With the Jacksonville Jaguars slated to begin their first playoff campaign in three seasons athome on Sunday against Buffalo, here’s a brief history of past postseason runsJacksonville has made.

This year marks the ninth time the Jaguars have made the postseason through theirfirst 31 seasons of play. Jacksonville’s last playoff berth was in 2022.

Advertisement

Jaguars’ 1996 season

In just their second season in existence, the upstart Jaguars shocked everybody bysneaking into the playoffs and securing a wild card spot. Jacksonville won theirfinal five contests, including a 19-17 win over Atlanta that saw one of the mostreliable kickers in NFL history — Morten Andersen — miss a 30-yard field goal astime expired.

Not content with simply making the playoffs, Tom Coughlin’s squad went on todefeat Hall of Fame quarterbacks on the road in back-to-back weeks, taking downJim Kelly’s Bills in the wild card round and John Elway’s Broncos in thedivisional round.

The latter victory was made sweeter by Rocky Mountain Newscolumnist Woody Paige mocking the “Jagwads” in anticipation of the matchup.Jacksonville ultimately lost the AFC championship at New England, but the team’simpressive playoff run was a harbinger of things to come.

Advertisement

Jaguars’ 1999 season

After making the playoffs in both 1997 and 1998 but failing to advance past thedivisional round, the 1999 Jaguars put together the most dominant season in teamhistory. Jacksonville went a franchise-best 14-2, with their only losses comingagainst the Tennessee Titans.

After earning the number one overall seed and a first-round bye, the Jaguarsdismantled Dan Marino’s Dolphins in an unforgettable 62-7 thrashing.

Quarterback Mark Brunell’s day was done with 11 minutes remaining in thesecond quarter, at which point the Jaguars were already up 38-0. Marinoannounced his retirement a few weeks later.

Advertisement

A week later, the promising 1999 campaign came to an end, one win short of aSuper Bowl, however, with the Jaguars surrendering 23 unanswered second-halfpoints and falling to the dreaded Titans for a third time in the same season.

Jaguars’ 2017 season

Led by quarterback Blake Bortles and one of the best defenses in the league, the2017 Jaguars clinched their AFC South title since the division formed in 2002. Intheir first home playoff game of the 21st century, Jacksonville hosted a Buffaloteam that was itself playing its first playoff game since 1999.

In a defensive battle, the Jaguars defeated the Bills 10-3, advancing to a divisionalround matchup at Pittsburgh. Jacksonville again triumphed, this time in a 45-42shootout.

Advertisement

In the AFC Championship Game the following week, Jacksonville found themselveswith a 10-point lead over the Patriots with under 10 minutes remaining in the gamebefore a pair of late Tom Brady touchdown passes to Danny Amendola ripped theheart out of Jaguars fans everywhere.

According to ESPN’s win probability model, the Jaguars had a 93.2% chance ofwinning with 10:56 to play in the fourth. It’s the closest Jacksonville has evercome to reaching the Super Bowl — to date, the Jaguars are one of four teams tohave never played in one.

How far will this year’s Jaguars go? Here’s what NFL experts are predicting forSunday’s wild-card matchup with the Bills.

This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Jaguars playoff history: Looking back at 3 postseason runs