Seven facts about the Jacksonville Jaguars’ postseason history
The Jaguars are about to embark on their ninth postseason in franchise history. Here are some facts about their previous eight postseasons.
Jacksonville against Buffalo. Jaguars versus Bills. “Duuuval” chants meet the sounds of Bills Mafia, which I believe involves a mix of “Shout,” “Mr. Brightside” and smashing tables.
It’s been a while since we’ve had this kind of buzz about a football game in Jacksonville. So I’m a bit rusty in my role. But I think as local newspaper columnist, by football law I’m supposed to fire shots at the city of Buffalo and fans of the Bills.
Those are the rules. Fans talk trash. Mayors make friendly wagers. Columnists make fun.
Sorry. I’m not going to do that this week.
I’m not saying I’m above doing it. I’ve even done it before with upstate New York. The year I moved to Jacksonville — it’s hard to believe next month will be 25 years here for me — Syracuse University wasn’t invited to the Gator Bowl and a columnist there wrote: “The Syracuse football team has been dissed. . . . But it’s all good. It’s all so, so good. Cowford, you must understand, is no place to spend the holidays. In fact, it’s no place at all.”
I took the bait and fired back:.”It would be one thing if University of Hawaii fans were poking fun at us as a travel destination. But Syracuse? I mean, this is the place with a dreary dome bearing the name of an air-conditioning company. Air-conditioning. In Syracuse. Now that’s funny.”
But I’m not going to do this again this week. And not just because in the last 25 years, that dome has been renovated and renamed. Or because Buffalo is a few hours west of there and, like Jacksonville, is a “small market” that has endured quite a few losing seasons in the last 25 years and recently had to play the NFL stadium game to keep its team. Or even because I like “Shout” and “Mr. Brightside.”
I like Buffalo.
Overlooked and underrated mid-size cities
When I covered the Miami Dolphins before moving to Jacksonville, one of the first things I checked when the schedule came out was: When is the annual trip to Buffalo? If it was early in the season, I looked forward to it. In December, not so much.
I think maybe it’s because Buffalo reminds me of where I grew up in Wisconsin. And to some degree — weather obviously aside — of where I call home now.
I like places that, if you go by population, are neither truly small towns nor big cities — and because they fall into that middle ground, often don’t get much love.
Small towns get country songs written about them. Big cities get starring roles in movies. Mid-size cities get overlooked or worse.
When ESPN came to town recently for the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, the network with the slogan “Sports Forever” showed a shot of The Landing, which was demolished in 2019, in front of the Modis building, which was renamed in 2011 and again in 2024. But, hey, at least they got the right city.
Last year ESPN was in Tucson — one of my favorite mid-size cities — for a University of Arizona basketball game and showed footage of “beautiful Tucson,” which actually was of Tempe, 100 miles away and home of Arizona’s rival.
I’m optimistic that CBS, which is showing this game, will actually have some current B-roll. But the small-market theme will hang over this one, to some degree perpetuated and embraced by the fans, players and even coaches.
‘Small market’ rallying cry
Liam Coen, the Jaguars first-year coach, might have started his tenure with an awkward attempt at “Duuuuval.” But he’s already reached peak Duval, not only turning around the team faster than an Urban Meyer exit, but leaning into the small market label along the way.
Before a recent game at Denver, Broncos coach Sean Payton said of the Jaguars: “As you look at them and you watch the tape, it’s a smaller market but you see a real good team.”
It was intended as a compliment, about how the Jaguars weren’t getting the national recognition they deserved. But as we’ve been known to do with slights in Jacksonville — whether real, perceived or otherwise — Coen took it and ran with it. After the Jaguars beat the Broncos, he said: “Just thankful that a small-market team like us can come into a place like Mile High and get it done.”
In the scheme of the NFL, the Jaguars are a small-market team, and this playoff game against Buffalo is the AFC Small Market Bowl. The other conference teams to make the postseason are from larger markets: Denver, Boston, Pittsburgh, Houston and Los Angeles.
But here’s the thing about this whole “small market” cry: When it comes to what happens on the field, it’s largely irrelevant.
Where “small market” does come into play is what happens off the field, like figuring out how to pay for a stadium. The Bills, the only NFL team to play in the state of New York (the Jets and Giants play in New Jersey), are getting hundreds of millions of state money to build a stadium. The Jaguars are not.
There also might be some validity when it comes to recognition for teams and their players. Fred Taylor should be in the Hall of Fame. And how is Cam Little — a kicker with a name made for a small market — not a Pro Bowl pick this season? But even the small-market, no-respect angle is overblown.
You don’t have to be L.A. or New York to have big games and the league’s biggest stars (see Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City or Aaron Rodgers in his Green Bay days).
But you do have to win.
And the way the NFL is built — with massive TV deals, revenue sharing, salary caps, etc. — any team in any city can win. The most dominant team in recent memory is from a city in the middle of America, in a market that isn’t even close to the country’s top 10. But with the Chiefs out of this postseason, the AFC door is wide open for others — including the Jaguars and Bills, brothers in small markets and big quarterback arms.
So to set the stage for this one, I’m not going to take shots at Buffalo. Instead, I’ll just take a Bills rallying cry that comes from a rhetorical question posed by former coach Marv Levy — “Where else would you rather be than right here, right now” — and answer it with a “Duuuuval.”
mwoods@jacksonville.com
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