Southern discomfort
PITTSBURGH — The Jacksonville Jaguars were yanked out of the division now known as the AFC North after the 2001 season, relocated to the sleek-and-slick AFC South and told they wouldn't have to fret any longer over those yearly cold-weather, late-season games in places like Pittsburgh.
Somehow, the Jaguars never underwent the change of personality that's supposed to go with competing against fast-paced teams like the Colts rather than the blue-collar Steelers.
Check their football DNA, and the Jaguars remain the AFC Central team they were upon their birth a dozen years ago. They play in a good-weather city but are rooted in the foul-weather football they once played up north, a team that doesn't click on the Weather Channel every 15 minutes to check the forecast of the city where it is playing that weekend.
No wonder Willie Parker calls them the Steelers of the South.
These days, the Jaguars (10-4) are beating the Steelers (9-5) at their own game, and in their own stadium, too. The Jaguars ignored the worst weather they've experienced this season, answered every big hit the physical Steelers put on them and overcame a determined comeback to beat Pittsburgh 29-22 on Sunday and shake up the AFC playoffs race.
The light snow that fell throughout the second half? The mushy field? The temperatures that dipped 30 degrees lower than any the Jaguars had experienced all season? A biting wind that gusted to 40 miles per hour?
The Jaguars barely noticed.
"We know we can win up here in the weather even though we are a Florida team," David Garrard said after throwing three touchdown passes. "We are built for the cold weather. Coach (Jack Del Rio) has done a great job building us for this type of weather."
The week before, the Patriots gave the NFL a blueprint for roughing up the Steelers by virtually abandoning the run to throw for 399 yards and four touchdowns during a 34-13 rout in Foxborough,
The Jaguars promptly ignored it, and they're all but in the playoffs because they did so.
They came to Heinz Field, where the Steelers were 7-0, with the mind-set that they would run the ball directly at a defense that was allowing a league-low 245.5 yards per game. The Jaguars did exactly that, with Fred Taylor running for 147 yards and a touchdown Maurice Jones-Drew adding 69 yards. Jacksonville outgained the Steelers 421-217 and outrushed them 224-111.
"We said all week long that we pretty much had the same identical team as them," Garrard said. "These guys were hungry. The Steelers have a lot of good things happen to them these past few years, and we're trying to get there."
By losing to Jacksonville for the third season in a row, the Steelers fell into a first-place tie with Cleveland (9-5) in the AFC North, though they own the tiebreaker.The game began to get away from the Steelers with Jacksonville's first two possessions of the second half.The Jaguars used up nearly 10 minutes during a 20-play drive that ended with Garrard's 3-yard touchdown pass to Reggie Williams. Then, after the Steelers went three-and-out, Garrard came back on first down to throw a 55-yard scoring pass to Dennis Northcutt, who became the third receiver in two games to beat Steelers safety Anthony Smith in coverage.Smith rebounded with a 50-yard interception return that helped the Steelers score twice on touchdown passes by Ben Roethlisberger less than eight minutes apart to tie it at 22, but the Jaguars won it on Taylor's 12-yard TD run with less than two minutes to play."This is huge game for us, to be able to come here and get a win," Jaguars guard Brad Meester said. "This is a tremendous team and this is a hard place to play. It's a big boost for us."For the playoffs, for sure, especially if the Jaguars return to Pittsburgh for a wild-card playoff game next month."We know we have to play in this kind of weather in order to advance in the AFC tournament, so it was a good experience," Del Rio said.The Steelers' second loss in two weeks and third in five games may not keep them out of the playoffs. But they won't go into the postseason like they did two years ago, off four consecutive victories."We need to get patched up and get after it," defensive end Brett Keisel said. "We just had two losses back to back. If there's no sense of urgency now, something's wrong."Despite their 2-4 road record, the Steelers' closing stretch couldn't be much softer — St. Louis (3-11) and Baltimore (4-10), the loser of eight in a row. But the Steelers have a short turnaround before playing the Rams on Thursday, and they lost last month to the Jets (3-11), who had won only once previously."Cleveland's right there with us," said Parker, who ran for 100 yards on only 14 carries in his seventh 100-yard game. "We ain't got no choice."y it."
