All Twenty-Tuesday Part 2: Defense

Gerald McCoy is a monster. I don’t know how else to say it.

Fan can complain however they want about a lack of fourth quarter sacks or him not having a mean streak or whatever other excuse they want to tell themselves if they miss Warren Sapp. But whatever those are, don’t change the fact that McCoy is one of – if not the best – 3-tech defensive tackle in the NFL.

The two plays above are back-to-back plays, and were back-to-back plays in which McCoy stopped the entire Jaguars offense by himself. He’s so savvy at this point of his career with how to use his hands, where to jump on the line of scrimmage and that’s not to mention how elite his “get off” still is.

McCoy made the Jaguars offensive line look pretty bad that Thursday, but I can’t blame them too much. This unquestioned All-Pro is as motivated as ever.

SAM I AM

Ah, yes. The play you’ve all been waiting for me to review: Kendell Beckwith reading all of my tweets and sticking it to me by getting his first tackle for loss as a SAM linebacker.

In all seriousness, I thought the linebacker group played excellent against the Jaguars, and though that was led by Lavonte David, it’s clear that Beckwith is feeding off David and Kwon Alexander’s energy and performing well.

The video above ones with some commentary, so I break it down more in-depth is you’ll listen, and where it was a good play by Beckwith (not trying to take that away from him), it didn’t show him overcoming weakness I’m still worried about, rather, it showcased what he can be good at.

Beckwith knows how to sift through traffic as a former middle linebacker.

The Smith Experience

First-year cornerback Ryan Smith got torched in the two joint practices the team had – and I mean really torched. He looked lost at times, timid at times, and just didn’t have the confidence we saw from him in the game against the Bengals.

However, when game time came around, we saw some of that confidence again.

What we saw last week from Smith was a good display of fearless athletic ability. Smith was closing in on ball carrier faster than any other defender, and showed sure tackling on multiple occasions. In the play above, Smith just barely missed an interception. You can listen to the commentary for more.

Smith is going to go through plenty of lumps, same as we saw from Hargreaves last year as a first-year player as an outside corner. However, we’ve already seen flashes of why they wanted to move this guy to the outside. He can play there with more experience.

Joe Dirt

Everyone’s favorite Hard Knocks darling, Riley Bullough, had a solid game against the Jaguars.

He’s been one of Pro Football Focus’ top run defenders in all of the NFL during the preseason, and play like the one above show you why.

This guy is reckless to get the tackle. He will throw his body at a bulldozer if it means there’s a chance he can blow up a play. In the play above, he somehow forced his way through two blockers to trip up the running back. He also had a play where he was run over initially, but held on and was able to drag a ballcarrier down. And then, there was the touchdown-saving tackle on Jags wide receiver Dede Westbrook on a big play nearly 40 yards down the field.

We’re not sure if Bullough makes this team, but it does seem he’s doing everything he can to do so. Worst-case scenario, he’ll be a practice squad guy.