Three explosive plays on Sunday by the Jacksonville Jaguars offense was ultimately too much for the Indianapolis Colts defense to overcome.
The Jaguars finished Sunday’s game with a hefty 497 total yards of offense. Of the 57 total plays the Jaguars ran, 286 of those yards came on 54 of them. The other 211 came on just three.
In the game of football, explosive plays lead to points, which we saw another example of on Sunday.
Jaguars receiver Brian Thomas hauled in an 85-yard pass that went for a touchdown. Running back Tank Bigsy broke free for a 65-yard run that also went for a touchdown. Christian Kirk then broke free for a 61-yard completion that took Jacksonville from their own 16-yard line to the Indianapolis 23. The Jaguars would then score five plays later.
So just like that, three plays accounted for roughly 42 percent of the Jaguars total production and quickly put 21 points on the board.
This, unfortunately, wasn’t a one-off performance for the Colts defense either. Through five games they’ve surrendered 33 explosive plays–19 on the ground and 14 through the air–which is tied for the third-most in football.
In many instances it is a missed assignment or poor tackling that can result in big plays for the opposing offense, and in general, allows the offense to stay ahead of the sticks and pick up first downs, even if an explosive play isn’t generated.
Colts Film Room over on X crunched the numbers for us and noted that the Colts allowed 231 yard after the catch against the Jaguars, which ranked 26th out of the 28 teams that played. The Colts also allowed 5.61 yards after contact per attempt, which ranked 28th.
Oftentimes, the major issues can be traced back to the fundamentals, which in this case starts with tackling a whole lot better.
All it takes is for one big play to erase a good quarter or two of football. And for a Colts defense where the margin for error is so small right now as they deal with injuries, things are likely not going to get drastically better until they can limit the big play.