Jags lose element of surprise
Jacksonville appears set for sustained success after falling one game short of the Super Bowl
FOXBORO, Mass. — It’s hard to repeat anything in the NFL, year over year. Whether it’s leading the league in rushing or total defence. Or winning a division. Or, especially, in going on a long playoff run.
That is, unless you’re the New England Patriots this century, but that’s another story.
The Jacksonville Jaguars had convinced themselves they could win it all this year, and their comments following their heart-breaking 24-20 loss here on Sunday to the Patriots reflected that.
“Guys were upset,” said quarterback Blake Bortles, who overall had a fabulous passing performance against the Pats. “It was not what everybody expected outside (our team). That room fully expected to win this game, and I think everybody is shocked, disappointed and upset — whatever you want to call it.”
Said safety Jarrod Wilson: “We were thinking more now, rather than in the future. We wanted to win it now. We had our goal, we were all together. It is a missed opportunity and I am sick about it.”
Said first-year Jags head coach Doug Marrone: “We are in a lot of pain, a lot of hurt inside.”
Bold, brazen all-pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey: “We are pretty pissed off about not winning. But at the end of the day we have to reflect on the season, and be proud of ourselves, to a point.”
Once the overriding sting of blowing a 20-10 lead in the final nine minutes wears off, that will be this team’s primary takeaway. That after previously getting kicked around by the entire league this whole decade, the 2017 Jaguars team suddenly shook that off and entered the league’s elite.
This young, fast, fearsome team is good — and exceptionally good when Bortles is accurate.
“We changed the culture and we changed the franchise,” end Dante Fowler Jr. said. “It’s a bad taste, and we’ll keep it in our mouth and come back for (spring practices) and be ready to get back to work.”
“Funny thing is, obviously a lot of people were surprised by what happened this year,” Ramsey said. “But nobody in that locker room was. Our bar was set two weeks from now, and we didn’t get there. We’ll go back to the drawing board and figure it out. We fully expect to be back here again, giving it another try next year.”
The Jaguars have yet to reach a Super Bowl in 23 years of operation in the NFL. The club had lost its previous two AFC title-game appearances, in 1996 and 1999, under then up-and-coming head coach Tom Coughlin. Coughlin returned to Jacksonville this season as head of football operations. In between he won two Super Bowls as head coach of the New York Giants (2007 and 2011). On paper, heading into next season this Jaguars team appears as likely to make it to a Super Bowl as any of the Giants teams Coughlin coached from 2004-15.
Nearly every important Jacksonville player is under contract for 2018, including all but one starter from one of the NFL’s best defences.
The only pending free agents are receivers Marqise Lee and Allen Robinson, left guard Patrick Omameh, slot corner Aaron Colvin, linebacker Paul Posluszny, backup linebacker Lerentee McCray, backup safety Peyton Thompson, backup quarterback Chad Henne and long snapper Matt Overton.
That means on defence the Jags could return their entire defensive line, including ends Calais Campbell, Yannick Ngakoue and Fowler, plus interior linemen Malik Jackson, Marcell Dareus, Abry Jones and promising undrafted rookie Eli Ankou of Ottawa. Also back will be fabulous linebackers Telvin Smith and Myles Jack, plus what might be the NFL’s best secondary in Ramsey, other starting corner A.J. Bouye and safeties Tashaun Gipson and Barry Church.
On offence, fourth-fifths of a powerful offensive line return, as well as rookie running ramrod Leonard Fournette. Receivers Allen Hurns, Dede Westbrook and Keelan Cole are under contract, and Bortles too.
Had the Jaguars hung on to defeat the Patriots shortly after darkness descended on Gillette Stadium, they’d be flying up to Minneapolis and Super Bowl LII this coming Sunday — and we’d be calling this arguably the most impressive one-year turnaround ever in the history of pro sports, at least on this continent.
The Jaguars lost 13 games a season ago and won three, against bad teams. That’d have been the same number of victories the Jags would have had in the playoffs this month alone, had they notched the biggest win in franchise history against Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the Patriots.
No NFL team that won only three games the season before has ever reached the Super Bowl. This team came closest.
What a colossal difference a year makes, right?
These cocksure, fast, ferocious Jaguars suddenly have become one of the best teams in pro football under Marrone, and now the league knows it. They will sneak up on precisely no one next season.
“I’m sure that at some point we’ll be able to reflect and think about all the good things that happened,” Ramsey said. “Find a way to fix it to make sure that we don’t feel like this at this point again.”