BRUNELL HAS EYE OF THE JAGUAR.

Byline: Doug Ferguson Associated Press 

Tom Coughlin could have looked at the numbers to see that Mark Brunell was having the kind of season the Jacksonville Jaguars hoped for when they banked their future on him.

What impressed him more was the look in Brunell's eye when another game - and probably the season, too - was slipping away.

``Mark would come over to the side and he was very adamant about the things he wanted,'' Coughlin said. ``He was focused on that situation.''

The Jaguars, who had lost all of their games by struggling in the fourth quarter, were trailing the Baltimore Ravens 27-16 with 6:23 left.

Brunell had seen enough. He went 7-for-8 on a 90-yard drive, throwing an 8-yard touchdown pass to James Stewart. Then, he drove the Jaguars 66 yards, scoring on a 1-yard bootleg with 41 seconds left for a 30-27 victory.

``When the play is called and he walks in the huddle, you can see it in his eyes,'' said receiver Jimmy Smith. ``He was confident. It was almost like he knew we were going to go down there and score and win that game.

``When an offense sees that in the quarterback's eyes, that's all the more incentive to get the job done.''

Brunell threw for 175 yards in the fourth quarter. Through 10 games, he has completed 69 percent of his passes in the final period.

``That was just Mark being Mark. That's why Mark is the best quarterback in the league,'' Andre Rison said.

Brunell finished with 354 yards passing, the 12th straight game he has thrown for at least 200 yards in a game. It's the longest current streak in the NFL, last matched in 1992 by Warren Moon when he played for Houston.

It also was the fourth time this year Brunell, who leads the NFL with 2,865 yards passing, has thrown for at least 300 yards. Two of them were 400-yard games.

After spending two years behind Brett Favre in Green Bay and fighting injuries and Steve Beuerlein for the job in Jacksonville last year, this was to be his season to establish himself as one of the premier young quarterbacks in the league.

He appears to be well on his way.

``Ask me when it's over and I'll let you know,'' Brunell said. ``We're doing some good things, we're doing some bad things and there are areas I need to improve upon. But we're getting after it.''

It has not been a perfect season by any stretch. While Brunell has 14 touchdown passes, he also 16 interceptions. Five of those came inside the Rams' 20-yard line in a 17-14 loss at St. Louis.

That was one of four games where the Jaguars were trying to take the lead or tie the game, only to be done in by a late interception.

And that's why Sunday's victory could be a turning point for Brunell.

``When you've been in a situation enough times, you know what to expect,'' Coughlin said. ``You know exactly what you want to accomplish and you have decisive thoughts about it. That's what I saw the other night. I think it's a big step for any quarterback.''

Another performance like last week could be hard to come by Sunday at Pittsburgh, which lost last week at Cincinnati and is still seething over an opening-day loss at Jacksonville.

``He's a very good, not only scrambling, but he makes decisions,'' said Pittsburgh coach Bill Cowher.

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Photo

Photo: Jacksonville quarterback Mark Brunell's 12 straight games with at least 200 yards passing is the longest current streak in the NFL.

Associated Press