Know Your Opponent: Regular-season Jaguars offensive and defensive stats from PFF

In an attempt to get up-to-speed as fast as possible on the Patriots next playoff opponent, we asked our friends at ProFootballFocus.com to put together a stats pack on the Titans. Make sure you check out their PFF Edge and PFF Elite products to give you insight, and an edge with your fantasy team. The PFF guys really know the game, so make sure you follow them at @PFF.

While quarterback Blake Bortles has received plenty of criticism, there were facets of the game where he finished among the best. For example, Bortles was excellent on intermediate passes as he threw 12 touchdowns on passes targeted 10-19 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, which was tied with Tom Brady and Carson Wentz for most intermediate touchdown passes in the NFL.

The Jaguars offense heavily relies on crossing routes, which were used frequently by Bortles in the regular season. As a matter of fact, 22 percent of Bortles’ pass attempts came targeting crossing routes, which was the highest rate in the NFL. The Jaguars signal caller completed 66 of 104 such attempts for 868 yards and 4 touchdowns, but he also had three interceptions on these plays.

Jacksonville’s offensive line allowed just nine sacks in the regular season, which was tied with the Chargers for the fewest sacks allowed by a unit. However, they did allow a total of 151 pressures, which is just the eighth fewest. As a result, their PFF pass blocking efficiency rating of 79.9 ranked just 11th in the NFL over the regular season.

Jaguars rookie running back Leonard Fournette ranked seventh in carries in the NFL in the regular season with 268 rushing attempts. However, his PFF elusive rating of 32.5 ranked just 38th among running backs. Fournette broke 35 tackles (tied for 10th) and averaged 2.47 yards after contact (36th) in the regular season.

Even though veteran tight end Marcedes Lewis ranked 10th among tight ends with five receiving touchdowns in the regular season, he has been unable to consistently produce for the Jacksonville offense. Lewis averaged just 0.83 receiving yards per route run in the regular season, which ranked 42nd out of 43 qualifying tight ends. Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski led the category with 2.40 receiving yards per route run.

The Jaguars were one of the best teams in the NFL when it came to generating pressure. Jacksonville ranked third in the league in the regular season as they generated pressure on 39.3 percent of plays. Edge rushers Calais Campbell and Yannick Ngakoue led the Jaguars pass rush as they recorded 73 and 70 pressures respectively.

While Jacksonville generated plenty of pressure, it was not easy to pass against them even when they did not get to the quarterback. As a result, opposing quarterbacks had a passer rating of just 84.3 when kept clean against Jacksonville, which was the fourth-lowest rating in the NFL. Furthermore, cornerback A.J. Bouye allowed a passer rating of only 31.6 in coverage, which was the lowest of all cornerbacks in the league.

Besides coming from the edge, the Jaguars defense is also able to generate pressure up the middle. Defensive tackle Malik Jackson recorded 51 total pressures during the regular season, which was tied for the third most at the position. In addition, his PFF pass rushing productivity rating of 9.1 was tied for fifth at his position.

Veteran linebacker Paul Posluszny has been one of the most reliable players on the Jacksonville defense. Posluszny missed one tackle on every 28 attempts, which was the second-best rate in the entire NFL behind just Seattle’s Bobby Wagner.

Jaguars linebacker Telvin Smith finished the regular season with a PFF overall grade of 88.8, which was the seventh highest grade at his position. Smith has been around the ball a lot and made plenty of big plays, but he’s also been responsible for multiple negative plays for the Jaguars defense. The former Florida State linebacker missed 21 tackles, which was tied for the most among linebackers and allowed five touchdowns in coverage, which was also tied for the most at the position.