All anyone heard while the Jaguars slowly crawled their way into playoff contention was how the Jaguars feasted on easy teams but couldn't do anything else. It was their easy schedule that allowed them to puff out their record and be something they weren't. We'll, let's look at how much it did affect this team.
7 wins
Houston 9-7(x2)
New York Jets 9-7
Tennessee 8-8
Buffalo Bills 6-10
Kansas City Chiefs 4-12
St.Louis Rams 1-15
The winning percentage of the teams the Jaguars beat was .411. Obviously the Rams skew the results towards the bottom. This would support the idea that the Jaguars did feast on less than prime meat this regular season.
However, considering what the Titans did later in the year and the Jets current playoff run, the Jaguars did manage to beat several quality teams. Remember, the 1999 team rode a schedule that featured opponents with a combined winning percentage of under .400 to a 14-2 record.
9 losses
Indianapolis 14-2(x2)
New England 10-6
Arizona 10-6
Tennessee 8-8
San Francisco 8-8
Miami 7-9
Seattle 5-11
The winning percentage of the teams the Jaguars lost to was .527. Obviously, a substantial difference. However, the two losses to the Colts skews the winning percentage up. Let's say the Jaguars managed to actually beat the Colts in either one of those two games. Then we gets results like this
8 wins
Indianapolis 13-3
Houston 9-7(x2)
New York Jets 9-7
Tennessee 8-8
Buffalo Bills 6-10
Kansas City Chiefs 4-12
St.Louis Rams 1-15
The bumps the winning percentage of the teams the Jaguars beat up to .461. A much more respectable figure.
8 losses
Indianapolis 13-3
New England 10-6
Arizona 10-6
Tennessee 8-8
San Francisco 8-8
Miami 7-9
Seattle 5-11
That bumps down the Jaguars losses to a winning percentage of .478. Far more even than what we started out with.
What I am trying to get at is this, I believe the Jaguars were exactly what their record showed them to be. A middle of the road team that had some breaks go their way in some games, and breaks go against them in others. Don't let the people who say this team just got by on creampuffs tell you any different. This team is going to learn from it's mistakes and will have a stellar year in 2010.