Speaker 1: Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: Greetings and Welcome Inside Special Teams, a weekly podcast where
Speaker 1: your host, myself, Jason Smith, and Mike Harmon take you
Speaker 1: back to what some special teams did in certain years
Speaker 1: in sports. And we look back today at the ambush
Speaker 1: a mile high January, where it looked like the Broncos
Speaker 1: We're gonna go right to the Super Bowl instead of
Speaker 1: the upstart Jacksonville Jaguars pulled one of the biggest upsets
Speaker 1: in NFL history, defeating them thirty to twenty seven. The
Speaker 1: Jaguars go on, the Broncos go home. And at this
Speaker 1: point we were thinking the Broncos ever gonna win a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl? Real? Really? They they couldn't beat the jag
Speaker 1: Bars at home, Mike, Are they ever gonna win a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl? Because that's what it was for the Broncos
Speaker 1: back in the mid to late nineties before they broke through. Well,
Speaker 1: and it's not even you know, couldn't beat the Jaguars,
Speaker 1: it's how they lost to the Jaguars as well. Chronicle
Speaker 1: going forward, like, it's one thing to lose the game
Speaker 1: straight up, it's another to dominate. But yeah, a lot
Speaker 1: of twists and turns in this one, and certainly for
Speaker 1: the Denver Broncos that it had a rough year the
Speaker 1: year before go out and the regular season flows including
Speaker 1: you know you you made an appearance in the schedule.
Speaker 1: But all in all, I mean, you just see the
Speaker 1: names on this roster and you say, how did it
Speaker 1: not get over look nine Pro Bowlers, they were so loaded.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know they won back to back Super
Speaker 1: Bowls when when you get into the years after, but
Speaker 1: this was probably the best Denver team I had seen.
Speaker 1: It was the birth of Terrell Davis as a superstar,
Speaker 1: the beginning of those great Denver backfields where no matter
Speaker 1: who they put in there, they would rush for fifteen yards.
Speaker 1: It could have been Mike Anders, sin Oorlandis, Gary Tatum, Bell,
Speaker 1: Ruben Drones. But this was the start of the Terrell
Speaker 1: Davis four year run that actually got him into the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. And I was at opening week. It
Speaker 1: was my my wife and I were It was our
Speaker 1: big life change. We had left ESPN when I was
Speaker 1: a production assistant and associate producer at ESPN, when I
Speaker 1: was still behind the scenes. We were moving to California,
Speaker 1: to Los Angeles and we drove across country and we
Speaker 1: just so happened to be near Denver around the first
Speaker 1: week in the NFL season. I said, hey, can we
Speaker 1: stop and she happened to be, well, well, we were
Speaker 1: leaving the end of the summer and I said, well,
Speaker 1: where are we gonna be around this day? And because
Speaker 1: we were driving across country, it was it was such
Speaker 1: a great trip. And I said when are we gonna
Speaker 1: be near around Denver and she was alwill be in Colorado,
Speaker 1: like early September. I'm like, okay, let's go to Jets Broncos.
Speaker 1: It's opening weeks. She was like, great, we go to
Speaker 1: the game and the Jets just get drilled. That's rich Coats.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it was terrible. It's rich Goats. Was terrible.
Speaker 1: I was wearing my Neil O'donnald jersey to the game
Speaker 1: and we got thumped thirty one six. We were never competitive. Everybody.
Speaker 1: I was the I was the big fun of guy
Speaker 1: in the in the in our section because I was
Speaker 1: one of the few people wearing a Jets jersey. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't even close. It was this is like, clearly,
Speaker 1: here are two teams that are going in different directions.
Speaker 1: It's the first game for Neil O'Donnell's Jets quarterback, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, we got a new era. Oh no, no,
Speaker 1: we just absolutely stink and we're on our way to
Speaker 1: one in fifteen. But the Broncos it was a very
Speaker 1: workman like victory where it was, yeah, this is the Broncos.
Speaker 1: They're so good, they're loaded. All right, we're gonna lose
Speaker 1: and just wasn't even close. Well, but you see the
Speaker 1: final score. But then you go back in and watch
Speaker 1: a little bit and take a quick peek at the
Speaker 1: box score. I mean Elway sixteen three yards, two touchdowns,
Speaker 1: two interceptions. Hey, we're in the game. Nah, Now, I
Speaker 1: think he said, well, he stopped playing after the first quarter.
Speaker 1: He came out, he rested the last three quarters of
Speaker 1: the game. Bill Musgrave was in the game. Uh Davis
Speaker 1: only had what nine total yards? He had a touchdown.
Speaker 1: Only it was saying it was just all you had
Speaker 1: Webster Slaughter as your top target. Yeah he was. He
Speaker 1: he scored in that game, Yeah he did. He scored.
Speaker 1: Webster Slaughter, who was done, who was decent for the
Speaker 1: Browns in the eighties. Was our only plab Like, oh
Speaker 1: my goodness. The Broncos were just that much better. There
Speaker 1: were guys that had like jet voodoo dolls were running
Speaker 1: up to me sticking pins in it, going yeah, I
Speaker 1: got your Neil O'donnald right here. And at that point
Speaker 1: I could say, yeah, and when's the last time you
Speaker 1: won a Super Bowl? And I'm going, oh, I don't
Speaker 1: know that I want to really, but this was the
Speaker 1: type of year. It was that they were so good
Speaker 1: they rested their starters the last three games of the season.
Speaker 1: It was Mike Shanahan's second year as Broncos head coach.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. Shanahan wasn't the genius yet. I mean,
Speaker 1: this was okay, Ken Denver get over the top and
Speaker 1: win a Super Bowl where they hadn't gotten there before.
Speaker 1: And he had two years as a head coach with
Speaker 1: the Raiders in the late eighties. It didn't work. The
Speaker 1: players didn't like him. Al Davis didn't like him. Davis
Speaker 1: and Shanahan fired each other's loyalists, so it was really
Speaker 1: long time for Mike Shanahan to get a job again
Speaker 1: as a head coach. It was tough, lawsuits in the
Speaker 1: whole nine yards and no one trying to get his
Speaker 1: money yeah, no one thought, Okay, we can touch this guy.
Speaker 1: But finally the Broncos give him a chance, and it
Speaker 1: worked because it was a different person in charge. John
Speaker 1: Elwaye hated Dan Reeves, so this of course was going
Speaker 1: to be better. And voila. It's the same Broncos, but
Speaker 1: it's a new attitude, new outlook, new leadership. And here
Speaker 1: go to the Broncos and they have another great, great season.
Speaker 1: Just an amazing assembly of talent and some of the
Speaker 1: guys who were like secondary players on this squad when
Speaker 1: you kind of look at it, you know, and trying
Speaker 1: to roll up. John Mobley was a rookie. Uh. You
Speaker 1: had a fullback in Detron Smith trying to help work
Speaker 1: through things, Fortrell Davis. Uh. And then you know, we
Speaker 1: we've got some of the stalwarts, some of the names
Speaker 1: you know, and some that you forget where where on
Speaker 1: a squad and our our colleague at Fox, Mark Shlareth,
Speaker 1: part of the action there on the offensive line. I
Speaker 1: aged myself, I don't age other people quite so well.
Speaker 1: So when I see him and I see Alfred Williams
Speaker 1: and guys that I've gotten to know in the media
Speaker 1: world a little bit, it's always yeah, I guess they
Speaker 1: did play that long all right. Then you want to
Speaker 1: know the best story Mark Lareth ever told me when
Speaker 1: I said, I when I asked him, you know, when
Speaker 1: we worked at ESPN together, I asked him, I said, uh,
Speaker 1: how much do you run during a game? I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know how we got on the topic. How
Speaker 1: much you run during It was not that much at all,
Speaker 1: he goes. In fact, I'll tell you how I used
Speaker 1: to conserve my running. And I said, what do you mean?
Speaker 1: He goes, Well, let's just say l way through an interception,
Speaker 1: it was a fumble and the and and it was
Speaker 1: a long way going down the other way, like we
Speaker 1: fumbled inside the team's red zone and they were taking
Speaker 1: it back for a touch, And I said, okay, goes.
Speaker 1: I ran as fast as I could until I knew
Speaker 1: I was out of frame and there was gonna be
Speaker 1: no video of me slowing down and stopping. So I
Speaker 1: would run real fast. And then when I knew that
Speaker 1: the the guy was because I'm not catching anybody. I'm
Speaker 1: an offensive lineman. When I knew I was at I
Speaker 1: would just peel off really slow and go, I'm not
Speaker 1: catching them. Because you know, coaches wanted to see you
Speaker 1: run all out, but you want to see it on tape.
Speaker 1: He was like, yeah, so I would just go back.
Speaker 1: I would just kind of peel off and go Okay.
Speaker 1: I looked like I gave it a good run. I
Speaker 1: thought that was a pretty good story. That's not a
Speaker 1: bad strategy. So that's the Broncos, which were look quit essential.
Speaker 1: This was the Broncos team of of this of the nineties. Again,
Speaker 1: they're most talented lways still looking to breakthrough. For the Jaguars,
Speaker 1: it's just their second NFL season, right, They go four
Speaker 1: and twelve their first year under Tom Coughlin. But after
Speaker 1: Jimmy Smith becomes a starter in the offense, takes off
Speaker 1: and this became a really potent offense. This was Mark Brunel,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Smith, Keenan McCardell. They were so potent. Andre Riisen
Speaker 1: was on this team, but he got demoted after Brunell
Speaker 1: threw five picks in a game against the Rams because
Speaker 1: they kind of blamed Andre Risen for not running the
Speaker 1: right route to get us, so they demoted him. And
Speaker 1: this is it. I mean, the Jaguars squeak, I mean
Speaker 1: just take off and they squeak into the playoffs by
Speaker 1: winning six of their last seven. It was a huge
Speaker 1: run in Jacksonville. Became the flavor of the moment. They
Speaker 1: were fun, they were young. It was an expansion team.
Speaker 1: People bought their gear. Brunel was fun to watch, you know,
Speaker 1: it was outside the pocket. They can plays with his legs.
Speaker 1: This was a really, really fun team. It's like the
Speaker 1: Jaguars at this point became instant cult heroes in the NFL. Well,
Speaker 1: that's just it. You had a lefty quarterback because you
Speaker 1: didn't see a lot of those what you have at
Speaker 1: that point. It would have been Steve Young. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean you didn't have a lot of guys running around,
Speaker 1: you know, South pause, weird spin on the ball, the
Speaker 1: fact that you know he absorbed hits like a lunatic
Speaker 1: at times. You gotta preserve yourself. Man. There's there's a
Speaker 1: lot of season left, but you saw him take off.
Speaker 1: You you look at the the run game effective and
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, the insertion of Jimmy Smith into that
Speaker 1: starting lineup at one of the great receivers of the
Speaker 1: last twenty plus years that I don't think gets nearly
Speaker 1: enough attention when we put our lists together of how
Speaker 1: good he truly was. Yeah, this offense came together so fast.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just Smith and Keenan McCardell, who were together
Speaker 1: for a long time. Is the Jaguars really were. This
Speaker 1: was the the big three of the team for the
Speaker 1: late nineties early two thousand's. This was Natron Means and
Speaker 1: James Stewart in the backfield, and you know which of
Speaker 1: them are you gonna stop? They were both tough running backs.
Speaker 1: Tony Baselli starting his Hall of Fame career. They beat
Speaker 1: Buffalo and the playoffs to move on to play the Broncos,
Speaker 1: and it was another big game for Brunel. You know,
Speaker 1: they put up four nine yards of offense against the Bills.
Speaker 1: They sent Jim Kelly into retirement. It was his last
Speaker 1: game in the National Football League, and it was like
Speaker 1: the changing of the guard. Okay, here go. The Bills
Speaker 1: were used to them for a while, and now we're
Speaker 1: gonna wind up seeing the Jaguars. Maybe not this year
Speaker 1: because okay they're they're newbies, but they're in their second
Speaker 1: year of existence, but clearly they look like that and
Speaker 1: all this young talent to really become a dominant team
Speaker 1: in the a f C for a long time they
Speaker 1: came together that fast. I mean, this is this is
Speaker 1: a year removed from not having any players. Here they are,
Speaker 1: you know, and they win, they make which made me think,
Speaker 1: what the hell are the Jets doing. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is a team that didn't have players and they're getting
Speaker 1: into the playoffs. Well that's to say, you go four
Speaker 1: and twelve the first year, and then you rally up
Speaker 1: to nine and seven, A fresh face, young Tom Coughlin
Speaker 1: getting that like, he wasn't red in the face. Fully,
Speaker 1: he hadn't been wind burned because he was down in Jacksonville.
Speaker 1: It wasn't the chronic, you know, red face look that
Speaker 1: he had for so many years down the sideline for
Speaker 1: the Giants later on. But if you talk about young, right,
Speaker 1: because you've got a cool new logo, uh teal is
Speaker 1: you know, the uniform is just a different color than
Speaker 1: you're used to seeing, right, because it's darker than what
Speaker 1: the Dolphins were using. And so yeah, you've got a
Speaker 1: little bit of merch rolling up and people buying in
Speaker 1: and just kind of curious to see what this franchise
Speaker 1: is gonna do. Some decent, you know, additions on the
Speaker 1: defensive side of things, but you know, again, just the
Speaker 1: curiosity and and you're a guy Rob Johnson in the mix.
Speaker 1: See how no matter where we go on special teams,
Speaker 1: he finds his way in. And Brunel was just so
Speaker 1: much fun to watch play. I mean this, this is
Speaker 1: a guy that you thought was coming out of Washington
Speaker 1: was going to be a highly rated quarterback. But he
Speaker 1: gets hurt, loses the job as senior year to Billy
Speaker 1: Joe Hobert. But the Jacksonville Jaguars saying, okay, no, no,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be our guy. And slowly he comes through
Speaker 1: and look he through for four thousand yards. This year
Speaker 1: wasn't great touchdown interceptions, nineteen touchdowns and twenty picks, but
Speaker 1: he just had something about him. He had that in
Speaker 1: factor in The whole team was just fun. It was
Speaker 1: you couldn't root against them. It was really hard to say, okay,
Speaker 1: even though Tom Coughlin was look, you know the drill
Speaker 1: Sergeanty was and and I'm sure it couldn't have been
Speaker 1: fun for a lot of the players, the young players
Speaker 1: coming in. But they were just a fun team. And
Speaker 1: you don't get that that often in sports. It would,
Speaker 1: you know, everything about them was, hey, I really want
Speaker 1: to see him play and see him come together and
Speaker 1: become a dominant team, and you really thought it was
Speaker 1: gonna happen after this game against the Broncos. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: just a lot of buy in when you got a
Speaker 1: guy that's given his body up and while we sit back,
Speaker 1: you know, and on our Fox Sports radio show and
Speaker 1: stare at each other, going, what the hell is that
Speaker 1: guy doing? You gotta get down. You gotta learn that
Speaker 1: Peyton Manning turtle move, like those old little toys you
Speaker 1: had that had the button on the bottom and the
Speaker 1: legs would buckle and then you'd let it go and
Speaker 1: he's brother there he is. Just bring back up. That's
Speaker 1: what you need to do as a quarterback, and you
Speaker 1: need to learn not to absorb hits, but by the
Speaker 1: same token, that's what endears you to your crowd and
Speaker 1: the local fans and to your teammates because they know
Speaker 1: you're giving up every inch to get over the top.
Speaker 1: Now and this year, what is absolutely amazing is he
Speaker 1: also fumbled fourteen times. Yeah they only lost three of them. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: I always felt like he always had that big knee
Speaker 1: brace that took up most of his leg and still
Speaker 1: he's getting outside the pocket and getting away from people
Speaker 1: and making throws. I felt I feel like he had
Speaker 1: the knee brace on his entire career. You kept yelling
Speaker 1: run for us, run alright, sorry, too easy a joke.
Speaker 1: So this is where things sit. The ambush at Mile
Speaker 1: High was upon us. It was supposed to be a
Speaker 1: route for the Broncos. It was anything. But how did
Speaker 1: it happen? And what happened to these teams following? Keep
Speaker 1: it right here? This is special teams with Jason Smith
Speaker 1: and Mike Armon. So Denver comes into this game as
Speaker 1: four team point favorites and it starts out like it's
Speaker 1: going to be a route. Denver scores two touchdowns in
Speaker 1: the first quarter. Vaughan hebron has a touchdown run on
Speaker 1: four down, the extra point gets blocked. Lay throws a
Speaker 1: touchdown to Shannon Sharp. They missed the two point conversion.
Speaker 1: Jacksonville doesn't have a first down in the first quarter,
Speaker 1: and it was gonna be easy, all right, Well, it's
Speaker 1: all right, Well, obviously we're not gonna get drawn in
Speaker 1: this playoff game. It's twelve nothing. They missed the extra point,
Speaker 1: two point conversion, But this is it. The Jaguars are
Speaker 1: going nowhere against this Broncos team, which made the comeback
Speaker 1: all the more shocking because here's a young team that
Speaker 1: doesn't know anything on the road in the playoffs. You're down,
Speaker 1: the crowd is loud, you're on the road. Okay, it's
Speaker 1: just not gonna work for us. We won our big
Speaker 1: game against the Bills. It would have been easy to
Speaker 1: quit and go home and say, hey, it was a
Speaker 1: great year and you know, another year of seasoning. We'll
Speaker 1: come back and try it again next year. What's curious
Speaker 1: is if you go back and watch the telecast, as
Speaker 1: you know, a nerd like me is want to do
Speaker 1: uh not often did you have the uh the score
Speaker 1: and down in distance and time that would disappear for
Speaker 1: long stress like where are we at? What do we do?
Speaker 1: Who's paying attention? This is the days of the ten
Speaker 1: minute ticker, where getting the scores three ten minutes? Oh great,
Speaker 1: Oh we got the scores coming up soon. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: then finally, you know, it settles in towards the end
Speaker 1: of the first half where you see it a bit more.
Speaker 1: But it's like, all right, how do you run clock? Right?
Speaker 1: I mean, you got lway, you got all this potent
Speaker 1: offense to it, but how do you get the clock
Speaker 1: to keep moving well? And this year Denver's defense was
Speaker 1: really good. You know that the era of the Broncos,
Speaker 1: we spent a lot of time talking about Elway and
Speaker 1: Terrell Davis obviously, but this Denver defense was terrific. There
Speaker 1: was nothing that was gonna tell you that the Jaguars
Speaker 1: are gonna be able to mount any sort of come back.
Speaker 1: And then the second quarter came and it was like
Speaker 1: they flipped a switch. The Jaguar score on three straight possessions.
Speaker 1: The game completely changes an inverse from the first quarter.
Speaker 1: Jacksonville takes a thirteen twelve lead a halftime, and it
Speaker 1: turned into everything that Jaguars were you know, watching this
Speaker 1: game again. It's big plays from wide receivers, it's big
Speaker 1: runs by the running backs, it's choke yardage, and Jacksonville
Speaker 1: would wind up scoring on six straight possessions in this game.
Speaker 1: And it was what just happened. It was a shock
Speaker 1: to everybody whoa we got a game here and at halftime,
Speaker 1: the Broncos going to the locker room going what the
Speaker 1: hell is going on? We were in control of this
Speaker 1: game and now we're losing at halftime. Yeah, it looks
Speaker 1: like you're gonna go runaway and hide and slows down.
Speaker 1: And when it's all said and done, the opportunities lost, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, you see the frustration start to mount because
Speaker 1: what started so easily isn't clicking. Now, this game turned
Speaker 1: out to be. Instead of the birth of a superstar
Speaker 1: from Mark Brunel, it turned out to be this was
Speaker 1: his finest hour. He throws a touchdown past to McCardell
Speaker 1: in the third quarter and a touchdown past to Jimmy Smith.
Speaker 1: This after a thirty yards sideline to sideline run they
Speaker 1: still talk about in Jacksonville. Al Right, it was a
Speaker 1: big play to take them down to the twenty one
Speaker 1: yard line. The touchdown past gives Jacksonville a ten point
Speaker 1: lead thirty to twenty. But this run where he starts
Speaker 1: off on one side of the field, comes all the
Speaker 1: way back to the other side. I mean, this was
Speaker 1: the defining play of the Jaguars of this season, of
Speaker 1: Mark Brunell's career. I mean, they had a ten point
Speaker 1: lead in the fourth quarter. Nobody knows how they got here,
Speaker 1: how they were able to suddenly run circles around the
Speaker 1: Broncos defense. Denver does come back to make it thirty seven.
Speaker 1: Elway throws a touchdown to Ed McCaffrey, but Jacksonville gets
Speaker 1: the on side kick. They win a game. And I
Speaker 1: know still it was probably years later, and you have
Speaker 1: people walking around going, yeah, I get the Super Bowls.
Speaker 1: I understand how we but I don't understand how we
Speaker 1: lost that game to to the Jacksonville Jaguars. I don't
Speaker 1: understand what happened in the second and third quarter us
Speaker 1: how suddenly we couldn't stop them. I don't understand how
Speaker 1: Mark Brunell was able to do anything he wanted to do.
Speaker 1: But really this was the apex, and what you thought
Speaker 1: was the beginning was really the top of this run
Speaker 1: by the Jaguars. Don't you try to just throw that
Speaker 1: one away. Everybody's allowed one of those in your history.
Speaker 1: You you're the Jets, you've got tons of them. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm a barrass fan tons, and I've certainly got thirty
Speaker 1: of those tons of top. Yeah. So if you're a
Speaker 1: Bronco fan, you just eight that never happened. No, that's no, no, dude,
Speaker 1: we didn't. We didn't play that year. What happened? Yeah, no, no,
Speaker 1: we decided not to play. We took the year off
Speaker 1: and then won the Super Bowl the year after. That's
Speaker 1: what we did. I like, you know, Brunel. The thing is,
Speaker 1: this is really about him because he was now at
Speaker 1: this point the next great superstar quarterback in the NFL.
Speaker 1: He orchestrates this upset over the Broncos and and for
Speaker 1: all the Look, obviously quarterbacks are going to get more
Speaker 1: attention than anybody else. And look, they had tremendous weapons
Speaker 1: around him, and that's something that you know, as we
Speaker 1: go on years and years, you wonder, boy, how did
Speaker 1: they not win with all these great weapons. But they
Speaker 1: always had a running back, whether it was you know,
Speaker 1: James Stewart and whether it was Natron Means, whether it
Speaker 1: was Fred Taylor, whoever it was. They had the wide receivers,
Speaker 1: they had Jimmy Smith, they had Keenan McCardell, they had weapons,
Speaker 1: and this was really the biggest win. They've gone further
Speaker 1: in the playoffs and in subsequent years, which we're gonna
Speaker 1: get to, but this really this win. This was the
Speaker 1: biggest moment for the organization. And he was gonna be
Speaker 1: a big star, but twenty touchdowns was his high with Jacksonville.
Speaker 1: He didn't really run for a lot of yards and
Speaker 1: really turn into Steve you know, he was more like
Speaker 1: Steve Young light. He never really hit that next level.
Speaker 1: He was kind of the same quarterback at the end
Speaker 1: of his career that he was at the beginning of
Speaker 1: his career. He never really took that that jump going Okay,
Speaker 1: now I'm learning what the defenses are giving me, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a step here, take a step here,
Speaker 1: and now become that great, great quarterback. No, he kind
Speaker 1: of peeked early and he was good. But in the NFL,
Speaker 1: you're not really gonna take advantage of what you shoot
Speaker 1: in your career if you're the same player year two
Speaker 1: that you are year eight and year nine. And that's
Speaker 1: kind of what Brunel was. No, he's he's a guy
Speaker 1: that I remember him getting a little bit of fantasy
Speaker 1: love for a couple of years off the al Right,
Speaker 1: he runs a bit, Right, that was the calling card
Speaker 1: and the wishing and hoping based on the players that
Speaker 1: were assembled there in right, I mean it was he
Speaker 1: sold a lot of a lot of hope when it
Speaker 1: came down to it, Right, you had the one big
Speaker 1: run up year and come back to two thousand five
Speaker 1: as a member of Washington. But for the Jaguars, its
Speaker 1: just you can never curb the turnovers and and eliminate,
Speaker 1: you know, just the mistakes overall, right to get to
Speaker 1: that next level. Not to mention, you know, trying to
Speaker 1: be gaudy with your stats. That's not really something that
Speaker 1: jives with what Tom Coughlin wants to do either, and
Speaker 1: just call it and stylistically that's not his thing. To
Speaker 1: just open it up. So the Jaguars move on, and
Speaker 1: we'll left more on them in a few minutes. But
Speaker 1: for the Broncos, they go home in a game that
Speaker 1: John Elway said was the most embarrassing of his career
Speaker 1: up until that point because they should have won the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. And they should have, all right, this is
Speaker 1: a year in which we actually saw the Patriots advanced
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl and play the Packers. Had the Broncos
Speaker 1: won this game, they would have had the Patriots at
Speaker 1: home for the a f C Championship, which was Bledsoe
Speaker 1: and Curtis Martin. Now, the Patriots were surprising, but they
Speaker 1: were kind of a weak number two. See even though
Speaker 1: ourselves was the coach and look at what he's doing here,
Speaker 1: Denver wins that game at home easy, and I think
Speaker 1: they would have beaten the Packers in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: The Patriots gave the Packers a much better game than
Speaker 1: anybody expected. Packers came in his favorites and how good
Speaker 1: can the Patriots be? And without Desmond Howard's big return
Speaker 1: for a touchdown, the Packers might have lost this game.
Speaker 1: And so this should have been the first championship for
Speaker 1: the Broncos. And this is why we should be talking
Speaker 1: about them. Is the only NFL three Peters because this
Speaker 1: was the beginning of their incredible three year run thirteen
Speaker 1: and three, twelve and four fourteen into two super Bowls.
Speaker 1: I mean, this should have been it. I mean, this
Speaker 1: was a lost Super Bowl for the Broncos. But watching
Speaker 1: this game and you you know, and and seeing this
Speaker 1: as we're going back for the podcast, it's like the
Speaker 1: Broncos played this entire game like what's happening? We were
Speaker 1: not really processing what's happening. We should be winning this game?
Speaker 1: Why is this going on? One of those things where
Speaker 1: you you're kind of a deer in headlights, you don't
Speaker 1: really see how it's going on, and by the time
Speaker 1: you get your your bearings again, it's too late, and
Speaker 1: and and that's kind of how this game played out
Speaker 1: for the Broncos. They just couldn't stop the Jaguars at all.
Speaker 1: Like I said, six straight possessions and the Broncos go
Speaker 1: home when it should have been a Super Bowl year
Speaker 1: for them. The Broncos came into this game with a
Speaker 1: game plan, but then when they got punched in the mouth,
Speaker 1: they had no way of coming back, Like, we're gonna
Speaker 1: impose our will on this game, and what's the old saying.
Speaker 1: Everybody's got a plan until they get punched them up.
Speaker 1: I don't think they thought they were gonna get punched
Speaker 1: in the mouth. We're not gonna this is the this
Speaker 1: is the Jaguars. We're gonna win this game. And then
Speaker 1: when it happened, you know, you get lulled in to
Speaker 1: that sense of security after the first quarter they had,
Speaker 1: and then it gets to the second quarter and it's
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's an avalanche, and it just keeps coming.
Speaker 1: There's no way to stop it. You couldn't even adjust
Speaker 1: at halftime. I thought, you know, going in at halftime,
Speaker 1: all right, this is where the Broncos go, Okay, let's adjust.
Speaker 1: Well look what they did to us scoring those three
Speaker 1: possessions in the second quarter. Nope, couldn't do it. Couldn't
Speaker 1: do it. And Mark Brunell did whatever the hell he
Speaker 1: wanted to in the second half. And that was the
Speaker 1: big stunning part. So why didn't the Jaguars turn into
Speaker 1: the team of the late nineties early two thousand's, Well,
Speaker 1: one word definitely is responsible for that. We have that
Speaker 1: coming up next Where are they now? And the rest
Speaker 1: of the short, but illustrious and an incredible career of
Speaker 1: Terrell Davis. This is special teams with Jason Smith and
Speaker 1: Mike Armon before we get to the Jaguars and what
Speaker 1: happened to them against the Patriots and in subsequent years,
Speaker 1: you know, we spent a lot of time talking about
Speaker 1: John Elway and and yes, they wound up winning two
Speaker 1: Super Bowls and Terrell Davis was terrific and he was
Speaker 1: the guy that finally brought glory to Denver when Denver
Speaker 1: really ignored the running back position for the vast majority
Speaker 1: of Elway's career, but suddenly was oh, hey, look now
Speaker 1: we got a running back and now we're winning. But
Speaker 1: after this year, Davis really only had two more years
Speaker 1: in the NFL. And that's it. You know, it's hard
Speaker 1: to believe he's a Hall of Famer because he he
Speaker 1: only had three fantastic years, one good one and that's it.
Speaker 1: He had a bad knee injury when he tried to
Speaker 1: make a tackle an interception against the Jets in the
Speaker 1: game in and that did it for him. I mean,
Speaker 1: up until then, he was fantastic. The mile high salute,
Speaker 1: you know, the Y two k for him is he
Speaker 1: gonna get to two thousand yards and Terrell Davis was
Speaker 1: gonna be the it guy in the NFL. But that
Speaker 1: was you know, there's only really two more years. And
Speaker 1: because he was so good and they won two Super Bowls,
Speaker 1: they put him in the Hall of Fame. But boy,
Speaker 1: you're really stretching the limit of of how long does
Speaker 1: the guy have to play they get in the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame in the National Football League. It's one that
Speaker 1: still leaves me uneasy. As brilliant as those three seasons were,
Speaker 1: that that's enough to get you in, right, Not that
Speaker 1: you want to be a stat at a stats aggregator, right,
Speaker 1: because we've got some of those in the mix as well.
Speaker 1: Right where there's certainly, you know, the guys that are lifers,
Speaker 1: and you say, all right, they got to this giant
Speaker 1: pile of receptions or or yardage and and all of
Speaker 1: those things. But it's it's just a snapshot. And and
Speaker 1: I guess because he got way over that gets him in.
Speaker 1: I mean, because it's dominance for a couple of seasons.
Speaker 1: But we've got a couple of guys that we'll have
Speaker 1: to have conversations about in coming years that were dominant
Speaker 1: for a half decade and their induction might be curiosities. Right,
Speaker 1: I don't know if the career by time folks listened
Speaker 1: to this down the line and it's living in the
Speaker 1: podcast world forever, whether Antonio Brown gets back on a
Speaker 1: football field. But six seven years about as good as
Speaker 1: you've seen as a receiver, chad Ocho sinko, Is he
Speaker 1: getting one? Is he getting a bust to go along
Speaker 1: with that canton coat that he wore all those years ago?
Speaker 1: I mean, he was about as good as it was
Speaker 1: for a receiver for four or five years. But again,
Speaker 1: does he get lost to history because of the numbers,
Speaker 1: you know, whereas here you've gotta have flash for just
Speaker 1: three seasons, four good, three great, and he's in the
Speaker 1: Hall of fame. I don't begrudge him. I mean, he
Speaker 1: know me. It's a museum and you're celebrating the best.
Speaker 1: So let's just build a bigger museum and get more
Speaker 1: busts in there, more tourism. I always say, but it's
Speaker 1: it's one of those great debates. Hundred yards and thirteen
Speaker 1: touchdowns in this year, hundred yards and fifteen touchdowns the
Speaker 1: next year, and then two thousand and eight and twenty
Speaker 1: one touchdowns. You look, it's it's hard you take any
Speaker 1: running back from the past twenty years ago. Okay, do
Speaker 1: you have three years like that? No, but it still
Speaker 1: is only three years. Yeah, you know, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: still only three But you win this. Winning the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl sometimes does that. And he he was the guy
Speaker 1: that Broncos were so good for so long they could
Speaker 1: never win. But finally they get him and they win
Speaker 1: back to back Super Bowls. But I mean, by way
Speaker 1: of contrast, right, you look at saying going into Ezekiel
Speaker 1: Elliott's played four years in the league, forty touchdowns. He's
Speaker 1: already had three seasons with at least undred fifty rushing yards.
Speaker 1: He's got forty eight touchdowns altogether, including a lot more
Speaker 1: prominent role in the passing game than Terrell Davis ever did.
Speaker 1: So he's at almost seven thousand total yards already, which
Speaker 1: is right about where Terrell Davis finished. I mean, just
Speaker 1: to put it in perspective, Look, it is like I said, Look,
Speaker 1: I was stunned when he got in. I was surprised.
Speaker 1: I didn't think that he deserved just because he didn't
Speaker 1: play long enough. And and I remember we talked to
Speaker 1: Jason Cole, was Pro Football Hall of Fame voter, and
Speaker 1: he was like, you know, the conversation wasn't really that
Speaker 1: big a deal. It was like Terrell Day, Yeah, Terrell
Speaker 1: Davis is in. It's like wow. So it wasn't It
Speaker 1: didn't even sound like it was controversial. It was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: d D he's in, he's in, he's and he's in.
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, greatness, he's stamp a man and let's go.
Speaker 1: So for the Jaguars, they were going big game hunting.
Speaker 1: They returned back home and there were forty thousand fans
Speaker 1: greeting them at the airport after they beat the Denver
Speaker 1: Broncos again a game that nobody saw coming. So now
Speaker 1: they got New England in the A f C Championship Game.
Speaker 1: Could a team in their second year in existence go
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl? But what killed them in this
Speaker 1: game killed them every time they got within a step
Speaker 1: of greatness. Turnovers killed them. Early on in the game,
Speaker 1: they had the high snap on a punt. Brian Barker
Speaker 1: gets tackled at the four yard line. New England scores
Speaker 1: a touchdown. Chris Hudson fumbles a punt. New England gets
Speaker 1: a field goal. All right, Brunel gets picked in the
Speaker 1: end zone. James Stewart's fumbles its return for a touchdown.
Speaker 1: Brunel throws another pick, and the New England Patriots are
Speaker 1: going to the Super Bowl and the Jaguars are going home.
Speaker 1: But you think, okay, all right, it happens they were
Speaker 1: a team. They the clock struck midnight for them. Look,
Speaker 1: they weren't supposed to beat the Broncos, but they did.
Speaker 1: But here comes their era of dominance. Well in ven
Speaker 1: they go eleven and five. Here they are, but they
Speaker 1: lose the rematch to Denver in Denver seventeen. Denver takes
Speaker 1: care of business on their way to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: All right, but this begins their four year run of
Speaker 1: almost for the Jaguars, right, They lost the Jets in
Speaker 1: the playoffs and night they lost the a f C
Speaker 1: title game to Tennessee in nine nine the only team
Speaker 1: they lost to in nine they were fourteen and two.
Speaker 1: They lost the Titans three times. What were the common
Speaker 1: themes in these games? Turnovers? Four turnovers against the Jets
Speaker 1: in ninety eight, including Key Shawn catching an interception on
Speaker 1: the final play of the game, when the Jaguars are
Speaker 1: throwing up a hell Mary six turnovers against Tennessee in
Speaker 1: the a f C title game in h that's true. Yes, hey,
Speaker 1: we're not nine in seven this year. We're gonna be great.
Speaker 1: But this is what this is what did the Jaguars
Speaker 1: in It wasn't that, oh we played a better team here,
Speaker 1: a better team, but no turnovers crushed them. It killed
Speaker 1: them in the game against the Patriots for the a
Speaker 1: s C title game, killed them against the Jets, killed
Speaker 1: them against the Tennessee Titans three years later. Had you
Speaker 1: just stayed away from that, had you been able to
Speaker 1: hold on to the football, you probably win at least
Speaker 1: one of those games, and maybe it's a super Bowl
Speaker 1: for the Jaguars that you're talking about being the the
Speaker 1: ultimate for the organization. But instead it's this game, this win,
Speaker 1: the ambush ap mile high. You look back and say,
Speaker 1: what's the greatest win in Jaguars history. This is the
Speaker 1: game you look back at. But you know, me, the
Speaker 1: devil always in the detail, the greatest predictor of wins
Speaker 1: and losses to some eight three percent in the National
Speaker 1: Football League. Hold on to the stinking ball. That's it.
Speaker 1: I mean, don't be errant and passing. And that's the
Speaker 1: other thing is is Brunell had an arm to get
Speaker 1: it down field, but he had a lollypop kind of
Speaker 1: throw off in times. Yeah. Right, there was a lot
Speaker 1: of air because there were a number of you know,
Speaker 1: near misses. Going back and watching just clips of him
Speaker 1: as get ready for the podcast going, you know, reminding
Speaker 1: yourself of of all the little things of aret, why
Speaker 1: didn't they get over It's like, yeah, that that long
Speaker 1: wind up and delivery to the outside. Cornerbacks were licking
Speaker 1: their chops on occasion. You know that he just leave
Speaker 1: one up a little too much. You know, they were
Speaker 1: a team of almost that you thought, it's shocking that
Speaker 1: they weren't any better. They didn't at least get to
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. One's not they gotta win one or
Speaker 1: win two or be dominant. But boy, they seemed like
Speaker 1: they were. And they kept their big three together for
Speaker 1: a long time, and like I said, they segued into
Speaker 1: Fred Taylor, who was phenomenal pretty easy. You you look
Speaker 1: back and go, man, how did this team not win more? How?
Speaker 1: How did they wind up shooting themselves in the foot
Speaker 1: the whole time? The the Jaguars were the era of
Speaker 1: never was. They were almost there and then they never
Speaker 1: were And and it doesn't make any sense. A lot
Speaker 1: of talent, a lot of stars and big names. And
Speaker 1: again you know, talking about Jimmy Smith and how he's
Speaker 1: oft forgotten in lists of receivers and you know, talent
Speaker 1: over the last twenty years. Fred Taylor's that guy too.
Speaker 1: Write Oftentimes it's like, and by the way, don't forget
Speaker 1: fred Taylor would have been third on this Listen, Wait
Speaker 1: what it's like? Can you remember how good he was?
Speaker 1: But then you put the numbers behind it and it
Speaker 1: just one of those Sorry, don't forget about them just
Speaker 1: because they play in Jacksonville, because that's the norm now, right,
Speaker 1: it's just Jacksonville. Uh send him to London. Uh send
Speaker 1: him relocate them wherever. Whatever shot Collen wants to do, go,
Speaker 1: they don't matter. I mean that's kind of the general attitude.
Speaker 1: Even if you have a minshumania for a while, it's
Speaker 1: still the all right, it's gonna become Jacksonville again. All Right,
Speaker 1: I'm a little where are they now coming off this game?
Speaker 1: Let's go defensive lineman Don Davy h He's part of
Speaker 1: a wealth management company. Disciplined equity is what it's called.
Speaker 1: That's pretty good. Well, you gotta be disciplined if you're
Speaker 1: gonna make money. I want to name a horse. Disciplined
Speaker 1: Equity's gotta be sixteen letters, right, all right, I'll work
Speaker 1: on that. Work on that. See if you can shorten that,
Speaker 1: like it's a license plate. Mike Hollis uh doing someone
Speaker 1: Hemp based wellness products? Wow, okay, I liked help based
Speaker 1: well this' but hemp based is different. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: hemp based. You know one of those. You get the
Speaker 1: p h Lionel Washington, defense coordinator for the Southern Jaguars
Speaker 1: after some coaching stints in the National Football Leagues. Mike Lowdish,
Speaker 1: sales manager for clover Dale Equipment, Construction, Equipment and Company. Uh,
Speaker 1: and then you got Reggie Rivers, the Galla Team author
Speaker 1: does a bunch of stuff helping nonprofits with fundraising strategies,
Speaker 1: kind of like you do on air. Sometimes you'll say, Hey,
Speaker 1: I've got a good strategy for this company, here, there, everywhere.
Speaker 1: That's what Reggie Rivers is doing in his post football career.
Speaker 1: So there it is. The where are they Now? The
Speaker 1: ambush at Mile High, the big moment in the sun
Speaker 1: for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and a lost chance at the
Speaker 1: Broncos to be the first team to win three straight
Speaker 1: Super Bowls. Jason Smith and Mike Harmon. You can listen
Speaker 1: to our show on Fox Sports Radio Monday through Friday,
Speaker 1: ten pm to two am on the East Coast, seven
Speaker 1: to eleven on the West Coast. If you have an
Speaker 1: idea for a future Special Teams broadcast, Hey, let us
Speaker 1: know on Twitter at how about a Fresca. Mike is
Speaker 1: at Swollen Dome. We'll talk to you next week for
Speaker 1: another big NFL game here on Special Teams. Before you go,
Speaker 1: rate and review the show. Whether you're listening on I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, I Heart Radio, apps, Apple, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: give us a rate, tell us you like it. We
Speaker 1: will love you, forever and ever and ever Special Teams
Speaker 1: is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.