With about 10:50 to go in the fourth quarter of Sunday's Steelers-Jaguars game, rookie running back Leonard Fournette passed into the open field with only Pittsburgh safety Mike Mitchell in his line of sight.
Mitchell, according to Fournette, had been needling him all afternoon. Anticipating the contact, Fournette did something reserved for your favorite WWE superstars: He waved his left arm at Mitchell, inviting the safety to speed up for their head-on collision near midfield.
Fournette's teammate, wide receiver Marqise Lee, speaks for all of us:
"Leonard's crazy," Lee told ESPN.com. "It just shows you the energy and things that he has for the game."
The Jaguars have shown us in short glimpses all season that they are tired of being the butt of jokes around the league. The team faked a punt while up 37-0 over the Ravens a few weeks back unapologetically. After Fournette's bring it on moment, he busted out a 90-yard touchdown run with two minutes remaining. At that time, the Jaguars were already up two scores and the Steelers had no way of stopping the clock. But rightfully, no one is blaming them.
In the past, the younger versions of this current Jaguars team seemed to lack this killer instinct, or at least had not developed it yet at the NFL level. It was undoubtedly something that head coach Doug Marrone and Tom Coughlin wanted to bring to the roster when they arrived this offseason.
General manager Dave Caldwell brought in the pieces to make it work defensively, allowing this punishing, downhill rushing offense (think: Rex Ryan's wildest dream) to control the clock and demoralize opponents once the fourth quarter hits. Fournette calling his shot against one of the league's hardest hitting safeties may just come to symbolize what the league is finding out: This is not a Jaguars team content with being kicked around anymore.
