The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Jaguars Edition 2
On Sunday, the Houston Texans hosted the Jacksonville Jaguars in their second and final matchup of the regular season. The Texans won the first matchup 27-7 in Jacksonville the second week of the season. This game appeared to be a warm up game for the Thanksgiving game, but the Jaguars had another type of game in mind. The Texans had no idea that the Jaguars would come into this game and bring all they had. Fortunately for the Texans, the Jaguars “A” game wasn’t enough to beat them.
FINAL SCORE: Texans 43 Jaguars 37
TEXANS REGULAR SEASON RECORD: 9-1
TEXANS DIVISIONAL RECORD: 3-0
TEXANS AFC CONFERENCE RECORD: 8-0
TEXANS VS NFC CONFERENCE RECORD: 1-1
Texans Total Yards: 640
Jaguars Total Yards: 458
Texans Passing Yards: 504
Jaguars Passing Yards: 372
Texans Rushing Yards: 136
Jaguars Rushing Yards: 86
Texans TOP: 41:40
Jaguars TOP: 31:19
THE GOOD
The most exciting game of the season came against an unsuspecting opponent. In a supercharged shootout filled with explosive plays, it was the record breaking play of Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson that stole the show. Schaub, in an effort to bring his team from a 14 point deficit, passed for over 500 yards en route to tying Warren Moon for second all-time in yards for a game. Johnson eclipsed his previous high in receptions of 12 with 14 and yards of 207 with 273. It was a tremendous display by Johnson which put all of his critics on notice that he was still the same Andre of ole.
THE BAD
The Bulls on Parade looked like the Bulls on Vacation. The Texans vaunted defense looked very uninspired and out of sorts. The secondary had such a fantastic game against the Bears, but for whatever reason they couldn’t seem to get it together versus the Jaguars. There is a possibility that the Texans were caught looking ahead, or they just had no film to prepare for Chad Henne. Whatever the case may be, this is something that the Texans must address before the upcoming game against the Lions. Another area that the Texans must address is the lack of an effective pass rush by the defensive lineman outside of JJ Watt. If things stand as they are, then the Texans pass rush will not be as effective as last year. By Watt being doubled on every play should open up more one on one matchups across the defensive line and someone else needs to step up and win those one on ones.
THE UGLY
The offense was responsible for 3 turnovers which is very uncharacteristic of them. The defense didn’t have it’s customary shutdown game and the offense carried this team to the win this week. Although the Texans didn’t play well, they showed their resiliency in coming from behind and winning the game when they could have easily given up.
*Injury Note: Johnathan Joseph slightly pulled his hamstring during the latter part of the fourth quarter. An MRI was scheduled and as of now Joseph is day to day. We’ll keep an eye on Joseph and Dobbins, because both could sit out the game on Thursday. Tim Dobbins left the game with a shoulder injury.
See more analysis and highlights of the game here.
