WEBVTT - Jaguars-Broncos: The Ambush At Mile High 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.520 Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:25.160 Greetings and Welcome Inside Special Teams, a weekly podcast where 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:28.479 your host, myself, Jason Smith, and Mike Harmon take you 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:32.120 back to what some special teams did in certain years 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:36.360 in sports. And we look back today at the ambush 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:40.840 a mile high January, where it looked like the Broncos 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:43.760 We're gonna go right to the Super Bowl instead of 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:47.839 the upstart Jacksonville Jaguars pulled one of the biggest upsets 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:51.760 in NFL history, defeating them thirty to twenty seven. The 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:54.440 Jaguars go on, the Broncos go home. And at this 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:57.280 point we were thinking the Broncos ever gonna win a 0:00:57.320 --> 0:00:59.880 Super Bowl? Real? Really? They they couldn't beat the jag 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.080 Bars at home, Mike, Are they ever gonna win a 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:04.520 Super Bowl? Because that's what it was for the Broncos 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:07.120 back in the mid to late nineties before they broke through. Well, 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:10.319 and it's not even you know, couldn't beat the Jaguars, 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:13.600 it's how they lost to the Jaguars as well. Chronicle 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:16.280 going forward, like, it's one thing to lose the game 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:20.160 straight up, it's another to dominate. But yeah, a lot 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.840 of twists and turns in this one, and certainly for 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:26.280 the Denver Broncos that it had a rough year the 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:31.160 year before go out and the regular season flows including 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:33.920 you know you you made an appearance in the schedule. 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:36.800 But all in all, I mean, you just see the 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:39.200 names on this roster and you say, how did it 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:44.000 not get over look nine Pro Bowlers, they were so loaded. 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:45.720 I mean, I know they won back to back Super 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:47.920 Bowls when when you get into the years after, but 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:50.520 this was probably the best Denver team I had seen. 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:53.280 It was the birth of Terrell Davis as a superstar, 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:56.280 the beginning of those great Denver backfields where no matter 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:59.000 who they put in there, they would rush for fifteen yards. 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:02.440 It could have been Mike Anders, sin Oorlandis, Gary Tatum, Bell, 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:05.600 Ruben Drones. But this was the start of the Terrell 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:07.880 Davis four year run that actually got him into the 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:10.760 Hall of Fame. And I was at opening week. It 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:13.120 was my my wife and I were It was our 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:15.560 big life change. We had left ESPN when I was 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:19.520 a production assistant and associate producer at ESPN, when I 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.040 was still behind the scenes. We were moving to California, 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:24.880 to Los Angeles and we drove across country and we 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:27.560 just so happened to be near Denver around the first 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:29.480 week in the NFL season. I said, hey, can we 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.640 stop and she happened to be, well, well, we were 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:34.440 leaving the end of the summer and I said, well, 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:36.200 where are we gonna be around this day? And because 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:38.160 we were driving across country, it was it was such 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:40.320 a great trip. And I said when are we gonna 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:42.799 be near around Denver and she was alwill be in Colorado, 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:46.600 like early September. I'm like, okay, let's go to Jets Broncos. 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:48.400 It's opening weeks. She was like, great, we go to 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.160 the game and the Jets just get drilled. That's rich Coats. 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:54.239 Oh my god, it was terrible. It's rich Goats. Was terrible. 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:56.480 I was wearing my Neil O'donnald jersey to the game 0:02:56.560 --> 0:03:01.480 and we got thumped thirty one six. We were never competitive. Everybody. 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:03.760 I was the I was the big fun of guy 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:05.840 in the in the in our section because I was 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:07.920 one of the few people wearing a Jets jersey. And 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:09.880 it wasn't even close. It was this is like, clearly, 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.000 here are two teams that are going in different directions. 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:15.600 It's the first game for Neil O'Donnell's Jets quarterback, and 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:17.359 I'm like, oh, we got a new era. Oh no, no, 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:19.519 we just absolutely stink and we're on our way to 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.079 one in fifteen. But the Broncos it was a very 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:25.480 workman like victory where it was, yeah, this is the Broncos. 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.600 They're so good, they're loaded. All right, we're gonna lose 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:31.280 and just wasn't even close. Well, but you see the 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:34.359 final score. But then you go back in and watch 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:37.360 a little bit and take a quick peek at the 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:41.400 box score. I mean Elway sixteen three yards, two touchdowns, 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.760 two interceptions. Hey, we're in the game. Nah, Now, I 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:46.760 think he said, well, he stopped playing after the first quarter. 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:49.120 He came out, he rested the last three quarters of 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:54.560 the game. Bill Musgrave was in the game. Uh Davis 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:58.320 only had what nine total yards? He had a touchdown. 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:01.920 Only it was saying it was just all you had 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:06.440 Webster Slaughter as your top target. Yeah he was. He 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:08.760 he scored in that game, Yeah he did. He scored. 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:11.920 Webster Slaughter, who was done, who was decent for the 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:14.880 Browns in the eighties. Was our only plab Like, oh 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:17.880 my goodness. The Broncos were just that much better. There 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:21.640 were guys that had like jet voodoo dolls were running 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:23.680 up to me sticking pins in it, going yeah, I 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:26.440 got your Neil O'donnald right here. And at that point 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:28.440 I could say, yeah, and when's the last time you 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:30.520 won a Super Bowl? And I'm going, oh, I don't 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:32.880 know that I want to really, but this was the 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:34.719 type of year. It was that they were so good 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.640 they rested their starters the last three games of the season. 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:41.640 It was Mike Shanahan's second year as Broncos head coach. 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:45.000 And here's the thing. Shanahan wasn't the genius yet. I mean, 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.960 this was okay, Ken Denver get over the top and 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.520 win a Super Bowl where they hadn't gotten there before. 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:53.039 And he had two years as a head coach with 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:55.320 the Raiders in the late eighties. It didn't work. The 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:58.640 players didn't like him. Al Davis didn't like him. Davis 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:02.159 and Shanahan fired each other's loyalists, so it was really 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.560 long time for Mike Shanahan to get a job again 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:06.840 as a head coach. It was tough, lawsuits in the 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:08.640 whole nine yards and no one trying to get his 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.240 money yeah, no one thought, Okay, we can touch this guy. 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.640 But finally the Broncos give him a chance, and it 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:18.800 worked because it was a different person in charge. John 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:21.800 Elwaye hated Dan Reeves, so this of course was going 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:25.320 to be better. And voila. It's the same Broncos, but 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.520 it's a new attitude, new outlook, new leadership. And here 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:30.960 go to the Broncos and they have another great, great season. 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:35.080 Just an amazing assembly of talent and some of the 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:39.599 guys who were like secondary players on this squad when 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:43.080 you kind of look at it, you know, and trying 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.560 to roll up. John Mobley was a rookie. Uh. You 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.279 had a fullback in Detron Smith trying to help work 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:54.400 through things, Fortrell Davis. Uh. And then you know, we 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:56.479 we've got some of the stalwarts, some of the names 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.800 you know, and some that you forget where where on 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:03.120 a squad and our our colleague at Fox, Mark Shlareth, 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.560 part of the action there on the offensive line. I 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:09.480 aged myself, I don't age other people quite so well. 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:12.200 So when I see him and I see Alfred Williams 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:13.960 and guys that I've gotten to know in the media 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:16.640 world a little bit, it's always yeah, I guess they 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.640 did play that long all right. Then you want to 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:22.320 know the best story Mark Lareth ever told me when 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:24.280 I said, I when I asked him, you know, when 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:26.720 we worked at ESPN together, I asked him, I said, uh, 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:29.200 how much do you run during a game? I mean, 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:30.880 I don't know how we got on the topic. How 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:33.560 much you run during It was not that much at all, 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:35.040 he goes. In fact, I'll tell you how I used 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:36.680 to conserve my running. And I said, what do you mean? 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.760 He goes, Well, let's just say l way through an interception, 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:43.080 it was a fumble and the and and it was 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.159 a long way going down the other way, like we 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:47.680 fumbled inside the team's red zone and they were taking 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:49.159 it back for a touch, And I said, okay, goes. 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:52.120 I ran as fast as I could until I knew 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:54.440 I was out of frame and there was gonna be 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:57.360 no video of me slowing down and stopping. So I 0:06:57.360 --> 0:06:59.680 would run real fast. And then when I knew that 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:02.120 the the guy was because I'm not catching anybody. I'm 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:04.039 an offensive lineman. When I knew I was at I 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:06.800 would just peel off really slow and go, I'm not 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:08.840 catching them. Because you know, coaches wanted to see you 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.800 run all out, but you want to see it on tape. 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:13.920 He was like, yeah, so I would just go back. 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:15.880 I would just kind of peel off and go Okay. 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:17.680 I looked like I gave it a good run. I 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:19.840 thought that was a pretty good story. That's not a 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:24.040 bad strategy. So that's the Broncos, which were look quit essential. 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:27.360 This was the Broncos team of of this of the nineties. Again, 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:31.400 they're most talented lways still looking to breakthrough. For the Jaguars, 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:34.480 it's just their second NFL season, right, They go four 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:38.800 and twelve their first year under Tom Coughlin. But after 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:43.720 Jimmy Smith becomes a starter in the offense, takes off 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:47.239 and this became a really potent offense. This was Mark Brunel, 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:52.000 Jimmy Smith, Keenan McCardell. They were so potent. Andre Riisen 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:54.480 was on this team, but he got demoted after Brunell 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:57.440 threw five picks in a game against the Rams because 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:00.400 they kind of blamed Andre Risen for not running the 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:02.520 right route to get us, so they demoted him. And 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.200 this is it. I mean, the Jaguars squeak, I mean 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:08.040 just take off and they squeak into the playoffs by 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:10.800 winning six of their last seven. It was a huge 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.560 run in Jacksonville. Became the flavor of the moment. They 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:16.400 were fun, they were young. It was an expansion team. 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:19.640 People bought their gear. Brunel was fun to watch, you know, 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.600 it was outside the pocket. They can plays with his legs. 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:24.840 This was a really, really fun team. It's like the 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:28.840 Jaguars at this point became instant cult heroes in the NFL. Well, 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:31.160 that's just it. You had a lefty quarterback because you 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:32.760 didn't see a lot of those what you have at 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:35.040 that point. It would have been Steve Young. Yeah, I 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:37.800 mean you didn't have a lot of guys running around, 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:41.320 you know, South pause, weird spin on the ball, the 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:45.400 fact that you know he absorbed hits like a lunatic 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.920 at times. You gotta preserve yourself. Man. There's there's a 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:52.680 lot of season left, but you saw him take off. 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:56.079 You you look at the the run game effective and 0:08:56.559 --> 0:09:00.319 as you mentioned, the insertion of Jimmy Smith into that 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:03.680 starting lineup at one of the great receivers of the 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:06.960 last twenty plus years that I don't think gets nearly 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.120 enough attention when we put our lists together of how 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:14.240 good he truly was. Yeah, this offense came together so fast. 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.160 It wasn't just Smith and Keenan McCardell, who were together 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:20.000 for a long time. Is the Jaguars really were. This 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.240 was the the big three of the team for the 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.400 late nineties early two thousand's. This was Natron Means and 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.160 James Stewart in the backfield, and you know which of 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:30.760 them are you gonna stop? They were both tough running backs. 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.400 Tony Baselli starting his Hall of Fame career. They beat 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:37.880 Buffalo and the playoffs to move on to play the Broncos, 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:41.080 and it was another big game for Brunel. You know, 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:43.920 they put up four nine yards of offense against the Bills. 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:46.760 They sent Jim Kelly into retirement. It was his last 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:49.720 game in the National Football League, and it was like 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:51.959 the changing of the guard. Okay, here go. The Bills 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:53.800 were used to them for a while, and now we're 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:56.400 gonna wind up seeing the Jaguars. Maybe not this year 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.160 because okay they're they're newbies, but they're in their second 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:01.720 year of existence, but clearly they look like that and 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:05.199 all this young talent to really become a dominant team 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:07.000 in the a f C for a long time they 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:09.760 came together that fast. I mean, this is this is 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:12.360 a year removed from not having any players. Here they are, 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:14.720 you know, and they win, they make which made me think, 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:16.520 what the hell are the Jets doing. I mean, this 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:18.920 is a team that didn't have players and they're getting 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:20.760 into the playoffs. Well that's to say, you go four 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:23.000 and twelve the first year, and then you rally up 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:27.240 to nine and seven, A fresh face, young Tom Coughlin 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:29.920 getting that like, he wasn't red in the face. Fully, 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:33.000 he hadn't been wind burned because he was down in Jacksonville. 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.040 It wasn't the chronic, you know, red face look that 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:38.440 he had for so many years down the sideline for 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:42.480 the Giants later on. But if you talk about young, right, 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:45.880 because you've got a cool new logo, uh teal is 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:50.280 you know, the uniform is just a different color than 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:52.959 you're used to seeing, right, because it's darker than what 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:56.760 the Dolphins were using. And so yeah, you've got a 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:59.880 little bit of merch rolling up and people buying in 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.000 and just kind of curious to see what this franchise 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:06.600 is gonna do. Some decent, you know, additions on the 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:09.840 defensive side of things, but you know, again, just the 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:13.199 curiosity and and you're a guy Rob Johnson in the mix. 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:17.600 See how no matter where we go on special teams, 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:21.400 he finds his way in. And Brunel was just so 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:23.360 much fun to watch play. I mean this, this is 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.880 a guy that you thought was coming out of Washington 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:28.280 was going to be a highly rated quarterback. But he 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:30.560 gets hurt, loses the job as senior year to Billy 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.679 Joe Hobert. But the Jacksonville Jaguars saying, okay, no, no, 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.360 he's gonna be our guy. And slowly he comes through 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:38.560 and look he through for four thousand yards. This year 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:42.960 wasn't great touchdown interceptions, nineteen touchdowns and twenty picks, but 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.480 he just had something about him. He had that in 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:47.840 factor in The whole team was just fun. It was 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:50.720 you couldn't root against them. It was really hard to say, okay, 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:53.640 even though Tom Coughlin was look, you know the drill 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.360 Sergeanty was and and I'm sure it couldn't have been 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:58.160 fun for a lot of the players, the young players 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:00.800 coming in. But they were just a fun team. And 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.200 you don't get that that often in sports. It would, 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:05.880 you know, everything about them was, hey, I really want 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:07.720 to see him play and see him come together and 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:09.880 become a dominant team, and you really thought it was 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:12.240 gonna happen after this game against the Broncos. Yeah, I mean, 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:14.240 just a lot of buy in when you got a 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:18.120 guy that's given his body up and while we sit back, 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:21.040 you know, and on our Fox Sports radio show and 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:23.360 stare at each other, going, what the hell is that 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:25.959 guy doing? You gotta get down. You gotta learn that 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:29.160 Peyton Manning turtle move, like those old little toys you 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:31.160 had that had the button on the bottom and the 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:33.800 legs would buckle and then you'd let it go and 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:35.920 he's brother there he is. Just bring back up. That's 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.000 what you need to do as a quarterback, and you 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:40.720 need to learn not to absorb hits, but by the 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:43.960 same token, that's what endears you to your crowd and 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.880 the local fans and to your teammates because they know 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:49.840 you're giving up every inch to get over the top. 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:53.560 Now and this year, what is absolutely amazing is he 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:58.199 also fumbled fourteen times. Yeah they only lost three of them. Yeah. Well, 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:00.839 I always felt like he always had that big knee 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:03.520 brace that took up most of his leg and still 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:05.959 he's getting outside the pocket and getting away from people 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:07.480 and making throws. I felt I feel like he had 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:10.280 the knee brace on his entire career. You kept yelling 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:14.000 run for us, run alright, sorry, too easy a joke. 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:17.280 So this is where things sit. The ambush at Mile 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:19.240 High was upon us. It was supposed to be a 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:22.920 route for the Broncos. It was anything. But how did 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.000 it happen? And what happened to these teams following? Keep 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:28.480 it right here? This is special teams with Jason Smith 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:49.560 and Mike Armon. So Denver comes into this game as 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:52.800 four team point favorites and it starts out like it's 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:55.520 going to be a route. Denver scores two touchdowns in 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:59.600 the first quarter. Vaughan hebron has a touchdown run on 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:03.120 four down, the extra point gets blocked. Lay throws a 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:06.239 touchdown to Shannon Sharp. They missed the two point conversion. 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.280 Jacksonville doesn't have a first down in the first quarter, 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:11.360 and it was gonna be easy, all right, Well, it's 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:13.120 all right, Well, obviously we're not gonna get drawn in 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:16.080 this playoff game. It's twelve nothing. They missed the extra point, 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:18.720 two point conversion, But this is it. The Jaguars are 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:21.960 going nowhere against this Broncos team, which made the comeback 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.320 all the more shocking because here's a young team that 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:28.400 doesn't know anything on the road in the playoffs. You're down, 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:31.200 the crowd is loud, you're on the road. Okay, it's 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:32.920 just not gonna work for us. We won our big 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:34.920 game against the Bills. It would have been easy to 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:36.520 quit and go home and say, hey, it was a 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:39.200 great year and you know, another year of seasoning. We'll 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:41.480 come back and try it again next year. What's curious 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:44.120 is if you go back and watch the telecast, as 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:45.840 you know, a nerd like me is want to do 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:49.200 uh not often did you have the uh the score 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:53.120 and down in distance and time that would disappear for 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:55.320 long stress like where are we at? What do we do? 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:58.040 Who's paying attention? This is the days of the ten 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.080 minute ticker, where getting the scores three ten minutes? Oh great, 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:03.200 Oh we got the scores coming up soon. Yeah. And 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:06.200 then finally, you know, it settles in towards the end 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:08.240 of the first half where you see it a bit more. 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.680 But it's like, all right, how do you run clock? Right? 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:14.400 I mean, you got lway, you got all this potent 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:17.040 offense to it, but how do you get the clock 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.440 to keep moving well? And this year Denver's defense was 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.040 really good. You know that the era of the Broncos, 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:24.880 we spent a lot of time talking about Elway and 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:29.040 Terrell Davis obviously, but this Denver defense was terrific. There 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:32.160 was nothing that was gonna tell you that the Jaguars 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:34.120 are gonna be able to mount any sort of come back. 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:35.840 And then the second quarter came and it was like 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:39.920 they flipped a switch. The Jaguar score on three straight possessions. 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:43.000 The game completely changes an inverse from the first quarter. 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:47.160 Jacksonville takes a thirteen twelve lead a halftime, and it 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.640 turned into everything that Jaguars were you know, watching this 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:53.680 game again. It's big plays from wide receivers, it's big 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:57.040 runs by the running backs, it's choke yardage, and Jacksonville 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:59.760 would wind up scoring on six straight possessions in this game. 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.400 And it was what just happened. It was a shock 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:05.040 to everybody whoa we got a game here and at halftime, 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:07.240 the Broncos going to the locker room going what the 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:09.920 hell is going on? We were in control of this 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:12.160 game and now we're losing at halftime. Yeah, it looks 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:16.160 like you're gonna go runaway and hide and slows down. 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:20.920 And when it's all said and done, the opportunities lost, right. 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.760 I mean, you see the frustration start to mount because 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:28.400 what started so easily isn't clicking. Now, this game turned 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:30.960 out to be. Instead of the birth of a superstar 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:33.680 from Mark Brunel, it turned out to be this was 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:36.520 his finest hour. He throws a touchdown past to McCardell 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:39.440 in the third quarter and a touchdown past to Jimmy Smith. 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:43.240 This after a thirty yards sideline to sideline run they 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:45.720 still talk about in Jacksonville. Al Right, it was a 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:47.560 big play to take them down to the twenty one 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:50.720 yard line. The touchdown past gives Jacksonville a ten point 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:53.320 lead thirty to twenty. But this run where he starts 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:55.360 off on one side of the field, comes all the 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:57.640 way back to the other side. I mean, this was 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:01.320 the defining play of the Jaguars of this season, of 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:03.800 Mark Brunell's career. I mean, they had a ten point 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:06.800 lead in the fourth quarter. Nobody knows how they got here, 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:09.439 how they were able to suddenly run circles around the 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:13.560 Broncos defense. Denver does come back to make it thirty seven. 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:17.600 Elway throws a touchdown to Ed McCaffrey, but Jacksonville gets 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:20.080 the on side kick. They win a game. And I 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:23.359 know still it was probably years later, and you have 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.040 people walking around going, yeah, I get the Super Bowls. 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:28.200 I understand how we but I don't understand how we 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:30.200 lost that game to to the Jacksonville Jaguars. I don't 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:32.560 understand what happened in the second and third quarter us 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:34.879 how suddenly we couldn't stop them. I don't understand how 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:37.720 Mark Brunell was able to do anything he wanted to do. 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:41.040 But really this was the apex, and what you thought 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:43.760 was the beginning was really the top of this run 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:46.040 by the Jaguars. Don't you try to just throw that 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:49.919 one away. Everybody's allowed one of those in your history. 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:52.840 You you're the Jets, you've got tons of them. I'm 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:55.639 I'm a barrass fan tons, and I've certainly got thirty 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:58.840 of those tons of top. Yeah. So if you're a 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:03.280 Bronco fan, you just eight that never happened. No, that's no, no, dude, 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:05.480 we didn't. We didn't play that year. What happened? Yeah, no, no, 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:07.560 we decided not to play. We took the year off 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:09.400 and then won the Super Bowl the year after. That's 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:13.359 what we did. I like, you know, Brunel. The thing is, 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.320 this is really about him because he was now at 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:20.280 this point the next great superstar quarterback in the NFL. 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:23.719 He orchestrates this upset over the Broncos and and for 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:25.840 all the Look, obviously quarterbacks are going to get more 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:28.880 attention than anybody else. And look, they had tremendous weapons 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:30.919 around him, and that's something that you know, as we 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:32.919 go on years and years, you wonder, boy, how did 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:34.879 they not win with all these great weapons. But they 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:37.520 always had a running back, whether it was you know, 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.119 James Stewart and whether it was Natron Means, whether it 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:43.160 was Fred Taylor, whoever it was. They had the wide receivers, 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:46.600 they had Jimmy Smith, they had Keenan McCardell, they had weapons, 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:50.760 and this was really the biggest win. They've gone further 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:53.120 in the playoffs and in subsequent years, which we're gonna 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:55.920 get to, but this really this win. This was the 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:59.040 biggest moment for the organization. And he was gonna be 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:03.080 a big star, but twenty touchdowns was his high with Jacksonville. 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:05.359 He didn't really run for a lot of yards and 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:07.479 really turn into Steve you know, he was more like 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:10.600 Steve Young light. He never really hit that next level. 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:12.919 He was kind of the same quarterback at the end 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:14.600 of his career that he was at the beginning of 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:17.800 his career. He never really took that that jump going Okay, 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:19.679 now I'm learning what the defenses are giving me, and 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:21.840 I'm gonna take a step here, take a step here, 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:24.640 and now become that great, great quarterback. No, he kind 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:28.560 of peeked early and he was good. But in the NFL, 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.000 you're not really gonna take advantage of what you shoot 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:32.760 in your career if you're the same player year two 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:34.360 that you are year eight and year nine. And that's 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:36.760 kind of what Brunel was. No, he's he's a guy 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:39.320 that I remember him getting a little bit of fantasy 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:41.800 love for a couple of years off the al Right, 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:44.359 he runs a bit, Right, that was the calling card 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:47.800