I may have been a bit hard on these guys writing about them in the past. Yes, the soft schedule and 0-3 vs Tenn but, in fairness, they and the Titans themselves along with the quite-historically-soft-schedule, Rams, all share such notoriety. 1999 was a strange year for numerous reasons. Just eleven teams with a winning record and (without a single 12-4 in the mix) just EIGHT with double-digit wins. A lack of 'quality' wins for quite a few teams that year.
The Jags, of course, didn't come out of nowhere as was the case with the Rams, Colts, and even the Titans who - yes - at least were showing respectability the years leading up. Coughlin posted playoff teams three-straight years leading up. They opened '99 at home blasting San Fran, 41-3! Perhaps Mariucci's bunch had a real off day, but it should still be called a 'quality' win in that Young was still onboard. If just for a couple more weeks before that infamous Monday Nighter at 'Zona, San Fran had to still be seen as a playoff team. And they did, with Garcia, hand the Titans their first loss the following week.
And, of course, there's the 62-7 divisional in which Marino and Jimmy were pounded into retirement. Other than that, you can only play who's on your schedule. 14-2 is 14-2. 4th in O, 7th in D, #1 in points scored is, indeed, all that! Seven Pro Bowlers as well - four on offense and three on defense. And in that AFCCG, the Jags were up at the half. Yes, McNair was hurt, but so was Brunell especially. With the help of #8 having to play in two leg-braces, a quick "perfect storm" of a 16-pt burst happened at Jax's expense to start the second half. Mark being less mobile didn't help.
Who knows what happens had he been healthy, but they're simply a team that I should start having better respect for. A nice playoff-run they had to close the '90s that consummated, at least, with an outstanding 15-3 mark. Although styles-make-fights and Rams/Titans clearly a called-for SB match-up, JAGS/RAMS would have had the pre-game hype as well as living up to it at least well into the 4th Q. With their defense not being "worn-out" in the end as was the case with Tenn's pro-equiv of a Frazier/Phillips-like Cornhusker steamroller of an offense, I think Rams win either by 7, 10, or somewhere in-between. But who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. Give the '99 Jags their due either way. They at the very, very least deserved making that year's "final four".
PS - very ironic that Coughlin's two very best regular season teams (his only two top-seeds), '99 Jags & '08 G-men, both didn't even make the SB while in '96...'07...'11...