The Jaguars' defense is off to a historic start: 3 Numbers to Know from Week 3

Happy Victory Monday!

The Jaguars squeaked by the Texans in an expectedly gritty divisional matchup. Liam Coen passed his first big test. Now, the good guys are 2-1 with momentum on their side.

Here are 3 Numbers to Know following Jacksonville's Week 3 win over Houston.

18

That's how many seconds the Jaguars have trailed this season (h/t @Skychase94 on X).

There have been highs and lows aplenty through 180 minutes of game time. The OL and RB units look great, but the WR room has disappointed. The defense has been opportunistic, yet it gave up a game-winning drive to Jake Browning. Untimely drops and repetitive penalties are somewhat offset by an infusion of physicality and belief.

The rollercoaster that is the regular season starts flipping and dipping immediately. It's impressive that, through all the ups and downs we've seen already, Jacksonville has sat calmly through the ride.

The Jaguars have held a halftime lead in each game this season – only the Packers and the Chargers can say the same. They're are a debatable DPI penalty on Travis Hunter away from being 3-0. It's a shame that they aren't undefeated, but at the same time, Jacksonville has a winning record through three games for just the fourth time since 2007.

Perhaps these aren't the Same Old Jags.

"You talk about finishing a game the right way," Coen said. "It was not pretty, it was not for us offensively, but we can take, and we should take, a ton of confidence from this to go clean up, we got to clean up the mistakes, play better and work on the drops and all that. But man, I'm really proud of this group and the way they competed and finished this game."

18 is also the number of quarterback pressures recorded by Josh Hines-Allen this year – the most of any NFL player after Sunday's early slate of games, per PFF.

48.11

That was C.J. Stroud's passer rating on throws 10+ yards downfield, according to Next Gen Stats.

He completed 3 of 11 deep attempts for 80 yards, his sole touchdown, and 2 interceptions, both targeting former Jaguar Christian Kirk. Stroud otherwise went 22 for 25 with 114 yards (85.67 passer rating).

His first interception was an excellent play by Jourdan Lewis. The veteran offseason addition read the passer's eyes, gained depth in his drop, and leapt in the air to snatch the ball before it could reach Kirk.

Credit to DaVon Hamilton for penetrating the backfield just enough to make Stroud fade to his left and not follow through on his delivery, leading to an underthrown ball.

The pass rush again worked hand in hand with the pass coverage to generate the second interception. Hines-Allen, who was the best player on the field on Sunday, beat rookie LT Aireontae Ersery around the edge for the umpteenth time to tip the ball as it left Stroud's hand. A potential game-tying touchdown to Kirk instead fell into the diving arms of Antonio Johnson.

Stroud managed to find Nico Collins for gains of 17, 18, and 50 yards, but those were Houston's only explosive plays on offense. The Jaguars forced the Texans to move the ball methodically – something they have not proven capable of doing.

Ultimately, Houston went three-and-out on six drives and could not make enough big plays to outscore their hosts.

9

That's how many turnovers the Jaguars' defense has forced this season.

It's also how many turnovers the Jaguars' defense forced all last year.

As discussed in the Week 1 recap edition of this column, turnovers are fluky. We should've expected Jacksonville's numbers to positively regress from 2024 to 2025.

But this is getting absurd. For the first time in franchise history, the Jaguars have forced 3 turnovers in three straight games. According to the team's PR, their 7 interceptions are tied for the fourth most by any team through the first three games of the season in the last 20 years (the 2007 Cowboys, 2016 Chiefs, and 2017 Ravens all had 8).

At this point, considering the historical production, we should probably expect the turnover numbers to fall back down.

Or maybe this is a talented defense that finally has the coaching pieces it needed.

While turnovers are fluky in general, the way that the Jaguars have generated them is not. Defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile is dictating pass protection rules by deploying various fronts, and on the backend, he's called zone at a high rate to allow coverage defenders to react to what's happening in front of them.

"I think it's a little bit of everything," Hines-Allen said. "The play calling is obviously more aggressive but then we also had guys in the back end that are in the right spot, wants to be physical at point of contact and they just want to play for each other. Once we all buy into what we're doing up front, good things happen, obviously. Good things are happening. We trust each other. Rushing, coverage, we trust each other a lot."

Coen said the offense can't rely on the defense to generate 3 takeaways every week. He's right. But we should no longer be surprised when Campanile's creates turnovers in bunches.

"That’s our calling card," Lewis said. "To go out there and take the ball away. We’ve been talking about that since OTA’s . We just want to go out there and force turnovers and make it a bad day for the offense and those quarterbacks that we’re facing. We’re doing a pretty good job of that, but we have to stay on our cues and keep preparing.”

The Jaguars need to prove that they can win without the benefit of a positive turnover margin, but who knows when that opportunity will arise. These cats are cooking.

Thank you for reading! Check back tomorrow for Weekly Awards.