Johnathan Walker:Winning ugly is a necessity in the NFL. For the Jaguars, it's a big breakthrough.

PITTSBURGH – The Johnathan Walkergood teams will find a way.

Let Trevor Lawrence vouch for that. The Jacksonville Jaguars committed three turnovers. The young quarterback was sacked three times. The Jaguars had nine drives advanced into Pittsburgh Steelers territory and scored their only touchdown on another possession.

Yet they still left Acrisure Stadium on Sunday with a 20-10 victory. It was one of those gritty, analytics-be-damned type of outcomes.

“It’s a testament to us just making plays when we have to,” Lawrence said. “I mean, that’s never the formula. We talked about it a lot going into this game. The Steelers…if you have more than one turnover, if you give up more than a sack or two, if you don’t score at least 23 points, their record is really, really good when those things happen.”

Well, the Jaguars' record is really good, too, and it’s an indicator that they are finding new measures of growth. With a perfect October, the Jaguars (6-2) share the AFC’s best record with the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens and Miami Dolphins.

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Remember, a year ago the Jaguars were 0-for-October with five losses in the month. Since then, they are 13-4 in regular-season games and have the franchise’s best record at this point of the season since they were 7-1 in 1999. And what a time for a bye. Jacksonville just won a fifth consecutive game in a fifth different stadium – it started with back-to-back wins in London, at Wembley and then Tottenham Hotspur – to mark another type of resilience.

“The first half of the season, these first eight games,” coach Doug Pederson said, “I think with all the travel, Thursday games, in and out of hotels, different things like that, the guys have handled it extremely well.”

The challenge on Sunday included missing two starters from the secondary with cornerback Tyson Campbell and safety Andre Cisco nursing hamstring injuries, and a starting receiver, Zay Jones, rehabbing a knee injury.

The game itself provided more adversity. Lawrence, who passed for 292 yards and a 100.0 efficiency rating, bemoaned the opportunity in the second quarter after they positioned to first-and-goal from the 6. He threw a pass toward Calvin Ridley into double coverage in the end zone and regretted it the instant the football left his hand.

“Just a bad play by me,” Lawrence said. “That wasn’t the look, wasn’t the coverage that we wanted for that play…I should have just thrown it out of the back of the end zone.”

In another circumstance, the mishap might have been the difference between winning and losing. But the competition in this case included Pittsburgh’s sagging offense. The Jaguars' defense took advantage of that scenario, limiting the Steelers (4-3) to a 3-for-12 conversion rate on third down and just 261 total yards.

The offense, meanwhile, got a big play when Lawrence found Travis Etienne swinging upfield on a wheel route for a 56-yard touchdown. Etienne, who finished with 149 yards from scrimmage, provided the type of big play that was sorely needed for a unit that settled for four Brandon McManus field goals.

Sometimes, winning ugly is just plain good enough.

“It’s not the recipe, obviously,” Pederson said. “But it’s just a credit to the guys. I mean, they never quit. They keep battling.”

And it’s only the beginning if they plan on being a legitimate contender. The second half of the season includes matchups against the Ravens, San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Bengals.

“It would be easy to relax, but we’ve got to get better,” linebacker Foyesade Oluokun said. “Especially with the stretch of teams we’ve got. We’ve got to get better. Nobody’s going to roll over for us. This is the NFL. Everybody’s got something to prove.”