Jaguars OC John DeFilippo: ‘I lay awake at night thinking about Von Miller and Bradley Chubb’

The Jacksonville Jaguars offense will be key to winning Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos. I think the defense will do its job, despite likely missing cornerback Jalen Ramsey due to the birth of his second child — Joe Flacco has had a tough time against the Jaguars in his most recent matchups and this defense is built to stop offenses like Denver’s.

But the offense will need to once again scrape together enough points to help the defense out. The biggest obstacles for that when you’re led by a rookie quarterback like Gardner Minshew? The pass rush.

The Broncos have elite players in Von Miller and Bradley Chubb pass rushing for their defense, but for some reason it hasn’t translated into production — Denver has zero sacks through the first three weeks of the season. But that doesn’t mean offensive coordinator John DeFilippo is sleeping east this week.

When asked how to slow down the Broncos defense, DeFilippo was candid:

“I slept about two hours last night. I did. A lot of those [hours] I laid awake thinking about 58 [Von Miller] and 55 [Bradley Chubb], to be honest with you. You have to have a plan because you can’t let the other team’s best players ruin the game. What’s going to happen Sunday is going to happen, but you go in with a plan to not let the team’s opposing best player ruin a football game. Now, who is better, 58 or 55? They’re both great. They are both fantastic players and they are well-coached and they have all the pass rushing moves. The plan for them is – and I tell the offense all the time — we respect all, fear none. That’s the mindset we are going into on Sunday ... I know those two guys are as good as they get at their position.”

I think this game is a race to 20 and whichever team gets there first will win. Dropping to 0-4 would be a big hole to climb out of for Denver and going to 2-2 would be huge for Jacksonville.