Skarey Movies: Sticks and (DaQuan) Jones

The Buffalo Bills’ defense had been staking a claim for their spot in the elite tier but lacked a signature shutdown game in the first three weeks. That statement game came in Week 4 as they brutalized the Miami Dolphins. A name quickly on the rise is defensive tackle DaQuan Jones. Playing in all 16 regular-season games for Buffalo last season, the veteran tackle put up a decent tally of two sacks, 11 QB hits, and 38 combined tackles. He’s on a similar pace for tackles, but is already halfway to the QB hits total, and is a half sack ahead of his 2022 numbers. This week’s Skarey Movies puts Jones in the well-deserved spotlight.

The video is a bit over five minutes. so not a ton of time if you’re intrigued. If you’re not, I cover three plays where I felt DaQuan Jones shined. Two contributed to stalled early drives by the Dolphins. The final play we look at was for nothing more than pride, and you can tell Jones ended up with all of it.

On Miami’s second drive of the game ending in a punt, Jones registered a QB hit that helped create an incomplete pass. This was the result of excellent fundamentals from Jones. I highlight evidence of a change in the direction of applied force, and what appears to be a push-to-pull technique from Jones that led to an offensive lineman on the ground with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa soon to follow. Defensive tackle Ed Oliver then found the passing lane to disrupt things even further.

On our second play, Jones and a stunting Ed Oliver wreaked havoc on the interior. While this play looks more like an Ed Oliver highlight (and there’s nothing wrong with that) Jones commanded enough respect at the line to let Ed loose.

Our final play was the sack in the closing moments of the game. The Dolphins run play action, tying to sell a run to the left by pulling the right tackle. That led to a one-on-one for Jones. One compact swim later and Tagovailoa found the turf again.