Jaguars beat up the Texans, 31-3

The Jacksonville Jaguars entered Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans as the favorite and the team most everyone expected to win. The Jaguars did what everyone expected and flat out dominated the Texans, winning easily to the tune of 31-3 and pulling a chunk of their starters for most of the second half.

It was odd watching a Jaguars game where they were supposed to win and beat up on a bad football team and see them actually do that, without any fear of dropping a game they should win. The Jaguars jumped out to an early 21-0 lead and that was all she wrote.

It was kind of a ho-hum day for quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who missed on a few passes and only had 152 passing yards and an interception on what looked like a miscommunication, but really the offense flowed through Travis Etienne.

The second year running back easily went over 100 yards on the day, thanks to a 62-yard touchdown run early. Etienne also eclipsed 1,000 rushing yards on the season on Sunday, but he wasn’t the only Jaguars offensive player hitting some landmarks. Wide receiver Christian Kirk passed 1,000 receiving yards and Evan Engram is now the Jaguars franchise leader for a tight end in both receptions and receiving yards for a single season.

This isn’t to take anything away from the Jaguars defense however, who stifled the Texans offense all day long until the game was clear over and they backed off a bit. Houston was held to three points and 277 total yards, most of which came in the second half when the game was over. Defenders were flying around all day, picking up huge stops on third and fourth down and even scored a touchdown after a Davis Mills fumble.

The Jaguars came into Sunday with the intent to play out the game, regardless if it was deemed “meaningless” or not in the bigger picture, but now they have the momentum headed into the AFC South showdown against the Tennessee Titans to close out the regular season.