45 days until kickoff: Jacksonville Jaguars win 20-7 over Tennessee Titans

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We’re counting down to the 2020 NFL preseason opener between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers by ranking all 51 regular season wins over the past decade.

Today at No. 45? Gardner Minshew beating the Tennessee Titans on national television.

Week 3 — September 19, 2019

Jacksonville dominated Tennessee on Thursday Night Football, winning the game 20-7, but anyone who watched it knows it wasn’t even that close. Marcus Mariota ended the game with around 300 passing yards, but it was some of the most garbage time passing yards I’ve ever seen.

And let me tell you, I’ve seen some.

Mariota was beat up all game and the Titans offense stifled by the Jaguars defensive line.

Sacksonville is back, baby!

“Only thing I can say is elite greatness. I don’t even want to talk about myself. I’m talking about my guys, Calais [Campbell] , Abry [Jones], Josh Allen just dogs all around the defensive line,” Jaguars defensive lineman Yannick Ngakoue said after the game. I don’t feel like we have any starters, I feel like our whole defensive line are starters and everybody can fill in and come in and make plays.”

Ngakoue missed the Week 2 game against the Houston Texas with a hamstring injury he suffered late in the Week 1 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Ngakoue’s one sack was thanks to rookie Josh Allen throwing the Titans right tackle out of the club and into Mariota, and Ngakoue rushed to touch him down.

Ngakoue still had some nice plays and Todd Wash is doing more of moving him around and using him as a rusher, but you can tell he’s still a little iffy on the hamstring. There was one play though where he was combo blocked and chipped on a rush.

The real stars of the defensive line on Thursday night however were Calais Campbell and rookie Josh Allen. Campbell specifically just straight up mashed the entire Titans offensive line. It felt like he went one-by-one, down the line and just picked them apart. Nearly every play Campbell was immediately in the backfield disrupting a Derrick Henry run or in Mariota’s lap.

Campbell ended the day with three sacks, multiple tackles for loss, multiple quarterback hits and according to Pro Football Focus has 10 quarterback pressures. In fact, the Jaguars as a whole pressured Mariota on over half his passing attempted.

Josh Allen also had his coming out party, just beating up Titans right tackle Jack Conklin all night. It wasn’t even anything fancy, either, as most of it was just power moves and putting him on skates. He had a strip sack and another sack, both of which were just pure power through the right tackle.

One of the sacks even had Campbell, Ngakoue and Allen meeting at Mariota. Something all of us envisioned eventually happening when Allen was drafted back in April.

It’s also worth noting that Dawuane Smoot had two sacks and Taven Bryan even showed up, having a nice night working on the inside being disrupting and rushing the passer.

“What you think?” Ngakoue asked when asked if “Sacksonville” was back. “That’s all I want to know.

“Sacksonville is back, baby! It’s back!”

Why the ranking at No. 45?

Well, for one... we beat the Titans. That’s happened only seven other times in the past decade. Second, we hadn’t beaten the Titans on Thursday Night Football since 2015. Not very Jaguars.

Up tomorrow?

When we beat the New York Giants in our first game after the AFC Championship loss. We were back, baby!