When I went looking for a Hoss recipient on Monday I expected to be able to narrow it down to one guy or maybe even two, like I did for Chargers teammates Melvin Ingram and Joey Bosa. After watching the way the Jaguars annihilated the Colts on Sunday, I decided that their whole defensive line deserved a shout out.
Look man, that performance was incredible. And I don't give a damn what you say about Indy's offensive line, before Sunday the most Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett had been sacked in any one game was four times. The Jaguars defensive line more than doubled that by themselves.
Lets run the numbers:
- Nine of the 10 sacks for the game were produced by the defensive line (For context, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers don't have nine sacks as a team for the season).
- The defensive line also had eight pressures by my count, and remember my definition of pressure means you have to be close to the quarterback and the pass has to be incomplete.
- They also had one pass knockdown.
- And out of Brissett's four scrambles, the defensive line made the tackle twice.
You add that all up and it means Jacksonville's defensive line helped to end the play on at least 20 passing plays out of the 50 times that Brissett dropped back to throw on Sunday. That's a cool 40 percent success rate, which is absolutely fucking insane!
At first I was thinking about naming just Yannick Ngakoue as Hoss, since he had the most sacks on the day with two and a half, but when you watch the film it’s so clear that pretty much everybody on the Jags defensive line put in on this.
Hell, they had six different guys get at least half a sack, and three of those dudes are technically backups. The film also showed that most of those sacks and hurries were the result of those guys up front working together as well.
In Week 1, the Jaguars also had 10 sacks against the Texans in a similarly dominant fashion, but I really thought Calais Campbell's efforts stood out above everybody else's. This time I felt like it was more evened out among the whole group.
Dante Fowler is a guy who I have criticized in the past for not being diverse as a pass rusher, just running down the middle of offensive tackles too much. Now, he has started to work his moves more lately and is getting on the edge of blockers, so he is finally pulling his own weight. With Fowler coming on strong and Campbell, Ngakoue, and Malik Jackson continuing to ball tf out, I don't think there is any question that the Jaguars currently have the best pass-rushing front four in the league.
That's something I am sure Brissett can attest to.
You ever mess with a wasp nest when you were a kid and the wasps got pissed and start chasing your ass? That's how it had to feel to be Brissett on Sunday.
Rather than go through all of the plays the Jags' defensive line made, I will just describe a few of them for y’all that best exemplify that wasp analogy and also why the defensive line as a group was worthy of praise.
First of all, the Colts had a first-and-10 with 1:39 to go in the second quarter on their own 44-yard line. (Oh, I forgot to mention that 11 of the 17 combined sacks and pressures occurred when the Colts were already at least at their own 44-yard line). Ngakoue was at left defensive end, Jackson was at left three technique, Campbell was at right three technique, and Fowler was at right defensive end.
On the snap off the football, Ngakoue and Jackson executed a TEX game where the three technique gets upfield in the B gap and the defensive end sells speed rush first, then loops inside to the A gap.
On the other side, Fowler was working a speed rush while Campbell tried an inside move.
Colts right guard Le'Raven Clark ended up stuck on Jackson's B-gap rush, leaving Ngakoue a free path to the quarterback. Fowler's speed rush forced Brissett to step up so that he couldn't avoid Ngakoue's rush.
Then, while Ngakoue grabbed Brissett to try to take him down, Campbell, who kept working even though he was double-teamed by Indy left guard Jeremy Vujnovich and center Ryan Kelly, came back outside and prevented Brissett from escaping the pocket that way.
Where “prevented” really means Campbell grabbed Brissett up top while Ngakoue had him down low and damn near made a pretzel out of him. It wouldn't be the last time.
It really warmed my heart to see those cats working together like that to get the quarterback on the ground. And that was kind of the recurring theme for the day.
Check out the sack with just 19 seconds left in the first half.
For context, the Colts had a first-and-10 at their own 48-yard line after their defense created a turnover by sacking Blake Bortles and forcing him into a fumble that they recovered. They had enough time for a couple of plays to help them get into field goal range, in theory.
In theory.
This time the Jags lined up with Ngakoue, Jackson, and Campbell all on the right side of the center (as the defense views things) and Fowler all by his lonesome on the left side of the center at left defensive end. But it was a set up.
Clark saw Campbell lined up in the opposite A gap between Vijnovich and Kelly and correctly anticipated that Campbell would try to cross the center's face on the snap of the football to even up the pass rush lanes. Because of this, Clark stepped toward Campbell likely thinking he would ultimately end up being the one who had to block him. What he evidently didn't anticipate was that Fowler would stunt inside of right tackle Joe Haeg, because Fowler was actually running an EX game (end comes into B gap, Tackle wraps behind him outside) with Campbell the whole time.
Fowler, seeing Clark's back and no doubt smelling blood, exploded into Clark's chest just as Clark turned back to try to block him.
Timbeeeeeerrrrr!
It took about three seconds, but Clark finally ened up on his back as a result of that blow, while Fowler continued on his merry way to the quarterback.
While all this was going on on the other side of the center, Ngakoue, after initially getting upfield on left tackle Anthony Castonzo, looped inside to the A gap behind Jackson who was upfield in the B gap. Fowler ended up being a little off balance after having peter rolled Clark, so Brissett was able to shake him in space. But Brissett couldn't try to scramble to his right because by that time Campbell arrived from his long-ass loop from right A gap to left C gap. That left Brissett with only one avenue of escape.
He tried to take off running straight ahead, but Ngakoue, who had gone as far as the left A gap before changing directions, took off like a shot and got to Brissett before he could make it past the line of scrimmage. That's what you call teamwork right there.
Alright, last one.
With 3:55 left in the third quarter and the game already well out of hand, the Colts were threatening to finally put some points on the board with a first-and-10 at the Jacksonville 14-yard line. This time Eli Ankou was in at left defensive tackle in the left A gap. Ngakoue was on the bench. Fowler was at left defensive end, with Jackson and Campbell at right three-technique and defensive end, respectively.
At the snap, Jackson did a stutter-punch to a rip move to get upfield on Vujnovich. Campbell initially got upfield as if he was going to bull-rush Castonzo, but then came inside with an arm over once he saw Jackson already upfield for contain. This had the effect of boxing in Brissett on that side.
On the other side of the center, Fowler came off and executed a beautiful long arm on Haeg, mushing him back past the level of the quarterback. Clark, who had been helping block Ankou with backup center Mike Person, tried to help block Fowler, but it was too late. Fowler slid off inside to grab Brissett around the waist and at the same time Campbell came zooming up the pike in the A gap.
The ensuing tandem takedown gave me a Dudley Boyz 3-D flashback. If that game went any longer, Brissett was going to need a back-e-otomy.
Of course, there were also some really impressive individual efforts from the defensive line for several of those sacks and pressures, like Sheldon Day's rip and run to beat Clark for a sack early in the fourth quarter. Or Campbell's out-and-out hump move with 7:37 left to go in the game. But the Jaguars defensive line was at its best when it worked together on Sunday.
Campbell, Malik Jackson, Ngakoue, Fowler, Sheldon Day, Ankou, Abry Jones, Dawuane Smoot, and Lerentee McCray — who is listed as a linebacker but rushed as a defensive end at the end of the game so I'm claiming him — all contributed to that dominating performance. All of those guys deserve the accolades from it. That group combined for 10 sacks, eight pressures, two caused fumbles, one pass knocked down, one tackle for a loss, and 11 other tackles in only 66 plays.
That kind of production is entirely friggin’ nuts, which is why the Jacksonville Jaguars defensive line are my Hosses Of The Week for Week 7 of the NFL season.
They damn sure earned it!