JACKSONVILLE – You can get off the couch now, Jacksonville Jaguars.

Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the rest of those rascals from Foxborough, Massachusetts, are not in your heads.

The Jaguars, who folded like provolone cheese against the Evil Empire in the last AFC title game, were the best team in the sauna at TIAA Bank Field on Sunday. Not even close. Shoot, you could take that to the bank.

“We expected to win,” Jaguars defensive end Dante Fowler said after of the 31-20 beatdown. “We turned the page. We understood that if we won this game, we’re not going to the Super Bowl.”

Then Fowler, preaching to a crowd of media at his locker, couldn’t resist.

“We just wanted to make a statement for them,” he said. “They might see us again and will know what time it is.”

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Fowler could afford such bravado after a performance that secured the franchise’s first 2-0 start since 2006. On a day when Blake Bortles played the game of his life – throwing for 377 yards and four TDs – it was Fowler who came up with one of the biggest plays in a moment of truth.

Early in the fourth quarter, he ripped around the edge and strip-sacked Brady on a third-and-9 from the Jaguars' 24-yard line. Fowler recovered the fumble, too, to snuff a serious threat.

Go ahead, admit it, even if the Jaguars won’t. With Brady in striking range to turn another Jaguars second-half turnover into a touchdown, the prospects seemed legit for another big comeback – or big collapse. A New England touchdown could have turned an 11-point game into a four-point affair.

Sure, there was nearly an entire quarter to play. That’s a lot of time for Brady.

“You think, ‘This is Brady. It’s never over,’ " said Jaguars defensive end Calais Campbell.

But the Jaguars defense was having none of that. After putting relentless pressure on Brady all afternoon, but failing to sack him, Fowler finally got there in the nick of time before the three-time MVP could throw the ball away.

Brady said he was waiting for two receivers downfield to clear on crossing patterns, but, “I felt like someone was coming.”

It was Fowler. Rally squashed. A few minutes later, Dede Westbrook scampered across the field and down the sideline for a back-breaking 61-yard touchdown.

No, this didn’t exactly avenge the AFC title game loss at Gillette Stadium in January, when the Jaguars blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead. It’s hardly a surprise that the Jaguars used their fast, violent and confident defense to put the clamps on Brady.

But it felt good, maybe like the October drubbing at Pittsburgh last season, which preceded a playoff win at Pittsburgh. It allowed for a dose of confidence that won’t hurt if they meet the Patriots again.

And, yes, it represented growth, even if it’s not the time for the ultimate statement.

“We played a whole 60 minutes,” Fowler said of the lesson learned. “A physical 60 minutes. We played a great ‘first half’ the last time we played them. It’s just being consistent.”

In the title game, the Jaguars got conservative – even before halftime when building a lead. That played right into Brady’s hand.

Even in January, the scrutiny on coach Doug Marrone and coordinator Nathaniel Hackett following the title game collapse may have felt like the 107-degree heat index at kickoff on Sunday, which marked the hottest game in Jaguars history.

This time, Bortles was still throwing – and running – on the final drive when it was time to just kill the clock.

Maybe that was a statement, too, that they will stay aggressive, even if it puts their franchise quarterback at risk.

Brady, meanwhile, had a statement of his own: “You have a bad day against a good team and it’s a recipe for losing.”

Of course, the Patriots (1-1) have been here before. During this Super Bowl era, they’ve had some of their worst clunkers in September. It’s a long season. Maybe it won’t end with another trip to the Super Bowl, but it’s a good bet that the Patriots will have a different look in December and January.

This was not the game to pass the torch or signal the end of the dynasty. It was September football, when teams tend to find themselves. To that end, Brady, in his 19th NFL season, sounded a lot like Belichick as he talked about the need for more practice and about finding out what the team does — and doesn't — do well.

He knows. While the defense was exposed for multiple big plays in the middle of the field, the execution and timing of the offense left much to be desired. The Jaguars took Rob Gronkowski out (two catches, 15 yards) primarily with safety Tashaun Gipson, but there were few answers elsewhere.

That underscores some of the issues with the Patriots offense, with Brady surrounded by a limited number of proven targets. The Jaguars defense had a hand in that, too, but Brady left the stadium wondering what might have been.

He lamented the first possession, when Cordarrelle Patterson was wide open deep down the field on third down.

“It could have been a touchdown,” Brady said. “I end up throwing it away. The game’s different if I complete that pass and he runs 40 yards for a touchdown. There’s a lot of little things.”

Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve. My, how the roles have reversed.

Follow Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell.