JACKSONVILLE – They were mad and motivated – and it showed.
That was part of the Jaguars' impressive Week 2 story. But as veteran tight end Evan Engram sees it, what happened at TIAA Bank Field Sunday shouldn't be unusual.
In fact, Engram said such days should be closer to the norm.
"We really expected to win; we expect to go out and do our job and come out with a victory," Engram said Monday, a day after the Jaguars' 24-0 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in the 2022 regular-season home opener at TIAA Bank Field.
"It was a division win, and we were at home. We want to protect our house. The biggest thing is we expected to go out and get a victory. That's a big part of winning in this league. Every Sunday is a battle. Every game isn't promised. Our mentality going into the game was to settle for nothing less than victory.
"We wanted to come out with a win, we were going to earn the win and we did that."
The Jaguars (1-1) lead the AFC South entering Monday night's games. The Colts and Houston Texans are 0-1-1 with the Tennessee Titans (0-1) – the defending division champions – scheduled to play the Buffalo Bills (1-0) in Buffalo Monday at 7:15 p.m.
"The message is always going to be the same thing," Jaguars Head Coach Doug Pederson said Monday. "It's all about us and going 1-0 this week and it doesn't matter what we've done in the past. It's a short-term memory each week. It's a new set of challenges. It's my job to make sure the guys stay focused that way and never lose sight of that.
"That's when you get beat, when you start feeling full of yourself just a little bit after something like this on Sunday or you have success a couple of weeks in a row. You want to build on the momentum, but you have to stay humble and grounded and continue to improve at what you're doing."
The shutout was the first for the Jaguars since a 6-0 victory over the Colts at TIAA Bank Field in December 2018. Pederson on Monday lauded the team's preparation last week, citing it as a major reason for the victory and adding that the team must continue in that vein.
"To me, it goes back to practice," Pederson said. "The way they practice is the way they play. They expect to practice well, so they expect to play well and win those games. Credit the players for having that mindset and having that attitude each week.
"It just shows confidence in them, kind of where they are and the maturity of the football team. Not every weekend is going to be like that, but [Sunday] it was and it's something that I think the guys can kind of feed off of."
Engram, a six-year veteran who signed with the Jaguars in March as an unrestricted free agent from the New York Giants, said maintaining Sunday's level is about "taking our preparation up to another level."
"We were really pissed off last weekend," Engram said of the Jaguars' 28-22 Week 1 loss to the Washington Commanders. "That led into a great week of preparation. We had a better result [Sunday], and now there's no room for complacency.
"We all can even find another level to hit in our preparation."
The Jaguars are scheduled to play the Los Angeles Chargers (1-1) at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Cal., Sunday at 4:05 p.m. The Jaguars are 0-5 all-time on the road in the series.
"We have a really tough opponent this week and we're going to need to prepare even better than we did last week," Engram said, adding: "We know what we're capable of. We hold ourselves to a high standard. We work our butts off every single day.
"We're professionals going in there to play football, trying to win as many games as possible and be a successful team. We deserved that one Sunday and we're going to keep working hard to go get more."
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Engram on Sunday's atmosphere at TIAA Bank Field: "It was so much fun. Even in the preseason, it was a different atmosphere. I knew that come the regular season it was going to be jumping. The fans were in it the whole game. Obviously, we played really well and gave them a lot to be excited about, but we feed off of that. We fed off it [Sunday]. It was a good atmosphere to go be great in."
