After Beating Up the Steelers, No One Can Overlook the Sacksonville Jaguars

PITTSBURGH — The doors had opened to reveal the visitor's locker room, but Telvin Smith didn't care. Let the cameras roll. Let the world hear and read every word. Smith moved locker to locker, expletive to expletive, violent high-five to violent high-five, shouting at the top of his lungs.     

"The same motherf--kers we beat the first time!" the Jaguars linebacker barked.

They read every quote. They twitched with every slight. They woke up to Le'Veon Bell's tweet looking ahead, and now, yes, now, after shocking Pittsburgh 45-42 in Pittsburgh, it was their time to talk.

Bell can't wait to see the Patriots? That's fine with veteran Malik Jackson. He's more than happy to accommodate. He said he'll even buy Steelers players some Jaguars jerseys if they'd like.

"For a team to go out there and talk like we didn't smack them in the mouth the first time in Week 5, it meant a lot to us and it disrespected us," Jackson said. "They didn't feel like they got their ass kicked. So we came and did it again. Now they're going to sit there, have a long offseason and worry about how the Jags kicked their ass."

Marcell Dareus echoed Jackson's invite for the Steelers to jump onto the Jaguars bandwagon, promising there's still room left.

Quickly, his joking swelled to anger.

"We came into your house—twice!" Dareus said. "And when it counted, we came to this b---h and knocked on the door and kicked that b---h down."

Hearing that rhetoric, Calais Campbell ducked in.

"Marcell!" he said, smiling. "You got traded to some dogs!"

They were underdogs Sunday, and they'll be underdogs next Sunday. The early line had the Patriots favored by 9.5, per OddsShark. But nobody is overlooking the Jaguars. Not anymore. If they're dogs, they're a pack of junkyard dogs storming into the AFC Championship as ornery and dangerous as they've ever been in franchise history. And the lack of respect only makes them more so.

They felt completely disrespected coming into this game—and by a team they'd embarrassed in Week 5. So it didn't matter if Mike Mitchell actually told Sports Illustrated he'd play the Patriots "in Haiti" or "in hell" weeks ago in a story posted this week. He said it. That slight compounded with countless other players and analysts dismissing a 30-9 beatdown as a fluke…compounded with Bell's late-night tweet…fueled scenes nobody saw coming at Heinz Field.

Don Wright/Associated Press

A 28-7 lead before Pittsburgh could even blink.

An offense scared to run up the middle on 4th-and-short. Twice.

Blake Bortles going Joe Cool in the fourth quarter.

An upset that now has the Freakin' Jacksonville Jaguars one win from the Super Bowl.

"They were throwing fuel on the fire, and we used all of it," safety Barry Church said. "You don't poke a bear like that and think it's going to be cookies and cream when you go play us."

This wasn't the script, remember? The world was supposed to see Big Ben and Tom Brady duel once more in Foxborough. "Sacksonville" was fun while it lasted, with its swarming defense compensating for the quarterback America loves to mock at every opportunity. Eventually, Bortles would bortles the Jags into the offseason, and that would be that—the quarterback cream always rises to the top. Right? With one punch in the mouth after another, this Jaguars team keeps taking a sledgehammer to convention.

The Steelers overlooked Jacksonville, and if the Patriots do the same, they can absolutely lose, too. Uttering those words a year ago would have had friends rushing you to the nearest hospital.

Now, that's the reality.

Because make no mistake: This defense wants to be remembered as an all-time great unit. Win these next two games, and it's possible.

For one, this is a defense motivated long before Bell tapped open Twitter on his phone—from Myles Jack's draft-day plunge, to Dante Fowler Jr.'s missing his rookie year with a torn ACL, to Dareus' getting shipped out of Buffalo midseason. Dareus sarcastically thanked Sean McDermott on Sunday for changing his life, saying that he loved the city of Buffalo but that the Bills treated him like "a nobody."

Don Wright/Associated Press

"I'm a f--king All-Pro," Dareus said. "And y'all aren’t even going to let me play? You aren't even going to give me snaps?"

Jackson chimed in, "Tell 'em!"

They all feel slighted and know this organization has been a punch line most of its existence.

But beneath the swagger is also a real foundation.

The night before Sunday's win, Campbell had trouble sleeping. Laying in bed, his mind raced back to his decision to sign with the Jaguars and to a training camp he'll never forget. Want to know why the Jaguars have been punishing offenses all season? Easy, he says. It started in August. Doug Marrone worked players harder than anything they ever experienced in the pros.

The Jaguars went no-huddle almost exclusively to run as many plays as possible.

Marrone and Tom Coughlin (who went ballistic in the press box several times in Pittsburgh) toughened this team up. When Marrone took over Syracuse's football team in 2009, that approach rubbed many players the wrong way. Droves quit the team. In his first year here, it had the opposite effect.

"I promise you, nobody worked harder than we did," Campbell said. "We know that for a fact. Nobody outworked us this year. That kind of mentality builds confidence. Because we know that wasn't for nothing. That right there pushed us to—whatever happens, keep fighting. We're going to find a way to get it done."

Campbell put a bear paw-sized hand on my shoulder and made eye contact, continuing: "Thinking back on it, it's like, 'Man!' You question how long you want to play this game, because this is a true commitment. But where we're at right now, it was worth it."

All season, they've been parasites crawling underneath the skin of opponents, even making the forever-calm A.J. Green go full WWE.

So nobody should've labeled the Jags an underdog Sunday, and nobody should view the Jaguars through a Bortles-only prism. They're proving a team in 2017 can win in a non-Brady, non-Killer B's way.

This defense ranked No. 1 against the pass (169.9), No. 2 in sacks (55) and No. 1 in opposing passer rating (68.5) this season. Church laughed out loud when asked why the Steelers didn't just run a sneak on 4th-and-short—he was just as confused as you at home. Roethlisberger is a generously-listed 240 pounds. "All he needs to do is literally lean forward," the safety said.

Taking a second to think about it, he agreed the Steelers were probably spooked and Big Ben didn't want to get hit.

That's the kind of intimidation this defense creates even when it gives up yards in chunks.

And, oh, Bell wants to announce this week that he wants a massive contract? The Jaguars heard that, too.

"He wants his contract. He wants to get paid," Dareus said. "Now, Le'Veon, you can go into your contract with your 60 yards rushing."

Here's a scary thought: The Jaguars are starting to believe in their quarterback, too.

Don Wright/Associated Press

Bortles answered Pittsburgh's best shots with back-to-back touchdown drives in the fourth quarter. When this defense slipped, he picked up the slack with a pair of play-action dimes.

"In the biggest moments," Church said, "he can come through and play well. He pretty much exposed their defense to what they are—not that good."

It seems silly that professional athletes would use words as motivation, but the Jags repeat that was genuinely the case here. Church watched former players dissing his team on NFL Network. They take anything that can fuel their feeding frenzy of a defense, one that snowballs one crushing hit into the next. As Church put it, this defense has "some of the biggest egos in the NFL," and that can be a dangerous thing for any offense.  

Win it all, he added, and they can be one of the best ever.

Look at the numbers all season. Linebacker Myles Jack believes they're making that case now.

"Me personally, I definitely think it is," Jack said. "I think it could."

Then, he stopped himself.

Tom Brady is up next. The GOAT. As vindicated as this Jaguars team feels, it only gets more difficult. For one, Bill Belichick's army of robots won't be supplying any headlines to pin up on the wall back south. But this reality—being one win away from the greatest stage in all of sports—hit players gradually in the locker room.

Jackson saw Brady "dinking 'n dumping" on Saturday and knows the Jaguars cannot sit back. He also plans on diving back into that 2016 AFC Championship Game film, from when he was in Denver.

"We have an opportunity to go show that we're the new kids on the block," Jackson said. "Nobody gave us a chance this year. Nobody gives a chance now—even though we've been rolling. We're going to put our best product out there on TV and hopefully shock the world again and play in the Super Bowl. …

"This is going to be an all-time great defense if we carry this team to where it needs to go."

Campbell knew the Jaguars would be massive underdogs in the AFC title game, calling it "poetic." They don't want it any other way.

Eventually, they'll obsess themselves with Brady, with Belichick.

But right now, hell, they'll enjoy this.

"We're on cloud nine," Jackson said. "We just beat these bums, and now we're going to go back home."

Tyler Dunne covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @TyDunne.