AFC Championship Game preview: Jaguars vs. Patriots

AFC Championship

Jaguars (12-6) at Patriots (14-3), 3:05 p.m.

TV: Ch. 2; Radio: WFAN (660, 101.9)

GRONK IS GRONK

The biggest matchup problem for the Jaguars in the AFC Championship Game is how to handle Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski. This season, Gronkowski had 69 catches for 1,084 yards with eight touchdowns. In the Pats AFC divisional round victory over the Titans, Gronk had six catches for 81 yards and one touchdown. The Jaguars haven’t said how they plan on covering Gronkowski. It would be easy to place their best cover man on Gronkowski in cornerback Jalen Ramsey.

“In a basketball game, I think we would,” Jags defensive coordinator Todd Wash said. “But Jalen is a corner. I think the last thing you can do is go into a game like this and you try to reinvent the wheel. We got to where we are at as a team, not just a defense, but as a team, doing what we do.”

The Jaguars could employ outside linebackers Myles Jack or Telvin Smith or strong safety Barry Church on Gronkowski. Several teams used multiple players on Gronkowski this season because he lines up at various places across the line of scrimmage. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

“It’d be cool if they didn’t throw it to their No. 1 target,” Jack said. “But we just have to have a real focused week [of practice]. Gronk is Gronk. He’s 6-8. He’s hard to cover and he is what he is. But we have the guys capable of giving him a challenge.”

10-1-2

The Patriots’ all-time record, include playoff games, against the Jaguars. Jacksonville’s victory came in the Jan. 3, 1999, wild-card game.

RUN AND RUN SOME MORE

Yes Tom Brady deserves all the credit for pushing the Patriots offense in the passing attack, but it’s the running game that gets overlooked sometimes. The Patriots are averaging 3.7 yards on the ground, second most among the final four teams in the NFL playoffs. Establishing the run is pivotal for the Patriots, especially early in the game.

Jacksonville has such a talented group defensively, No. 1 against the pass, No. 2 in yards per game, sacks and interceptions, that the weakness might be the run defense. The Jags finished the regular season 21st in the NFL allowing 116.3 yards per game.

“It’s always important,” Patriots running back Dion Lewis said of the running attack. “I think we just have to be balanced. The run helps the pass and the pass helps the run. We’ll be as balanced as possible. The more success we have early, the more we stick with it. So we just have to execute, it’s a team effort.”

2

NFL teams have gone from last place in their division the previous season to a Super Bowl berth the next season. Carolina (2003) and New Orleans (2009) were those teams with the Saints beating the Colts in Super Bowl XLIV. This season Jacksonville and Philadelphia are just one victory away each from accomplishing the feat again.

THE BOISTEROUS JAGUARS

If you want to say the Patriots are a quiet team, outside of tight end Rob Gronkowski, that would be fair. But if you believe the Jaguars are quiet, that wouldn’t be an accurate statement. Led by cornerback Jalen Ramsey, the Jaguars have been a pretty confident bunch to put it mildly. After beating the Steelers in the AFC divisional round, several Jaguars from cornerback A.J. Bouye, safety Barry Church and others let everybody know what they felt about the Steelers. And after that win, Ramsey guaranteed the Jags would not only beat the Patriots in the AFC title game but win the Super Bowl at a pep rally.

It’s prompted the Patriots to take a quiet approach when asked about it.

Ramsey hasn’t backed away.

“Yeah, why not, man,” Ramsey said. “I say what the team is thinking but might not want to say it. I think other guys on the team can probably do the same. They can back it up, that’s not who they are or their personality. But it’s 2.0.”

BRONCOS BEAT TOM BRADY, TOO

While Tom Coughlin has two Super Bowl victories over Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, the Denver Broncos can make a claim of knocking them out of the postseason. It was the Broncos defeating the Patriots in the 2015 AFC Championship Game. Brady was sacked four times and intercepted twice in that contest. Jaguars defensive end Malik Jackson, who played on that Broncos’ team, said the Jaguars downloaded game film from that title game.

“I just told them the thought process we had going into that game as far as what we were thinking,” Jackson said. “Rushing Tom Brady and what we had to do to beat the offensive line. I’ve shared a few tidbits, but these guys have been doing great all year, so just continue to do what they’ve been doing and I’m not going to give them too much to overdo them.”