Smith: Jags’ objective is breaking will of opponents
JACKSONVILLE — A week ago, Jaguars linebacker Telvin Smith just wanted to start the season off with a win.
Now after physically dominating the Houston Texans last Sunday, which led to a franchise-record 10 sacks and four takeaways in their 29-7 rout, Smith says they have raised the bar going into Sunday’s home opener against the Tennessee Titans.
‘‘The mindset of this defense is that we literally want to go out there and break your will,’’ Smith said. ‘’We’re ready to come out Sunday and put on a show because it’s what we’re working to do. We work too hard not to.’’
But for Week 2, they will facing far more physically gifted offensive line than what they saw last week against the Texans. The Titans don’t have just one bruising-type running back, they have two — DeMarco Murray and Yulee native Derrick Henry.
And Tennessee is coming in wanting to avoid starting the season at 0-2 after losing last week to the Oakland Raiders, 26-16.
Defensive tackle Abry Jones said the Jaguars have been preparing this week with an even higher sense of urgency. They want to show that they displayed last week wasn’t a one-game fluke. It’s the way they intend to play for the rest of the season.
“It’s kind of hard to top 10 sacks, but if we do better or close to it I just want to show that this is not just something that happened in Week 1 because we had extra time to get ready for Texas and just popped off,” Jones said. ”It’s going to be a great test, especially with all the success the D-Line had last game.
“I know Tennessee is determined to run the ball and it’s going to be a dog fight. We have pretty much shown that we can play a high-intensity game one week and come back and grind it out and beat a team at their game.”
Against the Texans, the Jaguars had no trouble unleashing a blistering pass rush that forced coach Bill O’Brien to make a quarterback change after halftime when he benched starter Tom Savage in favor of Deshaun Watson.
The Jaguars were physically imposing and stronger, especially Calais Campbell who came away with a career-high four sacks after mostly relying on a bull rush.
The Jaguars were fast in their run pursuit and their secondary, led by cornerbacks A.J. Bouye and Jalen Ramsey, and didn’t allow many big-play catches.
Because of their effort, the Jaguars allowed the fewest yards in the NFL in Week 1 — 203.0. It hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Titans.
“Very fast, very physical, flying around,” tight end Delanie Walker said. “They have guys being around the ball and they make plays. They seem like they like to talk a lot, but we’re have to make sure our guys don’t get in that battle with them.”
Regardless, Jaguars defensive coordinator Todd Wash expects for the Titans to run the ball 30 to 40 times. Last week, Tennessee ran the ball only 21 times and they allowed just one sack.
“We got to be on our job to have a chance this week,” Wash said. “We got to stop the run obviously. They [Titans] got away from it a little last week, but I don’t anticipate them doing that again this week.”