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There has already been some chatter about being worried about the Jacksonville Jaguars having a let down game this week against the Tennessee Titans. After the emotional high of beating the New England Patriots so thoroughly, many worry they’ll be riding high and over look the Titans. The Jaguars had something to prove to the Patriots and everyone else, that they deserve to be in the conversation for the best team in the NFL but against the Titans it’s just a ho-hum divisional game and they could overlook them.
You wouldn’t be more incorrect.
“We’re going to sweep the division other than losing to Houston,” Titans defensive lineman Jurrell Casey told Paul Kuharsky back in December of last year, when the Jaguars clinched the AFC South. “But we can’t win the division. That’s the part that sucks. They won’t even technically beat us and win the division. It is what it is. They’re supposed to be king of the South and we’re ready to see that.”
It didn’t stop there.
“As long as Bortles is back there, if the ball game is in his hands, he’s going to choke…” - @Jurrellc on #3HL.
— 3HL (@3HL1045) January 2, 2018
“We didn’t want their offense to score at all, and it looks like that’s what happened. It looks like that’s what happened. Sorry. At the beginning of the week, I was talking about that,” Casey said after the Titans beat the Jaguars last season. “King of the South? King of the South? Sounds great, but got to be able to beat us. Jacksonville didn’t play great today. Appreciate the turnovers. Helped us out a lot.”
The Jaguars have a lot to prove on Sunday against the Titans, maybe more-so than they did against the New England Patriots. The Jaguars showed last season, even in a loss, in the AFC Championship that they belonged. Not only that, a big reason why they got where they did in the playoffs was because quarterback Blake Bortles wasn’t turning the ball over.
The Titans are limping into TIAA Bank Field this week with a 1-1 record and their offense hasn’t done squat the first two weeks of the season. They can’t run the ball, their passing game has been awful even with Mariota and they’re struggling to score points.
The Jaguars can show a lot by crushing the Titans like the bad vulnerable football team they are right now and wiping out any chance they can sweep them again and chirp about who the real division champ is.
Make no mistake, this game is just as big as last Sunday. If it were any other team I’d be worried about the proverbial let down game, but with it being the Titans? No way. There should be no let down. They should be frothing at the mouth to shut them up.
There’s pride involved.