By CHARLIE
BERNSTEIN
JagNation.com
Editor
After 11 games, the Jaguars sit with a 6-5 record, which is good for a share of first place in the AFC South. To a certain extent, this team has overachieved, as few picked them to be in playoff contention and play meaningful games in December.
If you rewind just one year, the Jaguars sat with a 7-5 record after 12 games. Again, they were a good story and considered by many as overachievers, especially with a mostly young core of players. Everyone knows how the 2009 season finished, with four consecutive losses and speculation about the jobs of the head coach and quarterback.
Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio wants his team to learn from past successes and not dwell on the recent failures.
"It's really more of what we learned in '05 and '07," Del Rio said. "I think those are the best examples. A team that just continued to work, and find a way to win and that's really what it's all about, taking advantage of your opportunities."
This season it's time for the Jaguars to get a little greedy down the stretch. Jacksonville needs to embrace being more than just a tough out week-to-week and start playing like true contenders.
"We want to build on the success that we've had around here," Del Rio said. "We've been fortunate enough to fight our way into the position the majority of the time that I've been here, and so we just want to make sure we do like we did in those two years where we were able to fight our way into the postseason."
Playing like a true contender means winning on the road late in the season, which is something that Jacksonville hasn't done in nearly three years. The Jaguars have road trips to Tennessee, Indianapolis and Houston remaining, and the team hasn't won a road game past Thanksgiving since 2007 (0-6).
Del Rio doesn't buy into that harsh but completely accurate statistic.
"You can look for stats and find stats that are amazingly negative or very positive, and I would just say that depending on how you want to build your sample, you can find whatever you're looking for," Del Rio said.
This isn't a statistic about "first down runs in the third quarter when playing on grass during four o'clock starts." This is a legitimate statistic that reflects that the Jaguars have not won away from Duval County late in the season.
This strongly plays into their dismal finishes and if they're going to get over the hump and win their first AFC South title, and procure the home playoff game that comes with it, they're going to have to have success against their division and on the road.
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