Jaguars vs. Ravens: Can Chad Muma Change How Jacksonville Contains Lamar Jackson?
It is a tall task for any rookie to defend Lamar Jackson.
The Baltimore Ravens quarterback and former MVP has made defenders look foolish week in and week out throughout his entire football-playing life. Naturally, asking a third-round pick in his first-career start to stop Jackson is like asking for the world.
But that is what the Jaguars are hoping for in Week 12, mixing things up at linebacker and turning to rookie linebacker Chad Muma to take a more prominent role as fellow rookie Devin Lloyd faces struggles.
“I think both guys have shown us enough that they can both play, play in there and play well," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said on Monday.
"I think this back third of the season or half of the season, I think you’ll see more of a rotation with those two guys. It’s a great opportunity for both of them. This week, in particular, because of the unique style of Baltimore’s run offense. You’re going to have to use probably as many of those linebackers as possible.”
That is where the Jaguars find themselves with Lloyd (No. 27 overall) and Muma (No. 70 overall). After a hot start to the season, Lloyd has fell into a rut in recent weeks. As a result, Muma played a career-high in snaps against the Chiefs in Week 10's 27-17 loss.
Muma played just 35 snaps in the first nine games -- fewer than 4 snaps per game. His season high was 11 snaps. But on Sunday, he played a career-high 25 snaps while Devin Lloyd played fewer than 90% of the snaps for the first time this season, playing just 60% of the snaps.
Now, Muma will be turned to after Lloyd's issues have led to the Jaguars facing a number of communication issues defensively throughout the last two months. And there is reason to think it could be a dramatic change considering Jaguars special teams coordinator Heath Farwell mentioned the likelihood of decreased special teams reps for Muma. Pederson followed this up on Friday by saying Lloyd would take on more special teams reps.
Now, Muma's first big chance to make an impression will come against one of the most difficult quarterbacks in the entire NFL to defend. The Jaguars' defense has lacked consistency in the middle of the field. Jackson is the type of quarterback who forces inconsistency. It is a mix that poses many challenges, all of which Muma will have to answer.
“I believe you can mix it up. I don’t think you just constantly have to spy the guy all the time," Pederson said.
"I think you’ve got to mix it up and you’ve got to keep throwing different pitches and somehow keep them off balance the best you can and attack when you can. That’s the beauty of football. It’s a chess match of the two teams and the game plan and how either team wants to play the game. The thing is too, with a guy like Lamar is if you can get him on the ground, you’ve got to get him on the ground. You just can’t let him run in space. That’s where he gets extremely dangerous.”
