There are games that settle a lot of arguments, and then there are games like this one, where the box score tells you both teams spent the afternoon trading punches and the final result came down to which side caught a few more breaks.
The Texans got those breaks Sunday. After spending the first five games on the wrong end of the bounce, the whistle and the clutch moment, they finally found the favorable side of all three.
That doesn’t just matter in the moment. It changes the way the 2-4 start looks from a distance.
They are not as bad as the record says, and if you go by Pythagorean theory, they should be sitting at 3-3 since they have scored one more point than they’ve allowed. At the same time, this still isn’t the version of the Texans most people expected when the season began.
And this game was about as even as it gets.
Houston and Jacksonville finished nearly deadlocked in total yards, with the Texans at 426 and the Jaguars at 412. The Texans ran for 114 yards and the Jaguars for 106.
The passing numbers were close too, with Houston at 312 and Jacksonville at 306. Third down was a battle, both teams had a red zone turnover, and the penalties were nearly matched.
The Texans had 6 for 40 yards, while the Jaguars were flagged 6 times for 66. Even time of possession barely moved the needle, with Jacksonville holding the edge at 30:23 to 29:37.
That kind of game usually leaves a winner feeling pretty good, and especially so when it comes on the road. It also matters that the Texans still have three home division games waiting for them in the second half of the season.
DeMeco Ryans deserves credit for how he managed the stretch run. His natural instinct is to get conservative when his team is in front, leaning on the defense and trying to squeeze the game to the finish.
That has usually worked for him, but not in this one, and he recognized that. Even though the Texans did turtle a bit while up 24-14, Ryans mostly kept his foot down because that’s what the game demanded.
He also handled the end of the first half well, and later found the right balance between letting his kicker try to ice it and protecting against disaster if that approach backfired. After the criticism he took for his clock management against Indianapolis, this was a noticeable step forward.
Houston also turned in its best rushing performance of the season. This is still a passing team, and it should be, but games still have to be won on the ground when the situation calls for it.
The run game wasn’t pretty for long stretches. In fact, a lot of those early carries had people yelling at the screen.
But the Texans found something in the fourth quarter and did enough to keep Jacksonville honest.
The passing game kept rolling behind C.J. Stroud, who put together his best outing of the season.
The numbers say 312 passing yards, three touchdowns, one interception and a 116.3 rating, but that still undersells how clean he was for most of the afternoon. Jacksonville knew the pass was coming for much of the first three quarters because Houston had little else going.
Stroud beat the blitz repeatedly, and outside of one bad play, he was excellent. The final line puts him at nine touchdown passes and one interception on the season, with a quarterback rating close to 100 and a place near the league lead in passing yards.
There’s also a stat called “expected completion percentage” that measures throw difficulty based on how open the receivers are and how far downfield the attempts come. Stroud is second in the NFL in that category. The recent stretch has made one thing clear: the Texans appear to be handing him the offense to rescue the season, and so far he’s answering.
Jaylin Noel kept trending up, too. He’s improved in each of the last three weeks and now looks fully built into the offense. Nico Collins and Marvin Harrison Jr. also delivered a clutch three-catch performance, and the tight ends may have been the biggest surprise of all, combining for more than 100 yards and two touchdowns.
The defense, though, is the problem that won’t go away.
This is not the 2024-2025 defense. It’s not even the 2023 defense.
Whatever the reason, the unit simply isn’t good enough right now. Maybe the absence of Jalen Pitre in the middle has hurt more than expected.
Maybe the team missed on Reed Blankenship. Maybe Kamari Lassiter and Derek Stingley Jr. are not playing at the same level they did a year ago.
Maybe it’s all of that, along with the injury issues in the linebacking corps.
Whatever the explanation, the wait-and-see approach is over. The Texans still have players performing at a high level, with Will Anderson among them, but that alone isn’t enough.
A vanilla defense won’t cover for these issues forever. At some point, either the lineup has to change or the scheme does.
In Other News...
C.J. Stroud Just Got The Texans Weapon Fans Wanted
The Texans trip to London ended with a win over Jacksonville, giving Houston back-to-back victories and another reminder that the offense can look dangerous when it gets rolling. The bigger storyline for plenty of fans, though, was Marvin Harrison Jr. finally making his Texans debut after the trade from Arizona, putting him back alongside C.J. Stroud after their Ohio State days.
Harrisons first game in Houston came with immediate usefulness, as all three of his catches moved the chains for first downs and covered 34 yards. Stroud continued to drive the offense with 312 passing yards and three touchdowns, and the early chemistry between the quarterback and his new target is the kind of development the Texans have been waiting to see. [Read more 🡒]
Carnell Tate May Be Giving Titans Offense Exactly What It Needed
The Titans finally got a jolt of life with their first win of the season, and wide receiver Carnell Tate had a hand in the kind of play that can change a sidelines mood fast. Tate pointed to his consistent preparation as the reason he was ready when the opportunity came, turning a long-awaited touchdown into more than just a stat line and giving Tennessee a needed reminder that the work can still show up on game day.
For the Texans, news around the division has a little extra weight right now, especially with Jacksonville off to a 4-1 start and owner Shad Khan publicly upbeat about the direction there. Houston edge rusher Will Anderson Jr. has kept the focus on the Texans own energy and persistence despite long playoff odds, but a division in motion means every small spark elsewhere still matters, particularly when a rival like Tennessee suddenly looks a little harder to overlook. [Read more 🡒]
Texans Defense Suddenly Has A Giants Question They Can't Ignore
The Giants have injected a little more uncertainty into a Texans matchup that was already going to demand plenty of attention on defense. After turning to J.J. McCarthy late in Week 6 against the Saints, New York got a different look at quarterback, one that helped trim the margin in a 34-27 loss and left Houston with a fresher scouting assignment heading into the next game.
McCarthy completed 11 of 21 passes for 243 yards and a touchdown in that appearance, and now the Texans have to prepare for the possibility that the Giants could stay with the change or go in another direction. Head coach John Harbaugh said the team is still deciding who will start against Houston, which leaves one more layer of preparation for a defense already trying to sort out a suddenly shifting opponent. [Read more 🡒]