Jaguars defeat Texans in a low scoring battle

The Jacksonville Jaguars have improved quite a bit since coming off their bye week. They defeated the Houston Texans 13-6 on Sunday and are now 2-1 since coming off their bye week. The defeat gave the Houston Texans their ninth straight loss of the season, a franchise record. In a game where there were not many points scored, Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew ran for his season high total of 84 yards and the game’s only touchdown.

ESPN notes that this is the third straight game that Jacksonville has scored on their opening drive. The Jaguars never trailed in this game and their defense played a nearly flawless game. The Jags had many defensive looks and called several blitz packages which caused trouble for the Texans' rookie quarterback Case Keenum. The Jags held Keenum to only 169 yards passing and an interception, the worst performance of Keenum’s career.

The Jaguars entered this game averaging an NFL worst 61.7 yards rushing per game, but ended up with 118 yards rushing. The Texans struggled on both sides of the ball, they could not find any rhythm on offense and were held to under 100 yards of total offense in the first half.

The Jaguars are heading in the right direction, after starting the season 0-8, they have improved to 2-9, with both wins coming against division rivals Tennessee and Houston. The Texans are heading in the opposite direction, with expectations so high at the beginning of the season, to now being called arguably the worst team in the NFL. Sports Illustrated reports that many of the Texans players are “embarrassed” by how they are playing and they feel bad for the city because they know that they are a better team than this. The players hope that the fans stick with the team as they go through this rough time.

The Jaguars look to start a winning streak next week when they face the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland while the Texans look to snap this nine-game losing streak when they host the New England Patriots.