On this Christmas Eve, coaches, players, and fans draw one day closer to the final week of the NFL 2008-2009 season.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have fit the "playing for pride" bill quite well in the past couple weeks, knocking off an unlucky Green Bay Packers team, at home, and giving the 11-4 Colts everything they could handle before ending up on the losing end of some fourth quarter Peyton Manning heroics, 31-24, finishing the game with the ball on the Indy seven-yard line. Against the Colts, QB David Garrard was brilliant for three quarters, throwing for 329 yards through the air and a touchdown (and also running for one), WR Dennis Northcutt had another good game with 101 yards and a receiving touchdown, and Maurice Jones-Drew continued his late season push to be "the guy" next year with 91 yards rushing. The defense, on the other hand, played forgettably against Indianpolis's traditional offensive machine. This Sunday, the Jags travel to another cold weather city, Baltimore, for one last game that means...well, nothing.
Last Thursday's game against the streaking Colts was a telling one: one more time in which the Jags wowed their fans for three quarters, only to dash their hopes in the fourth. As I observed, I was texting back and fourth with my sister, a Colts' fan. At one point she told me, "I know they'll pull it out in the end like they always do, but seriously, this is the Jaguars, how embarrassing. Indeed, the Colts pulled it out in the end against the Jags' team that has given the Colts trouble consistently throughout the past few years, but whose play this year can be summed up in three words: "not good enough." Though the closeness is not shocking in "the league," the following are the scores of several of their losses:
10-17 (Titans)
16-20 (Bills)
21-26 (Steelers)
17-23 (Browns)
19-21 (Bengals)
14-24 (Titans)
24-31 (Colts)
It should be noted that in the one game above that was decided by more than one touchdown--the second match-up against the Titans--the Jaguars had a significant halftime lead. I do not offer these scores as some sort of excuse or "good try" or even to say that "Next year is the year." Four of their five wins were also decided by less than a touchdown. It just seems that there was a similar formula to every game: get scored on right away, come back and take the lead, lose late.
I'm sure the team is as ready as their fans are to just forget this year happened.
Keywords: Baltimore Ravens, David Garrard, Dennis Northcutt, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Maurice Jones-Drew, Peyton Manning
