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The Jacksonville Jaguars lost a third straight divisional game in blowout fashion, as the Tennessee Titans won by a score of 42-20. The team’s playoff chances are basically dead at this point, but if we want to take a single positive from the game it’s that defensive end Yannick Ngakoue continues to show that he is an elite pass rusher.
With Tennessee driving into the red zone in the second quarter, Ngakoue sacked Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill at the 17-yard line, forcing and recovering a fumble. At this point in the game, well before things got out of hand in the second half, this was a key play to keep the Titans off the scoreboard and keep the game at 0-0.
With a strip-sack (and recovery), DE @YannickNgakoue is now the only player over the last 10 seasons to post at least 35.5 sacks and 13 forced fumbles through 58 career games.
— Tad Dickman (@TDickman89) November 24, 2019
Ngakoue has mastered the art of the strip sack. He doesn’t just want to take the quarterback down, he wants to take the ball away from you. In addition to the 13 fumbles he forced in his career, he has also recovered three.
After an offseason full of contract drama, in which the Jaguars foolishly did not give the young pass-rushing specialist an extension, Ngakoe got off to a bit of a slow start. Ngakoue didn’t record his first sack of the season until Week 5 against the Carolina Panthers — a game he finished with two sacks, a tackle for loss and a forced fumble. He has picked it up a bit from that point on.
So far this season, Ngakoue has recored 29 tackles, seven tackles for loss, six sacks, eight quarterback hits, four passes defended, three forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and one interception. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Ngakoue recorded the seventh-fastest sack time in the NFL this season, doing so in just 2.17 seconds against Kyle Allen and the Panthers.
Ngakoue and rookie edge rusher Josh Allen should form a formidable pass rushing duo for the Jaguars for the foreseeable future — as long as the Jaguars do the right thing and extend Ngakoue this offseason.
Now if only anybody on this defense could stop the run. That’s a conversation for another time, though.
Pay Yan, already.