The 3-1 Pittsburgh Steelers players probably have Monday off following their Sunday road win over the Baltimore Ravens but even if that’s the case, you can bet the coaching staff is already hard at work getting ready to play the 2-2 Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday at Heinz Field. The Steelers are heavy favorites in that game as VegasInsider.com shows that they opened as 9-point home favorites over the Jaguars.
The Jaguars will bring a defense with them to Pittsburgh that currently sports the lowest defensive ANY/A stat (3.0) in the league. With that said, the Jaguars first four opponents were the Houston Texans, Tennessee Titans, Ravens and New York Jets, who they lost 23-20 to on Sunday.
In the Jaguars Sunday loss to the Jets, quarterback Blake Bortles completed just 15 of his 35 total pass attempts in the game for 140 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Bortles, a former first-round draft pick, was sacked just once in that game. On the season, Bortles has completed 66 of 121 total pass attempts for 732 yards with 7 touchdowns and 3 interceptions.
The Jaguars running game is centered around rookie Leonard Fournette, a first-round draft pick this year. The LSU product has rushed for 285 yards and 3 touchdowns in the Jaguars first four games on 81 total carries and has caught 12 passes for another 125 yards and a score.
The Jaguars defense enters Sunday’s road game against the Steelers with 18 sacks and that’s currently tops in the league with Week 4 coming to a close Monday night. However, 10 of those sacks came in the Jaguars Week 1 win over the Texans. Jaguars defensive end Calais Campbell leads his team in sacks with 5.5 of them entering Week 5. The Jaguars defense has also already registered 10 takeaways in their first four games of the 2017 season and cornerback A.J. Bouye is responsible for two of those via interceptions.
While the Steelers offense has struggled some in their first four games of the 2017 season, that unit was able to finally get their running game on track in Sunday’s win over the Ravens. Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell rushed for 144 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday on 35 total carries and the offense finished the game with 173 net yards rushing.
The Steelers defense enters Week 5 with a defensive ANY/A stat of 3.2 and that’s second-best in the league behind the Jaguars. The Steelers defense, however, much like the Jaguars defense, has yet to face high-quality quarterback in their first four games. Even so, the Steelers defense has registered 15 sacks in their first four games to go along with 7 total takeaways.
The Steelers and Jaguars have met each other 23 times (including 1 postseason game) in total dating back to 1995, with Jacksonville winning 12 games and Pittsburgh winning 11 games. The Steelers, however, have won their last three games against the Jaguars with their last victory coming in 2014 and on the road.
