Jaguars can dominate on defense

Oct 19, 2017 - 1:47 AM JACKSONVILLE -- Good offenses will win games. Good defenses will win championships.

That's what the Jacksonville Jaguars are banking on as they approach their bye week following Sunday's game against Indianapolis. The Jaguars need a win over the Colts to go into their off week with no worse than a share of the AFC South Division lead at 4-3. That's not necessarily comforting to be a league leader at 4-3 but in a division that doesn't have a standout team, it's an indication that nine wins could very well earn the top spot in this division.

For the Jaguars to get to nine wins, they would need to win six of their remaining 10 games. And with a defense that's playing as well as the Jaguars have through six games, that could happen. The schedule is in Jacksonville's favor. Of course, that's what will happen when a team has been a cellar-dweller or close to it for the last half dozen years.

Only one of the nine teams (they play the Colts twice) currently has a winning record, that being Seattle at 3-2. Three teams are even with 3-3 marks while the other five are below .500, including the NFL's only winless teams, the 0-6 Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers.

The last two weeks are an indication of how dominant the Jaguars defense can be. In Week 5 playing at Pittsburgh, the Steelers only managed three field goals. That marked the first time the Jaguars held an opponent without an offensive touchdown since a 51-16 win over Indianapolis on Dec. 15, 2015. The Jaguars have now accomplished such a feat just six times in the last 10 years.

It almost happened a seventh time last week against the Rams. Their only offensive touchdown came on a short touchdown pass in the first quarter. What hurt the Jaguars in that game of course, was allowing a pair of special teams touchdowns. In two other games this year against Houston and Baltimore, Jacksonville allowed just one touchdown in those games as well. That's four games in which the defense has not allowed more than one touchdown.

Even in a 23-20 overtime loss to the New York Jets, the Jets two touchdowns came on a 69-yard run when the Jaguars missed a number of tackles, and on a 75-yard run when the defense stopped on the play thinking the runner was already down, only to see him get up and race to the end zone. All that said, it's an indication of how tough it's been to score on the defense this year.

Another factor that has worked in Jacksonville's favor this year has been the lack of significant injuries. The most crippling loss that the Jaguars have had happened on the team's opening drive of the season when their most productive wide receiver, Allen Robinson, went down with a torn ACL. He's lost for the season. But the only other starter that has missed any games is center Brandon Linder who has been held out with an undisclosed illness. Otherwise it's been the same starters on offense while the same 11 players have started every game on defense. That's a major change for the Jaguars who have been decimated with injuries, including a number to starters, in recent years.

SERIES HISTORY: 33rd regular-season meeting. Colts lead series, 22-10. Jaguars have won two of last three games after Indianapolis won six in a row between 2012-15. Teams have split the series the last two years, with both winning home games. Jacksonville has the lowest winning percentage against the Colts (.313) of all NFL teams that they have played at least 10 games with. Jaguars have really struggled in games at Indianapolis, showing just four wins in 16 games, including four straight losses there.

--For the season, running back Leonard Fournette has totaled 596 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns on 130 carries (4.6-yard average) and 136 receiving yards, and one receiving touchdown on 15 receptions (9.1) for 732 scrimmage yards and seven scrimmage touchdowns. Fournette's 732 yards from scrimmage are the 10th-most in NFL history through a player's first six career games.

Fournette's 596 rushing yards are the most in Jaguars history through six career games, and the 11th-most in NFL history through six career games.

--The Jaguars defense registered another takeaway against the Rams last Sunday and was able to score three points from the takeaway. Jacksonville has now totaled 77 points from turnovers on the season, the most in the league in 2017 and the second-most in the NFL through six games since 2000. The Jaguars have an NFL team-best of 16 takeaways thus far, including a league-high of 10 interceptions. The game against the Chargers marked the first time this season that the Jaguars were not able to record an interception and comes on the heel of the franchise-record of five picks a week ago against Pittsburgh.

The Jaguars have had defensive success against opposing quarterbacks by not having to rush more than four players the majority of time. A re-check of the Pittsburgh and Los Angeles games show that the Jaguars had but two blitzes in those two contests. Against Rams quarterback Jared Goff, the Jaguars rushed three players on five drop-backs and were able to record one of their two sacks in the game. Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone said it makes a big difference in a team can put enough pressure on the quarterback by just rushing the front four linemen.

"In this league if you can affect the quarterback with just rushing four then that really, really helps you out," the Jaguars coach said. "You can play multiple coverages in the back end. You feel you have everything covered from a standpoint of either the zones or man or extra guys back there. I think that is always a big thing because in this league if you don't affect the quarterback then it could be a very long day for you defensively."

--The Jaguars will go with their third different kicker in less than three years after the team released kicker Jason Myers on Tuesday and signed former Los Angeles Chargers kicker Josh Lambo. The final straw to release Myers came last Sunday when he missed a pair of 54-yard field-goal attempts and would have had a third miss except that a Los Angeles penalty negated his 41-yard miss. Myers then converted on a 36-yard kick following the 5-yard walkoff.

Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone said when he called Myers into his office to inform him of the release, he told Myers that he just hadn't been consistent enough.

"He has a lot of talent. He just hasn't been consistent. We're just trying to get ourselves better," Marrone said. "I told him to keep going and keep working. I think he's a guy that has the ability to play in this league and we just wanted to bring someone in to see if we can get some more consistency at that position.

"We've had this kid (Lambo) in before and worked him out. We liked a lot of things that he's done."

Lambo, 26, was erratic during his two years with the Chargers. He was 26-of-32 on field-goal attempts in both seasons and missed a total of eight extra points. He lost a competition with Younghoe Koo during the preseason, with Koo eventually losing his spot to Nick Novak.

NOTES: C Brandon Linder is getting better according to Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone, but did not practice on Wednesday. "He is lifting and running. It is just a matter of the illness of being where it is at a point where he is able to go back in there and play and nothing comes back for him." Linder has missed the Jaguars last two games due to the unspecified illness. ... RB Leonard Fournette did not practice Wednesday after suffering an ankle injury late in the Los Angeles game. Coach Doug Marrone would not speculate on Fournette's return to the lineup. "I don't try to get into that," Marrone said. "The only reason why is because I got burned before. I was sitting here, and I had my crystal ball out and I was like, hey, listen this guy is going to be OK to play, and then he didn't play, and I got crushed. I just think you have to be careful as a coach." ... QB Blake Bortles is the only quarterback in the AFC South who has started every game for his team this season. ... C Tyler Shatley received a solid evaluation from head coach Doug Marrone even though Shatley was shown giving up 2.5 sacks in the Rams game. Marrone said, "I thought Shatley did a nice job. Obviously, he is the backup and Linder is the starter. One of the reasons why we have him is to be able to go in there and play well enough for us to win, which he has been playing at a good level. I am not dissatisfied at all with Tyler." ... LB Paul Posluszny has seen limited action this year because the Jaguars have gone with five defensive backs so often. But Posluszny still leads all NFL players with 100 games of recording seven-or-more tackles since he entered the NFL in 2007. ... CB A.J. Bouye missed Wednesday's practice due to a hamstring injury. ... WR Marqise Lee did not practice Wednesday due to a knee injury. ... FS Tashaun Gipson did not practice on Wednesday due to a neck injury.