Amid confidence in the Jacksonville Jaguars' new defensive scheme and his teammates, Josh Hines-Allen began the season only 2½ sacks away from setting the all-time franchise record.
Seven games later, we're not only waiting for Hines-Allen to pass Tony Brackens (55 sacks), but also post his first solo sack.
It is unthinkable Hines-Allen has only a half-sack at the bye and the Jaguars would have only eight sacks, tied with Baltimore for fewest in the NFL.
But among the many issues the Jaguars spent early last week addressing, the pass rush should have been top-of-mind and top-of-discussion … and it was.
"You've got to be able to get a (pass) rush with four in the NFL," coach Liam Coen told me last week. "You have to."
The Jaguars have to get their pass rush cranked up or their 4-1 start will be forgotten.
It starts with Hines-Allen. Two hundred fifty-one players have at least one sack this year and 158 of those players have seen fewer than Hines-Allen's 347 snaps.
But it also starts with defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile , who is facing the first crisis of his first year calling plays.
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Run more simulated pressures to confuse the opponents' offensive line? Send extra rushers like against Houston and Kansas City ? Everything should be on the table.
In his first five full seasons (not counting 2020 season, when he missed Weeks 5-6), this is by far the slowest seven-game start of Hines-Allen's career. He had five sacks in 2019, 4½ in 2021, three in 2022, seven in 2023 and 2½ last year for an average of five sacks for Games 1-7.
Hines-Allen started fast this year but without the sacks. I booked him for one knockdown-four pressures against Carolina, two knockdowns-one pressure at Cincinnati , 1½ knockdowns-3½ pressures (and the half-sack) against Houston and 4½ pressures at San Francisco .
Add it up and Hines-Allen had found his groove with 18 total disruptions. I figured — heck, I predicted — he was on the cusp of a sack streak and passing Brackens.
Instead, zip and frustration.
Against Kansas City and Seattle , Hines-Allen totaled one pressure.
Hines-Allen had two pressures and three knockdowns (and had a sack negated by penalty) against the Los Angeles Rams on Oct. 19, which should serve as a beacon of sorts moving forward.
On Hines-Allen's 24 total disruptions, he worked through a double team and a chip block once apiece. The rest were 1-on-1 wins, which suggests the goal for the Jaguars' coaches is to draw up ways to get him in single-blocker situations.
The Rams game had two revealing moments that showed the Jaguars are open to experimenting new alignments for Hines-Allen.
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On a third-and-4 snap in the third quarter, Hines-Allen was at right defensive end when the Jaguars ran two games — loop rushes for defensive end Travon Walker /linebacker Foye Oluokun outside and defensive tackles Arik Armstead -Maason Smith inside. That freed up Hines-Allen to get a single matchup. The Rams threw incomplete.
And on two snaps, Hines-Allen lined up inside at defensive tackle, once flip-flopping with Armstead and another when he was inside of Walker.
Coen met with Campanile on Oct. 21 and talked over many options.
"Is it more just letting Josh go in our 'Jet Rush,' mode?" Coen said about the rush where the player just goes full speed toward the quarterback without having to read the play.
"Is it more games or twists away from him where he can just go?" Coen said about the play where the offensive line is so occupied with twisting/stunting players away from Hines-Allen that he is free to beat one blocker or is left unattended.
"Is it overload the front some where he gets more 1-on-1s?" Coen said about using a pressure that involves blitzing linebackers and safeties on Hines-Allen's side to get into a look where the Jaguars have more rushers than the opponent has blockers.
The Jaguars have run 46 "simulated pressures," plays in which a defensive linemen drops into zone coverage and a rush is provided by a linebacker and/or defensive back. Hines-Allen has dropped into coverage 17 times, but only three times in the last two games, a positive change since he is still the Jaguars' best pass rusher.
My pencil has totaled the Jaguars rushing five or more players on 81 of 293 opponent drop-backs (27.6%) and Campanile has shown pliability by toggling between high rates of 53.7% against the Rams (22 of 41) and 33.3% against Kansas City (33.3%) to low rates of 13.9% at San Francisco (6 of 43) and 24.1% against Seattle (7 of 29).
Of the Jaguars' eight sacks, they have four- and six-man rushes three times apiece and two five-man rushes.
The strain and effort of the players is there on video — they're not simply hunting sacks and pressures and sacrificing playing team defense. It just has to be better.
Armstead leads with 3 1/2 sacks, followed by Walker (two), Oluokun and defensive tackle Dawuane Smoot (one apiece) and Hines-Walker. Yes, the Jaguars are 4-3 despite getting 1 1/2 sacks from their edge rushers. Getting the cast off Walker's surgically-repaired left wrist will help him and maybe the Jaguars have new wrinkles to introduce.
Still on the Jaguars' schedule are the New York Jets (league-high 31 sacks allowed), Tennessee twice (second-most with 30), Arizona (fourth-most with 24) and the Los Angeles Chargers (fifth-most with 23). Get it figured out and opportunities are in the offing.
It starts with Hines-Allen, but includes everybody.
"The bottom line is, as a group, we have to get more with a four-man (rush) because you look at the teams we just played the last two weeks (Seahawks/Rams), they were able to affect the quarterback with four and play coverage," Coen said. "That's not fun for a quarterback or an offensive line."
Contact Ryan O'Halloran at rohalloran@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: JacksonvilleJaguars pass-rush needs help, starting with Josh Hines-Allen
