Official Texans @ Jaguars Game Thread (London), 11/3/2019
 

The 5-3 Texans are headed to London to play the 4-4 Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday morning. The Texans are coming off a 27-24 home win over the Oakland Raiders. The Jags are coming off a 29-15 home win over the New York Jets.

I'm gonna let Walterfootball give the bottom line summary for this game:

He makes a good argument but I think I'm going to side with Michael Jordan. Texans win (and if they don't, the forecast for rest of the season is cloudy with a chance of rain).

Texans 28, Jags 24

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TV = NFLN, 8:30 am CST, London, 11/3/2019

Announcers = Rich Eisen, Kurt Warner, Steve Mariucci, Michael Irvin

The line = Pickem to Texans by 2

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Other Sunday viewing in the Houston area:

CBS (early) = Indianapolis @ Pittsburgh, Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts

CBS (late) = Green Bay @ LA Chargers, Jim Nantz, Tony Romo

FOX (early) = Chicago @ Philadelphia, Dick Stockton, Mark Schlereth

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Prime time:

TNF = San Francisco @ Arizona (FOX/NFLN)

SNF = New England @ Baltimore (NBC)

MNF = Dallas @ NY Giants (ESPN)


Byes: Atlanta, Cincinnati, LA Rams, New Orleans

That’s some deep insight. If things had gone different then things would be different.

Eheh. Well, I think his main point was that the Jags are a better team than the Texans. Raw team statistics tell me the Texans have the better offense but the Jags have the better defense. So, I've got them as kinda even. The Texan defense has been a disappointment.... just 3 INT's on the year although good at causing fumbles....

Football Outsiders who I've never had much respect for, has the Jags power ranked 11th with the Texans 13th. They rank the Jags individual offense and defense both better than the Texans offense and defense... :rolleyes:

Everyone with a website needs interesting takes to sell and drive discussion. Simply saying the team with the better record, head to head win, and infinitely better QB is the better team doesn't make anyone talk.

I just wonder how the Texans will adjust to the long flight and the awful food? The Jaguars are used to this crap. Therefore, I'd favor the Jags by 7.

OK. Not sure where you're going with that.... Are you implying that Walter is just throwing contrary stuff out to get hits on his website? I dunno about that. He furnishes a lot of hard data - not just his opinions - and (claims to) wager on the games he believes will be winners. In my book, that qualifies him as a resource. I don't always agree with him but I think he's gotta better and more educated take than the average schmo....

That's a good point. It'll be interesting to see if OB can keep them focused.....

The food in London is awesome. That's really all I have.

Oh, don't eat vindaloo the night before a flight back home. You're welcome.

Wake up, you goons.

Gametime!

Texans to receive the opening kickoff.

Texans drive down the field but penaties keep them pushed back.

Fairbairn makes good from 52.

Texans 3, Jags 0

8:20 left in the 1st qtr.

1st qtr ends with the Jags facing 3rd and 10 at their 41 yard line.

Score remains:

Texans 3, Jags 0

Texans go 80 yards with a 1 yard TD pass to Fells to finish!

XP gets blocked, no good.

Texans 9, Jags 0

5:55 left in the half.

Lambo is good from 30 for the Jags.

Texans 9, Jags 3

1:48 left in the half.

Texans with 2 timeouts - time enough to get some more points....

Fairbairn is no good from 58 with 6 seconds left in the half. Jags have time for 1 or 2 plays....

Jags complete a short pass but time runs out.

Halftime.

Texans 9, Jags 3

Jags take the 2nd half kickoff and drive down but bungle the FG try. Texans takeover at midfield.

8:56 left in the 3rd qtr.

Fairbairn is good from 42.

Texans 12, Jags 3

4:57 left in the 3rd qtr.

A 48-yard run by Hyde followed by a nice pass to Dhop sets up the Texans for a 1 yard TD run by D Johnson!

Texans 19, Jags 3

31 seconds left in the 3rd qtr.

Oh my goodness. Carlos Hyde had a 59 yard run heading in for the TD and has the ball stripped at the last second. Ball falls into the end zone for a touchback.

Jags ball at the 20 with 4:43 left in the game.

Justin Reid with the INT on the 1st play! Returns it all the way to the Jag 3! Texans ball!

Watson hits Hop for the 1 yard TD.

Texans 26, Jags 3

4:19 left in the game.

Texans with 2 INT's....

Oy, Minshew keeps and gets clobbered, fumbles... Texans get the ball a the Jag 40 with about 3 and a half minutes left....

What a crazy 4th qtr.....

The game ends with the Texans on top:

Texans 26, Jags 3

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Surprising performance from a beat-up defense.... Lots of big plays from both the offense and defense....

Maybe most impressive player on defense was our new CB Conley who had a huge game both defending against the pass and in tackling ball carriers including going mano-a-mano a couple times up against stud Jags 230 lb. RB Fournette.
Some quarreled about coughing up a third rounder for Conely but today looks like a shrewd move on our end.

Missed the whole game due to church but saw the highlights on YouTube. Very solid win in their first game on foreign soil (well, other than Mexico City). Did the Texans sack Minshew even once all day? That would be my only real complaint although the OL was like a sieve again but Watson keeps pulling rabbits out of his helmet. Two completions and a lateral while FALLING DOWN! Amazing!

This is a big win within the division.

Here's a surprise. Due to Daylight Savings Time, the NFL games are an hour later than usual. Panama does not have DST. It is EST here when it is Standard time and CDT when it is DST. These games are just in the 2nd qtr.

Titans are losing. Colts have a 16-13 lead at halftime in Pittsburgh but Pittsburgh got a gift FG after a personal foul on Indy with no time left in the half.

Brisket hurt his knee in the game. Bryan "The Playoff Destroyer" Hoyer is qb'ing for Indy.

Walter way overthought this one. The Texans are a MUCH better team than the Jags and everything in the world indicates that. But trying to find the angle on the game had him convinced that the better team with Deshaun Watson was somehow worse than the lesser team with Gardner Minshew.

Karma finally catches up to Indy (of course, it would be the Steelers). Viniateri shanks a winning FG attempt.

Titans about to be closed out vs. Panthers.

Hello, first place Texans!

Updated standings:

Houston 6-3
Indy 5-3
Jacksonville 4-5
Tennessee 4-5

In fact, if the Patriots beat Baltimore tonight, the Texans jump all the way up to the #2 seed in the AFC. They own the tiebreaker with KC based on head-to-head play.

Yep, he was wrong on this one. It happens. Still, he's up $9500 on the year so I wouldn't dismiss him as an idiot....

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Zack Cunningham had one of the coolest tackles I've ever seen today. I'll have to rewatch but I think it was 4th qtr, a punt return. He ran up and just pushed the guy with the ball causing the guy to lose his feet and go flying. Like "sit down!". I lol'ed.

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Cautiously optimistic that the offense is finding itself with all the RPO stuff. I hope we've seen the last of Watson spending the entire game (Carolina game) trying to be a pocket passer....

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I have the Pats -3 as my best bet (double win or double loss) this week vs. the Ravens in the money contest I am in. Nice to see the Ravens scoring kinda easily even though it is to my detriment.... Ravens 17, Pats 13 at the half as I type.....

I am guessing he got up $9500 by "furnishing hard data - not just opinions", as you said earlier in the thread. But obviously this time he didn't go with data and instead with opinions that ran contrary to data (Jacksonville could have won the first game so they basically have a better record if the past were only different, Marrone is better than O'Brien, Jags are better everywhere but QB/WR1/LB).

Like I said, Houston is flat better than Jacksonville and that's an easy call. Only trying to find an angle that nobody sees could lead to any other conclusion.

Minshew is terrible and only the media narrative created by his moustache hides that at all. It's mind blowing incompetence that their staff is considering starting him over Foles (unless they're playing for next year which I can't imagine from a staff that will likely get fired for 6-10).

Handicapping football games is not easy. It's a tremendous time crunch. Walter publishes his musings along with stats to explain why he comes to his conclusions. It's all out there before the game starts for people to criticize or agree with. Like I said, I didn't agree with him on this game and I took the Texans. He was wrong, I was right and next week, it could be a flip-flopped. That's the way it goes.

I missed your prediction. Hindsight is 20/20 (or as Cam Newton says, "hindsight is 50:50"). The oddsmakers had it as the Texans being a slight favorite before the game so would any one of us be terribly surprised if the Texans choked the game away? First time in London, jet-lagged, the Jags used to it? As a fan, I was glad to see the Texans prove on the field that they were the better team....

I don't think Minshew is terrible. He had a bad day for sure. Not atypical for a rookie QB. I think he'll have a job in the NFL for a very long time...

The Jags offense has more talent then they’ve ever had and under Minshew they score 19 ppg. They have 1 win when the defense gives up 20. He has little to do with it when the team wins. They are built on running game and defense and can’t win when those things don’t show up. He scrambles well, has poor arm strength and poor accuracy.

Nope.

19.6 ppg (24th)

True. So?

Of course not. The QB position has little to do with a team winning.

Minshew is currently 9th among QB's with 2,285 passing yards.

The Jags are currently tied for 5th with 35 passes of 20+ yards.

From wiki:

Poor arm strength and accuracy? He had just 2 INT's until yesterday. That's not bad for a rookie. That Marrone even has to hesitate to replace him with Nick (superbowl) Foles might tell you what most people are thinking....

If you don't like him, just say so....

The only possible response to this is lol wut

We need a sarcasm emoji..... Perhaps rolleyes would've worked here

I got the sarcasm that was directed at me.

I don't think you're crazy or out of line. I just think you're as wrong as you think I am. No big deal.

Well, I actually offered some data to back up my argument. You've mostly just furnished opinion.

It's weird, I can recall off the top of my head, you criticizing opposing QB's in the past. It is as though if it's not Watson you're talking about, the opposing QB is incompetent suckage. :rolleyes: (<-- emoji for Chuck).

But, you're right. I'm done trying to change your mind.

FWIW, I'm just happy to have One-eye Watson as our QB. How many plays per week does he make running around like a barnyard chicken before he connects with a receiver and it doesn't seem to matter if he's falling down or kicked in the face (no call) or surrounded by tacklers, he's still extending the play?

I guarantee you any of the Brits who sat through all four games in London this year probably marveled more at Watson's mad dashes than anyone else they watched all year.

I honestly didn't realize you were trying to change my mind at any point. Was that legitimately what was happening? You were trying to convince me Gardner Minshew is good? That's a strange hill to die on.

Ah, perhaps "change your mind" were the wrong words. More like "debunk the spewage" works better. It's always that way with you, barrett. You make these extreme comments with no backup and then when someone responds, you derail, derail, derail.

Ya know, you're kinda bad for business. The few times we see new members post here, the first time they have a run-in with ol' barrett, we never see them again. Lucky for you, I'm a little thicker-skinned....

You may be right that I'm a jerk about the Texans. I definitely argue without much joy about a team I supposedly like. I've made a conscious effort this season on the site to post when I agree (most of the time) and not just when I disagree (the rest of the time). It obviously didn't come across. That's not good.

But you should try a little look in the mirror. I put down Walter football's take and you took it as an attack on you somehow. Then I said Minshew was no good and you took it as an attack. Then I said we simply disagree and you took it as an attack. Then you insulted me. But somehow you have built up this idea you're being attacked here. Plus two posts in a row you have gone to this idea I offer opinion and no facts, but I went to as many stats as you in this and any other argument I've ever had on this site. If anything I've always been obnoxious about using (twisting? cherry picking?) stats to fit and support my argument.

I guess I'm saying go read the posts and you'll see none of this played out like you think it did. But maybe that's mostly my fault for always being a jerk. Maybe anything I type on here is read like it's being shouted.

Okay, well, I kept telling myself that I was not going to respond to whatever was posted after my last post but you sound somewhat contrite so here goes:

1. The thing about bashing Walter's take was you posted your thoughts after the game was over. You were not incorrect, btw, about his being wrong or following the wrong path but it would have carried more weight had it been done before the game had started. As someone who starts handicapping college and pros on Friday night, all night, into Saturday, all day, all night, up till Sunday at noon with little sleep and continuously watching football, I felt the need to defend him. It's too easy to throw stones after the battle is over. I believe we actually agreed that the Texans would win, so there's that.

2. Then we derailed to Minshew. You think he's terrible, I don't think he's chopped liver. Fine, let's leave it at that.

You're fine. A good debate can be educational and stimulating. Just tone it down a bit, eh?