You’d be hard-pressed to find a professional sports team that handled overnight success worse than the Jaguars did in the late 2010s.
Jacksonville’s meteoric rise and equally spectacular fall was, and remains, something to behold, and the New England Patriots played a major role in both.
With the two franchises set to square off Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium, we thought it would be a good idea to look back on what happened before, during and after the Patriots and Jaguars collided twice in 2018.
Prior to facing New England in the 2017 season’s AFC Championship, then-Jaguars star cornerback Jalen Ramsey said Jacksonville would win the game and, eventually, the Super Bowl. It was emblematic of the in-your-face confidence the Jaguars showed that season, when they put six straight sub-.500 campaigns behind them in going 10-6 and winning the AFC South.
And they nearly pulled it off. Jacksonville held a 20-10 fourth-quarter lead in Foxboro, Mass., before Tom Brady and the Patriots did their thing. However, had it not been for a controversial call that negated what would have been a fumble recovery returned for a touchdown by linebacker Myles Jack, the Jaguars probably would’ve won that game and advanced to Super Bowl LII against the Philadelphia Eagles.
But they lost, went home and watched Brady and the Patriots get Philly-Specialed in the Big Game.
Still, what the Jaguars were building was undeniable. Despite having the erratic and easily mockable Blake Bortles at quarterback, Jacksonville, led by a ferocious, suffocating defense, was a young team on the rise with a big personality. And they hit the ground running in the fall of 2018, picking up a road win over the New York Giants in the season opener.
That set the stage for a Sept. 16 rematch with the Patriots in Jacksonville. The Jaguars, with revenge on their minds, dominated New England, earning a 31-20 win in a game that wasn’t that close.
And, boy, did the Jaguars ever talk trash after picking up the Week 2 victory.
Here’s what some players said to Boston Sports Journal’s Greg Bedard during locker room conversations:
Tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins, who scored a touchdown before halftime: “I was going to whup (Patrick Chung’s) ass and I was going to score. … Same s–t, simple s–t. Man-to-man coverage. They thought they could beat us man-to-man. They thought wrong.”
” … We knew we were better. We knew we were going to beat them. Simple as that. It’s just another game to us.”
On the Patriots defense, Seferian-Jenkins added: “They play man-to-man and whoever starts beating their ass, they go to zone. … We know what they’re doing (and) we’re better at it.”
Linebacker Tevin Smith, who believed Tom Brady thought the Jaguars were a better team than the Patriots: “At the end of the day, I think he knew. That’s the mindset that we have around here, that we’re the best. Prove that we’re not. We don’t care that you all beat us last time. We know we’re the best team, we have to go out and execute and that’s what we did.”
The Jags were riding high — too high, as it turned out.
They lost their next game, then won the game after that before losing seven straight. Jacksonville finished 5-11 and missed the playoffs, a familiar outcome for a perenially irrelevant franchise. New England won the Super Bowl that season.
The Jaguars went 6-10 in 2019 and 1-15 in 2020, firing head coach Doug Marrone on Black Monday.
Many important Jaguars players who faced the Patriots in 2018 since have left Jacksonville via trade, free agency, retirement or otherwise. The mass exodus has been astonishing.
Here are a few:
— Blake Bortles
— Leonard Fournette
— Dede Westbrook
— Donte Moncrief
— Austin Seferian-Jenkins
— Telvin Smith
— Calais Campbell
— Jalen Ramsey
— A.J. Bouye
— Barry Church
— Tashaun Gipson
— Malik Jackson
— Yannick Ngakoue
— Marcell Dareus
And the franchise still is falling.
The offseason hiring of Urban Meyer and drafting of quarterback Trevor Lawrence generated new hope in Jacksonville. With other promising young talents on the roster, including emerging running back James Robinson, many believed the Jaguars’ arrow was pointing upward, despite some concerns over whether Meyer was cut out for the NFL.
Turns out Meyer wasn’t cut out for the NFL. He lasted 13 games before getting fired after multiple embarrassing controversies. It was as bad of a coaching tenure as we’ve ever seen in the NFL.
Lawrence, in a terrible situation, has not been good this season. He’s not yet a bust, but it’s fair to wonder whether Jacksonville ever will give him the tools he needs to be successful.
Robinson tore his Achilles last week.
So, yeah, things are bad for the Jaguars. They’re 2-13 and look years away from being contenders in the AFC. Not even Dan Quinn wants to interview for their coaching vacancy. That Josh McDaniels, despite the presence of Lawrence, seemingly isn’t interested in the job says a lot about the organizational culture created by owner Shad Khan.
But hey, at least we have the 2017 and two-games-in-2018 Jaguars to look back on and admire. That group of players was good, entertaining and extremely quotable.
The 2021 version? They’re awful and boring. At least they have another top draft pick to look forward to.
