The Jacksonville Jaguars offense was expected to blow teams away in 2023, but two games into the season, it’s the defense that has led the way. After forcing three turnovers and holding the Indianapolis Colts to 280 yards, the Jaguars held the scary Kansas City Chiefs offense to 17 points in Week 2.
It’s an encouraging start for the Jaguars defense, but linebacker Foye Oluokun isn’t ready to take a victory lap.
“As soon as you relax, somebody will go for 500 [yards] on you,” Oluokun said Thursday. “It’s week in, week out consistency trying to be the best, trying to get to where we want to be. Every week you put something good on tape, somebody is going to come to combat it. You can never say ‘I’m close,’ you’ve always got to be striving to beat it.
“Last year, we saw whatever our rankings were and all them things — we’re trying to be one of the best defenses in the league this year. You can’t get complacent if you want to be one of the best. You’ve got to be dominant day in and day out. Whatever happened last week, you have a whole new task in hand this week.”
The Jaguars finished the 2022 season allowing 20.6 points and 353.3 yards per game. Two weeks into this season, those averages are down to 19 points and 339.5 yards. While it’s not a massive difference, it’s better than expected with a matchup against the Chiefs already in the books.
Still, Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd joined Oluokun in saying it hasn’t been enough.
“We wanted to do more last week,” Lloyd said. “Just get one more turnover, just whatever. What we say is ‘If they don’t score, they don’t win.’ Worst case scenario it’s a tie. So as a defense, it doesn’t matter how we perform if we don’t win the game.
“Defensively, we’re doing a lot of good things. We’re getting off the field on third down, we’re playing good ball. But obviously there’s always room for improvement.”
Up next are the Houston Texans, who scored 16 points in two games against the Jaguars in 2022.
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