FOXBORO — The Jacksonville Jaguars finished second in the NFL with 55 sacks in the regular season and have four in two playoff wins heading into the AFC Championship against the Patriots on Sunday at Gillette Stadium.
The fierce front four of Calais Campbell (14.5), Yannick Ngakoue (12), Dante Fowler (8), and Malik Jackson (8) combined for 42.5 of those sacks, allowing the Jaguars to pressure the pocket without blitzing.
Limiting the pressure on Tom Brady (or Brian Hoyer?) will be one of the biggest and most important challenges the Patriots must meet if they hope to advance to Super Bowl LII.
“They are definitely a fast front,” Patriots center David Andrews said Thursday. “I think it’s all relative in a sense. They do a great job getting off the ball. You can see when they are teed up ready to go on a passing down they are getting great jumps off the ball, especially the guys on the edge. … They are doing a great job and they cause a lot of havoc.”
The 6-foot-8, 300-pound Campbell signed a four-year, $60-million contract with the Jaguars in March after spending his first nine seasons with the Arizona Cardinals. The payoff was immediate, as he established a career high for sacks and added an additional 15.5 quarterback hits.
Campbell, who was named first-team All-Pro this season after being a second-team selection in 2014 and ’16, shifts inside from defensive end in obvious passing situations. So Andrews, who’ll be giving away 5 inches and 5 pounds in that matchup, is going to see plenty of him.
“He has great length,” Andrews said. “That can be a challenge in run blocking and pass blocking. Pass blocking, he has great extension and the same thing in run blocking, too. He can get his hands up and deflect a lot of balls in the pass game. To stop his rush, it is going to be a challenge.”
Jags love to run
The Jaguars had the top rushing offense in the league in the regular season and they’ve remained atop the leaderboard in the postseason.
That’s allowed them to make liberal use of play action in hopes of taking advantage of overly aggressive defenses intent on stopping running backs Leonard Fournette, Chris Ivory and T.J. Yeldon.
“They do a lot of different things when it comes to play action, when it comes to bootlegs because they have so good of a running game,” linebacker Elandon Roberts said. “They can do that. They can suck linebackers up to the line and a lot of stuff like that.
“You just have to be disciplined. You can’t let your eyes or a lot of stuff around you distract you from what’s really going on. So we’re practicing hard, our scout team is giving us tremendous looks and when it comes to the game we just want to take it one play at a time.”
Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles connected with tight ends Ben Koyack (21 yards) and James O’Shaughnessy (19) off play action as they scored a touchdown on their opening possession in their 45-42 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the divisional round.
And Bortles’ only touchdown pass, a 14-yarder to fullback Tommy Bohanon that extended the lead to 42-28 in the fourth quarter, came off play action.
As for the Patriots, the longest play they allowed in their divisional round win over the Tennessee Titans, a 36-yard reception by tight end Delanie Walker, came off play action.
—Contact Rich Garven at rgarven@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @RichGarvenTG.