The Jacksonville Jaguars playoff run starts now

Doug Pederson can consider the 1992 San Diego Chargers as a case study for navigating the current 0-4 Jaguars crisis in Duval. The Chargers started their season 0-4, but were able to rebound, win their division, and advance past the Wild Card Round convincingly. San Diego’s opposing point differential in that opening 4 game slide was by a margin of 95-29.

However, all of that began to change in Week Five with a home contest in front of a modest crowd of 36,783. (Jack Murphy Stadium in those days held 59,000)

The Chargers were facing a long time divisional foe, sound familiar? They struck early, a mere 2:26 into the opening frame on a 67 yard TD strike to receiver Anthony Miller and the turnaround had begun. San Diego would collect their first of 11 regular season wins on that day defeating Seattle 17-6.

The question is can Jacksonville dust off the blueprint from the lightning bolts of 32 seasons ago. One of the keys to the turnaround was that the Chargers coaching staff and players remained unified behind signal caller Stan Humphries.

Stan had started the season with just 1 TD against 8 interceptions in that woeful September. By remaining steadfast in their organizational convictions, avoiding any outside noise, Humphries would go on to lead San Diego to an improbable Super Bowl appearance a few seasons later. We can only hope Trevor can begin reading from that script.

For the Jaguars it of course starts with Trevor Lawrence and the support within the organization. The perfect opportunity awaits this Sunday as the Jaguars, similar to the Chargers all those seasons ago are at home, in all probability in front of a sparse crowd, hoping to notch their first victory of the season. Imagine on their opening drive, Trevor connecting on a long strike to Brian Robinson Jr, just as Stan did to get their party started.