Jacksonville Jaguars Inside Slant
by Sports Xchange
He told the players they should focus like a golfer putting "left edge firm." He told them to concentrate on the three As of alignment, assignment and aggressiveness." He portrayed the Tennessee game as a "David vs. Goliath" battle.
As it turned out, none of those tactics worked as the Jaguars have lost five of six games since a 3-3 start, but Del Rio hasn't given up.
Now he's trying to sell his players on the idea that playing at Soldier Field in Chicago Sunday is something special.
"I think it's one of the all-time places I've enjoyed. You know that Mike Ditka, Dick Butkus, Gale Sayers, some of the all-time greats, they're watching. It's their team and they're watching, and so I've always taken pride in going into Soldier Field and recognizing that some of the all-time historic greats are there. It's a proud franchise. It's been known for tough football forever. A team from Florida going up there and playing in those conditions, I relish that. Look forward to the opportunity," Del Rio said.
Whether the players will relish it is another matter.
Some of them weren't even born when the Bears won their only Super Bowl in 1985 and they didn't see players like Ditka, Butkus and Sayers actually play.
But Del Rio seems to think he can teach them about the historical importance of the Bears.
"Look, I'm an ambassador for this game. I happen to really appreciate the men that came before us and I'm going to continue to talk about them," he said.
As far as the young players understanding it, he said, "Well, we're going to help give a sense. You write about it. I talk about it."
Playing at Soldier Field meant a lot to Del Rio when he played.
"That motivated the heck out of me to know I was going into a place where some of the greatest, toughest men had been on that field," he said.
Still, the Jaguars still have nothing to play for at 4-8 while the Bears are still alive in the NFC even though they're only 6-6. And they looked as if they packed it in their 30-12 and 30-17 losses to Minnesota in their last two games.
In both games, they fell behind early in the game.
And then there's the cold weather factor. The Jaguars have lost six of their seven coldest games although they won in Green Bay in December of 2004 in 12-degree weather. Last year, they won in Pittsburgh in both December and January but those didn't make their cold-weather list because the temperatures were in the '30s.
The weather forecast for Sunday is in the teens or the low 20s.
"We could play in an all-out blizzard, which would be great. I think our guys would enjoy that. We don't get a lot of snow down here in Jacksonville so when we get to go up in the elements, it's different for us. It's fun. So we'll be ready for whatever the conditions are," Del Rio said.
Whether the Jaguars will be as enthused about the cold weather as he is remains to be seen.
And Del Rio admitted, he had to tell them, "Don't have me come over there and pry you off the heater."
That'll be a good judge of how the Jaguars will fare. They have to show more interest in being on the field instead of being next to the heaters.
SERIES HISTORY: 5th regular-season meeting. The series is tied 2-2. They last played in Jacksonville in 2004 when the Jaguars won 22-3. Their defense held the Bears to 31 rushing yards in 14 carries, the third fewest rushing yards by a Jaguars opponent in team history. The last time they played in Chicago was in Tom Coughlin's last year in 2002 when the Bears won 33-13.
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