FLASHBACK FRIDAY: JAGUARS DEFENSE DOMINATES WEEK 1

A look back at that dominate performance from the Jaguars defense in week one of the 2017 regular season.

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I am still in disbelief as to what I witnessed last Sunday. Many new franchise records all packed into this one shocking game; most sacks in one game by a single player, most team sacks in a game, and most importantly the first season opening win since the 2011 season. I have never witnessed a Jaguar team start off the season opening game with such dominance, will and skill. Bortles and the offense played surprisingly well despite the early injury to star WR Allen Robinson.

But, that’s not what I want to discuss, I want to talk about defense.

The old saying is that defense wins games and in this game, that maxim stood true. The Jaguars plowed through the game on defense with 10, yes 10, sacks breaking the previous franchise record of 9 -- four of those sacks being from freshly acquired defensive lineman Calais Campbell who had an amazing game tormenting the Texan’s O-line. Those four sacks he got were enough to break another Jaguars franchise record, the most sacks in a game by a player. The next player that had a breakout game was Yannick Ngakoue who had two forced fumbles, two sacks, and four total tackles. Yannick played very well and made a huge difference in the outcome of the game with the two forced fumbles -- a stat that while rare in recent history for the Jaguars, seems to becoming much more common. The D-line was firing on all cylinders and tore apart the game plan and flow of the Texans offense stopping any potential long runs from ever forming and putting constant pressure on Tom Savage and Deshaun Watson while they dropped back to pass, never giving them extended amounts of time in the pocket. Along with the D-line performance, we had lockdown coverage by our amazing CB duo, Jalen Ramsey and AJ Bouye, which swatted, tackled, and abused DeAndre Hopkins throughout the whole game and forced him to hustle hard for every catch. Bouye, despite having trouble with pass interference on multiple plays, made a strong effort in stopping D-Hop.

Overall I have high hopes for what’s to come in Jacksonville, if we can keep our players healthy and maintain the energy established in the first game I can see us being a top 5 defense this year without a doubt -- there's that much talent. The Jaguars’ defense was also dominant in fantasy land as they accumulated 26 points (Standard Scoring) in fantasy football and tied for the best defensive performance for the week --  I sure am glad I drafted them!