Matt Ryan's Benching Reflects Just How Far Jaguars' Defense Has Fallen

Why has the Jaguars' defense fallen as much as it has over the last two weeks?

The Jacksonville Jaguars' defense hasn't just fallen off a cliff. It has been taken to the edge of the cliff and then given a jet-pack trip to the very bottom. 

Only three defenses have posted a worse EPA/Play than the Jaguars' over the last two weeks, with Jacksonville allowing 57 points in the same span -- 24 of which have come in the fourth-quarter. 

Then on Monday, the biggest sign of dysfunction and failure for the defense came in the form of the Indianapolis Colts.

The Colts had some of the biggest news of the early portion of the NFL season on Monday, announcing starting quarterback Matt Ryan would be benched just seven weeks into his Colts tenure. 

Yes, Ryan does have a shoulder injury, but the fact is he is now backing up Sam Ehlinger and Nick Foles due to his poor performances -- which is the greatest testament yet on how far the Jaguars' defense has fallen. 

Just two weeks ago, Ryan put up 34 points, threw three touchdowns, threw for nearly 400 yards and completed 72.4% of his passes. Now, Ryan has been pointed out as the primary culprit of the Colts' offensive issues as they have scored just 16.1 points per game, good for No. 29 in the NFL. 

In short, Ryan isn't good enough for the Colts, but he was good enough to completely dice up the Jaguars' defense just eight days ago. 

Ryan wasn't just effective vs. the Jaguars: he was unstoppable. He was making throw after throw with ease, not taking a single sack nor having a turnover-worthy throw for the entire day. The Jaguars made him look like he was still in his peak, even though the Colts have made it clear he is anything but.

A defense that started the season hot and looked like the strength of the Jaguars' team has been anything but the last two weeks. Whether allowing 34 points to Ryan or 10 points in the final two drives to the New York Giants in Week 7, the same fire and playmaking ability the defense showed the first month of the season has now evaporated. 

“I think as a staff we have to take a look at what we’re doing game plan wise. It’s like offense. If you’re struggling offensively, a lot of times you try to pull back just a little bit on the volume of information and try to free up your players mentally a little bit. Those are all things we’ve got to address in the next couple days and really see if we’re doing, number one, too much," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said on Monday. 

"The other things, too, is we’ve got to understand, as players, too, that we’ve got to do our best to create turnovers. "

With just one sack in the last two weeks and zero turnovers, the Jaguars' defense that forced nine turnovers in the first month of the season has disappeared. And as a result, it is no surprise the Jaguars have gone winless in the month of October. 

"If you can punch at a football or swipe at a football, or some of these tipped passes are just falling out of reach of our players. Getting hands on the quarterback, getting sacks, whatever it is, we’ve got to be able to figure it out," Pederson said. 

"Sometimes they do come in bunches, but we’ve got to get back to what we did, I think, in the first part of the season, how we started the season with getting after the quarterback, creating turnovers, and understanding what our players do best.”

Pederson warned that after the Colts' loss, teams could try to replicate what the Colts did on offense. While he didn't quite see the same attack from the Giants as the Colts, he did see enough issues during a day where the Jaguars allowed 100+ rushing yards to Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley each.

"Well, it was, but a lot of it was RPO stuff, which the Colts don’t do a ton of that, but we knew, too, that a lot of the Giants’ offense was going to run through Saquon (RB Saquon Barkley) and Daniel Jones (QB), quite frankly," Pederson said. 

"I thought for about three and a half quarters we corralled Saquon pretty well. He had a couple runs in there, but for the most part, did a nice job with him. The one area we have to look at is obviously the quarterback and some of the quarterback runs with athletic guys. Those are areas that we have to clean up on the defensive side. Knowing that that’s their kind of game plan, just kind of focus in and lock in on that and try to win each down.”