JACKSONVILLE – This is what they do now.

The Jaguars will play an important, high-profile game on Sunday. Again. That means they're preparing for an important, high-profile game this week. Again. This is the norm now, and they're treating it that way. Big? Yes.

A big deal? Not enough for wide eyes or big proclamations.

"It's a great opportunity for us to go compete and earn everything we get," Head Coach Liam Coen said as the AFC South-leading Jaguars (10-4) prepared to play the AFC West-leading Denver Broncos (12-2) at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Sunday.

Sunday is important for multiple reasons:

• The Broncos are currently seeded No. 1 in the AFC; the Jaguars are No. 3.
• The Jaguars are a game ahead of the Houston Texans (9-5) in the AFC South with 3 games remaining.
• It's the first time the Jaguars have played a regular-season game in a matchup of teams with double-digit victories in 26 seasons.

"It's a big game," quarterback Trevor Lawrence said, with center Robert Hainsey adding, "This is a cool one."

"A game like this, late in December … you try to give yourself an opportunity to play meaningful games late in the year, Hainsey added.

But while Sunday will be big and cool, it's not so big or cool to be overemphasized – with players and coaches on Wednesday discussing steadiness and perspective in preparing for a game the Jaguars must win to maintain their chances of securing the AFC's No. 1 seed by season's end.

"There's no secret about how important it is, but it's still just a game and you've got to prepare the same way," Lawrence said. "At this point in this season with where we're at, when you've put yourself in position like we have and obviously like the Broncos have, and like a bunch of teams in the AFC have, every game is huge at the end of the year which is where you want to be."

"You can't put too much pressure on it. You've just got to go out there and play."

Coen spoke of an opportunity "to go play a competitive, meaningful game in December – in a hostile environment, a team that's won the fourth quarter in a lot of football games over the last two years."

"This'll definitely be the loudest environment we've been in thus far, so we've got to prepare for that during the week," he said. "It's going to be a definitely a challenging atmosphere for sure."

The Broncos have come from behind to win in 11 of their 12 victories this season, and they are 10-2 in 1-score games this season. The Jaguars have rallied to win in 6 of their 10 victories, but have not trailed in either of their last 2 games and have won 4 of their 5 five games by 17 or more points.

"It's good to win different ways," Coen said. "You learn about your team each week and adversity is usually how we learn. We've been able to go through some of that."

Said cornerback Jourdan Lewis, "We've been on a roll for a while, just doing what we do best, executing our plays and understanding that it's about us at the end of the day. We want to minimize mistakes and play our brand of football. We have to go out and impose our will on opponents.

"It doesn't matter who we play. They're really good team but it's always about us."

It's also a game in which both teams enter hot, with the Broncos' 11-game winning streak the NFL's longest and the Jaguars' streak the third-longest behind the Texans. The Jaguars, after a 4-1 start in Coen's first season as head coach, lost their next 2 games entering a Week 8 bye.

They have won 6 of 7 games since, and their streak of 7 consecutive games scoring 25 or more points is a franchise record.

"We've been through a lot of games together," Coen said. "We've been through a lot of weeks, a lot of practices, a lot of walkthroughs, a lot of meetings. At this point in the season there's a trust level between all of us that I think they trust that we're trying to put them in the best position to be successful, and I trust that they're going to go out and play their ass off every Sunday.

"That's something that's pretty fun to watch."

QUOTABLE

• Hainsey: "We could care less about what anyone's saying or not saying outside the building, honestly. It's just about us in this locker room – these coaches, this entire organization – trying to be one step better every day. What's the one thing we can do to continue to grow? Even if everyone's cheering your name, chanting your name, it doesn't matter. You have to stay grounded in what got you here."