Patriots vs. Jaguars Game Day Newsletter Sept 16 Patriots_Digital | Page 77

T A NEW SEASON
JAGUARS OPEN HOME SCHEDULE AGAINST THEIR AFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
NEMESIS FROM A SEASON AGO, THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
JACKSONVILLE – It was the result of last
season’s AFC Championship game – and the
fourth-quarter circumstances that led to it –
that dominated the early offseason talk around
Jacksonville.
How it all unfolded is haunting even still… but,
let us get it out of the way so we can move
forward.
• The Jaguars lead 20-10 seconds into the
fourth quarter over Belichick, Brady and the
New England Patriots at Foxborough in January.
• No, Myles Jack wasn’t down – replay
confi rmed it, but rules could not change it.
Whistles stopped a potential fumble return for
a touchdown that could have opened a 17-point
lead with just under 14 minutes to play.
• Two offensive fi rst downs in the quarter.
• Third-and-18, Brady-to-Danny Amendola
conversion.
• Brady-to-Amendola touchdown to get the
Patriots within four points with 8:53 remaining.
• A Jaguars punt returned by the Patriots deep
into Jags territory.
• Brady-to-Amendola touchdown for a Patriots
lead with 2:56 remaining.
• A Stephon Gilmore pass breakup of a
Blake Bortles fourth-and-15 pass in front of a
breaking-open Jaguars receiver Dede Westbrook.
• Tom Brady kneeling down in victory formation.
AFC Championship game fi nal score: New
England Patriots 24, Jacksonville Jaguars 20.
The calendar long ago turned to 2018, and that’s
the hard truth of all this. It is a new season.
Jaguars Head Coach Doug Marrone said it
best Monday when asked about that AFC
Championship game result and if it is in the
mindset of his team this week.
“People always want to take you back, but you
can’t.”
Good luck with that. We just reviewed that
fateful fourth quarter, but Marrone is right: the
Jacksonville Jaguars (1-0) cannot change the
result of that game in today’s meeting with the
New England Patriots (1-0) at 4:25 p.m. in front
of a national television audience on CBS.
They cannot get back to the AFC Championship
game with today’s result. The Jags cannot come
close to securing a playoff berth today, as there
are still 14 games left in the regular season.
That game – that horrible, frustrating, “swallow-
the-whistle, ref,” throw-things-at-the-television
game – is not just the story of how last season
ended.
It is also how this 2018 Jacksonville Jaguars
team was molded, the foundation from which
they have been rebuilt and the crux how they
are wired, driven and focused to improve.
What the Jaguars can do – and what the
organization has done – is utilize everything in
their power to ensure something like that does
not happen again.