JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Gnats are an inconvenient part of the culture in the Deep South. They sometimes show up in swarms so thick they appear to be small clouds. They can swirl around your face and body to the point that it's maddening.

That’s what the Jacksonville Jaguars want to be defensively when they face New England quarterback Tom Brady in the AFC Championship Game in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

“You can hit Brady, you can hit Brady, but hitting him isn’t what’s going to get to him," Jaguars defensive tackle Marcell Dareus said. “It’s constantly being that gnat in his face. He just hates that gnat just always [being] around.

“You sack him, he’s going to get up and just keep rolling. He’s that competitive spirit, like, ‘OK, you got me. Now I’m gonna go throw this touchdown the next play. Forty yards. You happy about that sack, but there you go.’ That’s just his mentality."

The Jaguars have the defense to bug Brady like a gnat. They can pressure with their front four of Calais Campbell, Malik Jackson, Abry Jones and Yannick Ngakoue and drop seven into coverage to defend Brady’s short passes to his backs and receivers -- and tight end Rob Gronkowski.

That’s been a formula for success against Brady in past playoff games and Super Bowls.

The Giants beat the Patriots 21-17 in Super Bowl XLVI following the 2011 season. They sacked Brady twice, hurried him eight times and intercepted him once, holding him to 276 yards and two touchdowns.

In Super Bowl XLII following the 2007 season, the Giants sacked Brady five times, hurried him nine times and held him to 266 yards and one touchdown.

It doesn’t have to be done with a 4-3 scheme as Jacksonville uses and the Giants used. In the 2015 AFC Championship Game, the Denver Broncos sacked Brady four times, hurried him 17 times and intercepted him twice in a 20-18 victory out of their 3-4 alignment.

But their principal was the same: keep somebody in Brady’s face. That’s why Jackson, who was with Denver in 2015, had the Jaguars' defense supplied with video of that game on their iPads.

“I told Yannick and Dante [Fowler] to watch [DeMarcus] D-Ware and Von [Miller], let them know what they were thinking, what they were doing," Jackson said of the Denver ends, who combined for three sacks and 11 hurries in that 2015 game. "I just told them the thought process we had going into that game as far as what we were thinking rushing Tom Brady, what we had to do to beat that O-line.

“I shared a few tidbits, but these guys have been doing it great all year. So we’ll continue doing what they’ve been doing. I’m not going to give them too much to overdo them."

And details of what the Broncos did?

“A little bit of this, a little bit of that," Jackson said with a smile. “We’ll show you Sunday."

It helps to be sound defensively and have solid corners. The Broncos, with the No. 1 defense in the NFL in 2015, had that. The Jaguars, with the No. 2 defense this season, have that.

The Broncos didn't have to blitz a lot to rattle Brady, nor do the Jaguars. Jacksonville has the lowest blitz rate in the NFL at 18 percent, yet they still finished second in the NFL in sacks with 55. Brady’s three postseason losses in Foxborough came against teams -- Baltimore twice and the New York Jets once -- that blitzed only 18 percent of the time.

Brady’s actually really good against the blitz, completing 62.6 percent of his passes for 146 touchdowns to only 86 interceptions for a passer rating of 111.0. His career passer rating against normal pressure is 97.6, with a 63.9 percent completion percentage.

“We just feel like we match up well with them," linebacker Myles Jack said. “We feel they can create pressure. If not sacks, just be around him. No quarterback wants to be hit, no quarterback wants to be bumped or hit. Just be in his presence."

Like a gnat?

“Just constantly bumping him, letting him know we’re there," Jack said.

The Jaguars love to swarm quarterbacks. It’s been a key to their success. A strip-sack by Ngakoue led to a 50-yard fumble return for a touchdown in last week’s win at Pittsburgh.

“Confident? We’ve been hitting everybody else. Why can’t we hit him?," Fowler said. "He’s a good quarterback. He gets the ball out really fast. But we have the best secondary in the whole world. We’ll see how it goes."

“We just got to go out and execute on all cylinders; out-will him and outsmart him and out-discipline him and we’ll be great."

Surprising Brady with exotic schemes typically doesn’t work. He’s seen everything.

Teams that can pressure him without having to sacrifice with blitzes using help from the back end have the most success. Pressuring Brady with interior coverage and getting him off his mark is a big part of that.

“For us to be successful, we have to harass him, make him uncomfortable," Campbell said. “Honestly, he is the best player to ever play this game for a reason. But at the end of the day, we have a lot of guys who can make plays, so we have to take advantage of opportunities.”

And no, the Jaguars don't believe that Brady will be limited with a right-hand injury that had him on the injury report all week.

“I’m sure he can throw left-handed if he has a problem with his right hand, you know, and throw it just as well," coach Doug Marrone said.

Marrone called Brady one of the “most naturally gifted throwers I’ve ever seen." So getting in Brady’s face so he doesn’t have clear sight lines and passing lanes is crucial.

Again, the gnat theory.

“Just stay on him, annoy him," Jones said. “He is a great quarterback, and if you leave him back there to pass all the time he’s going to prove why he’s a great quarterback. He’s great with pressure and without pressure, but we feel we have a better chance if we pressure him all the time and keep him in the pocket."

As for gnats not thriving in cold weather like they will have in New England, Dareus has a counter.

“I don’t know that much about gnats," he admitted. “I just know they’re aggravating. We’ll do what we can. When we were in Pittsburgh it was 18 degrees, so we’ll bundle up and be ready for him."