Jaguars Break Another Negative Streak Against An AFC South Rival in Houston Beatdown

A Week 5 defeat at the hands of the Houston Texans marked nine games in a row that the Jaguars ended up on the losing side of the contest. That streak ended in Week 17, with a dominant 31-3 victory to make it three straight victories on the road.

The Jaguars running backs were the stars of the show, with Travis Etienne, JaMycal Hasty, and rookie Snoop Conner all finding paydirt. For Conner, this was the first touchdown of his young NFL career, while Etienne carved up the Texans' defense for 108 yards on only nine carries, including a 62-yard touchdown early in the second quarter.

The proficiency of the run game made life significantly easier for the Jaguars' passing attack. Despite tossing his eighth interception of the season, quarterback Trevor Lawrence had a steady performance, completing 17 of his 21 passing attempts for 152 yards while consistently finding the holes in the Texans' coverage and exploiting them. It was another methodical victory for the Jaguars that has become their niche throughout this dominant stretch run.

“It was a big win for us, obviously, with a lot of distractions kind of around this week and knowing what’s in store now for next week,” Lawrence said. “I thought we handled our business today. That was the plan to come in here, start fast, and control the game, and I thought we did that offensively. A lot of stuff to clean up. Didn’t play our cleanest ball today, but the defense played great, and special teams was awesome, so kind of made up for it.

"We had some huge plays on offense, so good enough to win. Obviously, it’s not our cleanest game we’ve had, but at this point of the year it’s just about winning. Obviously, we’re happy with that. To be able to win that way, it shows the growth of this team when you don’t necessarily play your best, especially offensively, you can still dominate a game like that. It’s cool to see our team continue to come together, and we all know what is at hand this week, so we’re excited for the challenge and ready to get back to work for that.”

For head coach Doug Pederson and the Jaguars coaching staff, continuing to snap negative streaks amidst a stretch run to remember has been a great boost for this young team.

“Can’t keep count of them,” Pederson said. “Back-to-back road games and all kinds of stuff. It’s crazy. Just check them off. It’s great for the organization. It’s great for the team. Obviously, you set out each season and hopefully you win more than you lose, but this is a credit to the staff. It’s a credit to the players. Even (team owner) Mr. (Shad) Khan giving me the opportunity to coach this team and just the direction that we’re headed. We still have a game left, but, yeah, we’ve conquered a few firsts in a while. It’s a credit to those guys.”

The Jaguars have a prime opportunity to knock out yet another negative streak, with the Tennesee Titans representing the difference between going home and clinching a playoff spot atop the AFC South. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence made clear that continued preparation and trust in the process will be the keys to ending the Jaguars playoff drought.

“I think guys have played in games like this, all different guys on our team,” Lawrence said. “Different places maybe, maybe here, years past, whatever it is. The biggest thing is you can’t treat it differently than any other game. You can’t try to do more or less. You just have to trust your process and what got us here.

"I think we’ve gotten in a pretty good groove of just the way we prepare, the way we get ready for these games. You see it’s been paying off for us the past month and a half, so we just have to trust that. You can’t try to do a bunch of new things just because you’re in a position where it’s a must-win to get in. For us it’s the same as any other game. That’s kind of been our mindset for the past two months, so for us we just have to continue to do what we’ve been doing, prepare the same way, have a great week of prep, and put ourselves in position to win on Sunday or whenever the game is going to be.”