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Ben Arthur
AFC South Reporter
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…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/trevor-lawrence-josh-allen-lead-jaguars-past-texans-to-take-control-of-afc-south
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Publish date : 2023-11-26 22:36:03
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