Jaguars timeouts give Johnson late score

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Jeff Fisher tried to downplay the late touchdown in his postgame news conference.

Titans running back Chris Johnson got his eighth-consecutive 100-yard game Monday night.

But with Jacksonville Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio calling timeouts after the two-minute warning down by 20 points, the Tennessee Titans decided to keep running the ball rather than take a knee.

The end result piled on seven more points for the Titans and gave Chris Johnson his eighth consecutive 100-yard road rushing game.

On fourth-and-5 after Del Rio burned a second timeout, the Titans sent Johnson off tackle and he broke free, going 35 yards for another touchdown and the final 30-3 margin.

When it was over, Fisher joked a bit about the situation.

“Jack used his timeouts,” Fisher said. “My understanding is they needed network timeouts, and that's why Jack used his timeouts. They came over and asked me to do it, but I said, 'I was hoping to get a first down and kneel on it.'

“At the end of the game like that, you don't kick a long field goal, you don't, you hand it off.”

Fisher said he had no issues with Del Rio's handling of the matter, and said Del Rio should not have any issues with the Titans continuing to call plays.

“You can check with Jack. It didn't bother me at all. I believe that they asked them to use them. It's the first time I've heard of it,” Fisher said. “I just said I would have a hard time using them, because I'm ahead. Honestly, I have no issues with Jack or how he managed the end of that game. It's just what it was, and I don't think he would have an issue with me handing the ball off.”

Johnson and the Titans had no problems with it either, especially given the results. Johnson had seemingly left the game for good with 71 yards, but was asked back into the game, and finished with 111 yards instead.

“I told them to put me back in the game,” Johnson said. “Pretty much, it's the four-minute offense that we work on in practice. We're gonna have to work to get better at that. When we played Denver, we had a chance to end the game, and we weren't able to do that. That's something we still need to work on, and I feel like we're getting better.”

Asked if the 100-yard rushing game was cheapened by being in in garbage time, Johnson said no.

“It don't matter when you look at the stats," Johnson said. "Last year, when you look at 2,000 yards, you don't say you got all these yards late in the game and things like that. We still have to close the game out. So I love all the yards."

Other Titans had no problems with it either.

“I can see it both ways. I can see why Jeff did it. Those are head coaches' things to worry about. I'm just running plays. Whatever they want, I do,” quarterback Kerry Collins said.

Guard Jake Scott said the touchdown was icing on the cake for Tennessee.

“They showed that they were going to take timeouts. We tried to finish the game off. It's nice to score a touchdown. Our primary objective was to get the first down so we could take a knee, but we broke one and got CJ some yards and that's always fun,” Scott said.