Taking chances

The way Jack Del Rio coaches the Jacksonville Jaguars, he’s almost like a kid playing the Madden video game. Just about any place on the field is four-down territory, and punt is a four-letter word.

After his team lost its final three games to finish 8-8 last season -- leading to the purge of five assistant coaches -- Del Rio was asked if he was worried about his own future with the franchise.

“Contrary to how it’s being portrayed in the media,” he said, “I don’t believe in coaching scared.”

Maybe that’s why Jacksonville went for it on fourth down a league-high 33 times this season, eight more than any other team.

And it’s why Del Rio, a former star linebacker at USC, made what might have been the boldest move of any coach this season. Nine days before the regular season, he cut quarterback Byron Leftwich, a former first-round pick whom the coach up to that point had called the unquestioned starter. Del Rio replaced him with David Garrard, who had outplayed Leftwich in training camp, was more mobile and therefore less prone to injuries.

It was a huge gamble, one that easily could have backfired on Del Rio, especially because he didn’t get the blessing of either his general manager or pro personnel director. Had that move backfired, Del Rio would probably be a defensive coordinator somewhere and not the coach of one of the eight teams still alive in the playoffs.

The Jaguars play Saturday at New England in a divisional game, having advanced with a history-making victory over the Steelers. Jacksonville is the first team to win twice at Pittsburgh in the same season.

Throughout their history, the Jaguars have relied on their defense to win games. This season, they’ve had the AFC’s best running attack and have gotten much more creative under first-year offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter.

Garrard, who’s burly like a linebacker, had 18 touchdown passes with just three interceptions in the regular season.

The wild-card game at Pittsburgh was Jacksonville’s first postseason victory since 1999, and, fittingly, the game hinged on a gutsy call. After frittering away an 18-point lead in the second half, the Jaguars rallied to reclaim momentum late in the fourth quarter. With less than two minutes remaining and Jacksonville facing a fourth-and-two situation, Garrard ran a quarterback draw that gained 32 yards. That set up the winning field goal.

If the Jaguars had lost, it would have been another example of them folding in a big game. But it didn’t happen that way. Instead, they did what good teams do; they won a game they were supposed to win.

And now, all the pressure is on the Patriots.

If New England wins, well, it was supposed to.

But if the Patriots lose, they’ll be on the wrong end of a landmark upset.

As for the Jaguars, they’ve already proved their point. Of course they set higher goals. Of course they’ll be disappointed if they lose. But they’re past the point of their season being judged a success or failure.

After all, the Jaguars didn’t have one player voted to the Pro Bowl. They can’t sell out a home game without 10,000 of their seats being covered by tarps. There’s a constant threat the franchise will uproot and move, maybe to Los Angeles, and yet no one there seems too panicked about that.

“Whenever you go to a home game and there’s no traffic getting in or out, you know there’s something different about the place,” said Marcellus Wiley, who spent 10 seasons as an NFL defensive end, his final two in Jacksonville. “When you don’t need the police escort, when you can walk in the stadium and the sniffing dog is still laying down like, ‘Go ahead,’ you know you’re in a different place, man.”

All that’s a good thing for the Jaguars now. They don’t have a perfect season hanging in the balance. They proved their point in Pittsburgh. Just like Del Rio isn’t coaching scared, they aren’t playing scared.

“They’re loose,” Wiley said. “And when they’re loose, they can play with anybody.”

And, judging by what they’re saying, the Jaguars are loose. They don’t sound like they’re worried about upsetting the Patriots, or providing them with bulletin-board material.

“It would be nice to be the team that eliminates them,” tackle Khalif Barnes said. “They’re 0-0. They haven’t won any games in the postseason yet.”

Said cornerback Rashean Mathis, who draws the unenviable assignment of shadowing Randy Moss: “The 16-0 is in the regular season. We’re 1-0 in the playoffs. They’ve yet to play a playoff game. . . . What they’ve accomplished in the regular season is what they’ve accomplished in the regular season. The playoffs are a different monster and we all know that.”

And, when asked about quarterback Tom Brady, the league’s most valuable player, Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew gave a response dripping with sarcasm.

“We’re just blessed to have another opportunity, to be on the same field as the New England Patriots. Tom Brady is my idol. He’s from the Bay Area, dates supermodels. He’s everything a kid wants to be.”

So let everyone else say Jacksonville has no hope.

The Jaguars clearly have something else.

No fear.

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sam.farmer@latimes.com

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Coach’s corner

A look at Jack Del Rio’s regular-season results at Jacksonville and how the Jaguars have fared in the postseason:

*--* YEAR W L POSTSEASON 2007 11 5 Def. Pittsburgh, 31-29, wild-card round 2006 8 8 No playoffs 2005 12 4 L. to New England, 28-3, wild-card round 2004 9 7 No playoffs 2003 5 11 No playoffs *--*

Source: pro-football-reference.com