The Jaguars will play their final home game of the season this Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs. With a win, the Jaguars will finish the home season 4-4, which is the same record they posted a year ago.
That's not good enough for a team that was 7-1 at home for four consecutive seasons (1996-99). So, what's happened to the Jaguars' homefield advantage? That's just one more question this team needs to address during the offseason.
Let's take a look back at this home season.
The Jaguars defeated the Steelers, 21-3, in the season opener at Alltel Stadium. It remains as this team's most gratifying victory this year; one of only two games the Steelers have lost and the Steelers' only road loss.
Week two put the Jaguars at 2-0 with a 13-6 win over the Titans, but Fred Taylor was effectively lost for the season when he suffered a severe groin injury early in the second quarter. Taylor has not played another down.
Cleveland came to Jacksonville in week three and the Browns began a five-game collapse by the Jaguars that forced them out of playoff contention. In 2000, it was a week-two loss in Baltimore that was the Jaguars' greatest regret. This year, it is the week-three loss to the Browns.
Thursday Night Football resulted in a loss to previously winless Buffalo and the low point in the Jaguars season.
The Bengals have provided temporary recovery for a lot of teams over the past several years, and that's exactly what they brought to Alltel Stadium for the Jaguars. A second-half rally ended a five-game losing streak.
Baltimore basically eliminated the Jaguars from playoff contention when the Ravens drove 74 yards in nine plays to score the game-winner with nine seconds to play in the game.
The lights shined bright on Monday Night Football, but Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre shined brightest in rallying the Packers to a 28-21 win.
That brings us up to date. Here's "10 things" the Jaguars have to do to beat the Chiefs.
- Call Brian Billick--He let Priest Holmes go, so Billick must know at least one weakness in Holmes' game.
- Give the ball to Stacey Mack--The Jaguars should've done that earlier in the season, too.
- Feed off the crowd--Those who attend will be true, die-hard Jaguars fans who will undoubtedly be emotional in their support of veteran players the fans know they'll be seeing in Jaguars colors for the final time.
- Play for the video tape--Those veterans who think they might be headed elsewhere this offseason would be wise to put their best performance on tape for other teams to see.
- Treat the game as another tryout--The Jaguars' young players have been doing that for three straight weeks, all of which produced wins.
- Keep kicking field goals--It's better than not kicking field goals, which had been the case too often this season.
- Kick it short--If the kicking game is so important, why is it the Jaguars didn't start winning consistently until their kickoffs started falling at the 20-yard line?
- Catch the ball--KC quarterback Trent Green is tied with Peyton Manning for the league lead in interceptions, 21. Make sure you catch it when it comes to you.
- Find out what's in Dick Vermeil's Geritol--The guy has amazing energy.
- Act as though it's a bowl game--This one lacks for significance.
