NFL Playoffs 2016: 5 reasons Tennessee Titans still make it
By John Buhler
4. The Jacksonville Jaguars just fired Gus Bradley
The Titans have two games left on the 2016 NFL schedule and they are both against AFC South rivals. Tennessee’s Week 16 matchup will be on the road against the 2-12 Jaguars who just fired head coach Gus Bradley.
Bradley won 14 games over nearly four years on the Jacksonville job. Promoting Doug Marrone to interim head coach gives the atrocious Jaguars some splinter of hope to win a game or two the rest of the way. However, Jacksonville is clearly mailing it in even if Marrone wants to prove to owner Shahid Khan that he should be a candidate for the full-time gig in 2017.
Nothing is guaranteed in the NFL, but having a team as bad as Jacksonville on the schedule in the final two weeks of the regular only aids the Titans’ 2016 AFC Playoffs push. The Titans know the Jaguars’ personnel very well and should be able to game plan accordingly even with an interim head coach now in charge.
Week 16’s game will be at EverBank Field, so it would be a nice, mild late December game for the Titans to play. It’s not like Mike Mularkey’s team has to play in the frigid Midwest like it did against the Kansas City Chiefs last week. Tennessee will have to play a full 60 minutes to beat Jacksonville, but if the Titans want to win the AFC South, then they have to win this game. Expect them to do so on Christmas Eve.