Fantasy Index

Factoid

Jacksonville defense

Jaguars off to historically bad start

When I was putting together the Pittsburgh preview for the Weekly, I noticed that Jacksonville’s defense has scored over 30 points in every game. Looking at past years, I see that they’ve allowed more points than any other team since the move to 32 teams in 2002.

The natural question is whether they can ever get that defense back on track. Is it overdue to start playing well? Or will teams just continue to pummel them all year? The Jaguars have 12 sacks, so there’s oddly some pass rush ability with that defense, which isn’t what you would expect.

Anywho, I looked at some of the other defenses that have been lousy. There are 30 others that have allowed over 30 points per game through the first four weeks since 2002 (not over 30 in every game, but an average over 30).

Of those 30, only three held opponents under 20 points in their fifth game. That’s 10 percent. And two others allowed exactly 20 point. Nine of the 30 (30 percent) finished up in the butt-kicker range yet again in their fifth game, giving up 34-plus.

The overall average was 28.2 points per game in Week 5. For this one, the game is in Jacksonville, where heat might be a factor, and the Jaguars have that pass-rushing angle to work (protection has been a problem for the Steelers). On our board, I went with 26 points scored when slotting the Steelers.

WORST DEFENSES, FIRST FOUR GAMES
YearTeamFirst 4Next G
2014Jacksonville152?
2012Tennessee15130
2008Detroit14734
2008St. Louis14717
2013NY Giants14636
2002Minnesota14124
2002Detroit13831
2013Philadelphia13821
2012Kansas City1369
2009Detroit13428
2002NY Jets13329
2002Kansas City13325
2005San Francisco13228
2002Buffalo13149
2012Buffalo13145
2003Arizona13024
2012New Orleans13024
2007Cincinnati12927
2013Jacksonville12934
2002Tennessee12831
2006San Francisco12620
2011Kansas City12624
2010Buffalo12536
2012Oakland12523
2008Seattle12444
2012Washington12324
2013Minnesota12335
2003San Diego12227
2006Tennessee12114
2007Detroit12134
2013St. Louis12120

—Ian Allan

Fantasy Index