Texans, Jaguars going in opposite direction
The Houston Texans are taking the field on Sunday with plenty to play for locking up with the Jacksonville Jaguars with both teams sitting at 3-3. The Texans started the season 0-3 but somehow found a way to win three in a row for the first time since the 2016 season and now they are back in the middle of the AFC South race.
“It’s a tough division. Like you said, three of the teams are sitting there at 3-3 and it’s anybody’s division,” head coach Bill O’Brien said of the AFC South.
The reigning AFC South champions in the Jaguars have hit a slide of sorts with the suspect play of quarterback Blake Bortles the past two weeks and the uncharacteristic play of their defense. Even with their struggles, O’Brien knows the Jaguars are the premier team in the division. Bortles is an important part to the Jaguars success and when he is playing mistake-free football it makes the task even tougher for the Texans.
“There’s a lot of these guys that we’re facing, including Blake, that can not only throw the ball, but they can make a lot of plays with their scrambling ability, their ability to extend plays, which is really – you see that throughout the league with a number of guys. It’s very hard to defend,” O’Brien said of the Jaguars quarterback.
O’Brien also realizes the Jaguars defense is their true strength especially in the way they get to the quarterback. The Texans gave up 14 sacks in two games last season with 10 of those coming in Week 1 of the season. For the second season in a row, the Texans are struggling to protect the quarterback and in this case it is Deshaun Watson. It is just not the offensive line but the overall scheme of the offense that is having major letdowns.
“A lot of lines struggle against these guys.” O’Brien said of the Jaguars pass rush. “Calais Campbell, (Yannick) Ngakoue, (Dante) Fowler (Jr.), (Marcell) Dareus – all the guys they have up front. The linebackers, Myles Jack, Telvin Smith – fast, athletic. We haven’t even gotten to the secondary yet. So, it’s a big challenge. Very challenging defense to go against.”
O’Brien’s life-long friend Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone has helped change the culture in Jacksonville along with the help of executive vice-president of football operations Tom Coughlin.
O’Brien finished, “We look at every game that they’ve played this game, last year, since Coach Marrone’s been there. They have a lot of talent. They’re very well coached. It’s a tough league.”
SERIES HISTORY: 33rd regular-season meeting. Texans lead series, 19-13. The Jaguars swept the series last season and had a 45-7 in their last matchup in mid-December of 2017. This will be Deshaun Watson’s first career start against the Jaguars. With Bill O’Brien as head coach, the Texans have won seven of nine games since 2014.
