The art of the Teal: Jaguars fans celebrating a playoff run that defies belief and metrics

What's one to make of this team?

The Jaguars' playoff run has been dissected, analyzed and examined. The only thing that's clear is the modern metrics don't have an answer for coach Doug Pederson's "cockroaches" — so named by safety Rayshawn Jenkins, because they refuse to die.

• Teams that lose the turnover battle by five or more in the NFL playoffs had never won in 26 such games. That was until the Jaguars overcome four Trevor Lawrence interceptions and a muffed punt last Saturday to beat the Los Angeles Chargers 31-30 in the first round of the playoffs with 70,250 delirious fans beside themselves at TIAA Bank Field.

More Jaguars playoff coverage

Gene Frenette: Not easy for Chiefs — or anybody — to kill Jacksonville 'cockroaches'

'One play at a time': The plays that led to the Jaguars' historic playoff comeback

Jaguars-Chiefs predictions:Are any NFL experts picking Jacksonville to pull the upset?

• Only two teams trailing by 27 or more points in the playoffs had ever rallied to win the game. The Jaguars made it three.

• Before this season the Jaguars were 1-116 in games they trailed by 17 points or more points. This season, they're 3-2.

• At one point in the first half, the Jaguars’ probability to win the game was 1.5 percent.

Who does that? From what well do 53 players draw that kind of resolve and will?

Let's forget the experts and the analysts and the talking heads for a moment. Let's not try to figure this remarkable season out by crunching numbers.

Let's listen to the fans, who judge from the heart and not from probabilities.

But sometimes that offers the best explanation.

Lorie Irizarry of Jacksonville, a long-time season ticket holder, thinks she has an answer. To illustrate her point she harkens back to the pivotal scene in the movie "Rocky III" when former heavyweight champion Rocky Balboa is in a rematch with the man who took his belt, Clubber Lang.

Rocky, trained for the rematch by the man he beat to win the heavyweight championship, Apollo Creed, is taking a beating from his bigger, stronger and meaner opponent. Creed, working Rocky's corner, is clearly distressed.

"Apollo Creed yells, 'he's getting killed,'" Irizarry said last week while dining at Jacksonville Beach sports bar Sneakers with her friend Tina Belazeros of St. Augustine, another season-ticket holder from the origin of the franchise. "Then Paulie [Balboa's brother-in-law] tells him, 'No he's not ... he's getting mad!'

"I think that's what these guys do," Irizarry said. "When it looks like they're getting killed, they get mad."

Playoff run now hits the road

Jaguars fans are now dressed up, hyped up and jacked up — with no place to go.

Last week's victory over the Chargers in the first round of the NFL playoffs at TIAA Bank Field, sends the Jags (10-8) to the next round. But because No. 2-seeded Buffalo and No. 3 Cincinnati both won, the No. 4 Jags not only have to play at No. 1 Kansas City (14-3) on Saturday at 4:30 p.m., but their home schedule is over for the rest of the season, however long it lasts.

It could be one game. At this point, who's betting the ranch it won't be three?

And it was quite a run on "The Bank" this season. The Jaguars beat Las Vegas, Baltimore, Dallas, Tennessee and the Chargers at home, the latter three in front of sell-out crowds averaging 69,783. They trailed in the second half in all five, and won them all.

If the Jags upset the Chiefs, they will play at the home field of the Buffalo-Cincinnati winner in the AFC Championship game Jan. 29. That would be for a berth in the Super Bowl on Feb. 12 in Glendale, Ariz.

The home season ending doesn't mean Jags mania has cooled off. Aside from a few who will have the wherewithal to travel to Arrowhead Stadium, the options for watching the game will be at Daily's Place, adjacent to The Bank (fans must pre-register for the free tickets by visiting jaguars.com/playoffs) at home, at in sports bars.

Tweets by Jaguars

Fans still want to look good doing it. And before the game, they've wanted to talk Jaguars football — with each other in person, at the water cooler, on social media, loading up the lines on talk radio ... really, any place where there are other like-minded Teal-clad friends.

"I took my wife to dinner Sunday night, and people were wearing Jags stuff and talking about the Jags," said Frank Frangie, the team's radio play-by-play announcer whose signature line, "How good is that!" has become a rallying cry. "I took her to breakfast on Monday and people were wearing Jags stuff and talking about the Jags. I'm pumping gas and people yell at me, 'how good is that!' Everyone wants to talk about the Jags. Everyone wants to share how they're feeling with other Jags fans. It's very cool."

Jaguars fans praise players, coach 'who want to be here'

The passion for the team and the current six-game winning streak has energized and galvanized the First Coast only 12 months after the disastrous 2021 season drew to a merciful close. The Jaguars were 3-14 (2-11 before Urban Meyer was fired), bringing the record since 2018 to 15-50 — 4-29 over the previous two seasons.

The only reward was getting the top overall pick in 2021 and drafting quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Fans are amazed at what a difference a year has made under coach Doug Pederson, who has fixed a broken franchise with equal parts professionalism, positivity and competence.

"We had lost hope," Irizarry said. "But Doug Pederson and Trevor Lawrence have bonded so well. Even in the first half of the season, when they were losing games, you got the sense something good was coming."

"It's a team that plays well under pressure," Belazeros said. "We're not used to that."

"I can't watch sometimes," said Roberta Marazo of Jacksonville, a retired First Union loan specialist who used to write loans for fans to purchase season tickets before the team's inaugural season in 1995. "Every game is close. But after last year, this has been just incredible."

Dennis Haddock of Jacksonville believes there is finally a core of players who embrace wearing the teal.

"I think they brought in coaches and players who want to be here," he said. "They're not out for themselves or the money."

So without a home game this week, what's a Jaguars fan to do?

It's simple: dress the part, talk the talk and walk the walk — straight to a big-screen TV with other Jags fans, wherever that might be.

Fashion sense: Jags fans looking good

Perhaps the busiest place on Third Street at Jacksonville Beach isn't a restaurant, bar or retail store.

It's Sports Mania, where Jaguar fans have been showing up every day since the team staged its turnaround in November to purchase teal and black merchandise and clothing.

Sports Mania is a family business and Mathew Smith, who runs the store for his father, founder and CEO John Smith, said sales are "2017 times three."

"Fans are obsessed right now," said Smith, who also sells real estate but can be found at the store every day, elbows deep in the latest box of shirts, hats and jerseys and helping around 10 employees -- triple the number he usually has working at the store — put them on racks and shelves. "They love Doug Pederson and his play-calling, they love the players and they feel like most of them aren't going anywhere. They're with this team for a long time to come."

Smith's inventory doesn't stay shelved and racked very long. So many people came to the store the week of the Titans home game that he rented a small tent in the parking lot because they were getting close to the maximum number of people allowed on the premises.

Last week he got a shipment of 618 Jaguar winter hats. They sold out within an hour. Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne jerseys last about as long as Etienne's 40-yard dash time.

Want Jaguar flip-flops? Slippers? Long socks with a likeness of Lawrence?

House flags? Car flags? Key chains?

Move fast. Because the merchandise is.

One of the customers on Monday was 86-year-old Vita Hope of Neptune Beach. She's had season tickets since the franchise was born in 1995 and said she has 28 years' worth of Jaguars swag.

But here she was at Sports Mania, with a new Jaguar sweatshirt and t-shirt in a plastic bag, adding to her teal wardrobe.

"I have a closet full of Jaguars clothing and I still buy more," she said. "You can't have enough.

Hope said this season has energized the town and she derives pleasure at the games by sitting in her section 147 seat and watching her fellow fans get crazy and get happy.

"I love football ... been with this team from the beginning," she said. "I go to every game and see people having fun. I think that does me good. I think this team is very good with the community and the fans. They seem to really love us."

Stan Crouse of Jacksonville, another season ticket-holder since 1995, was also positively giddy after a shopping trip to Sports Mania.

"There's a lot of pride in this team and our city right," he said. "But this team has a different feel to it than 2017. I think we have the coach and quarterback combination that we've seen in other successful teams and we can be great every year if we can keep Doug and Trevor."

Talk soup: All Jags talk, all the time

Fans who want to talk Jaguars or listen to the take of the resident experts have been able to go from before sunup to long after sundown on their radio, streaming device or TV.

It starts at 6 a.m. on 1010XL with Jeff Prosser and Dan Hicken on "The Drill," and ends 16 hours later when Ryan "The Hacker" Green signs off at 10 p.m. after two hours of "Hacker After Dark."

Between those two shows on the Jaguars' official radio station are "Jaguars Today" with Mike Dempsey, "Fat Tony" Smith and former Jags quarterback David Garrard, "XL Prime Time" with Joe Cowart, Matt Hayes, Mia O'Brien and former Jags tackle Leon Searcy, "The Frangie Show" with Hays Carylon and Lauren Brooks and "Into the Night" with Rick Ballou.

Mixed in is J.P. Shadrick's "Jaguars Happy Hour," with Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony Boselli and Pete Prisco of cbssports.com; the Doug Pederson Show with Shadrick and Jeff Lagemann; and "Helmets and Heels" with O'Brien, Brooks, Taylor Doll and Donna Murphy.

In all, that's 90 hours to feed an insatiable appetite for Jaguars talk.

ESPN 690 counters with 25 hours of radio programming with Brent Martineau on "Monday Morning Madness" from 8-10 a.m., "Brent & Friends" from 3-6 p.m., "Overtime" with Kasey Khurts and Brian Middleton and Game Day Live four hours before kickoff.

Prefer your couch and big-screen TV?

Action Sports has had two live TV shows during the season, "Jags Report Live" on Mondays at Sneakers and "Jaguars All-Access" on Thursdays at Strings, plus their recent "Chase for the Championship" daily.

Add the radio and TV programming and Jaguars fans view or listen to analysis and discussion for more than 130 hours -- or more than five days of Teal talk.

Phone lines on the programs that allow fans to call in are almost always backed up. When radio and TV shows go to remote locations, restaurant managers often have to turn people away at the door.

And social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook enable fans to rant and rave in real-time.

Social media resulted in Lawrence's trip to Waffle House with teammates and their wives in the early-morning hours after beating the Chargers going viral and getting as much national media attention as his four TD passes that night.

"The most Duval thing ever," posted one fan.

"Right now, everyone wants to share their feelings about this team with everyone else," Frangie said. "Everyone wants to talk about the Jags."

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry calls Frangie's show to weigh in. Fans from as far away as Australia and points in between listen to live streams and call.

Some want to offer their take on a game plan or play call (and many Jags fans do their homework).

Others merely want to unleash a "Duuuval!!!" on the air.

Martineau said Jaguar fans feel good and want to share that in any way they can.

"Everybody wants to talk about this team," he said. "If they can't talk at work they're going to get on social media, they're going to call their favorite station, they're going to come to Strings or Sneakers. Everybody's pulling in one direction."

Where to watch the Jags vs. Chiefs

Hundreds of fans came out to TIAA Bank Field to send off the team Friday morning as players and coaches headed to the airport. For Saturday, the biggest gathering promises to be at Daily's Place (with a capacity of 5,500) across a plaza from the South End Zone of TIAA Bank Field. Fans can begin arriving at 3 p.m. for the 4:30 kickoff. Parking and admission are free (with pre-registration).

The team isn't missing a trick: fans can make deposits on their 2023 season tickets.

The next option is the numerous First Coast sports bars and fans should also plan ahead.

Owners and managers of the establishments started noticing a difference in the crowds for game days when the Jaguars began making their run for the playoffs.

In past years, when the Jaguars were struggling, there wouldn't be that many Jaguars fans watching home games at sports bars. But beginning with the victory over Dallas, that dynamic has changed: they're packed, whether the team is home or away.

"When the Jaguars played Dallas, it was about half-and-half Jags and Cowboys fans," said Randall Roberts, the manager of Sneakers at Jacksonville Beach. "There was even a couple of groups of Cowboy sand Jags fans who were getting into it with each other. But since then, the Jaguar fans are coming out more, even when they're at home. Sometimes they'd be outnumbered by Packers or Steelers fans. Not this season."

Tana Wright, the manager at Island Wings at Tinseltown, said it was just as full for the Chargers and Titans games, when the Jaguars sold out at home, as when they're on the road.

"We're allowed 325 people at a time and we had a 90-minute wait for tables," she said. "Jaguar fans are taking over."

Wright said the atmosphere for Jaguars games at Island Wings has been so electric, "you can touch it."

"The whole place is energized," she said. "It's palpable. Fans are really excited about this team and it's been a joy to watch as the season has gone on. And Jaguars fans are really good people who are having a really good time right now."

That feeling is captured in the glow and optimism held by Vita Hope.

"We can do it if we want to do it," she said. "There shouldn't be any reason for us to lose any more games."

One thing’s for certain: the Jags will believe they have a chance until the clock hits 0:00.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Jaguars fans get passionate about NFL playoffs run