Jaguars defense continues strong play in rout of Colts

By Hays Carlyon

The Jaguars defense is starting to master the takeaway celebration.

They are certainly getting plenty of practice.

The Jaguars forced four more turnovers in Sunday’s convincing 37-20 win over Indianapolis at EverBank Stadium in front of an electric crowd of 64,851. They now have an NFL-best 15 takeaways on the season. They tied for fourth last season with 27.

The defense was the story in a battle of AFC South co-leaders. Thankfully, Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s knee injury sustained late in the game doesn’t appear to be serious to cast a black cloud over the victory.

Lawrence’s offense was expected to be unit with the elite tag and brightest spotlight, but the defense has played at a more consistent clip over the first six games.

The Jaguars (4-2) have won three consecutive games largely thanks to their defense forcing nine turnovers in that span.

“The defense sometimes doesn’t get enough credit,” Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said. “The takeaways are something that we as a team talk about. They talk about it as a defense. It just shortens the field for your offense.”

They made life difficult on Colts quarterback Gardner Minshew, who was playing with starter Anthony Richardson out with a shoulder injury, after Minshew guided a scoring drive on the opening possession that resulted in a field goal.

The defense took control from there.

Minshew, a former Jaguars quarterback, was strip-sacked by Jaguars outside linebacker Josh Allen at the Colts 19-yard line. Defensive tackle Angelo Blackson recovered the fumble at the Indianapolis 22.

“Josh is the heart and soul on defense,” Pederson said. “He’s been playing extremely well. … Just continues to find ways to get around the quarterback, to affect the quarterback. It obviously impacts the defense when he’s creating the plays that he’s doing.”

The Jaguars scored off the turnover when running back Travis Etienne broke a touchdown run on the next play to give the Jaguars a 14-3 lead.

Then, the picks came.

Safety Andre Cisco intercepted Minshew at the Jaguars 14, returning the ball 221 yards to the 35. That led to a 29-yard touchdown pass from Lawrence to receiver Christian Kirk that pushed the lead to 21-3.

The Colts first possession of the second half ended in another Minshew pick when safety Rayshawn Jenkins intercepted him and returned the ball 24 yards to the Colts 39-yard line. That led to a field goal.

Cornerback Darious Williams provided the final interception when he picked off Minshew with 11:06 to play.

The three interceptions were a career-worst for Minshew, who finished with a 60.3 passer rating. The Jaguars were credited with nine pass break-ups.

“They got some pressure, but at the end of the day, I was careless with the ball,” Minshew said. “I didn’t do a good enough job taking care of it. I put our team in a really bad spot.”

The Jaguars also shut down the talented Indianapolis running back duo of Jonathan Taylor and Zach Moss. They combined to run 15 times for 40 yards.

That’s been a trend all season. The Jaguars entered the game ranked fifth in rush defense.

“Game plan was to stop the run,” Cisco said. “They came out dinking and dunking. You can’t just dink and dunk and drive the field every time. Especially against a defense like us. But we were taking away the shot plays and stopping the run. That’s kind of what they had to resort to.”

Reliable and opportunistic aren’t two adjectives that we necessarily expected to describe the Jaguars defense but that’s what they’ve become.

Second-year defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell is hitting his stride. The defense that returned the vast majority of its key contributors from last year is taking advantage of the familiarity.

More help is arriving.

Getting outside linebacker Dawuane Smoot back was a huge boost. He made his debut on Sunday after suffering an Achilles injury last season and made two tackles.

The team is hopeful standout defensive tackle DaVon Hamilton (illness) will be back in the next few weeks.

“If we can continue to motivate ourselves and keep pushing ourselves, this defense is going to be crazy,” Allen said. “But I didn’t like the way we finished with 20 points. I am happy we got the dub, and I am happy we got the takeaways, but we need to start smothering these teams and it starts this week.”

The Jaguars defense has played winning football in five of six contests this season. They’ve held opponents to 21 points or less five times.

If that continues, the Jaguars will likely defend their AFC South crown.

(You can email Hays at [email protected] and follow him on X @HaysCarlyon).