NFL

Jaguars crush Texans in Houston's final home game of season

By Tyler Tyre, Sports Editor
Posted 1/1/23

“Our play just was not good enough in any part of the game,” Smith said. “That starts with me as the head football coach and I have to be better. We have one more chance to get this bad taste out of our mouth and we need to do that next week.”

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NFL

Jaguars crush Texans in Houston's final home game of season

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Sunday was an ugly final home game for the Texans in this 2023 season, capping off what has been an ugly season at home for Houston.

The Texans fell to the Jaguars 28-3 at NRG Stadium, falling to 2-13-1 on the season in a game where Houston was never in it from start to finish.

“They just played a lot better than we did today,” said Texans head coach Lovie Smith. “We had been playing better football but that wasn’t the case today in all three phases. We didn’t tackle defensively and we didn’t move the ball or get in the endzone offensively. We just weren’t ready to play on the same level we needed to be.”

Things went wrong from the opening drive, as Jeff Driskel was stuffed on a fourth-and-one in Houston territory, giving the Jaguars a short field to work with. Jacksonville made no mistakes and marched 45-yards in eight plays before scoring on a 5-yard run by Jamycal Hasty to take the lead.

The Texans and Jaguars traded punts twice after that before the Texans punted once again in the second quarter. Jacksonville finally made them pay, as Travis Etienne ripped off a 62-yard run for a touchdown before Tyson Campbell recovered a strip sack of Davis Mills and returned it for another Jaguars touchdown just a minute later on the Texans next drive.

“It’s tough,” Mills said. “You get here and you expect to have a chance to win every week, but it’s been a struggle this year. The record doesn’t show how talented this team is. We have found ways to fight and play teams really close all season long, we just haven’t finished games.”

The Texans got the ball back and punted once again, but the Houston defense finally came up with a big play on the next drive, when Desmond King intercepted Trevor Lawrence and returned it in Jacksonville territory to set the Houston offense up with good field position.

But in the end it didn’t matter, as the Texans wasted the opportunity, turning it over on downs in the redzone, as the Jaguars defense came up with another stop.

Jacksonville took a 21-0 lead into the second half after holding Houston to just 94 yards of total offense, as the Texans averaged under three yards per play in the first half, while the Texans run defense continued to struggle as Etienne ran for over 100 yards in the first half, averaging 12 yards per carry.

“Etienne is a good running back and he’s been playing really good ball,” Smith said. “But our job is to get him down, guys like hi are going to get to the second level and when that happens you have to tackle. We just had too many missed tackles and you can’t have that. That’s what run defense is about is making those tackles.”

The Jaguars picked up where they left off quickly in the third, as they went on an 11-play, 75 yard drive to open the half before Snoop Connor made things 28-0 on a 3-yard run. The Texans finally responded after that, going 37-yards on seven plays before Ka’imi Fairbairn hit a long, 56-yard field goal to get Houston on the board.

The Jaguars went to their backups as the third quarter was coming to a close, and Jacksonville was still able to drive down the field with ease but were eventually kept out of the endzone when Jalen Pitre recorded his fifth interception of the year. But once again, the Texans offense responded with a turnover on downs, the team’s third of the day. The two teams went back and forth in the fourth quarter until the Jaguars added to their lead on a 53-yard field goal to cap off the Jaguars win as the Texans offense could do nothing the rest of the way.

“They played us well, in the run game and in the pass game they made things difficule for us,” Mills said. “We just have to find ways to continue to make plays. Maybe if I could have hit a couple more passes down the sideline when they were open it helps us, but we missed opportunities. We have to find a way to play well for four quarters and have a chance to win at the end.”

Davis Mills finished with 202 yards through the air on 18 of 34 passing and was also the teams leading rusher, running for 33 of the Texans 79 yards on the ground.

Houston ends the season without a home win, losing seven and tying one. They will travel to play the Colts next week in search of just their third win overall, hoping to put a bright spot on what has been an otherwise disappointing season.

“Our play just was not good enough in any part of the game,” Smith said. “That starts with me as the head football coach and I have to be better. We have one more chance to get this bad taste out of our mouth and we need to do that next week.”

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