FOXBORO — Back in the warm, sultry haze of early August, the Jacksonville Jaguars came to Gillette Stadium for a few days to kiss the ring of the newly crowned Super Bowl champions.
The Jags practiced for two days with the New England Patriots before the teams played their opening preseason game. Bill Belichick enjoys these workouts against someone not dressed in red, white and blue. So did the 20,000 fans who showed up for a summer glimpse of Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski [...]
FOXBORO — Back in the warm, sultry haze of early August, the Jacksonville Jaguars came to Gillette Stadium for a few days to kiss the ring of the newly crowned Super Bowl champions.
The Jags practiced for two days with the New England Patriots before the teams played their opening preseason game. Bill Belichick enjoys these workouts against someone not dressed in red, white and blue. So did the 20,000 fans who showed up for a summer glimpse of Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and friends.
At the conclusion of the workouts, I remember asking Jacksonville coach Doug Marrone if he could ever find a better test to prepare his defense for the upcoming season. The coach quickly shook his head.
“Look, I think when you look at the history, everyone understands where they are and what they’ve done,” he said. “We have a great deal of respect for their coaches and their players. It’s a fact. I don’t think you have to talk very much. I think everybody knows it.”
Five months later, the Jaguars are back in town but this time they aren’t in awe. This time their task is to beat Belichick, Brady and the Patriots, win the AFC Championship and move on to their franchise's first-ever Super Bowl.
The Jaguars are a surprising survivor in these playoffs. Coming off a 3-13 finish a year ago, no one had them pegged as a potential champion back in August. But Marrone turned the ship around in his first full season as the head coach. He delivered the team's first playoff wins in 10 years when the Jags beat the Buffalo Bills and then shocked the Pittsburgh Steelers last week.
Now the stakes keep growing and Sunday offers the Jags their biggest test yet. Are they ready to shock the Patriots, the NFL’s glamour franchise? Can they really stop a team that appears destined for a third Super Bowl trophy in four seasons?
Las Vegas says no, with the Pats favored by a touchdown or so. But a cloud of Patriots-created uncertainty will hover over Gillette come kickoff time (3:05 p.m). During a Wednesday practice, Brady injured his throwing hand while reportedly botching a handoff to a running back. Belichick did his usual say-nothing, bob-and-weave during two subsequent press conferences while Brady only tossed more fuel on the fire Friday when he became the biggest star since Michael Jackson to show up to a press conference wearing gloves.
Brady’s insistence on hiding his injury became more emphatic when he stiff-armed reporters while answering the opening question about how his hand felt with a quick “I’m not talking about it.”
The questions surrounding a quarterback with an injured throwing hand are seemingly endless. Can something as simple as a crooked exchange from center David Andrews send Brady into spasms? Brady says he hasn’t worn gloves in a game “in a long time,” but if he chooses to do so, will that help boost the accessory sales at Under Armour, one of his chief sponsors? Would Coach Hoodie ever have the gumption to pull Brady from a championship game if he struggles to move the chains on the first three or four Patriot drives?
The uncertainty surrounding Brady elevates the level of doubt over a game that many observers were labeling just a speed bump for the Pats on the way to Minneapolis. That’s not how anyone from Jacksonville is viewing this game.
As the Jaguars rose from the ashes this fall, the team developed a young, aggressive persona with no lack of confidence. Last month, pass-rushing star Calias Campbell was dubbed the "Mayor of Sacksonville" by the real mayor of the city, Lenny Curry. Another star from the team’s ballyhooed defense is Jalen Ramsey, a 23-year old cornerback who may be in his second year in the NFL but displays the confidence of a seasoned veteran. Asked this week about the chance to shock the Pats, Ramsey said, “it’s just another opportunity for everybody on the team to step up and build on their legend.”
The Jaguars — like virtually anyone else with a clue — fully expect New England’s legendary quarterback to ease the hearts of the fans in Foxboro when he runs onto the field to Jay-Z’s "Public Service Announcement" as he normally does. But instead of learning at the feet of the champs like they did in August, these Jaguars insist they’re prepared to shock the football world.
“At this point if we don’t get respect it might just be a lost cause. We might not get none,” Ramsey said. “We’re one of the final four teams in the NFL playing right now so if we don’t get no respect then forget it.”