Pass-rush formula: less blitzing, more sacking
JACKSONVILLE — The Jaguars’ defense rushed five or more players only one time apiece against Pittsburgh and the Los Angeles Rams the past two weeks, winning on the road over the Steelers and losing at home to the Rams.
Defensive tackle Malik Jackson: “Really?”
Nose tackle Abry Jones: “I really didn’t realize that.”
Linebacker Paul Posluszny: “When I hear that, it’s surprising because we have them in our playbook. I would have thought it was more.”
Opponents must feel like it is more. Houston must have felt like the Jaguars were rushing all 11 players in Week 1. Some quarterbacks must feel like there is more than one player wearing jersey No. 93 (Calais Campbell). And the way the Jaguars align their defense pre-snap, it occasionally looks like more than four will be rushing.
But a wild development through the Jaguars’ season, which continues today at Indianapolis, is the effectiveness of their four-man pass rush. The Jaguars (3-3) lead the NFL with 23 sacks, also a team record for the opening six games of a season.
They lead the league in sacks despite rushing five or more players on just 19 percent of the opponent’s dropbacks (47 of 247).
Defensive linemen account for 181⁄2 of the Jaguars’ sacks this year in addition to 11 more quarterback hits and 23 quarterback pressures.
Leaning on a four-man pass rush has opened up defensive coordinator Todd Wash’s coverage playbook. The Jaguars rank third in yards allowed per game (166.0), first in interceptions (10), first in opponent’s passer rating (60.0) and tied for second in touchdown passes allowed (four).
“It’s obviously a luxury the way our front four rushes,” Wash said. “We’ve got some pretty good guys in the back end that can cover. If we can rush four and take care of the passing game that way, we will.”
The league does not compile team-by-team pressure statistics and few reporters compile the totals. The other available team to compare to the Jaguars are the Green Bay Packers. Veteran writer Bob McGinn, who now writes for his own website, charted the Packers as rushing five or more on 37.2 percent (81 of 218 drop-backs), including 13 rushes of six or more players. The Jaguars have rushed six or more on 10 drop-backs (five in Week 1). Get into third-and-long and the Jaguars can lean on their defensive line.
“Since I’ve been here with Coach Wash in 2013, he’s always instilled that the D-line is the leader of the defense,” Jones said. “We’re up front and everybody behind us is watching what we do. We’ve got great guys rushing, but our defensive backs can lock things down in the back end and we have linebackers who can run with running backs.”
Said Campbell: “When we get teams in third-and-long, I don’t think there is a whole lot of teams out there that can block us.”