Not bad for a small-market team, huh?

Yes, Jaguars coach Liam Coen heard what Sean Payton had to say this week.

“It’s a smaller market, but you see a real good team,” the Broncos coach said of Jacksonville ahead of Sunday’s matchup.

Well, Payton was right because that small-market team came to Denver and snapped the Broncos’ 11-game winning streak overall winning streak and the team’s 12-game home win streak with a convincing 34-20 victory over the team that entered the week with the best record in the AFC.

“Just thankful that a small-market team like us can come into a place like Mile High and get it done,” Coen said.

Is it safe to say Payton’s words were a rallying cry for the Jaguars?

“Yes,” Coen said plainly.

Keep it coming, too, said the entire Jacksonville team.

“Everybody out there, just keep it up,” quarterback Trevor Lawrence said. “It’s great.”

For four quarters, the Jaguars (11-4) looked like a team with something to prove. Sure, teams have come to Empower Field at Mile High and built leads on the Broncos (12-3) this season.

The Packers just last week and the Giants in October just to name a few. But no one team this season had delivered the knockout blow in Denver’s building.

“It just shows that this team doesn’t mind going and playing anywhere, any time, any place,” Coen said. “We’ve been successful on the West Coast this year and I think that the guys get closer when we go on the road. They enjoy being with each other. Players, coaches, staff, we all kinda enjoy each other and hanging out and traveling and playing in games nobody thinks we’re going to win.”

It didn’t start out perfectly, either. The Jags went three-and-out on their first two possessions with just 5 total yards across their first six plays. But from there, something flipped. Jacksonville scored points on six of its next seven possessions, including touchdowns on all four trips inside the red zone.

“I think we had a good plan,” Coen said. “I think our staff did a great job. The players under, obviously, a loud atmosphere on the road did a great job of executing the third down plan. Really, third down and red zone are where we kind of ended up winning the game.”

In the NFL, on third down and in the red zone is when you need your playmakers to show up. There’s no bigger one for the Jaguars than their quarterback, Lawrence. The former No. 1 overall pick out of Clemson, now in his fifth season, has had stretches where he looked like one of the best players in the league, but it’s just never been consistent enough and that’s why he’s led his team to just one playoff appearance in his first four seasons.

But this season, and in the last month in particular, Lawrence has looked like someone you don’t want to face in January. With his 279 passing yards and four total touchdowns on Sunday against the Broncos, Lawrence has now guided the Jags to six straight wins and over the last four games, he has got 14 total touchdowns and zero turnovers.

“I think he’s had some stretches where he’s really played at a high level, but the consistency, especially during this stretch that we’ve had, it’s the best I’ve seen him, in terms of being around him in a short period of time,” Coen said. “It’s no surprise, really. We’ve stayed the course, he has stayed the course. We’ve tried to make the game tailored to him in a lot of ways. He’s stepping up for us and making critical throws, critical scrambles, protection changes, run cans, alerts — he’s doing it all. He’s doing everything that you want your guy to be doing and he’s doing it at a high level right now.”

That’s a scary thing for the Broncos to hear, especially if they end up seeing this Jacksonville team again in the postseason. 

Keep ignoring this Jaguars team at your own peril. Payton and the Broncos probably won’t, should they see them again in the playoffs.

“It’s only helping us,” Coen said. “I want the narrative to keep going.”