Trevor Lawrence, Josh Allen lead Jaguars past Texans to take manage of AFC South

After last week’s blowout success of the Titans, Jaguars gamers talkedabout the Texans in the locker space, understanding that the crucial face-off with the department competitor was upcoming. 

How it would be for veryfirst location in the AFC South. How Houston blew them out 37-17 in the veryfirst videogame, Week 3 in Jacksonville. How they required to return the favor. 

“We owe them for what they did last time,” tight end Evan Engram stated, “for what they came in here and did to us last time.”

Mission achieved. 

The Jaguars held off a late Texans rally to win 24-21 Sunday at NRG Stadium and take control of the AFC South with 6 videogames left in the routine season, moving 2 videogames ahead of the department enemy. 

Trailing by 3 points and dealingwith a 4th-and-12 from the Jacksonville 39 with 34 seconds left, Houston chosen to take the ball out of the hands of novice quarterback C.J. Stroud and effort a 58-yard field objective with kicker Matt Amendola, who had neverever hit a field objective from 50-plus lawns in his NFL profession (0-for-3 goinginto Sunday). Amendola’s kick Sunday was no excellent after the ball hit the middle of the crossbar. 

Had Jacksonville (8-3) lost, Houston (6-5) would’ve taken veryfirst location in the department and owned the tiebreaker with a sweep of the season series.

Now, the Texans drop to 3rd in the department. The Colts (6-5) beat the Bucs Sunday and own the tiebreaker over Houston. 

“We’re knowing how to surface,” Jaguars coach Doug Pederson stated. “Really proud of our guys for the method they hung in there today.” 

The Jaguars got elite play from both quarterback Trevor Lawrence and edge rush Josh Allen to lead the method versus the Texans, who’d won 10 of the previous 11 matches inbetween the AFC South competitors. 

Houston routed by as numerous as 10 points in the last duration and cut its deficit to 3 points, however Allen signedup 1.5 sacks in the Texans’ last drive to seal the videogame. 

He sacked Stroud for a 15-yard loss before the two-minute cautioning, then split one with Travon Walker that required the Texans to usage their last timeout with 1: 10 staying. 

Allen had 2.5 sacks general and a career-high 12 pressures, according to Next Gen Stats — 8 of which came versus the Texans’ Laremy Tunsil, one of the NFL’s finest left dealswith. It significant the veryfirst over the last 6 seasons when Tunsil enabled more than 4 pressures to a single protector.

With 6 videogames left, Allen is up to a career-high 12.5 sacks. He likewise has 39.5 for his profession, death Yannick Ngakoue (37.5) for 2nd location in Jaguars history. 

Lawrence finished 60.5% of his passes for 363 lawns, the second-most of his profession. He had 4 pass plays of at least 40-plus backyards — to receivers Christian Kirk (57) and Calvin Ridley (45), tight end Luke Farrell (42) and running back D’Ernest Johnson (42).  The previous No. 1 general choice had 2 overall goals (one passing, one hurrying). On the interception he tossed in the 3rd quarter, courtesy of Derek Stingley Jr., the Texans appeared to get away with a protective pass disturbance versus tight end Evan Engram. 

In the 3rd quarter, Lawrence misfired on 2 shots to the end zone — too high for a wide-open Engram; behind Farrell 2 plays lateron, permitting the Texans’ DeAndre Houston-Carson to break up the pass — however redeemed himself on 3rd-and-goal from the 1 by finding Ridley (five receptions for 89 backyards in the 2nd half) for a goal, then linking with him onceagain for a two-point conversion that put Jacksonville up 21-14 into the 4th quarter.

Teams desire their finest gamers at their finest in essential scenarios and videogames — specifically late in the season and on the roadway. 

The Jaguars got that on Sunday.

Ben Arthur is the AFC South pressreporter for FOX Sports. He formerly worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat author for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for 3 seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.