The Jacksonville Defense had its moments this season. None more so, of course, than the fumble return touchdown by Josh Allen (pictured) against the Titans to win the AFC South. The Jaguars ranked an impressive 4th in takeaways this season. Can they cause problems for Patrick Mahomes on Saturday?
To its credit, Jacksonville had 3 takeaways against Kansas City in the regular season meeting, an interception and 2 fumble recoveries. So they have some ability in this area. But the overall picture is a lesser one, if looked at in terms of how this defense fared against weaker opposition, like the rest of the AFC South, and stronger opponents.
I took a look at their week-by-week performance, and divided their games into lousy and/or turnover-prone offenses, and everyone else. I came up with nine games against crummy opposition and nine against quality ones (including last week's playoff game against the Chargers). I stuck the Jets, Broncos and Carson Wentz Commanders with the lesser offenses, which seemed fair. I included Baltimore with the stronger ones, which is debatable, but it was actually average offensively this year and better than average as far as avoiding turnovers, plus I liked the 9-9 split.
In those nine games against weaker teams, Jacksonville allowed an average of 16 points, with 23 sacks, 9 interceptions and 7 fumble recoveries. In their nine games against better teams -- like Kansas City -- the Jaguars allowed an average of 27 points, with just 15 sacks, 5 interceptions and 6 fumble recoveries.
Mahomes and Kansas City should be just fine this week.
| JACKSONVILLE VERSUS WEAK OFFENSES | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OPPONENT | PTS | SK | INT | FR |
| at Was. | 28 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Ind. | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
| Hou. | 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| at Ind. | 34 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Den. | 21 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| at Ten. | 22 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| at NYJ | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| at Hou. | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Ten. | 16 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 140 | 23 | 9 | 7 |
| Average | 16 | 2.6 | 1.0 | 0.8 |
And here's Jacksonville's defense against better offenses this year. It allowed 11 more points per game while averaging 1 fewer sack and about half a takeaway less per game.
| JACKSONVILLE VERSUS BETTER OFFENSES | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OPPONENT | PTS | SK | INT | FR |
| at LAC | 10 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| at Phi. | 29 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| NYG | 23 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| L.V. | 20 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| at K.C. | 27 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Bal. | 27 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| at Det. | 40 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Dal. | 34 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| LAC | 30 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 240 | 15 | 5 | 6 |
| Average | 27 | 1.7 | 0.6 | 0.7 |
--Andy Richardson