JACKSONVILLE – It’s December, with the division lead at stake.
Little more is needed to describe the importance of the Jaguars’ game against the Indianapolis Colts at EverBank Stadium Sunday. Both teams are 8-4, with the winner taking sole possession of first place in the AFC South with four games remaining.
It’s not “must-win.” There may be bigger games in the coming weeks. But for now?
“It’s real big,” Jaguars running back Travis Etienne Jr. said. “As a competitor, you never want to increase the magnitude of the game. You want to treat it like the next one and realize you still have a long way to go. One game won’t define our season.
“But it’s a very important game and we have to approach it as so. We know what’s at stake. As long as we go out ready to play and put our best foot forward, you live with whatever happens.”
The winner will clinch nothing, and make no mistake: Whoever wins Sunday must win a lot more down the stretch. And the Houston Texans (7-5), who have beaten both the Jaguars and Colts in recent weeks, remain very much in contention in the division.
But a first-place-at-stake-for-both-teams-in-December game is rarified stuff – so rare that the Jaguars only once in franchise history have played such game at home. That was the regular-season finale in 2022, when the Jaguars beat the Tennessee Titans in a winner-take-the-AFC South game.
That game was between the 8-8 Jaguars and 7-9 Titans. Sunday marks just the fourth December/January regular-season game in Jaguars history between two division teams four games above .500 The Jaguars lost all three previous games: 41-14 at Tennessee in 1999, 26-10 at home to Indianapolis in 2005 and 28-25 at Indianapolis in 2007.