Jaguars 31, Texans 3: Jacksonville Steamrolls Houston to Win 4th Straight

The Jaguars put the Texans away with ease on Sunday, setting the stage for a pivotal Week 18 matchup.

After four years of domination at the hands of the Houston Texans, the Jacksonville Jaguars said enough is enough. 

Losers of nine straight vs. the hapless Texans, the Jaguars exorcised another demon on Sunday by taking down their AFC South rival in a 31-3 blowout that was over by halftime. 

The Jaguars dominated Houston in all facets before pulling several key starters in the third quarter. And even after, that the Texans failed to score on the Jaguars' junior varsity squad.

The win brings the Jaguars to 8-8 on the season and gives them four wins in a row, which comes after a season where they won just three games in 17 attempts. The table has now been set for the Jaguars to face the Tennessee Titans in Week 18 in a defacto playoff game.

Jacksonville came out firing on all cylinders, allowing just one first down on Houston's opening two drives and stopping a Houston rush attempt with Jeff Driskel on 4th-and-short to give the Jaguars a short field to work with on offense.

Thanks to a methodical drive, which opened with a 13-yard pass to Christian Kirk to get him over 1,000 yards, the Jaguars took a 7-0 lead on a five-yard Jamycal Hasty touchdown run, his third touchdown of the season. 

With his catch, Kirk became just the sixth Jaguars receiver to ever hit 1,000 yards and the first since DJ Chark in 2019. But with that mark came most of the Jaguars' early-half offensive highlights, with the Jaguars punting on each of their following two drives.

One of these punts was downed at the Texans' one-yard line by Chris Claybrooks, however, with the special teams unit doing their part to limit Houston's offense. Through the first four drives of the game, the Texans gained just 40 yards and one first down without penalties. 

Then, Travis Etienne did Travis Etienne things to break the game open.

On the first play of the Jaguars' fourth drive, Etienne brought life into the Jaguars' sideline by bursting through a gap, breaking two arm tackles and then flying down the field for a 62-yard touchdown, his longest NFL carry and the longest play by the Jaguars' offense this year. 

Then, just two plays later the Jaguars' defense did it part to pile on the Texans. 

With defensive lineman Foley Fatukasi and Josh Allen bearing down hard on Mills, the Texans' second-year quarterback attempted to get rid of the ball but inadvertently fumbled it behind the line of scrimmage, leading to Tyson Campbell recovering it for a 12-yard touchdown, with Allen getting credit for the strip-sack.

But the Jaguars' offense then took away their own momentum, with Lawrence throwing an interception to Desmond King on a miscommunication with Zay Jones downfield. The interception, which is Lawrence's eighth of the season, was his third in six quarters vs. the Texans this year. 

The turnover gave the Texans their first trip past the 50-yard line of the day, while a 26-yard catch-and-run by OJ Howard got the ball to the Jaguars' 10-yard line. But after three straight incompletions, including one on fourth-down, the Jaguars escaped the drive without any points allowed, entering halftime with a 21-0 lead.

With Etienne taking a spot on the sidelines after 108 rushing yards on nine carries in the first-half, the Jaguars opened the second-half with big plays from his backups. Hasty picked up several first downs through the air on an 11-play, 75-yard scoring drive that also saw Snoop Conner score his first NFL touchdown on A three-yard carry.

With the 28-0 lead and Lawrence settling in after his turnover with several big completions to Marvin Jones and Evan Engram (which gave Engram the Jaguars' single-season record for yards by a tight end), the Jaguars began to noticeably take their foot off the gas pedal. 

After the Texans nixed a shutout with a 56-yard field goal, the Jaguars saw Lawrence for the day and inserted backup quarterback CJ Beathard, while veteran guard Brandon Scherff also came out of the game for backup guard Blake Hance. 

Lawrence finished the day 17-of-21 passing (81%) for 152 yards (7.2 yards per attempt) and an interception, giving him a quarterback rating of 77.0 for the day. 

Things didn't go quite as smoothly for Beathard, who was intercepted at the end of his first drive by Jalen Pitre after he started 3-of-4 for 27 yards. But a career-long 53-yard field goal from Riley Patterson pushed the score to 31-3 and pushed the final nail into the Texans' nail-filled coffin. 

 Stats of the Game (1/1/23 vs. the Texans) Via: @theryanmichael

With 9 total tackles, Foyesade Oluokun (171) set a new Jaguars franchise single-season record (previous—Posluszny: 162 in 2013).

Oluokun led the NFL in both solo (115) and total (162) tackles heading into today’s game before adding another 4 solo and 9 total tackles to his season total (now 119 and 171 respectively).

Travis Etienne carried the ball 9 times for 108 rushing yards and 1 rushing touchdown. He has now produced 1,407 yards from scrimmage this season.

Trevor Lawrence finished the game 17 of 21 (81.0%) for 152 yards (7.2 YPA), 0 touchdowns, 1 interception, 1 sack and a 77.0 passer rating.

Lawrence recorded his 4th game completing 80.0%+ of his passes (min. 20 attempts)—breaking a tie with Mark Brunell (120 games) and David Garrard (86 games) to set a new Jaguars franchise record (career) despite only playing in 33 games.

With 21 receiving yards, Christian Kirk (1,009) eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards for the first time in his 5-year NFL career.