After playing strong games against New England and Baltimore, the Jets' run defense is going to have to bounce back in Jacksonville on Sunday if it wants to turn up the Florida heat on the Jaguars.

"Just be prepared, play our style of football," said CB Brandon Stephens. "Learn from this past week, obviously. And, yeah, just go out there and play how we know how to play."

Last week the Jets encountered a buzzsaw of Miami run game that tagged the defense with 239 rush yards and powered an early, lightning fast attack -- two long drives and one short one -- to take a 21-0 lead. The Jacksonville (9-4) offense will present a similar challenge after having scored 25-plus points in 6 straight games, 5 of which have been victories (they've won four straight) that have propelled the Jaguars into first place in the AFC South in Liam Coen's first season as head coach.

For LB Quincy Williams, it comes down to a couple of words: "Gap integrity."

He added: "And then also just tackling, the point of not just going for the ball, focusing on those turnovers and stuff. That first man getting that tackle, then second and third men going for the ball. This is going to be a consistent offense, and it's going to be more like they're going to run their stuff, and we have to be consistent also. There's nothing they're doing special, anything like that. Good running back [Travis Etienne], good quarterback [Trevor Lawrence]. He makes good decisions, and he's not going to force anything."

Etienne, with 917 rush yards heading to Week 15, is after his third 1,000-yard season in the past four years. He has 12 games with 50-plus scrimmage yards in 2025, only San Francisco's Christian McCaffrey and Indianapolis' Jonathan Taylor have more.

"Phenomenal runner," Jets DC Steve Wilks said. "He can run in between the tackles, he can test you on the edges. They do a great job of really putting him out in space in the pass game as well. So, we're going to definitely have to make sure that we wrap up, we get 11 hats to the ball, and we consistently stop the run."

Four years removed from being cut by the Jaguars, Williams says that it's all water under the bridge, especially since the Jaguars have made wholesale changes since he was released on Aug. 31, 2021 before being claimed by the Jets off the waiver wire.

"What I want for my team is to continue to compete," Williams said. "Focus on 1-and-0 this week and most importantly, put that DNA on tape. Communication, speed, violence, execution and pride."