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Jacksonville Jaguars’ worst loss is to New England Patriots in 2008?

By Daniel Lago

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The Jacksonville Jaguars are still one of the youngest franchises in the entire NFL. Despite only being around since 1995 however, the Jaguars have a pretty rich history full of monumental upsets and gut-punching loss.

Doug Farrar of SI.com used his extra time this offseason to choose each NFL team’s worst loss in franchise history, and he had a rather curious choice for the Jaguars – their loss to the undefeated New England Patriots in the 2008 divisional round:

"Jacksonville Jaguars: Jan. 12, 2008, AFC divisional round—Patriots 31, Jaguars 20Outside of the Giants, who played them close in the regular season and beat them in Super Bowl XLII, the 2007 Patriots may have found their most serious challenge in the divisional round of their 18–1 season when they faced the Jaguars. Jacksonville kept the game close until the third quarter, when Tom Brady faked that a snap went directly to running back Kevin Faulk and instead threw a six-yard touchdown pass to Wes Welker for the go-ahead score. Brady was at his most efficient, completing 26 of 28 passes for 262 yards and three touchdowns on short passes while the Jags put half their defense on Randy Moss. That was the last time the Jaguars made the postseason."

There seems to be a lot of recency bias here, as Farrar apparently doesn’t want to acknowledge some of the Jaguars more crushing losses before the turn of the century. This might not even be the Jaguars’ worst loss to the Patriots, as they were defeated by the New England squad in the AFC championship game during their Cinderella run in 1996.

Honestly, the choice for the Jaguars most “gut-punching” loss is fairly obvious – the AFC championship game against the Tennessee Titans in 2000. The Jaguars were 14-2 in the regular season and considered by many to be the best team in the league. After eviscerating the Miami Dolphins 62-7 in the divisional round, the Jaguars had to face the only team that defeated them in the regular season on the way to the Super Bowl. Losing to the Titans for the third time that season is easily the most sickening loss in franchise history.

In conclusion, screw the Titans.

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