HOUSTON -- Every year center Tyler Shatley thinks the same thing when the Jacksonville Jaguars open training camp: “This is it. This is the year we get back to the playoffs.”
For the past four years he has been wrong -- like in 2020 when the Jaguars went 1-15.
But routing the Houston Texans 31-3 on Sunday at NRG Stadium means he finally has the chance to be right. All the Jaguars have to do is beat the Tennessee Titans at home this weekend and they will win the AFC South and make the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
“At the beginning [of] every year you think: ‘All right, this is it. We’ve got a chance. You’re starting fresh,’” said Shatley, who is in his ninth season and is the longest-tenured Jaguars player on the roster. “It’s gotten old, you know?
“But it’s nice to finally be back playing meaningful games here at the end of the year and then have a chance to make it to the playoffs. It’s good stuff, man.”
Tennessee (7-9) has won the AFC South the past two seasons and earned the No. 1 overall seed in the AFC in 2021. But the Titans have lost six games in a row -- including a 36-22 rout by the Jaguars in Nashville in December -- and are likely starting quarterback Joshua Dobbs, whom they signed off Detroit’s practice squad on Dec. 20.
“This is what you play for. This is what you coach for,” Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said. “This is what you want for your football team. You want to be in the conversation and you want to be playing for, for us, the AFC South.
"We’re playing a good football team and, listen, we haven't done anything yet. They're still the champs until something happens.”
It certainly didn’t look like the Jaguars would even be in this position after losing five games in a row in October to drop to 2-6. Since then, though, the Jaguars have gone 6-2 with come-from-behind victories over the Las Vegas Raiders, Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys. They’ve also soundly beaten the faltering New York Jets 19-3 and Texans 31-3 the last two weeks -- the first time they’ve had back-to-back games in which they didn’t give up a touchdown since 2001 -- and can win the AFC South for just the second time in franchise history.
A victory over the Titans would also give the Jaguars a five-game winning streak and make them just the fifth team in NFL history to make the playoffs with a losing and winning streak of five or more games, per ESPN Stats and Information.
A win would also give them a chance to break yet another streak this season: sweeping the Titans for the first time in 17 years. They’ve already snapped seven substantial losing streaks in 2022 – including an eight-game road losing streak in Nashville -- but this one, with the playoffs on the line, would be the most significant.
“You look at the situation we put ourselves in,” quarterback Trevor Lawrence said. ‘Today was four in a row. If we didn't win these games, we wouldn't be in a position to do this next week. So for us that pressure or whatever you want to call it, it’s been there and we've responded great to it.
“We talked a lot about this season's going to come down to Week 18. We knew we had to take care of business these prior weeks, but we had a feeling we're going to put ourselves in position to where Week 18 was going decide our playoff berth and where we, where we head after that. And so we've been expecting this and we're ready for it.”