After last week’s blowout victory of the Titans, Jaguars players discussed the Texans in the locker room, knowing that the critical showdown with the division rival was upcoming.
How it would be for first place in the AFC South. How Houston blew them out 37-17 in the first game, Week 3 in Jacksonville. How they needed to return the favor.
“We owe them for what they did last time,” tight end Evan Engram said, “for what they came in here and did to us last time.”
Mission accomplished.
The Jaguars held off a late Texans rally to win 24-21 Sunday at NRG Stadium and seize control of the AFC South with six games left in the regular season, moving two games ahead of the division foe.
Trailing by three points and facing a 4th-and-12 from the Jacksonville 39 with 34 seconds left, Houston elected to take the ball out of the hands of rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud and attempt a 58-yard field goal with kicker Matt Amendola, who had never hit a field goal from 50-plus yards in his NFL career (0-for-3 entering Sunday). Amendola’s kick Sunday was no good after the ball hit the middle of the crossbar.
Had Jacksonville (8-3) lost, Houston (6-5) would’ve taken first place in the division and owned the tiebreaker with a sweep of the season series.
Now, the Texans drop to third in the division. The Colts (6-5) beat the Bucs Sunday and own the tiebreaker over Houston.
“We’re learning how to finish,” Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said. “Really proud of our guys for the way they hung in there today.”
The Jaguars got elite play from both quarterback Trevor Lawrence and edge rusher Josh Allen to lead the way against the Texans, who’d won 10 of the previous 11 matchups between the AFC South rivals.
Houston trailed by as many as 10 points in the final period and cut its deficit to three points, but Allen registered 1.5 sacks in the Texans’ final drive to seal the game.
He sacked Stroud for a 15-yard loss before the two-minute warning, then split one with Travon Walker that forced the Texans to use their final timeout with 1:10 remaining.
Allen had 2.5 sacks overall and a career-high 12 pressures, according to Next Gen Stats — eight of which came against the Texans’ Laremy Tunsil, one of the NFL’s best left tackles. It marked the first over the last six seasons when Tunsil allowed more than four pressures to a single defender.
With six games left, Allen is up to a career-high 12.5 sacks. He also has 39.5 for his career, passing Yannick Ngakoue (37.5) for second place in Jaguars history.
Lawrence completed 60.5% of his passes for 363 yards, the second-most of his career. He had four pass plays of at least 40-plus yards — to receivers Christian Kirk (57) and Calvin Ridley (45), tight end Luke Farrell (42) and running back D’Ernest Johnson (42). The former No. 1 overall pick had two total touchdowns (one passing, one rushing). On the interception he threw in the third quarter, courtesy of Derek Stingley Jr., the Texans appeared to get away with a defensive pass interference against tight end Evan Engram.
In the third quarter, Lawrence misfired on two shots to the end zone — too high for a wide-open Engram; behind Farrell two plays later, allowing the Texans’ DeAndre Houston-Carson to break up the pass — but redeemed himself on 3rd-and-goal from the 1 by finding Ridley (five receptions for 89 yards in the second half) for a touchdown, then connecting with him again for a two-point conversion that put Jacksonville up 21-14 into the fourth quarter.
Teams want their best players at their best in must-have situations and games — especially late in the season and on the road.
The Jaguars got that on Sunday.
Ben Arthur is the AFC South reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat writer for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.
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