JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It wasn’t pretty, but the Jaguars put an end to their dismal streak against the Texans on Sunday.
Finally.
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Jacksonville’s defense led the way for an ugly 17-10 win over Houston in a massive AFC South clash at EverBank Stadium. The win ended a seven-game losing streak at home to the Texans and sunk perhaps their biggest rival into an 0-3 hole that will be challenging to get out of.
But as games between these two tend to go, it came down to the finish.
And it wasn’t until a diving interception from Antonio Johnson with the Texans in scoring range and 27 seconds left that the Jaguars (2-1) could exhale and celebrate.
“You talk about finishing a game the right way,” said head coach Liam Coen. “It was not pretty, it was not for us offensively, but we can take, and we should take, a ton of confidence from this to go clean up, we got to clean up the mistakes, play better and work on the drops and all that, but, man, I’m really proud of this group and the way they competed and finished this game.”
Wild finish
Up 10-3 and in control defensively, Houston flipped things quickly.
Trevor Lawrence threw an interception right into the hands of Jalen Pitre with just under 10 minutes to go. One play later, CJ Stroud found Nico Collins wide open on a busted Jacksonville defensive coverage to tie things at 10-all.
With under four minutes to go and the Texans poised to come away with the go-ahead points and give Jacksonville little time to counter, the Jaguars came up big. Nico Collins caught a pass at the 21 and pulled away, only to have Tyson Campbell strip the ball as Collins tried to break a tackle. The ball bounced right to Devin Lloyd, and Jacksonville was back in business.
That led the Jaguars on an 83-yard scoring drive, with the big play a 46-yard toss from Lawrence to struggling receiver Brian Thomas Jr.
Thomas caught the ball over the middle and stretched it down to the 10-yard line before being pushed out of bounds. One play later, Travis Etienne capped the drive with a 10-yard touchdown for a 17-10 lead.
That left CJ Stroud and the Texans 1 minute and 52 seconds to get something done and send the game into overtime. They moved all the way to the Jaguars 28 where they faced a third-and-1. Josh Hines-Allen’s pressure and hit forced the weak throw, and Johnson raced across to make the diving pick to clinch it. It was Jacksonville’s third takeaway of the fourth quarter, with Jourdan Lewis also coming up with a pick.
“I think it’s a little bit of everything. The play calling is obviously more aggressive but then we also had guys in the back end that are in the right spot, wants to be physical at point of contact and they just want to play for each other,” Hines-Allen said. “Once we all buy into what we’re doing up front, good things happen, obviously. Good things are happening. We trust each other.”
Anthony Campanile’s defense continues to lead the Jaguars, and they needed all of it against Houston. Through three games, Jacksonville has nine takeaways, matching its total from all 17 games last year. The Jaguars lead the league with seven interceptions.
“A lot of confidence. When you have that feeling of you don’t have to play perfect to win, you just have to continue to fight and play the next play and find a way to make the plays when it matters. You don’t know when that’s going to be,” Lawrence said. “Today, fortunately, it was at the end and we were able to make those plays and that’s when it mattered and we needed them. On the flip side it’s not going to be like that every week.”
Ugly win is still a win
After two good weeks on offense, Jacksonville struggled all over on that side of the ball against the Texans.
Lawrence had an uneven day against the Texans, the team that ended his season in 2024. The ground game that led the league in rushing through two weeks never got going against Houston.
The Texans’ defense has made things difficult on teams this season. Houston entered having allowed just 34 points in losses against the Rams and Buccaneers, so it wasn’t going to be easy. And it wasn’t.
The Texans erased (86 rushing yards on 24 carries) and challenged Lawrence to beat them.
He was more of a game manager against Houston, chipping away and playing a field position game as drops by receivers continued to be a killer.
Lawrence had an overthrow to Dyami Brown in the opening quarter and then took a sack late in the second quarter that pushed Jacksonville back to its own 10. Lawrence never got into a groove and faced more pressure than he has all season and was sacked twice. His interception was straight to Pitre. But Lawrence muscled up when it mattered.
He led the go-ahead touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, including a 10-yard run on third-and-6. The stat line won’t look pretty (20 of 40 for 222 yards and an interception) but Lawrence did what he needed to do late.
Will big catch spark BTJ?
Brian Thomas Jr. had the best season by a rookie receiver in franchise history in 2024. His sophomore year has been forgettable. Plagued by drops last week in a loss to the Bengals, the talk all week has centered around BTJ’s problems.
Thomas had a step on Derek Stingley Jr. on a long ball in the first quarter, went up high to get it, and failed to hang on to it. Thomas had another drop on a quick pass from Lawrence in the third quarter.
After Jacksonville had a takeaway in the fourth quarter, Lawrence looked BTJ’s way on a third-down play, only for Thomas to drop it. Lawrence had a throw to Thomas late in the fourth quarter where the receiver ran the wrong route.
Thomas did find redemption with his 46-yard catch in the final minutes, but Jacksonville needs him to be far more consistent than he’s been.
“That’s what I told him on the sideline,” Lawrence said. “‘Hey, stay in it, you’re going to end up making the play to set this one up for us to go win it.’ And it happened.”
With Thomas mired in a miserable slump, Brown would be the natural player to emerge. But he left after a hard hit in the first half and didn’t return.
“You have to keep fighting. It’s a 60-minute game. It’s a long game. You have to keep fighting. My teammates had my back the whole game,” Thomas said. “I feel like you have to keep fighting out there. Everything is not going to go your way all the time, so you have to keep fighting and that’s what happens when you keep fighting.”
Thomas struggled, but so did most of the rest of Jacksonville’s receivers. Parker Washington dropped back-to-back passes on a drive in the fourth quarter.
Reliable kicker Cam Little also missed a 47-yard field goal, his first of the season.