The Jacksonville Jaguars defense once again held the opposing team's offense to under 300 yards of total offense. Cam Newton, who had 400+ passing yards in his first two games was held to only 158 passing yards and one touchdown. Fortuntely for Newton, the Jaguars defensive plays showed why they are not offensive players, dropping potential interception after potential interception. While the Jaguars pass rush lacked at times, as the game wore on they were able to flush Newton out of the pocket and force him into some bad throws. The defense had no sacks and only one quarterback hit (according to ESPN, he was clearly "hit" more than once), but the team was also without their leading sacker in defensive end Matt Roth.
"We probably dropped four interceptions today, so as a whole, on defense we felt we played a good game. We knew [Newton] uses tight ends coming into this game along with Steve [Smith]. We feel we did a pretty good job in the passing game," Jaguars corner back Rashean Mathis told Tania Ganguli after the game.
Against the run, the Jaguars continued to be stout. The Panthers had 107 rushing yards on 28 carries, but for the most part were stuffed time and time again. The Jaguars defense allowed only 16 points, despite the Panthers having excellent field position most of the day. The Jaguars defense is the only defense in the NFL thus far to not allow 300 yards of total offense in the first three games of the season. Against the Panthers, the team allowed only a single drive longer than 50 yards.