Moral Victory for the Jaguars? No.

I don't believe in moral victories. A loss is a loss, no matter the situation. Moral victories are for bad teams without playoff aspirations. They come from teams that had no expectations of a victory and make fans that are counting down the days to next year have some hope for the future of their franchise.

The Jaguars are not one of those teams. They are a 6-5 team that is in the thick of the battle for the AFC South lead and that makes this loss hurt. A bad team wouldn't leave their fans feeling bad about that kind of loss, but for the first time all season, I legitimately felt like the Jaguars were a good team.

After three consecutive victories over teams with records under .500, I wasn't entirely sure what to make of the Jaguars. I wanted to jump on the bandwagon of optimism, but blowout losses to Philadelphia, Tennessee and San Diego made me hesitant. But somewhere in the first half, amidst a devastating rushing attack that tore up what was the 4th ranked rushing defense in the league, I jumped on. With backup offensive tackles stopping a pass rush that is among the league's best, for the first time all season I felt like the Jaguars were the real deal.

The loss hurts because the Jaguars look like the real deal. If they were blown out I guess it would've hurt too, but more because the team would've been exposed as a fraud against legitimate competition.

So I'm still going to sulk after this game, because it was a winnable game that was blown down the stretch. However, I'm thankful that the last five games of the season should be interesting and that the Jaguars are a threat once again.