Jaguars are Super Bowl contenders no one expected

Games like the Week 9 one the Jacksonville Jaguars dominated against the Ravens Thursday are a bit frustrating because this was supposed to be a prime-time matchup between two potential playoff contenders, and depending onhow each team looked, potential Super Bowl participants.

But the Jags met a wounded Ravens team in what turned into a torrential downpour in Baltimore and did what they should have done; they put those wounded birds out of their misery with a 33-10 beating.

But despite the competition not being as game as one would hope, the Jags still showed that they aren’t a team to be taken lightly in the AFC with the way they left no doubt and didn’t play around with the Ravens.

Jags are outperforming expectations

The Jags went 13-4 last season but lost in the Wild Card round to the Buffalo Bills 27-24. But Jacksonville didn’t do much to add to their roster in the offseason with running back Chris Rodriguez Jr.’s two-year $10 million deal being the highest profile addition.

They also lost contributors like Travis Etienne, Devin Lloyd, and Greg Newsome.

So, few were expecting the Jags to be one of the AFC’s best teams.

Coming into the season, the Jags over/under was 8.5 wins, with -125 odds to miss the playoffs.

Their Super Bowl odds were +3000. Now at 6-2, the Jags have the fourth-best odds to make the Super Bowl at +950 with a 12+ wins expectation, according to Covers.com.

Jags led by their defense

While their victory over the Ravens doesn’t count towards this list, the Jags do have more than a few impressive wins on their resume. They beat the Bengals on the road, and trounced New England and Cleveland by wide margins.

Their 34-31 loss to Houston was an outlier because 34 points is by far the most points the Jags defense has given up this season. In their only other loss, Week 2 against the Broncos, Denver only scored 20 points, but the Broncos defense held the Jags to just 13 points.

While the Jaguars pass defense has been below mediocre, allowing 253.9 yards per game, fourth-worst in the league, their rush defense has been dominant, allowing a league-best 77.4 yards per game.

They’re also not letting teams score. The Jaguars are allowing just 15.9 points per game this season, second in the league behind the Vikings. They’ve only allowed 12 touchdowns all season, just 4 of which have come on the ground through nine weeks.