Wednesday Warm-up: Jacksonville Jaguars pass rush needs to show up

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Coming off a much needed 23-20 victory against the Miami Dolphins this past Sunday, the Jaguars hit the road for 3 straight weeks. Their first opponent? The defending Super Bowl champions headlined by an angry and disturbingly efficient starting quarterback.

Tom Brady and his New England Patriots have been downright unstoppable in their first two games this season, scoring 68 points combined, including a 40-point outburst last week against what is expected to be one of the better defenses in the league in the Buffalo Bills.

So what’s going right for New England on offense? Pretty much everything.

Tom Brady has a healthy Rob Gronkowski to throw to and that has opened up the offense to a level that is almost impossible to defend. Dion Lewis has come out of nowhere and turned into a legitimate all-around running back and Julian Edelman continues to get open underneath at a consistent pace.

Looking specifically at last Sunday’s 40-32 victory over the Bills, one of the more surprising aspects was how ineffective the vaunted Buffalo defensive line was at pressuring Brady. Even though the Bills had 3 sacks in the contest, they only accumulated 7 QB hurries on 61 total dropbacks.

Compare that to the 17 QB hurries in 47 dropbacks the Jaguars stacked up against Ryan Tannehill on Sunday and the plot thickens.

The key to the Patriots keeping the pass rush at bay is getting the ball out quick, something Brady did with startling success against the Bills.

@JeremyWGR Against the #Bills last week, Brady was 30/42 for 263 yards with 3TDs / 0 INT on passes behind LOS and up to 9 yards past LOS.
— Chris Trapasso (@ChrisTrapasso) September 22, 2015

Brady is deadly accurate on short throws and the coaching staff does a great job of scheming ways to get their receivers and backs the ball in open space to make plays.

The only way the Jaguars can try and defend this New England offense is by getting to Brady and getting to him very quickly. We need the Jared Odrick who showed up and terrorized his former team last week. Additionally, the Jaguars need to be fundamentally sound on defense by sticking to their assignments and not missing tackles.

The Jacksonville offense needs to do their part too, but the team won’t have a chance if they let Brady do whatever he wants.

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