“I think as you continue to have success that your confidence grows. I think there are some things that we feel good about as we go forward and there are some things that we feel like we need to get better at and we’re working toward being better at it. It’s a young football team that’s working at becoming a good football team. We’ll continue to do that.”

That’s a perfect answer for the media and for fan consumption. But if he actually believes it and his players buy into it, that’s even better.

Every team gets fortunate bounces during the year, and perhaps the Jaguars have just gotten theirs three weeks in a row. Playing the Colts this week is a much different and bigger game than the three previous wins, especially if the Jaguars are trying to measure themselves against their conference’s elite. The Jaguars have scored 35 points this year. Indianapolis scored 35 points in the first half against Green Bay last week. Peyton Manning threw for all five of those TD’s. In fact, the Colts opened the game with 22 consecutive passes, a first for Manning and Offensive Coordinator Tom Moore. Manning isn’t surprised by the Jaguars success. He saw it coming in the second half of last year.

“They were a good team last year. You look at some of the games they lost last year. There were a lot of close games. That’s the biggest difference so far this year. They’ve been in a lot of close games, but they’re winning those games and they’re playing the entire 60 minutes, which you have to do. They’re making the breaks. You can say Denver fumbled but still if you’re playing hard, some of those breaks go your way. Jacksonville is earning those plays. It’s got to be a four quarter game and the team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.”

Rashean Mathis was named the AFC Defensive player of the week for his effort against Tennessee last Sunday. He also received a game ball from Del Rio for the second straight week. Mathis is that rare combination of a gifted athlete who is also smart and mature enough to take advantage of his skills. Del Rio and Jaguars VP of Personnel James Harris recognized that last year when making Mathis their second round pick, despite playing at a relatively small college, Bethune-Cookman.

“It’s always a leap. Any time you come from the college to the pros, it’s a step up and you have to work at it. You have to be professional in approach in order to make the improvements as necessary, and he has done that. He’s done that from the very beginning. It think his commitment, his intelligence, his maturity, those are the things that, as a staff, gave us confidence that he would develop and be able to handle all that he handled last year and continues this year.”

Mathis was an easy pick to host “The End Zone” this year as well. His talent, smarts and skills are evident, but the more he’s on the air the more I think people will realize what a nice and genuine guy he is. That’s what struck me most about him during his first year here, and I think that’s coming out on the air. Mathis admitted on the show last Monday that the scheme was set up to let him make plays and he took advantage of it. Perhaps they’ll keep that up this week against Indianapolis.