Jaguars defense becoming one of league's best

Nov 21, 2017 - 5:18 PM JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It would be hard to win a debate as to what the Jacksonville Jaguars defense is better at: stopping the run or stopping the pass. One thing for certain in which there is no debating: the Jaguars are playing better defense overall than any other NFL team.

Jacksonville is surging defensively. The Jaguars lead the league in a number of team categories on defense, none more important than points allowed and that's where their 14.1 average is considerably ahead of everyone else. Add in other categories like most sacks, fewest passing yards allowed, tied for most fumble recoveries, third in interceptions; the list seems to go on and on. What makes the defense so good is that it's so balanced in that there are so many good players among the starting 11 that it's hard for opposing offenses to target any one or two players or even a unit.

In Jacksonville's 19-7 win over Cleveland Sunday, the defense came at the Browns from all directions and angles. It resulted in five sacks, including a pair of strip-sacks one of which resulted in a touchdown, and it brought about five turnovers on two interceptions and three fumble recoveries. Had the officiating crew not inadvertently blown an early whistle that negated Dante Fowler Jr. going for a touchdown on a fumble recovery, the defense would have tallied twice in the game. As it is, the Jaguars take advantage of their turnovers. They are the league-leader in points scored (97) off takeaways.

The 40 sacks the Jaguars have recorded are the second-highest total through 10 games of a season in franchise history. Yannick Ngakoue led the charge against the Browns with 2.5 sacks, Fowler and Malik Jackson both had 1.0 sacks and Calais Campbell added half a sack. All four players now have at least 5.0 sacks this season, making the Jaguars the only team in the NFL with four players having at least five sacks.

Strong safety Barry Church wants the team to expect that the defense will be good enough for the Jaguars to win each Sunday.

"We were able to just go down there and when we put it on our backs, we've responded so far this season," Church said after the Cleveland win. "We just need to keep doing that - put the team on our backs and when stuff gets sticky for the offense, like it did this game, we have got to be able to pull through on the defense side of the ball."

Church's running mate, free safety Deshaun Gipson, credits the defensive line for putting such pressure on opposing quarterbacks and stopping other teams' running attacks, that it's made it easy for the Jaguars to come out on top. The Jaguars have been at the top of the NFL rankings in pass defense nearly all 11 weeks this season, and now the run defense unit is making its presence felt. The Jaguars acquired nose tackle Marcell Dareus on Oct. 28 to help shore up a unit that was 32nd in stopping the run. Dareus has made a difference. In the three games since his arrival in Jacksonville, the Jaguars have allowed 29, 87 and 50 yards, a three-game average of 55.3 yards per game.

The schedule is still in Jacksonville's favor. They do have to go out west this Sunday to play Arizona. While the Jaguars have not played well in such trips in recent years, this season has little resemblance to what has gone on in the last six or seven years. Jacksonville has won four straight games and have their best 10-game start (7-3) since the 2007 season. Sunday's win was their fourth road victory in five games this year, the only loss a 3-pointer to the Jets in overtime.

"We just have to win. Stack them up. If we win out on these six games we can control our destiny," Fowler said. "The more we keep winning, the more we can control everything. As long as we win we won't have to worry about anything. Stack up all these wins, by the end of the season we'll probably be in a playoff spot and hopefully have a bye. Right now ,we are just trying to stack up wins."



REPORT CARD VS. BROWNS

--PASSING OFFENSE: D - There was nothing special about the passing attack against the Browns. Blake Bortles only threw 30 passes, a significant drop from the 51 attempts he had the week before. He had 17 completions, but for only 154 yards and one touchdown. Most important however, he didn't throw an interception, the third time in the last four games that claim can be made. With starter Allen Hurns held out with an ankle issue, Bortles is operating with a less than efficient set of receivers. The return of Dede Westbrook helped as Westbrook had three catches for 35. Bortles continues to do just enough to help the offense and not be a deterrent.

--RUSHING OFFENSE: B -- Considering that the Jaguars will continually see teams stacking 7-to-9 defenders close to the line of scrimmage in order to stop the running attack, any time that Jacksonville backs can top the 100-yard mark, it should be considered a success. Leonard Fournette is clearly not 100 percent as he lacks the quick burst that he showed in the first six games when he wasn't bothered with an ankle injury. Still, Fournette went for 111 yards on 28 carries for a hard-earned 4.0 yards a crack. There wasn't much after that however as three other backs and Bortles combined for just 28 yards in 16 attempts. Clearly the Jaguars missed starting offensive linemen Jermey Parnell and Patrick Omameh, both out with injuries.

--PASS DEFENSE: A-plus - Can this unit get any better? Granted, it was going against a rookie quarterback who made his share of bad throws, but any time you allow a net 134 passing yards, you're getting the job done both up front and in the secondary. The Jaguars had one bad sequence, when Cleveland completed three successive passes for 55 yards and their lone score of the day. Otherwise, the Browns were 13 of 29 for 79 net yards through the air. Five sacks including a pair of strip-sacks along with two interceptions shows how the Jaguars dominated the Browns in the passing game.

--RUSH DEFENSE: A - A third consecutive strong showing by the Jaguars in shutting down an opponent's running game. The Browns gained but 50 yards in 18 attempts (2.78 per carry) and had just one run - a 10-yard keeper by QB DeShone Kizer - of more than 7 yards. It marks the third week in a row the front seven had limited opponents to less than 90 yards on the ground. Nose tackle Marcell Dareus continues to be instrumental in clogging the middle. He joined the Jaguars three weeks ago and the run-stopping ability of the defensive front has taken its game to a new level. A marked improvement for a unit that a month ago ranked dead last in stopping the run.

--SPECIAL TEAMS: B-minus - Too many highs and lows by this unit in the game. It started bad when it allowed the Browns a 53-yard return on the opening kickoff. Then there was a highlight when K Josh Lambo recovered his own onside kick. But that was negated when the player next to Lambo beat Lambo to the kicking line by a good yard and was flagged for being offside. Lambo missed a field-goal attempt from a makeable 41 yards but did connect on a pair of kicks from 38 and 39 yards out. P Brad Nortman struggled with the cold and wind, hitting a season-low 21-yard punt on his first try and finishing with a 39.3 average on seven kicks. Solid effort by punt returner Jaydon Mickens with 38 yards on four returns.

--COACHING: B - Head coach Doug Marrone tried to downplay the cold temperature theory all week but it clearly had an effect on the Jaguars, particularly on offense. Marrone stuck with the plan throughout the game, that being to run the ball and resist the temptation to put it in the air against a suspect Browns secondary. Even when they held just a 10-7 lead for the first 27 minutes of the second half, the Jaguars were ultra-conservative, knowing that their defense was playing lights out and not likely to allow the Browns to sniff the end zone. Marrone has done a good job of keeping the team focused on the game at hand and not looking ahead at a possible playoff berth.