Jacksonville Jaguars roll into Indianapolis and shut out the Colts 27-0

The Jacksonville Jaguars hit the bye week on a high note with a 27-0 drubbing of the Indianapolis Colts.

What a dominant performance by the Jacksonville Jaguars against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. The Jaguars were completely in charge of the game from start to finish, and kept the Colts off the scoreboard in a shutout victory.

With the win, the Jaguars head into a much-needed bye week with a winning record at 4-3 and well in the running in the AFC South.

A few takeaways from the division win:

Credit to Blake Bortles

Blake Bortles has taken a lot of heat for his play, but the quarterback had one of his better games on Sunday. Bortles went 18-26 on the day, for 330 yards and a touchdown pass. Just as important, he didn’t force any passes and did not throw an interception.

Bortles wasted no time moving the ball with his arm. He went 4-for-5 passing on the opening drive that resulted in a touchdown. On the second drive, Bortles went deep to Keelan Cole for a 52-yard completion and capped off the drive with a touchdown pass to Marcedes Lewis.

Offense overall played lights out

Blake Bortles played well, but the offense as a unit stepped up and made an impact on Sunday. The Jaguars racked up 518 yards on the Colts defense. Yes you read that correctly, over five-hundred yards of total offense.

Accompanying Bortles’ 330 yards through the air, Jacksonville’s running game piled up 188 yards on the ground.

With Leonard Fournette out for the game, T.J. Yeldon was active for the first time this season, and made the most of his opportunity. In his first action, Yeldon ran for 122 yards on just 9 carries, including breaking through for a 58-yard touchdown.

Another big positive from the offense was third-downs. Jacksonville went 8-for-14 on third-down conversions, continuously keeping drives alive and wearing down the Colts defense.

The offense stepped-up in this game in a major way, complementing the defensive performance.

Defense was a monster again, particularly the defensive line

Speaking of the defensive performance, the Jaguars defense had its way with the Colts on Sunday, blanking Indianapolis’ offense. The unit completely suffocated the Colts, and was a nightmare for Jacoby Brissett.

The Colts finished with 232 yards of offense, and even that doesn’t tell the story of how impressive the Jacksonville defense was in this one. The majority of those yards were picked up late in the game with the result well in-hand.

The Jaguars defense has faced criticism for a lack of stopping the run, but on Sunday the unit held the Colts to just 96 yards rushing as a team.

But the biggest story was again the defensive line. The Jaguars big men were in the Colts backfield all game, putting together another TEN sack performance. Seven different Jaguars had at least half a sack on Brissett, with Yannick Ngakoue leading the way with 2.5. Calais Campbell dropped the quarterback twice, increasing his season total to an insane 10 sacks on the season.

Nobody should be sleeping on this Jaguars defense anymore, as they had another bullying performance in Indianapolis.

Clean day from the special teams

A week after a disastrous day on special teams, the group had no mistakes on Sunday and did its job.

With the day the offense had, the Jaguars only punted the ball twice. With the defensive showing out, Jacksonville kept the Colts from even attempting a field goal on Sunday.

The biggest takeaway from special teams though was from the newly-signed kicker. Josh Lambo‘s first game as a Jaguar could not have gone any better. Lambo went 2-for-2 on field goals and 3-for-3 on extra points, an unblemished debut. A perfect kicking game was a refreshing sight for Jaguars fans.

More on this game as the week goes on, but a truly dominating performance from all three phases has the Jaguars feeling good at the bye week.

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