The Jaguars got good so fast, they looked as if they were going to dodge the usual growing pains, avoid the typical speed bumps.
No newcomer to success dodges them all, though. Even so, who thought the pains would strike in San Francisco — Jimmy Garoppolo or no Jimmy Garoppolo? Who saw the bump coming in the next-to-last game of a miraculous season, after the wins they’d just rattled off?
The Jaguars hit the wall hard, and hit it right after they had been handed the AFC South title after the Titans’ loss. They hit it a week after they had cold-cocked division rival Houston by 38 points, ending Tom Savage’s season in the process (in a round-about, concussion-protocol-violating way).
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And, of course, it was two weeks after they have won a bare-knuckle brawl over the Seahawks that, at the time, had seemed to expose the other team as bullies who couldn’t take it when they got punched back.
The Jaguars are the ones who got punched back Sunday in Santa Clara. Punched hard — 44-33 hard. By a 10-loss 49ers team. Punched early (falling behind 16-0), punched late (a slam-the-door 30-yard touchdown run through a defense that had already failed multiple times).
Punched by a team that kept its cool while the Jaguars — a team that had drawn the aforementioned Seahawks into an ugly meltdown in Jacksonville — dissolved into several mini-meltdowns themselves. Players jawed on the sidelines in the first half and committed foolish personal fouls late, including a headbutt on that final series in which the 49ers sealed it.
Suddenly, “exposed” no longer just applied to its previous victims. The gloating and chest-beating now comes off as premature and unwise.
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In the big picture, the way they got handled may not mean anything, or change anything. The Jaguars were going to be something of a blank slate going into the playoffs anyway: it’s their first trip in 10 years, since the Jack Del Rio-David Garrard days. One could bet on the way they smothered the Steelers in October, intercepting Ben Roethlisberger five times, and see them going deep in the playoffs.
That would mean betting on that defense, led by their four Pro Bowlers and the two, at least, who likely deserved it, too. The ones who were at the top of the NFL rankings in numerous categories all season. Defense should always be the constant, the stabilizer, even for inexperienced teams.
Maybe not, though, after the way Garoppolo torched them in his fourth 49ers start.
Or, for that matter, after the way the Cardinals’ Blaine Gabbert picked them apart in their previous loss four weeks ago. The theory then (or at least here) was that the defense couldn’t slip up even a little, because Blake Bortles wasn’t reliable enough to save them if they did.
Bortles (who felt quite good about himself after the Seahawks win) fell off his pedestal after three strong games … but the vaunted defense fell much further. The defense totally fell apart, and openly fell into disarray at times.
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The Patriots and Steelers and, yes, even the Seahawks can withstand speed bumps like that. Experience does that for teams, coaches who have been there, and players who have carried them through it.
The Jaguars could, too, but they have to prove it. They have something extra to prove after that showing. Those attributes listed above don’t fit most, if any, of the players, or coach Doug Marrone. It fits president Tom Coughlin, but he’ll have to instill an attitude in them that it wasn’t certain they needed until Sunday.
Now everyone knows the Jaguars need it. They were thrown off strides suddenly and unexpectedly. Soon enough, everybody will see if they were thrown off track for good, and their playoff journey ends early.
