The bye week can provide teams with an opportunity to do a deep self-scout and examine areas where they have to improve. For the Jacksonville Jaguars, one of those areas where for is needed is from the pass rush.

“We need it,” Liam Coen said of the defensive line. “We’ve looked at how do we help them on early downs, create more of an edge, and get some favorable match ups? We’ve looked at in the known passing situations, where are we putting these guys and how can we put them in better positions to be successful and get more ops on the quarterback?”

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Josh Hines-Allen continues to produce at a high level, currently ranking eighth among all defensive ends in quarterback pressures. However, more is needed from this unit as a whole.

As a collective group, Jacksonville ranks 24th in ESPN’s pass rush win rate metric, which tells us that they aren’t winning their matchups quickly enough. The Jaguars are also tied for the fewest sacks in football.

The defensive tackle position, in particular, is where more juice is needed.

The Jaguars have held up well against the run this season, currently ranking ninth in yards per rush allowed. But the name of the game is getting after the quarterback.

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Sacks are great, but generating steady pressure can be quite disruptive as it gets the quarterback off his spot, throws off the timing and rhythm of the play, potentially leading to erratic throws and takeaway potential.

There’s been a lot of good from the Jaguars’ defense in Year 1 under Anthony Campanile, but affecting the quarterback at a steadier rate can help this unit get to the next level.

“Also those guys have got to continue to do it on their own as well,” Coen added. “If you’re going to rush with some four we gotta go win and so we’re going to make an emphasis of it, continue to coach the heck out of it, but we did do a little bit of think-tanking as a staff over the week on how we can do that.

“Creating our angles and matchups and also being able to in base defense, how are we moving some of these pieces around in order to give us favorable matchups?”

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This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Liam Coen evaluates play of Jaguars’ defensive line