Week 9 Drive Dominance Rankings: Jaguars Are No. 1

What happens when you play a team that just traded away its best offensive lineman and its best defensive lineman for future draft picks? You control that game on both sides of the ball. That’s exactly what happened in Week 8 when the Jacksonville Jaguars faced the Indianapolis Colts without Quenton Nelson and DeForest Buckner. After trouncing the Colts, 42-7, the Jaguars improved to 5-2 on the season — and took over the top spot in the Drive Dominance Rankings, Athlon Sports’ exclusive new metric that measures how efficient teams are on offense and defense.

Jacksonville is one of three teams ranked in the top 10 on both offense and defense, along with the Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears.

It’s interesting to note that there are no teams with a losing record in the top 10 overall rankings — but there are two teams with a winning record in the bottom 10: Denver Broncos at No. 23 and the Cleveland Browns at No. 25.

Here are a few more DDR observations going into Week 9:

• Three teams rank in the bottom 10 in both offense and defense: Philadelphia Eagles, Tennessee Titans and Miami Dolphins. Not surprisingly, they have a combined record of 4-19.
• After losing back-to-back road games to the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos, the Kansas City Chiefs dropped from the No. 1 ranking two weeks ago to No. 8. The Chiefs are ranked seventh in offensive Drive Dominance, but they fell to 16^th on defense.
• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are just outside the top 10 in overall Drive Dominance despite passing for a total of 64 yards in the last two weeks. That’s because they’ve rushed for a ton of yards and the defense is on the rise. The Bucs rank third overall in defensive Drive Dominance.
• The Bucs are one of three teams that rank in the top 10 defensively but in the bottom 10 on offense. The others are the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Chargers. Conversely, four teams rank top 10 on offense and bottom 10 on defense — including the top three offenses: Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions. The Las Vegas Raiders are the other. 

Here’s a comprehensive look at the Week 9 Drive Dominance Rankings: