Claws Out, Trophies Missing: Jacksonville Jaguars (Ep. 6)

Hello, I’m Trevor, your executive VP of Rival Tears. And I’m Zach, director of strategic suffering. And this is the Misery Sports Company, the official refuge for fans who’ve endured more heartbreak than highlight reels. If your team has ever made a coaching change halfway through the season, then you and I belong at MSC too soon. Each week, we reluctantly check in on our teams, the Browns and Titans, and stay true to our mission statement here at Misery Sports Co. Survive another week of bad sports and laugh through the pain. That’s right. And last week’s meeting, we took a pause from the deep dives and jumped into the break room, a metaphysical universe where we dug into the trauma and genesis of sports fandom, in addition to reflections on our first batch of episodes. That’s right. But in today’s meeting, we’ll have a similar or familiar format. We’re going to jump into our weekly earnings report. We’ll celebrate some moral victories like we do while checking in at the mail room, and then we’ll end with a deep dive from Trevor as well as our pep talks. But before we dive in, we’ve got to thank our loyal sponsors, the only ones willing to stick with us through all the losing seasons and emotional damage. This first sponsor actually is a pivot, so we were not going to accept the New York Jets money. This this episode, because there’s a lot of content from the Jets. Uh, but I actually called an audible and I’d like to, uh, to call on the sponsor Bob Stoops goal line special. If you ever need a special goal line play, it’s going to be a halfback. Run up the middle five different times, and he’s going to jump over the line and he’s going to get stuffed playing against Texas. Thank you, Bob Stoops. Thank you. And thank you for sending those plays to your brother Mark in Kentucky who coaches coaches the Wildcats. We appreciate that. No. It’s weird. It’s weird that he paid to sponsor this. Hold on, hold on. If you. If you type in Kentucky, Bob Stoops, it says it refers. To Bob Stoops freaking Mark. It’s Bob Stoops brother. He shouldn’t even be the freaking coach of of Kentucky. I was about to say Cincinnati. Might as well be Cincinnati. He might. Mark Stoops. Get out of here. He. We watched the game. It was. It was so bad. It was so bad. And that happens once a year with Kentucky. They will, uh, you know, they’ll get close with the team that they have no business being close with. And it’s right there. All they have to do is walk through the door, and they can’t. They can’t do it. What a waste of time. What was that? Two two over over time. Did it go to overtime? No. Bob. Bill! Mark. Stoops! Stop! Stop it with your nonsense. Just stop. Well, hey, shout out to the whole Stoops family. Honestly, I’m pretty sure his other brother runs defense or something for him. Because I saw another Stoops running up and down the sideline, but I didn’t see that. Hey, thanks for standing by. The fans who never see that kind of loyalty from their own teams. We couldn’t do this without you. Stoops family. Literally. All right, well, it’s time for the weekly earnings report where we audit the performance of our two biggest disappointments, the Cleveland Browns and the Tennessee Titans. Mhm. And after completing my audit of the Titans it’s looking fraudulent. It’s so bad I lamented on this podcast last week that we had to play the Patriots, whose coach is our former coach Mike Vrabel. And predictably the entire narrative around the week was cannot believe they got rid of Vrabel. Why would they do that? Look what they did. The Titans are idiots and honestly, they deserve almost all of that. And it was a frustrating week of hearing about the Titans nationally, which we’re always saying, hey, you know, no press is bad press. This was kind of bad press though. Uh, the Titans lose thirty one to thirteen at home against Mike Vrabel and the Patriots. Some things to take away from the game. But mostly the heartache was just like elsewhere. I will say the first quarter that earnings report from the Titans looks great. Thumbs up two thumbs up. We actually saw excuse me. We saw signs of progress and hope. And we here at MSI know that it is the hope that will kill you. Um but you gotta have it or else you’re not invested at all. You can’t get. There’s no misery without hope that there’s just I don’t know how else to describe that. And I got hope on Sunday with cam Ward and some of the other youngsters. So we actually the Titans went up ten to three in this game. Field goal on the first drive. Super positive. Held the Patriots to a field goal on their first drive. And honestly for this defense super positive like we’ll take it. They we scored a touchdown on our second possession. So we’re up ten three. This is great. We force a punt. So at the end of the first quarter we’re up ten to three. And cam Ward had a really nice like a forty yard touchdown pass to one of our rookie wide receivers. Uh Kim DK who is the leading. You know what I have not checked after last week, but going into last week, he was the best return man in the game. Uh, so he was flashing but had not been targeted in the passing game much. Well, because Calvin Ridley was hurt, which our official position is that he is a well-meaning, loving corpse and shell of a human. Uh, he was hurt, and so DK got some playing time. Apparently, Kim Ward said after after the game that that play call had been on the play sheet for three to four weeks and he was excited to see it get called. So it’s that, you know, new coach, uh, bump that you get when you fire your coach. They actually called the good play that was on the back of the spreadsheet. If Brian Callahan had only listened to this podcast, second quarter, things go downhill a bit. We do get another field goal, but this is so frustrating. I cannot remember Zach the last time I came in here or honestly in life. Like we might have to go back to like five years where we talked and I said, hey, the Titans handled the end of the first half really well. I don’t remember the last time we said that. Do you? I sure don’t. No no, no. And guess what? They did not handle the end of the first half well at all. We after that field goal. The Patriots scored a touchdown. There was only a minute and a half left. The Patriots scored a touchdown three plays, fifty nine seconds. So not great. We’re down by four. Let’s go get after it though. There’s a minute left. Let’s go. Get after it. Let’s move the ball. We got Joey Slye. He’s nailing field goal. Long field goals. Let’s get after it. No. Our coach said you know what? We good. We literally ran up the gut slow walked to the next play, took two more plays, had no interest in moving the football down the field whatsoever and just gave up. Just absolutely gave up. And it’s not like we were getting the ball in the third quarter. So after all that momentum to just pack it in and say, nah, we’re good with. This was really deflating for fans and I think it was deflating for the players too. The second half, no bueno. Uh, cam Ward has small hands. Did you know that? No, I didn’t. I knew Kenny Pickett had small hands. Yeah. Well put. Put cam Ward in that club. Uh, they have to have special cell phones made for them or something. They they have small hands. And cam has had these really bad fumbles where there’s no pressure on him. He just loses the ball. It’s like he squeezes it out of his own hand. Uh, had another one of those. Really bad. Um, the Patriots flip a switch in the second half. That’s the thing about Vrabel. It was fun when he was our coach. That dude is like a shark. And when he smells blood in the water, they’re gonna attack. They’re, you know, if if they’ve been playing conservative, but all of a sudden you show a little weakness or a little indecisiveness. They’re going to attack. So they flipped a switch. Didn’t go great in the second half, but overall gave me some hope. Uh, cam Ward was twenty five of thirty four with two fifty five. His best performance as a rookie saw some flashes from some other folks. The defense is hot garbage. Uh, which is weird. Uh, another thing why it flipped was our best defensive player. Big Jeff Simmons in the middle. He got hurt, and he got hurt after, uh, Vrabel was on a ref saying, why didn’t they get a call? And Big Jeff hit him with the cry harder like tears. And then Jeffrey Simmons is in street clothes in the second half. So that went great. Tough look. Um, just kind of soul crushing as a fan to, like, Read a bunch of news stories about how, because, you know, they were gonna I don’t know what’s a nice what’s a nice word? Puff up, dribble after this. Like they were gonna, you know, sing his praises and how great he is and what a great story. And he deserves a lot of it. Um. We’ll see. Just to provide some context, I did want to share one piece of audio. So this was back in twenty thirteen. This was right before the end of the Vrabel stint. During our bye week, he went to the New England Patriots game for half time because he was going to be honored at halftime into their Ring of Honor or their Hall of Fame, whatever they call it, I forget. And so he literally went on our bye week to go get inducted, which fine, but I want to play you the end of his acceptance speech. So this was to all of the fans in New England. I want to play this for you, but I also want you not to take this for granted. I’ve been a lot of places. This is a special place with great leadership, great fans, great direction, great coaching. Enjoy it. It’s not like this everywhere. Thank you very much. So that was while he’s still the coach of the Tennessee Titans. It’s during a bye week. Little foreshadowing a little bit. And already throwing shade at like your own organization. Like I don’t care if that’s not you know how it was meant. That’s how it came off. Sitting here as a Titans fan, I remember seeing that like, oh, it’s you’re going to go tell the greatest organization in the world. It’s not like that everywhere. Like, dude, you’re our coach. Like, what are you doing? So there was already tension and friction. Um, and and I play that just to demonstrate he was ready to go to the Patriots. This man is a patriot for life. He loves that franchise. I’m glad it worked out for him. And I hope that Titans fans are ready to just and national media is ready to just move on. I’m sure we won’t, but that’s where I am with that. Yeah, that’s tough. You know that’s tough. And I saw all right. So um, we talked about the offensive stats, right. And the Browns and the Titans were one two. The Tennessee Titans after this week have reclaimed their throne at the bottom of the, uh, the NFL in offense, thirteen point seven points per game. I think you guys are at thirteen point eight last week. So you’re consistent. We were and scored thirteen this week. So that’s us baby. Let’s go. Yeah so what a week. So Zach what uh what results are we reporting out to the company on your end? You know what? Uh, we actually had some, uh, some profits this week. Uh, strangely. So we ended up the Browns, ended up playing the Miami Dolphins. And this is another game, right? We talked about, uh, when the Browns won a game at the beginning of this year against the Packers, how it was really fool’s gold. And that is absolutely what happened this week. So our defense, uh, which is fantastic put to uh, in a blender. So he threw for one hundred yards three interceptions. One of them was a pick six. Um, you would think that, you know, winning thirty one to six, that the Browns offense would be, you know, decent. They weren’t uh, so Dylan Gabriel had one hundred and eighteen passing yards. Um, Judkins was just north of one hundred yards or. No, I don’t even think he hit one hundred yards rushing. But he had three touchdowns to. Yeah. Again, it’s it’s a situation where your defense gave you a ton of short fields. And, um, Dylan Gabriel just isn’t. He’s he’s checking down way too much. He’s not giving the offense a chance. I know they were playing conservative, right. Because they knew that Tua was just not he was not having himself a game. Um, but yeah, a win’s a win. You gotta take it. Um, unfortunately, up next we have the wonderful New England Patriots. Hey, yo. So we will be trading opponents and taking on Mike Vrabel in, in New England. Um, not feeling great about that, but I, I guess I feel for the Miami Dolphins fan base. I think there’s certainly a candidate for a deep dive. Um, you know, they really haven’t had a ton of success. It seems like I don’t know, do you think McDaniels is done? Has to be has to be I, I just there were comments from Tua. And regardless of what you think about Tua, you just gave him a boatload of cash. Like he’s not going anywhere. Uh, and when he makes comments the way he did this week, I think he’s got to, uh. Titans fans are already clamoring for McDaniels. Um, as the OC to whatever. Mike McDaniel is it McDaniels or McDaniel? Whatever. Mike, whatever his name is. Uh, d Mickey d they’re clamoring for him for the OC until he gets another head coaching job, which I’m I’m fine with. Under the right head coach, if we can get some some stank in here, I’m. I’m cool with. I think you’ll be McDaniels the Patriots. I you know we’ve got a level of physicality and the Patriots don’t scare me from an offensive standpoint. But we just don’t we don’t have the weapons right now. We don’t have anybody that scares you. That can point put points on the board. Mhm. Um yeah I agree with with McDaniel I think he’s done unfortunately like he’s really quirky and that’s cool when you’re winning, but when you’re losing, people are like, what are you doing? One hundred percent. It’s the weird stuff with Russell Wilson. When you’re winning, cool when you’re not. Oh, so again, I feel for the Dolphins. I don’t hate our chances against the Patriots, but also we just don’t have enough firepower right now. So we shall see. But that’s our weekly earnings report a harsh reminder that in sports, misery is guaranteed. But somehow we keep coming back for more. Why do we why do we? If you’re wondering why we do see last episode when we stepped into the break room, you’ll have all your answers. And you can catch former episodes on Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts. Before we fumble into the next segment, let’s huddle up and give a shout out to one of our fearless sponsors. Are you getting older but have lots of unfinished business you don’t want to leave to your kids? Well, now you don’t have to. With Jerry Jones, devil juice live an unusually long life. Given how hard you’ve gone in life with JJ, DJ and then. So Jerry sent us a clip, but I can’t get the audio working. But I have a transcript, so I’ll just. I’ll read it. I’ll, I’ll try and do a. Okay. What I think it sounds like. Okay. Hey, boy, get over here. Let me tell you about this. Devil juice stuff will make you live forever. People complain about the sun coming in. Man that sun and double their curtains. I’m living forever, baby. With Jerry Jones. Devil juice. Wow. We would, uh, we would be nowhere if we. If we didn’t have Jerry Jones devil juice. Uh. So, Jerry, thank you. Thank you for still being here. Thanks for being a part of the program. Yeah, I am, you know what in my fault for not. I couldn’t get the audio to work. So next time, you know, when they send it in, I’ll try and get it, but I, I just read the the transcript. So we’ll get. Yeah. Take your time, Jerry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, so let’s, uh, let’s give credit where it’s due and dish out some hard earned pats on the back in the Office of Moral Victories. That’s right. At MSC, failing spectacularly isn’t a flaw. It’s a strategy. Still, corporate mandates that we hand out some shiny hardware. So our first employee of the week goes to this young Jets fan. Uh, we both saw this clip. And if you’re like me, when you heard this, you thought nothing says misery Sports company. Like what this young man’s going through. So this is from outside of a Jets Panthers game, I believe. And somebody came up and asked, uh, hey, what’s your initial reaction to this game? And this was the response I get your thoughts on the game. I hate this team. I was born into this, and I. I’m not going to ever. I’m always a Jets fan, but, like, I just. I hate this team. Poor guy. Just hates this team. And like he said, he was born into it. He didn’t choose this for himself. He was born into it. He’s always going to love this team, but man, does he hate this team. And gosh, I felt that in my soul. I completely agree with you. That’s like me twenty years ago. You’re just like you’re getting into your fandom. You’re looking forward to the year. And then all of a sudden Justin Fields is just throwing hand grenades. You know, we’ll get to the the ownership team just completely crumbling at this point. Your head coach looks just confused at this point. Yes. Um, but I’ll encourage him. Things can change. They never did for me. But maybe they will for you. Maybe they will. And in the name of mandatory optimism, we have to hand out one more. Zack. Who else managed to earn the hardware? You know what? I’m going to give the employee of the week to a Browns player. So this is going to go to Tyson Campbell. So Tyson Campbell was the part of the trade with the Jaguars that we had recently. Uh, we traded, uh, Newsom. Greg Newsom, one of our cornerbacks for Tyson Campbell, had no idea who he was. Um, he actually ended up with the pick six this game. So congratulations to Tyson. Defense is playing stellar. Please. Someone on the offense. For the love of God, give me something, please. And while those plaques are destined for the back of a closet somewhere, it’s time to shift gears and sort through the highlights. Let’s check in at the mail room for this week’s top posts. Trevor Watts landed in your inbox. My entry from the mail room this week actually comes from the post game of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the San Francisco forty niners. It is audio that I can’t share with you because it actually doesn’t pick it up. But there was an unedited version of this. And so just a shout out to Nick Wagoner, uh, who is an ESPN reporter, uh, for the forty Niners for actually getting us this gold. And in this, the players and coaches are on the field. This is after the game. Everybody’s shaking hands in this unedited version of this video. Forty Niners defensive coordinator, defensive coordinator Robert Saleh to Jaguars head coach Liam Cohen. After Cohen tells him to keep my name out your freaking mouth, Robert Saleh says to him, I’ll fuck your world up. You don’t want to fuck with me. I will fucking end your fucking life. And I just thought, that’s so great. And we have so many of these conversations that happen every game that we never get to know about. I mean, this happens all the time. And so a huge shout out to Nick for actually finding the unedited version of this and letting us know what happened. Maybe he was close by on the field and got to actually listen to it, but I thought that was so great. Wouldn’t you pay extra for like, unedited audio down on the field, like during games and stuff? Oh for sure. That’s like a Tropic Thunder quote. Like that’s something that Tom cruise would would be yelling in his fat suit with his bald hair, telling him to bend over and do stuff to his own face. Yeah, that is the same energy. So congrats. That is my tweet of the week, a digital work of art in the gallery of misery. How about you, Zach? All right, so my submission is from the New York Jets. It’s actually, um, Ari Mayorov again. He is, uh, shown up in the Twittersphere. It’s something that I’d like to share. It’s a video. Um, so there’s some audio here from the Jets owner, Woody Johnson that I’d like to share. So here we go. What’s your confidence level in Aaron? To turn it around? Well, it looks like he’s turning around parts of it. You know, it’s hard when you have a quarterback with, you know, with a rating that, uh, that we got, you know, it’s I mean he has the ability, but something just is not jiving. Um, but if you look at any, any head coach of the quarterback like that, you’re going to see similar results if you go across the league. Um, excuse me that, sir, that is your starting quarterback. You can’t say this dude sucks. Look at his ratings. Of course the coach is going to struggle, bro. What? Oh my Like, gosh, he wants to be near PR so bad. I know, and Jerry doesn’t have PR, right? He’s just no, no, he’s a he’s a whole show. No. Woody come on man, like do better. Just do better. I mean, you can’t talk to the press like that. Not even about Justin Fields, right? He’s been terrible. But any other player, if they have a couple of rough games, they’re not going to want to sign with you as a free agent. So you gotta. You gotta be careful with that, dude. What are you doing? Um. So beautifully tragic. Utterly hopeless. And exactly the fuel that MSC thrives on. Congrats to this week’s honorees. Your rewards are in route somewhere near our team’s long lost playoff dreams. And now, a quick tip of the cap to our next sponsor. Keeping the lights on while we celebrate the misery. I will not screw up a coach’s name for this sponsorship. We would like to thank the Saints fourth quarter fizzle energy drinks the only energy drink that guarantees you’ll crash before the final whistle. Perfect for fans who like their offense strong in the first half and invisible when it counts. I wish they would not send over cartons of Quick Fizzle to the Titans because we’re just chugging that stuff. Not great, not great. Um, but thank you to the Saints and the Saints fans. Hang in there. You’re part of Misery Sports Co. Um, you know, visit our website WW misery Sports co com. Go ahead and visit our Spotify website as well or Apple Podcasts. Uh, but now it is time for our deep dive. We’re plunging into head first into the trials, tears and occasional triumphs of a long suffering fan base. What do you got for us today, Trevor? I want to take you back to two thousand and two. Young Trevor is in eighth grade going to a new middle school. His mom took him to Marshalls to get some new school clothes, and on the rack he saw a sweet ass jersey that had amazing colors. The logo was cool and on the back, said Taylor. And he thought, you know what? Time to make this jersey. A small part of my personality was not a good choice, but darn it, if he didn’t love that and wore it with the same black athletic shorts that had a yellow stripe down it because it matched their mascot. I am, of course talking about the great Fred Taylor, who of course played for the Jacksonville Jaguars. So we are staying in the NFL today and talking about the Titans AFC South division neighbors, the Jacksonville Jaguars. Thus the very fun tie in with Liam Coen and Robert Saleh telling him that he would end his effing life. Um, the Jaguars have been around for exactly thirty years. They were granted an expansion team in a pretty surprising manner, because Jacksonville is not that big of a city. You think about all of the expansion teams that we’ve had. It was very surprising, uh, that we were getting another Florida team. Um, but they were granted this in ninety four and got an expansion team in ninety five. Zach, what are some of the what are some of the things that come to mind when I mentioned that Jacksonville Jaguars. Ooh. All right. So from a player perspective Mark Brunell. Oh lefty. Oh yeah I do remember Fred Taylor around the same time. And I have some really dark memories of So the Jacksonville Jaguars, um, bottlegate. So. Oh, no. Bottlegate. It was with the Jacksonville Jaguars. They, uh. Long story short, they reviewed a play they never should have Jacksonville beat us the Cleveland Browns. And really we were pretty close to the playoffs. And uh our fans tossed not plastic bottles at the time. They were glass bottles at at the referees. There was malice in those throws. So that’s my Jacksonville Jaguars memory. What a fun time with the Jacksonville Jags. Um there I think they are a franchise squarely in the kind of misery that we talk about at MSK, I really do. They have tasted brief stints of success. And unlike the last time I did a deep dive where we talked about the Mariners also, uh. er. I’m sorry Mariners. What a run though. Did you see game seven at all? Oh I did. It was an awesome game. It was so awesome that Springer Home Run was really cool. I felt so bad for the Mariners and it was cool that it happened in Toronto and stuff. But shout out on a great season. I hope that core stays together and you all climb the mountain soon. But unlike the Mariners who struggled to get going, they didn’t taste the playoffs for years. Uh, the the Jaguars found success basically immediately. So they hired Tom Coughlin, who would later win Super Bowls with the New York Giants. They hired him from Boston College. He had been a really successful college coach, hired him to be the first coach of the Jaguars. And they found success almost immediately. So their first season in ninety five, uh, which ninety five? I would have guessed before I started looking into this, I would have guessed that this franchise started in two thousand. Like those early or those late nineties. Teams for me are kind of a blur. But they were incredible for this franchise. So their first season in ninety five, they go four and twelve finish at the bottom of the division. Uh, they have Mark Brunell settling into it. But the very next season they go nine and seven. They make the playoffs. And then they surprise, they get they rattle off two wins, so they rattle off a win. Um, uh, over the bills and the Broncos, both on the road to get to the AFC Championship game. And this is from a nine and seven team. So really surprising. Uh, they eventually lose to the Patriots who I think that year lose to the Packers uh in the Super Bowl. But they lose in the AFC Championship game to the Patriots. Um but then they go on to make the playoffs for three more years, and in ninety nine they get all the way to the conference championship again. Now, did Trevor pick this team just so he could mention the ninety nine season with the Jaguars? Maybe. I promise you that was not the only reason I picked them, because I do think they fit really nicely into kind of what we’re talking about. But to recap and Zach, you know, this is like my favorite thing to talk about. And I think it is for all Titans fans. Um, the ninety nine season, the Jacksonville Jaguars lose two games in the regular season. Both are to the Tennessee Titans. They go fourteen and two. They go to the AFC Championship game where they see the Tennessee Titans. They then lose in that game. And I don’t think it was close. It was not. It was thirty three to fourteen. And the Titans go on to the Super Bowl where we come up a yard short which is still too soon to talk about that, so we’re not. Um, but really, like, high hopes for those first five years. You made the playoffs four times. You made it to two AFC Championship games. So when it comes to expansion teams in the NFL, like this is by far the most successful. The quickest like this just usually doesn’t happen. So really high hopes they then missed the playoffs every year from two thousand to two thousand and four and two thousand and four, they finished nine and seven. But they are second in their division and they don’t get a wild card spot. Now this is with Jack Del Rio. So Tom Coughlin lasted through the two thousand and two season, uh, and was not retained. So we’ve then switched to Jack Del Rio, who is around for uh, from two thousand and three until twenty eleven. So we’ve switched then from Mark Brunell Now and now have Byron Leftwich. So we’ve still got Fred Taylor and their lead running back Jimmy Smith rings no bells to me but Jimmy Smith led the team Jimmy Smith. Yeah I looked it up and I was like it wasn’t Steve Smith right. That was the Panthers. But I was like it was something Smith and Jimmy Smith rings a bell. Yeah, yeah. Every year. He was their leading receiver from nineteen ninety six to two thousand and five. So what a run. Just crazy stats. Um, but they don’t make the playoffs. They eventually they go twelve and four in oh five, which is great. Um, but then they lose in the wild card round. So even twelve and four doesn’t get them. Uh, a first round bye. It doesn’t even win their division because now you’re competing against the Peyton Manning Colts. And let me tell you, it’s It sucked to be in a division with Peyton Manning Colts. It just was a dark time, and I think this is also a perfect piece of MSE is when your team peaks, if you go up, if you’re peaking at the same time as a generational talent, it is soul crushing to just know, like we are giving it everything we have. All the pieces are clicking into place and still, still we cannot achieve because Tom Brady’s here because Peyton Manning is in our division. Like it is just it’s so crushing. It goes back to when, like in twenty nineteen when the Titans went on a run, everything clicked into place. And then in the AFC Championship game, Patrick Mahomes goes off and does his weird Patrick Mahomes stuff in a game. We were up ten points, uh, fairly late in the game. And it’s just like, what, what else could we have done? Y yeah. And it’s interesting too, that you bring up divisions, because I thought about this while you were talking about the Jaguars and why I hated them so much. They were actually in the Browns division in the AFC central. And so were the Titans. So it was the Titans, the Ravens, Steelers, Jaguars, Bengals, Browns until two thousand and two I think. So that was a while for us. Like we were pretty sports conscious back then. It was a big division. Yeah they were they were big. Um. I don’t know how you feel. I know actually, I do know how you feel. I feel like our divisions are very unfair because you have the AFC North that has the Steelers and Ravens, and then the Bengals are sometimes really, really good. And it’s like a cakewalk in the AFC South. Like I’m I’m getting to a year where if the Titans had won their last game, we would have won our division at eight and nine. Jeez. Yeah. This year’s this year is the only, uh, anomaly right in the AFC North where, like, Lamar Jackson’s been injured. So the Ravens are terrible. The Bengals don’t have Joe Burrow, and yet the Browns can’t do anything with it. It doesn’t matter if the division is good or bad. Historically, it’s been good and especially with the central. I mean, it was there were a lot of good teams. Yeah. Yeah. Well then you that’s that’s a familiar feeling for Titans fans. Um, pretty much after Andrew Luck left then the division’s pretty much been wide open and whoever wants to step up can take it. And still the Titans can’t do it. Uh, but I want to take you. So we’re in. Um. Oh seven. So now we are in the, um, the end of the Fred Taylor era, moving into Maurice Jones. Drew who? Great running back. Super fun to watch. Yeah. Uh, the Jaguars go eleven and five and oh seven lose in the divisional round. And then do not make the playoffs again until twenty seventeen. So that is a ten year stretch of no playoffs. And I fear I fear that the Titans are entering a similar stretch. I, I cannot see a rebuild getting us back to the playoffs for a decade. I think it is going to take that long because of the poor quality of drafts. We are so far behind because our drafts have been so terrible, uh, that I really do think we’re entering a stretch like this, where it’s going to be a decade before we before we see the playoffs. It’s a long stretch. Uh, they make the playoffs in twenty seventeen thanks to Blake Bortles I skipped over uh Garrard Gabbert and Henry. And now we’re at the Blake Bortles era. Yeah. So congrats to all those very similar. Just like big and kind of accurate like you know I don’t know you get what you get what you get. So twenty seventeen was a bit of a Blake Bortles fever dream. Similar to the Kerry Collins fever dream that took the Titans to the playoffs. But Jacksonville has a very good defense. They had the NFL’s best defense that year earned the moniker Sacksonville which is hilarious. That’s great. Um, do you remember what happened in twenty seventeen to the Jaguars? They got all the way to the AFC Championship. And do you remember it all? What happened in that in that game I, I only remember a feeling. So I watched that game and I, I remember the outcome vividly because I thought the New England Patriots do not deserve to win this game. They put Tom Brady in a blender for three quarters. That defense was awesome. It was so awesome. And it goes back to freaking Blake Bortles. Like when you put one piece together and then Blake Bortles is the other wheel. Like you’re going to be going boom boom boom boom boom boom. Like this is not a smooth ride. It’s not smooth at all. And honestly I you know I was watching some clips of that game today and I think he did everything he could do. But like you said like when the ceiling is Blake Bortles and it’s more of a game manager. Take care of it and we’ll win you the game. Everything has to go right in that game for you to win. And almost everything did go right. So I remember sitting in my basement I was putting together a trampoline for like our two year old at the time. And I remember looking over in the fourth quarter and they’re up by ten. They have the ball. And I was like, oh my gosh, the Jaguars are going to the freaking Super Bowl. Like this is crazy. And then it changed. Then one thing didn’t go perfectly. And that was um, the Myles Jack fumble. So, uh, there was a weird double pass that the Patriots ran around midfield and future Titan great Dion Lewis gets the ball and starts running down the sideline. Myles Jack linebacker with the Jaguars sneaks up on him rips. So Dion Lewis doesn’t see him. He kind of tackles him but goes for the ball. He rips the ball out. So it’s out while they’re falling. And he rolls over gets the ball and stands up by the sideline ready to run in, run back for a touchdown. Nobody’s going to get to him. The refs blow it dead. He was not touched. And so they get the ball. But then Blake Bortles has to touch it. So they go from like. And how many games have we watched together where it’s like the defense better get us fourteen today or we’re not winning this football game. Countless. I mean right. It’s just like the Browns right now. It’s like elite. But you know you’re giving Tom Brady too many chances. You’re giving him the ball over and over. And it’s like at some point the dam’s going to break. Yes. And it did. So sadly they don’t score on that possession. They have to punt. Tom Brady comes down scores a touchdown in the most backbreaking Patriots way where every pass is good coverage. It’s just the receiver makes a better catch. And so you’re playing good defense, but it just feels like there’s nothing you can do. And they end up losing that game. They then finish fourth dead last in the division. The next four years. So they go from we were one win away playoff run. Yeah that that playoff run. Correct me if I’m wrong because I’ve just been all over the place with my coaches today. But did Tom Coughlin come back. Did he come back? That year he was like at some point he’s just back on the sideline. Yes. So he did come back and was the general manager. He wasn’t the general manager. He was like the VP of football operations. And so yes, he did come back and help with that. That’s what it was. Yes. So he was part of that. He gets an extension right after that until twenty twenty one. They’re like great job. This is great. And then their booty cheeks for a few years. So this is the last thing I wanted to talk about too, because another piece of the MSC puzzle is front office incompetence. And it hurts. It just is painful to know that your team is not being run well. So Tom Coughlin gets fired in December of twenty nineteen. The owner, uh, Shahid Khan, said that he was already planning on firing him, but he needed to expedite that because there was a grievance filed to the NFLPA by Dante Fowler, a linebacker with the Jaguars who is then with the Cowboys. Uh, Fowler said that the Jaguars had improperly fined him seven hundred thousand dollars for not attending rehab and appointments in Jacksonville during the eighteen offseason. But the the collective bargaining agreement defined that as optional. And the Jaguars were like, no, you’re gonna like, you owe us all this money because you should have been doing it our way. So he files a grievance, wins the grievance, and the NFLPA comes out and makes a public statement warning free agents not to sign with the Jaguars because of Tom Coughlin’s disregard for player rights. So you have the players association telling players do not sign with Jacksonville. They don’t care about your health or your rehab. They’re going to force you into doing it. And if you don’t, you’re going to pay a bunch of money. That’s crazy. Absolutely insane. So you gotta sign free agents. So they said, Tom Coughlin, you gotta go. So he gets fired again. Um, and I, you know, he went on to, I think stay in football after that, but certainly not with the Jaguars and the Jaguars. The only other trip that they’ve made since twenty seventeen to the playoffs was in twenty twenty two, when the last game of the season came down to Titans versus Jaguars. And whoever wins gets to go to the playoffs. And wouldn’t you know it. The Titans go up in that game and it’s looking good. Somehow Josh Dobbs is winning a game for us and things are great. And then we’re winning in the fourth quarter. It’s under three minutes to go. Josh Dobbs comes back. He’s hit. His hand is moving forward but pinches. The ball gets dislodged, the ball goes downfield and they call it a fumble. That’s run back for a touchdown. They review it. And because it’s the Titans they don’t overturn it. And the Jacksonville Jaguars with a record of nine and eight win the division and then end up losing the in the first round, but played pretty competitively to the Kansas City Chiefs. So not only do we have just ineptitude, not only do we have heartbreak when you’re playing your best, not only do we have, uh, front office incompetency and playoff droughts, but the Jacksonville Jaguars have a weakness against the Titans. That is inexplicable. Um, they’re for some reason, they just can’t put it together when they need to. Against us. Derrick Henry’s ninety nine yard touchdown run. Guess who that came against the Jacksonville Jaguars. And when every every team was mandated to have a Thursday night game. Ours would always be against the Jaguars. And it would always be a color rush. Like light blue versus mustard yellow would be gross. The Jaguars play in London all the time because they need more income. Uh, it’s just a sad. And I say this like, as a loving brother who’s been through this, it’s just a sad, kind of miserable existence over there, and I don’t I don’t hate Jaguar fans or the team. I just know there’s something, uh, there’s something almost nostalgic. You kind of hit on it when you talked about, like buying, you know, some clothing with it, like back in the day, like champion had all the, you know, sports teams and stuff. Their old jerseys like the teal jerseys, the black jerseys, like there was something just nostalgic about that. And they were good. Like you said, they kind of they’ve taken some steps forward. We’ll see what happens. Um, it’s all going to be about Trevor Lawrence, right? Is he the real deal? Is he just a dude that can only run a spread offense? So I mean four and three this year, we’ll see. Yeah. Part of Misery Sports Coe. No doubt. No doubt about it. We’ll see what happens in that is your deep dive of the week. And if misery loves company, consider that therapy. But first, a quick word from our next and final sponsor. Misery Sports Co is brought to you by Schrodinger School of Kicking with Schrodinger School for kicking. You don’t have to wonder if your team’s field goal is going to be good. It can be both good and not good all at once. Spoiler alert though, it’s it’s no good. Schrödinger’s kickers. Shout out Schrodinger! That’s just a it’s a hard word. It’s hard to conceptualize. They paid a lot of money for me to say it correctly too, because I’m not trying to mess that up. So shout out to them showing that someone out there still believes in our chaos. We bring at Misery Sports Co. Before we sign off, it’s time for our pep talks. The weekly dose of optimism nobody asked for at MSK. Every meeting ends with a hint of hope. Wildly unrealistic, but we try anyways. My pep talk this week is going to go to New York Jets fans. They’ve had a rough week, a rough season. Uh, their owner is clearly incompetent and just can’t keep his mouth shut. This coach looks completely lost. Justin Fields, who I have a soft spot for, right, with our Buckeye fandom, uh, has clearly been broken by going to both the Bears and Jets. Of course, he had a little bit of Steelers in between, but, um, yeah, it is bad. Jets fans. Hang in there. Uh, there is always a rebuild that can happen. We have both been in your shoes and are actually currently in your shoes. We’re not far behind you. What’s up? So you are welcome here at Misery Sports go up again. It takes two or three drafts. New York City is a nice place. We’re not going to say that the team actually plays in new Jersey, but you can you can live in New York. It’s a great place. Taxes are super low. Um, you know, it’s going to be okay. We’re going to we’re going to make it through this. We’re going to make it through it. So that’s my pep talk. Trevor, what do you got? Yeah I feel feel for Jets fans. We’re here for you along the way. Uh, before I give my pep talk of the week, I wanted to give a quick shout out. Last week, I talked about our former offensive coordinator, uh, the Titans former defensive coordinator under Vrabel. His name was Shane Bowen, and he popped up this week. Uh, I don’t know if you, um, were paying attention to the Broncos win, but they scored thirty three points in the fourth quarter. And guess who they scored that against. Oh my gosh it was Shane Bowen. So great job Shane Bowen you’re doing great stuff. And that’s the guy that was running our defense that Vrabel refused to fire. So like you had a terrible offense and a terrible defense or like a okay defense. But like Vrabel was running pretty good stuff. But he had given play calling stuff over to Bowen and he wouldn’t fire him. And now he gave up thirty three points in the fourth. So that’s okay. All right. Anyways, uh, my pep talk for this week goes to the Titans best player who seems like he needs a pep talk. Big Jeff, I love you, buddy. Big defensive tackle Jeff Simmons. Uh, man, I just want to say thank you and pump you up a little bit this week. You have been, uh, such an awesome member of the Titans since you got here. You’ve been a big part of what we’re trying to do. I have loved your motor and your grind. And this year on a terrible team that has very little hope. You have brought the juice, dude. You are having one of the best seasons you’ve ever had. Uh, you’re having probably the best season of any defensive tackle in the league this year, and your absence was felt. Uh, you could see the the defense suffer when you’re gone. And I know that you’re hurt and going through it, buddy. Don’t let that you know. Don’t let that bring you down. We need that juice when you’re ready to come back. Please, please, for the love of everything, please don’t go request a trade because I can’t see another good player traded off to another team like Kevin Byard, who now leads the league in interceptions in Chicago. I can’t see another Jarvis Brownlee who we traded to the Jets earlier. Hey Jets fans, you’re welcome for your highest PFF graded defender for like two weeks in a row that you gave us nothing for. Like I can’t I can’t watch that happen again. So please Jeff, we need you, buddy. Heal up I love you, I love everything about you and what you bring to this team. Um, do what you gotta do. Get better, and we’ll see you soon, big guy. But please, please don’t go anywhere. Stick around. I have a really great respect for someone like Simmons. Someone like Myles Garrett, who? I mean, of course, you know, they’re crying into their money, right? They’re making a ton of money. But to show up every single week and perform, it doesn’t matter what the the team is doing. I am going to win my individual battle. More times than not. I’m going to show up like, dude could be loafing it right now. Like he could just be literally collecting a check. He could show, you know, a couple good plays here and there, but he comes to play. He takes care of his business, he can’t impact everything. But shout out to to Simmons. He’s he’s a fantastic player. And those were your pep talks of the week. All right. That wraps up another week at Misery Sports Company where heartbreak is part of the job description. We hope you’ll become employees here by subscribing to the podcast, following us on X and checking out our website miserysportsco.com. Until next week I’m Zach and I’m Trevor. See you next time.