History repeated itself as the Jacksonville Jaguars once again took down the Indianapolis Colts in Jacksonville. The Jaguars are 4-0 against Frank Reich at home and haven’t lost a to the Colts at home since 2014.
The defense was the highlight of the day for the Jaguars, as they forced a shutout and only allowing the Colts offense to see the red zone twice. Stopping them on both fourth down attempts in the fourth quarter. Matt Ryan only completed 16 passes for 195 yards. The Jaguars defense had three interceptions and totaled five sacks on the day, leaving Ryan with a 34.0 passer rating.
What was even more impressive was how they shut down the Colts’ best offensive player, running back Jonathan Taylor. He ended the day with only 54 yards on the ground.
Here is what Doug Pederson had to say about the defense after the game. “It’s about being physical and just understanding to stay disciplined in your run fits and your eye discipline on things… It was a focus for us this week in practice and [it’s] just a credit to how hard our guys worked to understand and then eliminate the run.”
Let’s dive into the defense, specifically up front, to see how they were able to stop the Colts’ offense with pressure!
Stopping the run
The Colts entered this game battered. On defense they were out their three-time pro bowl linebacker Shaquille Leonard and cornerback Kenny Moore. On offense, they were missing two top receivers in Michael Pittman and rookie Alec Pierce.
This really made the Colts one-dimensional, so for the Jaguars, stopping Jonathan Taylor was key.
There were a couple different ways they went about this, but it all started with the pressure they brought up front. On the very first drive the Jaguars started with a five-man front.
The defensive line wanted to make the Colts believe that the middle of the field was open for the taking while clogging it at the snap. This is why they lined up in a 2-3 technique over the offensive guards, instead of over the center.
With the heavy side of the unbalanced line on the strong side (left) of the offense and Josh Allen crashing down from the right side, the linebackers and strong safety who was lined up in the box replaced Allen to the right, funneling the run to the middle.
Taylor rarely bounced the play to the outside because the Jaguars’ linebackers would be containing as they are athletic enough to run him down. This unbalanced look and containment happened again and again all throughout the game.
In the clip below, it’s second-and-10 after an incompletion on the same drive. The Colts are attempting to get the run going once again.
So, the defensive line again lined the heavy side of the unbalanced line is on the strong-side of the Colts offense. Which initially would force Taylor to either go up the middle, or bounce it to the single side of the defensive line.
With Walker playing contain to the outside, Taylor decided to try and push it up the gut.
Taylor saw the unbalanced line to his left, but didn’t trust his blockers, so he tried to force his way up the middle. By the end of the first half, Taylor had only five carries for four yards.
Successful stunts
When it came to the pass rush, the Jaguars had a plan to attack the Colts’ offensive tackles Matt Pryor and Braden Smith. According to Pro Football Focus, the tackles were the Colts’ two worst-performing offensive linemen. Pryor allowed four pressures, two hurries and one sack, and Smith allowed five pressures, two hits and a sack.
The Jaguars often rotated both outside linebackers Travon Walker and Josh Allen, as they would both perform stunts or attempt to bend the edge in order to create pressure.
On the interception that occurred on the Colts’ first drive, it was third-and-10 and the Jaguars had stunts on each side of the line.
Once again, we see the unbalanced line which is done to isolate one-on-one matchups. With Arden Key lined up on the center and rushing to the right side, this gave the left side of the defensive line space to rush through the middle with a stunt.
With the lack of a run game, the Colts often found themselves in second- or third-and -0. The Jaguars would bring pressure, not giving the Colts offense time to develop.
On the next drive, it was second-and-8, and the Colts came out in an empty look intending to get the ball out quick (against another Jaguars five-man front look).
This time, Walker dropped back into coverage taking away the quick passing game and jamming the receivers which gave time for Allen to take advantage of his one-on-one matchup against Pryor. This ended up as a force fumble with the Colts recovering putting them in a third-and-long situation.
Another type of stunt the Jaguars attempted with the unbalanced look was Allen preforming an E/T/T stunt where the end actually wraps around two of his own defensive linemen.
What makes this work is the inside tackle penetrating forcing the center to help and then blitzing linebacker locking with the right tackle. This parted the seas for Allen.
The Jaguars' defense is absolutely for real.
By the end of the day, this was by far one of the best performances we’ve witnessed from a Jaguars defense since the 2017 ‘Sacksonville’ team.
Caldwell did a fantastic job switching up the looks with the unbalanced looks and shades from the defensive front. The rookie outside linebacker Walker had 22 snaps lined up on the left side, 16 on the right side, five snaps from the slot and one snap on the inside, at defensive tackle.
When looking at the front eight as a whole, it was an overall solid performance. Folorunso Fatukasi had four total pressures and two batted passes. Roy Robertson-Harris had three pressures and a sack (and made this week’s Secret Superstars team). Arden Key had a sack. Rookie linebacker Devin Lloyd earned himself an 86.3 run defense grade. After two games the Jaguars are sitting at the top of the league when it comes to turnover differential with +5. They have five interceptions and one fumble recovery.
As the season progresses, expect the disguises, fire blitzes and stunts from this defense and we’ll continue to monitor their progress. With the Jaguars currently holding the only win in the AFC South, expect this division to be a race to the finish line.
