JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Welcome to Sacksonville.
On Sunday the Jaguars sacked colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett 10 times. It was the second game this season the Jaguars have reached that number of sacks. Through seven games Jacksonville has 33 sacks which equals their total from last year. They’re also on pace to finish this season with 75 sacks, which would be a new NFL record.
“It would be awesome,” said Jaguars defensive tackle Malik Jackson, who had 1.5 sacks during Sunday’s win over Indianapolis. “As a rushing group it would meet our expectations. We have high expectations for ourselves, so that would be awesome.”
Personnel wise the only new addition to the Jaguars defensive line has been Calais Campbell. He’s proven to be one of the best free agent additions in team history. Campbell already has a career-high 10 sacks which leads the NFL. It would be easy to take all of the credit for this type of production but Campbell says the secondary is the reason the Jaguars have so many sacks.
“They make quarterbacks hold the ball for four seconds,” said Campbell. “If they hold the ball longer than 2.5 seconds were supposed to be there. So when they hold it for four you’re going to see a lot of guys making a lot of plays.”
With opposing teams focusing on Campbell that’s freed up things on the outside for the Jaguars young outside pass rushers. In his second season Yannick Ngakoue has 6.5 sacks and Dante Fowler Jr. has 5.5 sacks.
“I think with me and Yannick maturing and growing in this league and getting our first year under our belts on the field, we learned from our mistakes last year,” said Fowler who had 1.5 sacks against the Colts. “We’ve been able to get better from that, learn how to rush and get to the quarterback quicker and better.”
If the Jaguars keep up this pace they would become only the fourth team in NFL history to finish with 70 sacks in a season.