The Jacksonville Jaguars introduced Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota to the turf at TIAA Bank Field Thursday night so many times the two were best friends by evening's end.
"Sacksonville's back, baby! It's back!" Jags pass-rusher Yannick Ngakoue exclaimed after Thursday night's 20-7 win.
The Jaguars sacked Mariota nine times. Nine. Times.
The nine-sack performance is the most for the Jaguars since Week 7, 2017 when they destroyed Indianapolis Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett 10 times, tied for the most in franchise history. That 2017 season, of course, was the year Sacksonville made it to the AFC Championship game.
Last year the Jags finished tied for 22nd in the NFL with 37 total sacks in 16 games. Thursday's performance gives the Jags 13 for the season, on pace for 69.3 over 16 games.
Calais Campbell led the way Thursday night with three sacks, 5 QB hits and four tackles for loss, repeatedly destroying whatever blocker he pleased throughout the tilt. Campbell has been underrated much of his career and has been dominant the last several years.
Campbell is the only player with 20-plus sacks (28.0) and 150-plus tackles (153) since 2017 -- Khalil Mack (130 tackles) has the next most tackles among players with 20-plus sacks since 2017, per NFL Research.
"You really can't say enough about the consistency of what type of player he is, the tenacity he has, the way he goes about the game," coach Doug Marrone said of Campbell after the tilt, via the team's official transcript. "He's long. He's relentless. He's just a great pro. It's very difficult to stand up here and say anything. He had a hell of move tonight. I was like, 'Where did that come from.' I don't think I've ever seen that, honestly. I'm like, 'Where did that come from?' He's a guy that studies and works. You talk about Calais, but it opened up ... guys like Yannick [Ngakoue] where they constantly have two guys and they're chipping and doing things to him, can free guys up on the inside and you saw our inside guys get some good pressure.
"Defensive line-wise, we have a pretty good wave of guys that are going in there. They are pretty different, which is also another ... being an ex-offensive lineman you have all these different types of guys you are going against. You're constantly going through in your mind, 'What's his best move? What's his counter-move?' It's Calais. It's this guy, this guy."
The addition of rookie Josh Allen (two sacks, one forced fumble) has given the Jags back their bite along the defensive line.
With Campbell, Ngakoue, Allen, et al., Jacksonville should continue to harass quarterbacks throughout the rest of the 2019 campaign.
