Pass rush or coverage to blame for Jaguars' woes allowing big plays?

Score-and-a-stop remains the best way in the NFL — or any sport — to acquire and maintain momentum. Continue to play the game on your terms. Keep the opponent on their heels. Build a lead instead of losing it.The exact scenario was presented to the Jacksonville Jaguars twice in the second quarter of their Oct. 18 game against the Houston Texans.And they failed.After running back Bhayshul Tuten’s 27-yard touchdown catch tied the score at 7-7, the Jaguars allowed a drive-opening 34-yard pass to Jaylin Noel that led to a field goal.And after Tuten’s 2-yard touchdown catch gave them their first lead (14-10), the Jaguars allowed a drive-opening 50-yard pass to Noel that led to a touchdown and a halftime lead in an eventual 34-31 win.So as the Jaguars (4-2) return from their bye week to prepare for a rare home game (Nov. 1 against the Indianapolis Colts), they will continue to deliberate their main two issues on defense: Their prepotency for allowing long pass completions and producing a better rush to limit said plays.Is the lack of a pass rush overstressing the secondary?Is the lack of sticky coverage allowing quarterbacks to throw a click before the pass rush gets to them?Two things can be simultaneously true. (How’s that for a cop-out answer.)Through Week 6, the Jaguars’ 11 sacks tied for 20th-most in the league. Defensive ends Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker have combined for a measly half-sack in the last five games and 3 1/2 for the season. Walker (2.0) ranks tied for 55th and Hines-Allen (1 1/2) tied for 91st.Blame the pass rush!“If you look at our actual pressure percentages, they’re pretty good,” coach Liam Coen told me last week. “It’s not finishing with sacks.”Through Week 6, the Jaguars have allowed 15 completions of at least 25 yards, tied for second-most in the league.Blame the secondary!“The explosives have to stop,” Coen said.Blame the pass rush!According to Next Gen Stats, the Jaguars entered their bye week with 91 pressures (fifth in the league) and a pressure rate of 39.1 (ninth). That confirmed Coen’s point about the Jaguars’ being active per those data points.MORE FROM RYAN O'HALLORAN: Are Jaguars really getting short end of calls from officials?According to my charting, the Jaguars have 87 “disruptions,” which is the combined total of sacks (11), knockdowns (20) and pressures (56), an increase of 11 compared to the first six games of 2025 (eight sacks, 20 knockdowns and 48 pressures).“Since 2022 here, it’s kind of been the same in a lot of ways,” Coen said of the low sack totals.Indeed, since the start of 2022, the Jaguars’ 152 sacks are third-fewest in the league. Shoot, since the start of 2017, their 341 sacks are tied for 27th.Acknowledging an issue is Step 1 to fixing it although the Jaguars, at least publicly, have often gone into pooh-pooh mode about the importance of actual sacks and instead leaned into the pressure rate statistics.Per my charting, opposing quarterbacks are 30-of-61 passing for 415 yards, two interceptions, no touchdowns and a 57.8 rating when pressured by the Jaguars’ defense (not including the 11 sacks). Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was 3 of 13 for 17 yards and one sack. The Bengals’ Joe Burrow was 9 of 15 for 128 yards and two interceptions.When the pressure is getting to the quarterback, the Jaguars are making an impact. But it’s time for it to result in more sacks than an incompletion, short third-down completion or a downfield completion.The Jaguars prove creating a high pressure rate doesn’t automatically translate to myriad sacks. But what about the rest of the league? The top five in pressure rate are Green Bay (41.2), Cleveland (40.6), the Los Angeles Rams (40.6), Cincinnati (40.4) and the New York Jets (39.8).In sacks, Green Bay entered Week 7 tied for 12th (15), Cleveland second (19), the Rams tied for 27th (eight) and Cincinnati and the Jets tied for fifth (17).Defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile’s game plans have been diverse this year, from blitz rates of 15.0 against New England (6 of 40) and 17.5 against Cincinnati (17.5) to a big uptick in London to 35.6 against Philadelphia (16 of 45) and 41.9 against Houston (18 of 43). The Jaguars had a combined one sack against the Eagles and Texans. The total of rushing five or more players this year is 27.3% per my charting.Campanile has also showed creativity with 47 “simulated pressures” this year (compared to 37 last year), a play when a defensive lineman drops into zone coverage and is replaced on the rush by a linebacker or defensive back. Linebacker Dennis Gardeck has 8 1/2 disruptions (four knockdowns and 4 1/2 pressures), sometimes as a linebacker and sometimes as an edge defender.“It’s a very difficult pattern (for offenses) to pick up and especially because we do such a good job in the secondary of holding disguises and the intestinal fortitude it takes to (say), ‘Hey, I know my job is way over here, but it’s really important for me to look in and look like I have something going on over here,’” Gardeck said of the simulated pressure. “I think it’s been a problem (for opponents) this year.”Not helping is the lack of edge-rusher production after Walker and Hines-Allen, who have a team-leading 14 1/2 disruptions apiece. True defensive ends Danny Striggow (one sack) and Bryan Thomas, Jr. (half-sack) haven’t gotten many opportunities and B.J. Green (elbow) hasn’t played since being injured on special teams in Week 1. At defensive tackle, the Jaguars have a combined three sacks.“We’re good,” Walker said after the Texans loss. “We’re still just getting (through) the second quarter of the season. We just have to keep playing how we started the season.”Blame the pass coverage!Back to the Houston game and the two big Texans pass plays to Noel.Noel’s 34-yard catch wasn’t on the pass rush. Quarterback C.J. Stroud threw in 2.78 seconds, a pass of 2 “air” yards over the middle to Noel. He broke free when linebacker Foye Oluokun and cornerback Jarrian Jones missed tackles.Noel’s 50-yard catch had 43 “air” yards and Stroud threw in 3.03 seconds. It appeared Jones, playing outside leverage, thought he had inside/over-the-top help from safety Kaevon Merriweather (playing his second game). But Merriweather didn’t stay home.According to the Pro Football Reference search engine, Chicago led the league entering Week 7 with 17 allowed completions of at least 25 yards, followed by the Jaguars, Las Vegas, Philadelphia and Buffalo with 15 apiece. At the other end of the table are Green Bay and Seattle (four apiece).(Last year, the Jaguars allowed 26 completions of at least 25 yards tied for 12th-fewest.)The Jaguars kinda/sorta knew this was a possibility because they declared their intention to play more man coverage.“If you’re playing more man, the ball doesn’t come out as quickly and it helps the rush,” Coen said.Conversely, the ball comes out quickly when the man coverage defender gets beat on a double move, guesses wrong or falls down.I looked at all 15 of the long completions:Quarterbacks had more than 3.00 seconds to throw on 11 of the completions.Twelve of the completions had at least 20 “air” yards.The Jaguars rushed five or more on two of the completions. The four-man rush didn't get there.The root causes of the plays were double moves, expected help that wasn’t there, miscommunications and one scramble drill (5.20 seconds). The Jaguars do have seven interceptions (tied for second-most).“Especially against the Texans, when neither team was generating much of a pass rush, we needed to play with more depth in coverage and not be as tight as we were to get beat on some of that stuff,” Coen said. “We have to help (the players) on some of that. We have to play the ball better in the air.”Coen said getting cornerback Buster Brown, who was inactive against Cincinnati and Houston sandwiching a six-snap appearance against Philadelphia, back from his hamstring injury, “will help and allow us to truly play what we’re good at and also get Jarrian rotated more inside as well; I think he can be impactful inside as well.”Was Coen hinting at using Jones as the nickel occasionally instead of Lewis? Sure sounds like it.The schedule may offer a remedy for the Jaguars’ defense. Their next five games are against Indianapolis (22nd in passing yards per game), Baltimore (19th), the New York Giants (15th) and two against Tennessee (last).Marrying the rush and coverage should be Priority A for the Jaguars’ defense.“It’s definitely a tough spot for us right now with the explosives,” Coen said. “If you get the ball thrown over your head, you make drives easier for the quarterback and it’s going to be a long day.”Contact O’Halloran at rohalloran@gannett.com or on X at @ryanohalloran. Listen to Ryan on 1010AM on Tuesdays (6:35 p.m. on “Into The Night"), Thursdays (1:15 on "XL Primetime") and Fridays ("First Coast Football Friday" 4-7 p.m.).This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Pass rush or coverage to blame for Jaguars' woes allowing big plays?