Over the past decade, the Jacksonville Jaguars have seen less success than nearly every other team in the National Football League. Outside of being just six minutes away from the Super Bowl during the 2017 NFL season, the last handful of years have not been kind to Jacksonville’s NFL franchise. However, this wasn’t always the story for a still relatively young franchise that dominated the league early on.Here are five ferocious facts about the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. Here are five ferocious facts about the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars.
5 Jacksonville Jaguars Facts
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- The Jaguars hold the record for having the biggest margin of victory ever in the NFL Playoffs. (source) The Jaguars that we’ve unfortunately come to know today are not the same franchise that dominated the NFL in the 1990s. In fact, the Jacksonville Jaguars had the largest margin of victory ever in the NFL Playoffs. In the Playoffs following the 1999 NFL season, the Jaguars hosted the Miami Dolphins in the Divisional Round. The game, which took place in Jacksonville on January 15, 2000, was so one-sided that Jaguars Head Coach Tom Coughlin benched his starting lineup midway through the 2nd Quarter. The game was 41-7 at halftime, and then was 55-7 going into the 4th Quarter. The final score was 62-7 in favor of the Jaguars, in what turned out to be Hall of Fame Quarterback Dan Marino’s final game of his storied career.
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- The Jaguars are the only team in NFL history to defeat the Steelers in Pittsburgh twice in one season… and they’ve done it twice. (source) Anyone who follows professional football knows that the Pittsburgh Steelers are one of the most dominant franchises in the history of the league. It was in 2007 that the Jacksonville Jaguars became the first franchise in NFL history to defeat the Steelers in Pittsburgh twice in one season. In Week 15 of that season, the Jaguars went into Pittsburgh and defeated the Steelers 29-22, and then returned three weeks later for the Wildcard Round of the NFL Playoffs, and knocked off the Steelers 31-29. A decade later, the Jaguars went into Pittsburgh in Week 5 of the 2017 NFL season and scored a 30-9 win over the Steelers. They would revisit the Steelers in Pittsburgh in the Divisional Round of the Playoffs, knocking off the six-time Super Bowl Champions 45-42. To this day, the Jaguars are the only franchise in NFL history to defeat the Steelers in Pittsburgh twice in one season.
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- In 1999, the Jaguars went 14-3, but all three losses came at the hands of the Tennessee Titans. (source) Back in 1999, the Jaguars had the highest win total in the entire NFL with 14 victories. However, both of the regular season losses were against their division rival Tennessee Titans (20-19 in Week 3 and 41-14 in Week 16). Due to their impressive win total, Jacksonville received a first round bye in the playoffs, and decimated the Miami Dolphins 62-7 in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs. With a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, the Titans went into Jacksonville for the AFC Championship Game and knocked off the Jaguars 33-14. It’s the only time in the NFL history that a team made it to the Conference Championship Game, had only three losses all year, and had all three of those losses come at the hands of the same team.
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- One Jaguars player was so popular that McDonald’s named a burger after him. (source) Tony Boselli was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars with the second overall selection of the 1995 NFL Draft. The former USC Trojan was so popular as the Left Tackle of the newly formed Jaguars at the time, that McDonald’s restaurants in the Jacksonville area actually offered the “Boselli Burger” for a while, all in his honor.
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- A Super Bowl of Expansion Teams almost happened in 1996. (source) It was in 1993 that the National Football League awarded their two new expansion franchises to the cities of Charlotte, North Carolina and Jacksonville, Florida. Both the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars began play for the 1995 NFL season. As expansion teams typically do, both the Panthers and Jaguars struggled mightily in their first seasons, but the second seasons told a much bigger story for both franchises. Against all odds, both the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars made it to their respective Conference Championship Games following the 1996 NFL season. Had both won, both franchises would have punched their tickets to the Super Bowl, which would have marked the first time that two expansion teams met in the league’s biggest game of the year. However, on Conference Championship weekend, the Panthers lost to the Packers 30-13 in Green Bay, while the Jaguars fell to the Patriots 20-6 in New England.
The Jacksonville Jaguars may be having a rough last decade in the National Football League, but the franchise certainly has a very interesting history within the sport. Do you have any fun Jaguars facts to share in the comments?
Featured image photo credit: Keith Allison, 2014. Originally found on Wikimedia.org. Image was resized and cropped. Creative Commons 2.0.
