Jaguars hope history doesn’t repeat itself

JACKSONVILLE — Should Jacksonville lose to the Tennessee Titans this Sunday in the regular-season finale, there will be a mad scramble to the 1999 files to compare the Jaguars from that year and their situation this year.

And Jaguars fans won’t want to read about the comparisons.

In the 1999 regular season, Jacksonville compiled a 14-2 record. Both losses were to the Titans, a one-point loss in Jacksonville and a 27-point beating in the next-to-last game in the regular season.

The Jaguars earned a bye in the opening week of the playoffs, then pummeled Miami in what still stands as the biggest Jaguars’ scoring output in franchise history, a 62-7 win. That earned the Jaguars the home-field advantage for the AFC championship against the Titans.

The biggest crowd in Jaguars history, 75,206 (a record that still stands) saw Jacksonville jump out to a 14-10 halftime lead.

But Jaguars fans’ hopes of watching their team play in a Super Bowl faded in the second half when the Titans scored 23 unanswered points and finish with a 33-14 win.

Fast forward to this season. The Jaguars’ record won’t be as good, but at 10-5, it’s the first time in 10 years that they have finished with a double-digit win total.

The coach of the Jaguars in 1999 was Tom Coughlin, who left Jacksonville three years later, but who returned this season as the team’s executive vice president of football operations.

The Jaguars’ first loss this season was a 21-point setback to the Titans. Should Tennessee win this Sunday, that would not only give it a season sweep, but would likely propel the Titans to the No. 6 seed in the AFC playoffs.

If that’s the case, the Titans would travel to Jacksonville the following weekend looking for a third win over the Jaguars, exactly like 18 years ago.

Of course, the Jaguars can take care of the possibility of the same scenario by beating the Titans on Sunday.

That would not necessarily eliminate the possibility of meeting in the opening round (Tennessee would still be the Jaguars opponent if Buffalo and the Chargers also lost on Sunday), but the Titans wouldn’t be able to boast of two wins over Jacksonville in the same regular season.

SERIES HISTORY: 46th regular-season meeting. Titans lead series, 25-20. Tennessee won the first meeting this year 37-16 with a dominant second half in which it outscored the Jaguars 31-13. Tennessee has won three of the last four meetings and five of the last eight. Jacksonville has won just once (2013) in the last six outings at Tennessee. The only postseason meeting was a 33-14 Tennessee win in the AFC Championship Game in Jacksonville on Jan. 23, 2000.

–And suddenly Blake Bortles isn’t the NFL’s hottest quarterback in the month of December. Bortles could make that claim prior to last week’s three-interception performance against the 49ers. He had been the only quarterback in the league not to have thrown an interception since Week 12 among passers with at least 50 attempts during that time. Bortles was riding a streak of three consecutive games with a passer rating of 119 or higher.

“Personally, I’m still riding with 5 (Bortles’ jersey number); I have all the confidence in the world,” cornerback Aaron Colvin said. “I know he’s going to play perfect when we need him to play perfect. Everybody has a bad game. I know him. I know his competitive drive and I know he’ll come back next week and dominate.”

The three-interception game against the 49ers was the first time Bortles had thrown three picks in a game since Week 3 of the 2016 season and was just the fourth of his career with three interceptions.

For the 2017 season, Bortles has 21 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, nearly a 2-1 ratio. More importantly, he’s on pace to commit the fewest turnovers of his career.

And he’s done all this without key receivers in Allen Robinson (all season), Allen Hurns (missed six straight games), Rashad Greene (all season) and now Marqise Lee (will miss team’s last two regular-season games).

–Despite giving up a season-high 44 points to San Francisco last Sunday, the Jaguars’ defense still ranks as one of the best in the NFL. Their defensive unit ranks No. 1 in passing yards/game and passing yards/play allowed, in sacks, in first downs allowed and net yards per game differential. They did lose their top ranking in points allowed, falling to second place behind league-leader Minnesota. They have a similar No. 2 ranking for total yards per game and total yards per play allowed.

The defense will likely dictate how far the Jaguars advance through the playoffs.

–San Francisco beat the Jaguars on Sunday, but the 49ers got a lot of help from the Jaguars in beating themselves. The Jaguars’ 12 penalties were a season high while the 99 yards tied for the second most in a game this season. Three of the penalties were self-inflicted: Myles Jack (taunting), Malik Jackson (unnecessary roughness due to a helmet butting) and Yannick Ngakoue (unsportsmanlike conduct for bumping an official). All three penalties came during two of the 49ers’ scoring drives.

“When we’re on the field we can’t allow things like that (players losing composure) to happen,” cornerback Aaron Colvin said. “That’s probably our biggest opponent, is ourselves, when we beat ourselves. We’ve got to fix that issue.”

The disciplinary measures carried over to the bench area as well. National TV cameras caught an ugly, verbal exchange between Jackson and cornerback Aaron Colvin.

Also in the first half, cameras caught receivers coach Keenan McCardell grabbing wide receiver Keelan Cole by the jersey, right after Bortles had thrown a pass to Cole, who broke off his route and deflected the ball to a 49ers defender, who took the interception 50 yards to the end zone for a score.

NOTES: WR Montay Crockett was added to the 53-man roster on Tuesday replacing Jaelen Strong, who was placed on the reserve/injured list. Crockett had spent the last eight weeks of the season on the practice squad. … WR Tevaun Smith was added to the practice squad to replace WR Montay Crockett. He spent one week on the practice squad in Oakland this month before he was waived and signed by the Jaguars. … WR Marqise Lee did not practice Wednesday due to an ankle sprain suffered in Week 15 against the Houston Texans. He missed last week’s game against San Francisco. … DT Abry Jones did not practice on Wednesday due to a back injury. … WR Allen Hurns (ankle) practiced on a limited basis like he did all three days last week before missing his sixth consecutive game on Sunday. … LB Blair Brown, who missed the second half of Sunday’s game in San Francisco due to a possible concussion, was limited in Wednesday’s practice. … T Cam Robinson suffered an abdominal injury in the first quarter of Sunday’s game and missed the rest of the game. He was at Wednesday’s practice on a limited basis. … TE Marcedes Lewis was limited in Wednesday’s practice due to an ankle injury. … WR Keelan Cole was limited in Wednesday’s practice with a quadriceps injury.