AFC South Title on the Line

JT: For the Jaguars it’s win and they’re in as the repeat AFC South Division champs

There exist so many storylines for today’s contest between your Jacksonville Jaguars and the hated Tennessee Titans. The Houston Texans punched their ticket to the playoffs last night by beating the Indianapolis Colts. CJ Stroud threw a 75 yard touchdown bomb to Nico Collins on Houston’s fist play from scrimmage and they never looked back. ESPN has already crowned the Texans the winner of the AFC South division, live on air before the Colts/Texans game, thus adding to the conspiracy theory that the NFL is rigged. They said “Pretty simple, Texans and Colts. Winner, wins the division.” Well, that’s funny ‘cause if the Jaguars beat the Titans then Jacksonville wins the division. Hey ESPN, do you know something we don’t know? Have the NFL and gambling world brass handed down their decision already? Did you accidentally speak the quiet part out loud? Do you know what the difference is between a conspiracy theory and fact? About six months. Think about it. Our world has been full of “conspiracy theories” lately and a great many of them have turned out to be factually correct. Now, with everything going on in the NFL, bad calls, horrifically bad calls, nonsensical calls, flat out lying (see the Detroit/Dallas eligibility reporting scandal), and now ESPN very casually dismissing an entire game between JAX and Tenn, one might wonder, with literally billions of dollars on the line every week in this new world of legalized NFL betting, are palms being greased? It ain’t far fetched to think that on some level this may be occurring. Hell, it’s not like it hasn’t occurred in professional sports already. Maybe the city of Chicago can shed some white light on these black sox. The year was 1919 and eight members of the Chicago White Sox MLB team were bribed to throw the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. All you need to do is scale it up in size to fit the enormous scope of today’s NFL with it’s multi-billion dollar gambling enterprise partners, and this isn’t such an implausible scenario. Were you smelling a “but” (one “t” not two. Let’s keep it classy)? ‘Cause there is a “but". All of this tangential crap can be thrown aside very easily if the Jaguars come out of the gate as an unstoppable force today in Nashville. It will be very difficult to fix a game if JAX just keeps scoring while simultaneously shutting down the TN offense. Keeping it close is what the conspiracy theory needs in order to grow. A close game allows the referee’s calls to actually make a difference in outcomes. So, it’s in Jacksonville’s hands to put an end to this nonsense and force ESPN to make an apology that will most assuredly never happen.

Now for the storylines:

We, the Jaguars, have been decimated by injuries, but are we still? With the exception of Jamal Agnew, who is sporting a freshly broken leg, I think Trevor will play, Zay will play, Cam will play. Little, Fortner, Harrison, and Shatley too. There loom two major questions however. The first is, are these guys 100%? They may be playing, but if they aren’t really “playing” then should they be playing? Last week we witnessed total domination by the Jaguars through complete efficiency. It was not spectacular. It was not glitzy or glamorous. It was not showy or with any razzle dazzle, but it was a dub, and that’s all we need. I’m not saying CJ Beathard is better than Trevor Lawrence but he may be better than a 50% T-Law and frankly the fact that he doesn’t have Trevor’s superior skill, actually keeps him in check and adds to his efficient play. Beathard didn’t win pretty, but he also didn’t win ugly, he just won. Yes, but it was the worst team in the league in Carolina and yes it was a home game. That said, we have sucked at home and been great on the road all season, and Tennessee isn’t much better than Carolina. So if our players are not 100% then maybe we consider resting them, not forgetting that this game is win and in or lose and go home, but because this game is the entire season. It’s impossible for us to know exactly where these players actually stand as far as their injuries so we just trust in the docs and Jags staff to field the best team to win todays game. The second interesting question surrounds the viability of Christian Kirk. Trevor needs Kirk. Kirk is by far the Jaguars number one wide receiver, hands down, no question. JAX needs Kirk on the field if the Jags want to go anywhere in this post season. So where does he stand? His practice window is open but is he ready to go today? Against Tenn.? He has been activated from the injured reserve list and is designated to return. Would it be smart to rest him even though this game, according to ESPN, will be the last of the season? Literally, as I was typing the previous sentence, the active/inactive list was published and Kirk (we think smartly) is inactive for today’s game.

But even with that question answered there are so many intriguing storylines. Our bottom line here at JaguarsTalk is that we think the Jags can beat the Titans, in Tenn, by fielding the same team that so convincingly beat Carolina. That said, if the unhealthys of last week are healthy enough this week, then we have to let it ride with our regulars who got us here. We can’t be like my daughter, who in our fantasy football league this season, was in the Super Bowl and down by 13 points with one player left to play. Minutes before the final NFL game of the fantasy season she made the ballsy move to trade for a waiver wire receiver and bench Aaron Jones. It paid off and she won so I really have no point here. But, she barely won, as her receiver scored two tuddys in the first half to put her over the top and then promptly got injured for the entire second half (what if he’d been injured a few plays earlier), whereas Aaron Jones was slow and steady the entire game, eventually getting to the point total needed to win. Both players, turns out, would have given her the Lombardi so I have no real point here to relate to today’s Jaguars game, but it’s evident that I’m still bitter that she beat me in fantasy this season.

On defense it would appear the Jaguars have their full compliment of usual suspects. The storyline here will be can they play up to their potential. Can Tyson Campbell be the Tyson of old and not the Campbell of the last few games? Is Cisco 100% and ready to put a hurtin’ on someone? Will Mike Caldwell put Travon on the inside more often than not to produce some more sacks for that man. He is made to play inside, Mikey. Listen to us please. And finally, the biggest individual storyline of the game is will Josh Allen have enough sacks to become this years NFL sack leader. Thus, topping off an amazing contract year that BETTER net him a long term, hefty contract here in the Bold City. Do not anger me Trent Baalke. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry. I don’t turn green and become Lou Ferrigno, but I will write a nasty column about you if you don’t re-sign Josh Allen, and the 6 people who read it will be very angry too. Do you want that? I think not. Give me a reason to buy this man’s jersey. Keep Josh Allen in Jacksonville. Let’s go Jaguars. Let’s make it a second consecutive AFC South Division title for Duuuval.

The game is only an hour away so I must go now and ready myself for a Titan beat down. Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.