The Jacksonville Jaguars defeated the Los Angeles Chargers in one of the greatest playoff comebacks in NFL history.

After being 0:27 behind late in the first half, the outsider turned the American football duel with the Chargers on Saturday evening (local time) and won in the end 31:30.

According to US media, there have only been two games in the history of the NFL playoffs with a larger gap that has still been made up.

The decision brought a field goal with the clock running out.

"You couldn't write a crazier script.

We already said in the cabin that it's a bit like how our season is going, we're never quite out of the fight," said Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who made four bad passes to the opponent in the first half and then four touchdowns -passes had enabled the race to catch up.

"I had bad passes in the first half, we didn't look good offensively, but we just kept believing in each other," he told NBC.

"A play-off game, 27 points behind, we're always counted in these games, but we don't care.

We love it."

Purdy wins with 49ers

The Jaguars had such a poor record in each of the previous two seasons, with just four wins combined, that they had the first pick in the draft, which should go to the weakest team last season.

In 2021, the Jaguars brought quarterback Lawrence to Florida.

"I didn't have much of a choice.

If you want to get out of this hole, you have to score a lot of points," Lawrence said of his four bad passes.

"I didn't want to be the reason these guys lose here today."

Quarterback freshman Brock Purdy, meanwhile, defeated the Seattle Seahawks with the San Francisco 49ers to also advance to the next round.

At 41:23 on Saturday (local time), the 23-year-old playmaker made three touchdown passes in the first playoff game of his career and put in an excellent performance with 18 successful throws for a total of 332 yards.

The Seahawks were able to keep up in the first half and went into the break with a 17:16 lead.

But then the 49ers showed their class and pulled away.

"Our goal is to win the whole thing," Purdy told ESPN.

"I have a great team around me, in attack and in defence.

This isn't a one man show.

This is play-off football, everyone has to play their best game."

Who the Jaguars and 49ers meet in the second playoff round will be decided in the further duels of the wild card round.

The conclusion of these first games of the knockout phase of the NFL season is the game of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with superstar Tom Brady against the Dallas Cowboys on Tuesday night.

Before that, the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills meet this Sunday, the New York Giants meet the Minnesota Vikings and the Baltimore Ravens meet the Cincinnati Bengals.