“We game plan each week for what the opponent is good at, trying to take away what they’re best at, force them to do something they don’t want to do. There is no question what (they) like to do. Its power football, run right at you, smash you in the mouth, play pass off it, take vertical shots. So it’s different just by the nature of who they are and what they do. Our preparation will be based on that. Every week it’s switching gears. Every week we identify what the opponent likes to do and go after them and attack them that way.”

Was that Jack Del Rio talking about the Jaguars, or was he talking about the Chargers. Or was that Marty Shottenheimer talking about his own team, or the Jaguars? Or how about this:

“What you have to do is do the things that you do best and that’s what we’ll start to do. I think as you look at the National Football League today, and it’s always been true, but I think more so than even in recent past, is you better find out what your guys can do best because if you’re out there trying to take advantage of something that you think the other guy can’t do, you may well find yourself creating your own problems.”

Both are pretty good statements and both reflect what’s going on in the NFL these days. The teams are close in terms of talent and competitiveness, so those statements could apply to just about every one of the 32 teams in the league. The first comment is from Jack Del Rio, Jaguars Head Coach. He’s right about San Diego. Under Shottenheimer they are a team that tries to intimidate you with the power run game, and come behind it with some real flash in the person of LaDanian Tomlinson.

The second comment was from Shottenheimer talking about how he’ll prepare his team for the Jaguars this week.

While game planning for one team each week is part of the job, Shottenheimer believes that you have to do the things that you do best and make the other team take that away from you before you stop. There are a lot of similarities between the Jaguars and Chargers in the past two years. Both were not very successful last year, and both have been a surprise this year. They’re getting production out of young players and they’re playing with a level of enthusiasm that can carry them past some of their mistakes.

“I know our team a little bit better than Jacksonville certainly, but right now everybody here is on the same page,” Shottenheimer said at his press conference this week “They’re working very, very hard. We frankly had some things a year ago that were some distractions and so we eliminated them. The approach to this group of young men has been very positive throughout. The games that we lost this year could have gone the other way. The games that we won this year could have also gone the other way. So I’ve been real pleased with the work ethic and their determination and dedication. I look at Jacksonville and I see a football team that has now learned how to win. There is a learning curve that comes outside of Xs and Os and it’s ‘what do we have to do to win the game?’ and whatever it is, we’re going to find a way to do that and that’s exactly what they’ve done. They have shown great determination and resilience. Things haven’t necessarily always gone their way, but they’ve overcome that and that’s what this league is all about right now because there is so much balance.”

While he’s right about the balance, teams can get caught in a losing spiral that can’t be arrested and they stay there for years. Neither San Diego nor Jacksonville seems caught in that kind of a tailspin, both righting the ship without a lot of fanfare in the off-season. Del Rio sees the similarities in the two teams progression from bottom dwellers last year to teams to be reckoned with in 2004. “I think it’s similar to us. We’re different. We were also 0-4 in that game. I think we both have taken steps. I think Marty’s done a nice job. I think the coaching staff has done a nice job. Their players are playing hard, playing aggressive. They just decided, like we have, to be a better football team and to work at it. I think it’ll be an interesting match-up. It ought to be a very physical football game.”

And you don’t hear much about how other coaches see the Jaguars progressing. Usually they throw a lot of hearts and flowers at their press conference, but Shottenheimer was very specific about how Jacksonville has built their defense.

“I think with really good defenses, you look at building down the middle. The Jaguars have done exactly that. When you take a look at (John) Henderson and (Marcus) Stroud in the middle then you have (Mike) Peterson at the middle linebacker and you have Donovin Darius as well as Deon Grant in the safety, that defense is built right down the middle. They know where they have to go. You’re not going to run the ball inside against these people. It’s like moving immovable objects. These guys are just big and strong and there are good players in there. I sit here and watch tape and there are some teams frankly that don’t even try to block Peterson. They just go try to block two guys on Stroud or two guys on Henderson. In a couple of cases, I saw there were two on Stroud and two on Henderson and there were two linebackers that had nobody trying to block them. It’s an awfully strong physical defense down the middle.”