Jacksonville Jaguars outside linebacker Josh Allen began his season with a bang, recording three sacks against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1. While the trio of plays included Allen simply shepherding Anthony Richardson Jr. out of bounds for a loss on two plays, it was still a great start to a contract year for Allen.
Since then, the Jaguars pass rush has come to a grinding halt. The only sack recorded by the Jacksonville defense in the last two weeks came from K’Lavon Chaisson, who managed to bring down Patrick Mahomes in Week 2.
Buy Jaguars TicketsAfter three games, the Jaguars have five sacks, more than only five other teams.
“We all got to get better,” Allen said Wednesday after practice. “It’s just playing smarter, preparing the right way, and being focused. Once we’ve prepared, take it to the field and go out there and play. If we do that … I think the sacks are gonna come. I think the pressures, the hits are going to come for everybody. And when it does, it’s gonna be fun.”
While that’s a vague answer to a complex problem that the Jaguars have spent significant resources trying to solve in recent years, Allen provided a more in-depth analysis of the team’s pass rush issues. According to Allen, the Jaguars could do a better job forcing passing situations by shutting down the run.
“That’s a team last week that wants to run the ball,” Allen said of the Houston Texans. “We could’ve played more physical up front and, you see on the tape, I don’t think we played as physical as we know we can. This week, this is a challenge for us.
“We know what this team (the Atlanta Falcons) is going to do: they’re going to run the ball. They’re going to be physical up front. So in order to beat that, we’re going to have to be more physical with them. It’s easy to say, but we got guys that can do it. We know we got guys that can do it. Once we do that, then we can start seeing the opportunities opening up on the back end.”
Last week, the Falcons allowed quarterback Desmond Ridder to be sacked seven times by the Detroit Lions. Allen said that happened because the Lions’ held the Falcons to 44 rushing yards and built a 17-point lead along the way.
“The Lions handled their business up front and that’s why they got the outcome that they got at the end of the game,” Allen said. “Up front, that’s the character, that’s the mindset that we have to have, we have to win up front. … Detroit was scoring, so it was almost like the flow of the game was just favoring them. They were stopping the run, putting them in passing situations, then towards the end of the game you look at now they have to throw the ball.”
While the Jaguars are sixth in the NFL in yards allowed per rushing attempt, they’ve also trailed at the beginning of the fourth quarter in all three of their games this season.
