alvin Kamara said, per the Guardian.

“That’s kind of the glaring and recurring theme.”

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