Chapter 402: First in the Alliance
“I never expected that the Minnesota Vikings would collapse in the NFC Finals!”

“Wait, are the Minnesota Vikings too weak or are the Philadelphia Eagles too strong?”

“I can’t understand this year’s playoffs. I really can’t understand it.”

“Can someone explain to me, is it normal for the NL final to be played like this?”

“The Minnesota Vikings are showing off and getting themselves killed, haha.”

“Wow, the Philadelphia Eagles are going crazy! The Philadelphia Eagles are the champions!”

Social networks went crazy at the first moment. The unpredictability of competitive sports caught everyone off guard, again and again.

For a moment, netizens didn’t know whether they should call this National League Final exciting; in this case, it seems that there is nothing wrong with holding the American League Final as a night game, maybe it will bring extra surprises?

Then–

“Wait, the Jacksonville Jaguars aren’t supposed to collapse like the Minnesota Vikings, right?”

A question popped up and quickly spread across social networks.

After all, the league’s top defensive team fell apart in front of the unknown Fowles, and it is not impossible for the Jacksonville Jaguars, who have no superstars and no star power, to completely collapse in front of Smith and Levi.

This… won’t the night game also fail?

but.

Reed had a different opinion. This veteran coach who had been in the league for many years always remained calm and controlled the atmosphere in the team’s locker room without making a sound.

The Jacksonville Jaguars should not be underestimated.

If anyone underestimates this team, the Pittsburgh Steelers are a warning.

Perhaps, some people are curious about how the Jacksonville Jaguars, a team that has no star players on both the offensive and defensive teams, can become the favorite to win the Super Bowl. This doesn’t seem to make sense.

The answer is that a group of dedicated blue-collar players, under the correct tactical command of the new coach Ma Ruo, can truly create an effect where one plus one is greater than two and demonstrate the team power of rugby. This is the real danger.

Indeed, even though the regular season has come to an end, it stands to reason that a team that has performed so well this season should have a large number of outstanding players. However, this is not the case. Currently, in the Pro Bowl voting, the Jacksonville Jaguars only have one player on the list.

This is really rare.

From the side, we can see the characteristics of the team created by Cardwell.

In the NBA, big-name players often dislike each other and refuse to cooperate with each other, which leads to chaos in the locker room. In the end, a terrible situation of one plus one is less than two occurs. Even though they have a bunch of superstars, they still cannot win the championship.

Caldwell avoided this situation and bought a bunch of blue-collar players from the free market during the offseason, especially several defensive veterans brought by new coach Marco from his former club Buffalo Bills.

The star power is not prominent and the salary is not high, but the players are down-to-earth in coordinating tactics and completing tasks conscientiously.

The team is always put first.

Every player completes his job in his own position, every player plays a role in the corresponding tactics, and finally they become a team.

Perhaps, no one player stood out, and that’s because every player had his or her moments.

In team events, such teams are often prone to creating upsets.

For example, Greece, which won the European Cup in 2004.

Now, the Jacksonville Jaguars are trying to replicate this miracle. The Minnesota Vikings’ winning model still focuses on the quarterback.

Keenum.

Winning or losing does not matter.

The Minnesota Vikings’ tactics depended on Keenum’s right arm, and they made great progress, so Keenum received countless praises; similarly, on the National League stage, Keenum’s mentality became unbalanced and collapsed, and the team’s offense and defense were defeated and could not be stopped at all.

But the Jacksonville Jaguars are different. This team has won unanimous praise from professionals, not because of luck or insider information.

There is a reason why it is number one in the league.

Until the NFC finals ended in an upset and the AFC finals were about to begin, many fans still couldn’t understand how the Jacksonville Jaguars advanced to this point and became the first favorite to win the Super Bowl in the eyes of professionals.

As a result, social networks have produced a series of follow-up discussions that do not explore the true essence and understand the uniqueness of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

In fact, the answer is right in front of us.

This season, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ defensive line has earned the nickname “Sacksonville,” a play on the city of Jacksonville with the first letter changed to “Sack.”

In the 55 regular season games, this defensive line completed 56 sacks, second only to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ , ranking second in the league. It is also one of only two teams to sack quarterbacks more than times.

Moreover, they also defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in the divisional round.

The power is evident.

The Jacksonville Jaguars use a “4-3” defensive formation with four defensive linemen and three linebackers.

Back then, during the heyday of the Seattle Seahawks, the team often used linebackers, cornerbacks, and even safeties to join in the pass rush, relying on numerical advantage and sudden tactics to create sacks, which rewrote the defensive tactics since the new century.

But the Jacksonville Jaguars rarely use such tactics. At most, they add linebackers and rely on the cooperation of players to complete the capture rather than the numerical advantage. Detailed and rich tactics are the new content that head coach Majo has brought to the team.

defensive ends, Calais-Campbell and Yannick-Ngakoue.

Defensive tackles, Malik Jackson and Abry Jones, and Marcell Dareus, who joined from the Buffalo Bills during the season to increase bench depth.

Of the above, the most widely known name is Jackson, a player who once won the 50th Super Bowl championship with Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos, and he was a key player.

Jackson has always been considered an excellent defensive tackle, but his ability has never been recognized accordingly. He has never made the Pro Bowl or the All-American First Team or All-American Second Team in his career.

Everyone knows that in the 50th Super Bowl, the Denver Broncos relied on defense to win the championship, and linebacker Von Miller was named Super Bowl MVP; it was also because of this that the Denver Broncos dared to force Manning to retire, which shows from the side that Jackson is a down-to-earth blue-collar player.

Unfortunately, without any honor, Jackson seems to always be underestimated.

On the defensive line, only Campbell and Darius have made it to the Pro Bowl, but not many times, Campbell once and Darius twice.

This season, Campbell has performed well and is the only player on the Jacksonville Jaguars who may be selected to the Pro Bowl.

Low-key, calm and restrained.

But, efficient.

It was this defensive line that completed 55 sacks throughout the season. In addition to Campbell who was far ahead with 11.5 sacks, the other three players plus the rotating Darius were evenly matched. Everyone had an outstanding performance and everyone had their shining moments. They made countless offensive linemen and quarterbacks suffer throughout the season and even earned the title of “Sack Village.”

And, this is just the tip of the iceberg for the Jacksonville Jaguars defense.

(End of this chapter)