After beating the Kansas City Chiefs and advancing to an impressive 4-1 record, the Jacksonville Jaguars dropped their next two and entered a much-needed bye week. It’s a chance to rest, reflect and make adjustments as they prepare to take on the vaunted Las Vegas Raiders in an epic showdown.
One of the areas that could use some improvement is the pass rush. The Jaguars have eight sacks this year, good for dead last in the NFL.
“We need it,” Liam Coen said on Monday. “We’ve looked at how do we help them on early downs, create more of an edge, and get some favorable match ups? We’ve looked at in the known passing situations, where are we putting these guys and how can we put them in better positions to be successful and get more ops on the quarterback?”
Liam Coen says pass rush comes down to the players too
While scheme is always important, quarterback pressure usually starts with one guy beating the guy in front of him and there isn’t much more to it. Surely, Coen would love to just blurt that out but knows that wouldn’t be productive.
“Also those guys have got to continue to do it on their own as well,” Coen added. “If you’re going to rush with some four we gotta go win and so we’re going to make an emphasis of it, continue to coach the heck out of it, but we did do a little bit of think-tanking as a staff over the week on how we can do that.
“Creating our angles and matchups and also being able to in base defense, how are we moving some of these pieces around in order to give us favorable matchups?”
Liam Coen needs more from his defensive stars
Of course, there is more to getting to the quarterback than just sacks. Sure, sacks are great, but it’s also wonderful when a quarterback gets hurried and throws up something really stupid that your team is able to pick off. That’s even better.
The Jaguars do have a guy that’s pretty good at that. Defensive end Josh Hines-Allen is tied for second in the NFL with eight quarterback hurries this year, but he’s only managed a half of a sack. That’s not bad at all, but the Jaguars still need more. Also, I’d be lying if I said I knew how they calculated what constitutes a hurry.
What would help Hines-Allen (and the Jaguars’ defense) would be if former No. 1-overall pick Travon Walker could get it doing. Through six games, Walker has a pair of sacks and that’s just not going to get it done. Two years ago, Walker had 10 sacks and last year he tallied 10.5. On his current pace, he’d have 5.66 sacks over the course of a 17-game season.
The Raiders should provide a good opportunity to get the pass rush in gear. They have given up 19 sacks in seven games in 2025 and while 12 of those came in the first three games, their offensive line is hardly an impenetrable wall.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Jaguars’ Liam Coen Says Defense is Lacking in One Area appeared first on Heavy Sports.