Tennessee Titans vs Jacksonville Jaguars

Titans vs Jaguars

Tennessee Titans vs Jacksonville Jaguars

In one of the newest and most exciting matchups in the NFL, the Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars are helping to turn the AFC South into a division everyone has to check out, starting with this rivalry. With the teams located less than 10 hours from each other in geography, it makes for a far more intense feud as fans from both cities can travel to road games to cheer on their favorite squad. With the likes of Derrick Henry, Eddie George, Trevor Lawrence, and Tony Boselli, it’s a matchup that has seen marvelous games. Keep reading for more cool facts about why this matchup is so great.

The History

The Tennessee Titans were established in the city of Houston in 1959 as the Houston Oilers and were one of the original charter members of the American Football League (AFL). The Oilers would win the first two AFL Championships in 1960 and 1961 and would also win four division titles before joining the AFL/NFL merger in 1970. During their time in the NFL, the Houston Oilers built a few strong teams behind running back Earl Campbell who made the playoffs every year between 1978-1980. The Oilers of the late 1980s and early ‘90s featured Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon who helped lead the team to the postseason every year between 1987-1993. Houston would acquire another great franchise QB in the 1995 draft when they took Steve McNair with the third pick out of FCS school Alcorn State. Along with running back Eddie George, they would turn the Oilers/Titans into a winning franchise, taking the team all the way to the Super Bowl in 1999 where they would lose one of the great championship games of all time 23-16.

For the Jaguars, they are one of the newest franchises in the NFL as they got their beginning in 1993 before having their first season during the 1995 campaign. Before the NFL realignment of 2002, Jacksonville would play their games in the AFC Central division until 2001. Their first head coach was Tom Coughlin who would help start the franchise on a positive note although their first season was typical of an expansion team’s as they went 4-12. After that, however, they really started to shine as Couglin would not only help the Jaguars make their first playoff appearance in 1996, he would lead them to four consecutive postseasons from 1996 until 1999. Unfortunately, the team never went further than the 1996 AFC Conference Championship Game where they lost to the New England Patriots 20-6 but since that run, the Jaguars have only made the postseason three other times and haven’t made it since 2017. On that note, the team has already made it to three AFC Conference Championships and has produced one Hall of Famer in offensive lineman Tony Boselli.

The Matchup

This tense rivalry started back in 1995 when the Jaguars opened up their inaugural season against the Titans, who were still the Houston Oilers back then. They would lose the game 10-3 to the Oilers but would win up going 5-2 against them over the first seven games of the series but then the Titans would take over the matchup as they would reverse the roles and go 5-2 over the next seven contests. With the teams splitting the first 14 games of the series, it would turn into a dominant stretch for Tennessee for a few years as they would go on a five-game winning streak against Jacksonville from 2001 whereas the Jaguars have never had such a big winning streak versus the Titans. With the series matchup being in favor over Tennessee by more 10 games, they’ve won the series in every decade thus far.

Odds and Ends

The numbers are great with this matchup because many games have been close as the entire rivalry started off as the first nine games of the series were decided by an average of only 4.9 points a contest whereas during another six-game stretch from 2013-2015 the winning team only won by an average of 4.2 points a game. These teams haven’t had particularly high-scoring affairs but there have been exceptions such as a span of four games between 2015 and 2017 where the teams combined to score 59.6 points a contest and another stretch a couple of years after that between 2019 and 2022 where the teams would average 53.5 points a game combined. The low-scoring games have been scattered across the series with no long stretches although from 2009 to 2011 there were four games where they averaged only 31.8 points a game combined while they had an even lower-scoring span of four games from 2017 to 2019 when they only averaged 26.5 points per contest.

Why You Should Watch

The great part about watching one of the newer NFL rivalries is there’s so much excitement to be had moving forward. Superstars could be in the making on both the Titans and Jaguars and you, yes you, you could be watching them live whenever these two teams play. Don’t forget this is a Southern rivalry between the cities of Nashville and Jacksonville as well as a state-versus-state competition between Tennessee and Florida. Make sure you plan ahead for this great NFL matchup.