Jacksonville Jaguars: Defense Deserves Game Ball In Loss to Pittsburgh Steelers

By Michael Compton @MWCompton on October 5, 2014

The Jacksonville Jaguars may have lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers 17-9 at EverBank Field on Sunday to drop to 0-5 on the season, but the much-maligned Jaguars’ defense stepped up big time and stifled the Steelers’ offense, holding the visitors to a single touchdown and a field goal. The defense deserves credit for doing enough to deliver a win.

Having shouldered much of the blame through the first four weeks of the season for giving up too many touchdowns and failing to prevent big plays, the Jaguars’ once porous defense showed considerable improvement against the Steelers.

Gone were the major mistakes that doomed the Jaguars in their previous four losses this year. While the Steelers ran up 372 yards of offense, they found the end zone only once on a touchdown pass to rarely-used tight end Michael Palmer, which broke a 3-3 tie.

The Jaguars’ defense kept the game close and harassed Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger all day. The aggressive front sacked Roethlisberger four times, limited Pro Bowl wide receiver Antonio Brown and contained playmaking running back La’Veon Bell enough to keep the Jaguars’ young offense within striking distance the entire contest.

The defense, which entered the game last in points allowed, started strong. It took Pittsburgh more than 14 minutes to notch its second first down of the game. It was definitely a step in the right direction for a unit that has struggled mightily this season.

While the defense delivered a better-than-expected performance, the offense and its five rookie starters, went missing in Blake Bortles’ first home start. Compounding matters, the rookie mistakes continued for Bortles, who threw two interceptions; one that was returned 22 yards for a touchdown. All told, he went 22-for-36 for 191 yards.

There were flashes from the offense, but Bortles’ occasional poor decisions and dropped balls from his wide receivers prevented the Jaguars from mounting serious threats in a game that was theirs for the taking — thanks to the defense.

Michael Compton is a Jacksonville Jaguars writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter at @MWCompton and connect with him on Google.