We are now moving into Week 8 of the NFL season and the Jaguars look to keep their four-game winning streak alive as they travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers at Acrisure Stadium.
The Jaguars and the Kansas City Chiefs are the only two NFL teams right now with win streaks of four or more. Jacksonville hasn’t lost since Week 3 against the Houston Texans.
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Since then, the Jaguars have won four straight and sit atop the AFC South with a record of 5-2.
Jacksonville will be coming off of 10 days of rest and preparation after beating the New Orleans Saints 31-24 last Thursday night.
The Steelers are also coming off of a road win last Sunday against the Rams 24-17 and currently have a record of 4-2.
There is somewhat of an “old school” rivalry between the two teams. When Jacksonville first became a team in 1995, they were a part if the AFC Central division along with the Steelers, so the teams played each other twice a year.
The two teams have faced each other 27 times during the regular season and playoffs. Jacksonville currently leads the series 14-13.
The Steelers are led by longtime head coach Mike Tomlin, who has been the team’s head coach since 2007.
Pittsburgh’s offense is led by second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett out of Pitt. Pickett was selected by the Steelers in the first round of the 2022 NFL draft. Pickett has won nine of his last 12 starts.
So far, Pickett has thrown for just over 1,200 yards, five touchdowns and four interceptions. He is also completing passes 60.9% of the time.
While the Steelers offense hasn’t necessarily started off fast through six games, it has finished strong late in games.
Twice this season, Pickett has connected with Steelers top wideout George Pickens for game winning scores. Pickens is also coming off of back-to-back 100-plus-yard performances.
Tomlin likes that his quarterback doesn’t play to lose and rises up to make big plays in big moments.
“We’re going to continually go to work on more fluid and more productive starts. But it’s a component of it that’s not new, and that’s his ability to rise up in moments,” Tomlin said. “I don’t know that any of us are surprised by his ability to make the plays that he makes when it really gets thick. I just think that some people are built like that. Some people relish the opportunity. Some people really smile in the fact of adversity. Some people are competition junkies. I think he’s all of those things, but that’s not something that we just discovered, as I mentioned. It’s something that we knew even prior to him being a Pittsburgh Steeler.”
This Jaguars defense is opportunistic when it comes to turnovers. They lead the NFL with 16 takeaways.
On Thursday, Pickens was asked in the locker room about the Jaguars defense, calling it a “hope defense.”
“They depend on their D-line a lot. With their team having a lot of first round guys, they depend on that D-line and hope that those guys can hold up long enough,” he said. “So, it is kind of a hope defense for sure.”
The Jacksonville defense is also ranked second in the NFL in interceptions this season with nine.
On Tuesday, Tomlin spoke to the media about the Jaguars defense and had high praise for Jacksonville’s edge rushers Josh Allen and Travon Walker.
Allen is near the top of the league so far this season with seven sacks. Walker has just 2.5 sacks so far this season, but Tomlin says sacks do not tell the whole story.
“We’ve got to do a really good job of managing their bigs. The edge guys really capture your attention. Josh Allen and Walker, in particular as a tandem, wreak a lot of havoc,” Tomlin said. “I think often times sacks don’t represent the havoc that Walker causes. I felt that way in an analysis of him leading up to the draft. He’s just a guy who wrecks a lot of things. He plays with a violent play-style. He’s a wrecking ball.”
The Jaguars defense is also fourth in the NFL in run defense and are allowing just 3.6 yards per carry.
Pittsburgh’s running game has not been up to par through six games. The team’s running back tandem of Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren is 29th overall in rushing yards per attempt with an average of 3.3 yards per carry.
The Steelers were able to score their first three rushing touchdowns this season in last week’s win against the Rams.
Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada spoke to the media on Thursday about Harris and Warren sharing the backfield together.
“I think those guys obviously work off each other and you know, they’re both running hard playing hard and have skill sets that are a little bit different,” Canada said. “But we certainly can run the same plays with them both. We might lean more to one, in one blocking scheme than we do with one or the other. But as far as a whole, they both do everything that we do and stay fresh and playing well. We’re fortunate to have two good backs.”
But Tomlin knows it will be difficult to move the ball on the ground against this Jacksonville defense.
“They’ve got a 3-4 structure, but boy, those are some big outside linebackers,” Tomlin said. “It’s almost like they’re doing it with 4-3 people. And it really creates challenging regarding creating space and moving them for running lanes, for example.”
The Steelers coaching staff knows it will have to be balanced on offense to have success on Sunday.
“It’s important to do that,” Canada said. “But, obviously, they’re a team that’s certainly built for that. They’ve got a really, really good front. They’ve invested in that, and they’re really good players and they’re committed to trying to get you to do that.
Canada adds that it will definitely be a challenge for his offense.
“It’s a combination of both. You’ve got to take what the defense gives you to a point, and then you also want to be a team that runs the ball,” Canada said. “So it will be a big challenge. That is a really good defensive unit. A lot of good players, especially up front.”
On defense, the Steelers have one of the best defensive pass rushers in the league, linebacker T.J. Watt.
Watt was the NFL’s 2021 Defensive Player of the Year and earlier this season, he surpassed James Harrison as the Steelers career sack leader.
In 93 career games, Watt has 85.5 sacks, seven interceptions, 25 forced fumbles and 10 fumble recoveries. But the numbers don’t matter to Watt.
“I’m not about the individual goals anymore. I’ve set myself up nice where I’ve been having a good career, but it doesn’t matter if you’re not winning games when they matter most,” Watt said. “I think that’s objective No. 1, for sure.”
If the Jaguars offense hopes to have success this week, they are going to need to know where No. 90 is on the field at all times.