Football fans all across America, and especially those in northern Florida, were asking the same question last season: “what’s wrong with the Jacksonville Jaguars?” In the 2008-2009 Season, the AFC South Division Jaguars never performed up to their usually lofty standards. When the season ended, badly for Jacksonville, of course, TV sports commentators publicly speculated on the possible onset of a down period for the boys from Florida. The problem with accepting that is the fact that Jacksonville still has lots of good players up and down its roster.

So, was 2008-2009 just an off year, something that happens all the time to professional sports teams? Or was it the beginning of the end for the current core group of players that have performed so well for so many years?
The truth is that no one knows for sure, regardless of what you hear on TV from “NFL experts” or what you read online or in your favorite magazine or newspaper. Jacksonville can rebound in 2009-2010 and once again play dominant football … or the Jaguars can begin a stretch where they become a bottom-feeder … a losing team that finishes near the bottom of their division for the next couple of years.

Jacksonville’s usually rabid fans are going to be holding their collective breaths when the 2009-2010 Season kicks off in September because they, like everybody else, will be “in the dark” and not know what kind of team they’ll have in the Jaguars. If Jacksonville soars and rebounds from their off-year, all will be right with the world in northern Florida.
If the team starts off the new season the way it “played out the string” in the previous season - with lackluster performances - than Jacksonville will experience a rarity - a cold autumn and winter. That’s because losing makes everything, including the weather, seem worse.

The early season games in 2009-2010 should be interesting for the odds makers in Las Vegas. Although the betting odds they publish each week are based on hard facts and specific beliefs, the Jaguars should open the season as a puzzle. The guys at the casinos who are setting up “the point spread” could easily take a financial hit with a team like Jacksonville; the same is true for fans who bet, of course.

And yet, if you follow football, it’s easy to imagine that the Jacksonville Jaguars will have a strong and successful bounce-back season. Winning football games has been a big part of their recent history. If you approach the new season with that kind of mindset about Jacksonville, your gambling decisions should be easy. Whether they open up each week as the favorite or the underdog, you’ll be able to justify your faith in them plunking down a bet on them. And if you’ve followed this team for the last several years, that will not be a leap of faith.In 2009-2010, the Jacksonville Jaguars can be very good … or they can be shockingly bad. It will be interesting to see which team shows up.