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The Jacksonville Jaguars defense sacked quarterback Andrew Luck six times and hit him another 13 times in the team's 30-27 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in London. This was not a Madden simulation, this was real life. The Jaguars defensive line appears that it is starting to find it's footing, but the Colts were the unlikely team that had to see it all come together.
In a way, the Colts were a perfect team for it to happen to. Their offensive line to begin with is not very good and on Sunday, Indianapolis started three rookie offensive lineman and the Jaguars defense took advantage. We saw more flashes from the young pass rushing duo of Dante Fowler Jr. and Yannick Ngakoue, both of which who caused a lot of pressure in different ways.
Yannick Ngakoue sack #3 on the season. pic.twitter.com/XwpfkAtfFq
— Christian (@FBLRave) October 3, 2016
In the above play, Ngakoue just straight up beats left tackle Anthony Castanzo off he snap and lowers his shoulder to bend around him and wrap up Luck. Simple and easy. On another play, Fowler stunted inside to come up the A-gap (between the center and the guard) right into Luck's face, causing the ball to pop into the air and into the arms of Ngakoue.
Both rookies, combined with free agent signing Malik Jackson, Sen'Derrick Marks and rookie Sheldon Day made life in the pocket for Luck difficult. Jackson has played well the last three games and while he may not have the sack numbers some fans want to see from a high priced free agent, he's creating sacks for his teammates and causing disruption with his pressure, which is exactly what you want.
Very next play with a batted pass. pic.twitter.com/VKs7HqvZer
— Christian (@FBLRave) October 3, 2016
I don't think you should expect this kind of performance from the Jaguars defensive line with consistency just yet, but they did go out and dominate a bad offensive line and looked pretty good two weeks ago against the Baltimore Ravens. Outside of Phillip Rivers, who just for whatever reason just straight up owns Gus Bradley, the defensive line has generated enough pressure to limit opposing quarterbacks and force them to make mistakes.
As long as the young players like Fowler, Day and Ngakoue can build off this and continue to improve as the season goes on, by the end of the year this could be more of a consistent thing, even against good offensive lines.