JACKSONVILLE, Florida (Ticker) -- It may have come sooner than expected, but the Byron Leftwich era has begun in Jacksonville.
Making his second career start, the rookie quarterback threw for 336 yards and two touchdowns as the Jaguars earned their first win for rookie coach Jack Del Rio, a 27-21 triumph over the winless San Diego Chargers.
The Jaguars (1-4) drafted Leftwich in the first round and planned to groom him for the starting job next season. But regular starter Mark Brunell, an original Jaguar, suffered a deep cut in his left elbow two weeks ago, forcing Del Rio to turn to Leftwich for last week's 24-20 loss at Houston.
Leftwich nearly led the Jaguars to their first victory, but with three minutes remaining he fumbled, which set up Houston's winning TD. But Del Rio elected to stay with Leftwich even though Brunell was ready to return on Sunday.
Leftwich rewarded Del Rio's decision by completing 19-of-28 passes and connecting with Troy Edwards on an 18-yard TD and hitting running back Fred Taylor on a 60-yard score.
"It feels great," Leftwich said. "It's a great feeling anytime you can win in this league. When you get them you have to celebrate them and have a lot of fun. We're not going into this thing to win one game, we're trying to get on a roll here and win five, six or seven games straight."
"He made a lot of nice throws for us today," Del Rio said. "I thought he played well. He obviously made some big plays that we needed and gave us the opportunity to win the game. He continues to impress me with his mind, his ability to understand football. He's a very intelligent young man."
The Jaguars also got a big game from Jimmy Smith, who made his season debut after serving a four-game suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy and had eight catches for 137 yards.
"Anytime you add a guy like Jimmy Smith to any team, any of the 32 teams, it makes a big difference," Leftwich said. "They gave us some man coverage out there and Jimmy took advantage of it. He did everything he had to do to get open and I just put the ball out there."
"It's outstanding for him to be so young and be so poised and confident," said Smith, an original Jaguar who recorded his 38th career 100-yard receiving game.
Brunell was Brett Favre's backup in Green Bay before the Jaguars acquired him to be their franchise quarterback. He became the starter five games into the 1995 season and led the Jaguars to two trips to the AFC championship game.
While Leftwich's big day gave Del Rio his first win and the customary ice-water shower that goes with it, the Chargers lost their ninth in a row since beating Denver last December 1.
"I'm happy to put that (losing) streak to rest," Del Rio said. "I took a nice bath afterwards. It's nice to finally get the win."
Del Rio did not indicate if Leftwich would start next week against Miami and is expected to announce his decision during the week.
With Jacksonville and Chicago winning, San Diego and the New York Jets are the NFL's only winless teams. The Chargers head into their bye week 0-5 for the second time in four years.
"There is no good time to be 0-5," San Diego coach Marty Schottenheimer said. "The bye week is here. We are going to take advantage of it, try to take off some of the edges. We have got to develop an attitude to play 60 minutes."
The Jaguars used Taylor's running to take an early lead, but exploited San Diego's young secondary for several long plays to set up his one-yard score with 5:48 remaining in the first quarter.
The Chargers answered with a big play of their own as Drew Brees found David Boston down the middle for a 46-yard TD with 10:07 remaining in the first half. It was his first TD since signing a six-year $47 million contract with the Chargers.
On his next drive, Leftwich moved to the San Diego 35 before fumbling on third down. But after San Diego's Jason Fisk recovered, the Chargers had two penalties and were forced to punt.
With just over three minutes remaining, Leftwich began the final drive of the half by hooking up with Smith, who gained 36 yards and made a one-handed grab along the right sideline. He then passed to Taylor for 14 more and connected with rookie tight end George Wrighster for an apparent 37-yard score. But it was nullified after Wrighster was called for pass interference and the Jaguars settled for Seth Marler's career-high 53-yard field goal with four seconds left.
Jacksonville went up 20-7 by scoring on their first two possessions of the second half. Less than three minutes in, rookie Antonio Gates was stripped by defensive end Tony Brackens and linebacker Mike Peterson recovered.
Working primarily out of the shotgun, Leftwich hooked up with Smith for a 22-yard pass and Matthew Hatchette for a 45-yard play. On 2nd-and-18, Leftwich found Edwards untouched in the end zone for a 17-7 lead.
Marler booted a 27-yard field goal with 2:38 left and Jacksonville took a 13-point lead into the fourth.
San Diego made it a six-point game when Eric Parker hauled in a 33-yard pass with 4:19 to play. All the Jaguars needed to do on their next possession was get a first down to run out the clock. But Leftwich hit Taylor with a screen pass up the middle and he rumbled untouched to make it 27-14 with 1:47 left.
"That was a beautiful job executing by our offense, not only getting the first down, but to score and put the game away," Del Rio said.
Boston caught a 13-yard TD with 13 seconds remaining, but Jacksonville recovered Steve Christie's onside kick.
Boston returned from his one-game suspension and had 14 catches for 181 yards, three shy of his career-high. But LaDainian Tomlinson was held to 38 yards on 10 carries, while Brees endured four sacks.
"They have an outstanding rush defense," Schottenheimer said. "We came in knowing we were going to try and run the ball. We thought we could make some plays throwing the ball and ultimately we did. It was a little too late."
