A.J. Bouye says Jaguars needed 49ers loss: 'It humbled a lot of people'

Jimmy Garoppolo dominated what had been the league's best defense this season

By Jared Dubin

Dec 27, 2017 at 9:41 am ET • 1 min read

One of the more unexpected results of Week 16 was the playoff-bound Jacksonville Jaguars getting thrashed by Jimmy Garoppolo and the San Francisco 49ers. Sure, the Niners had been playing better since elevating Garoppolo to the starting job, but the Jags have had the league's best defense all season, and to see them so thoroughly dominated (San Francisco put up 472 yards and 44 points) came as quite a surprise.

While for some the loss might sow seeds of doubt about what the Jaguars can be once they get to the postseason, cornerback A.J. Bouye says the team will benefit from going through the experience.

"I hate to say this, but we needed this," Bouye said, per the Florida Times-Union. "It humbled a lot of people. We recognize it and we've got to get ready for [Tennessee] and just get it rolling going into the playoffs."

Jaguars coach Doug Marrone already stated that the team is going to go all-out to win the game against the Titans on Sunday.

"I knew that it was going to be a question," Marrone said. "I knew that it would be asked. When we go over the games and everything and I said, 'We are going to bounce back and we are going to work our asses off this week and we are going to go out and win this game and win this quarter.' That was pretty much the conversation, and there wasn't, 'Are you sure?' There wasn't any wavering from anyone of what we want to do and what we want to accomplish this week. We are 100 percent all-in on winning this football game."

Tennessee is the No. 6 seed in the AFC, and would be set to play the Jags in the first round of the playoffs if seeding holds. If Jacksonville beats Tennessee, it opens the door for the Bills or Chargers to slip into the No. 6 spot. Those teams might not necessarily be better matchups for the Jaguars (especially with DeMarco Murray reportedly dealing with a torn MCL), but if Bouye was right that they just needed a wakeup call to be humbled, it might not matter who that defense sees in the wild-card round. It's good enough to shut down anybody.