After a good night’s sleep and a delicious home cooked breakfast, we packed our bags and set off for our next destination, St Augustine. En route we stopped off at a retail park to do a bit more retail therapy before heading to our hotel.
After a little rest, we drove back north to Jacksonville to watch the Jaguars play the New Orleans Saints in the first NFL preseason game. We had really good seats and the stadium gradually filled up despite the drizzle.
As this is the 1st game of the preseason, a number of the big stars on both sides saw limited time or didn’t play at all (looking at you Drew Brees). However Jacksonville decided to let their first string players have at least a series or two to make sure they are ready for the regular season.
The first half was pretty close with Jacksonville having early success against the Saints defense. Scoring a touchdown on their opening drive. The saints could not match this success but did answer with a field goal. They eventually crossed the goalline in the second quater to keep Jacksonville to a 13-10 lead at halftime.
During halftime we were kept entertained by grown men dressed as cartoon animals playing football against children. This was remarkably less one sided that you would expect but dud lead to some funny moments.
In the second half the jaguars did strike first with a touchdown to extend their lead to 10 points however that is the last points they would score. The experience and depth of the Saints backups showed and allowed them to score 2 4th quarter touchdowns to make the score 24 – 20 to the saints.
The jags had one last chance to drive the field and score to win the game but unfortunately they came up just a few inches short and New Orleans would hold on for the 24 – 20 win.
After the game we slowly made our way back to our hotel to get as much sleep as possible before heading in to our next stop Cocoa Beach.