Jaguars dominate Colts with shut out defensive performance

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Three weeks ago Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts embarrassed the Jaguars defense by putting up 29 points in the first half. Jacksonville made some adjustments and shut the Colts out in the 2nd half. 

That momentum carried over to Sunday. The Jaguars dominated Indianapolis from start to finish. Their 6-0 win was the seventh shutout in franchise history. 

“I think we still had a bad taste in our mouths because we gave up 29 points in the first half,” said linebacker Myles Jack. “So we knew that was a fluke and we knew we weren’t playing to the best of our abilities. So we just decided to play a whole game and we knew with that quarterback it wasn’t going to be easy for us. 

The Colts entered Sunday with the fourth most points in the league. They were averaging 33 points per outing over their last eight games. 

The Jaguars sacked Andrew Luck three times after he was hit just five times in the entire month of November. 

“When I walked into this locker room this morning, I just felt the different type of energy from everybody,” said defensive end Yannick Ngakoue, who had one of the Jaguars three sacks against Luck. “I could tell, regardless of what we were going through during the season, I could tell guys wanted to come out here and win, so that was really important to me and I was really happy and pleased to see that today.”

It wasn’t pretty but a win is a win. The Jaguars 6-0 victory was the first in franchise history. It’s just the third time an NFL game has finished with that score in the last 25 seasons.

“It just answers the question everybody was asking, ‘if y’all tanking the season,’ about our confidence,” said linebacker Telvin Smith. “Like I said last week, we said, ‘We are who we are.’ The players on this team are the players on this team, and we know what we’re capable of when we’re locked in that way.”