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Jacksonville drops Jets to 1-4

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The student, Tom Coughlin, finally beat teacher, Bill Parcells. It wasn't pretty.

In a snoozer of a Monday night game, Coughlin's Jacksonville Jaguars downed Parcells' New York Jets 16-6. It was the first time Coughlin, who was an assistant under Parcells with the Giants and credits the current Jets coach with boosting his career, defeated his mentor in four NFL tries, including two playoff games.

The Jaguars, whose vastly upgraded defense has allowed just 52 points, never let New York (1-4) get going. Not that Jacksonville (4-1) did much offensively, either.

It didn't matter with the way Tony Brackens, Carnell Lake and the Jaguars' defenders were performing. Not even an eight-minute delay to repair a tear in the artificial turf - which is in its final year at Giants Stadium - bothered them.

For the third time this season, the Jaguars, who had four sacks, held an opponent without a touchdown. And in reversing their playoff loss to New York in January, the Jags handed the Jets their fourth loss, as many as they had in all of 1998. New York has only one victory and, already, dim prospects for making the postseason.

Jacksonville, meanwhile, appears to have a playoff-caliber defense to go with what normally is a high-powered - but lately has been a sputtering - attack.

On the Jets' last real chance, Kevin Hardy stopped Curtis Martin for no gain on fourth-and-1 at the New York 45.

In all, the Jets gained just 230 yards, 51 coming on the last, desperation drive.

Mike Hollis kicked three field goals and James Stewart had a 3-yard TD run for all the Jacksonville points. John Hall made two field goals for New York.

Jacksonville showed no signs of its recent offensive struggles on its first, marching 61 yards on 13 plays to Stewart's scoring run. Stewart, playing for injured starter Fred Taylor (hamstring) was involved in eight of the plays on the drive.

That was it early for either team as the punters took center stage. Tom Tupa sent a 54-yarder that was downed on the Jacksonville 1. So Bryan Barker returned the favor with a team record 83-yarder.

The Jets reached Jacksonville territory on two straight series, but their inability to adequately protect quarterback Rick Mirer kept stymying drives. When Mirer's pass to Quinn Early deflected off the receiver's hands and then off teammate Keyshawn Johnson's to safety Blaine McElmurry for his first NFL interception, the Jaguars took over at their 46.

A 33-yard completion to Keenan McCardell on which he turned around cornerback Aaron Glenn set up Hollis' 32-yard field goal for a 10-0 lead.

But the Jets responded thanks to a 43-yard kickoff return to midfield by Stone. Mirer got enough time to find Johnson for 16 yards before the drive stalled and Hall made a 33-yard field goal.

Hollis' 44-yarder, set up by Brunell's 31-yard third-down completion to Reggie Barlow, opened the second half. Hall hit from 42 with 8:53 left, and when the Jets defense stopped the Jaguars twice more, well, so what? New York's injury-riddled offense couldn't go anywhere.

Hollis capped the scoring with a 21-yard field goal with 1:46 to play.