Official Texans @ Jaguars Game Thread, 10/21/2018
 

The 3-3 Texans head over to Jacksonville to play the 3-3 Jaguars in an early game Sunday. The Texans are coming off a 20-13 win over the Bills, the Jags are coming off a 40-7 loss to the Cowboys. The Jags have wins over the Giants, Pats and Jets - losses to the Titans, Chiefs and Cowboys. The Jags are somewhat beat up and Bortles has been running hot and cold, however, the Texans have issues on offense. A pivotal game for control of the AFCS. The Texans have a TNF game vs. Miami following this matchup - it is @home so that should help somewhat....

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TV = CBS (channel 11 local), noon CST, Sunday, 10-21-2018

Announcers = Andrew Catalon, James Lofton (same crew as last week)

The line = Jags by 5 to 5½

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Other Sunday viewing in the Houston area:

CBS (late) = Dallas @ Washington, Jim Nantz, Tony Romo

FOX (late) = New Orleans @ Baltimore, Chris Myers, Daryl Johnston

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National/Prime time games:

TNF = Denver @ Arizona (FOX/NFLN)

Sunday morning = Tennessee vs LA Chargers (London) (8:30 AM CST, CBS)

SNF = Cincinnati @ Kansas City (NBC)

MNF = NY Giants @ Atlanta (ESPN)

Some of the people I respect in handicapping don't give the Texans much chance today including Sean Pendergast:

On the other hand, there's been a significant change in the point spread meaning some big money is coming in on the Texans - Once 5 to 5½, Jax is now favored by 3½ to 4. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.....

Bortles fumbles, Texans recover but can't move the ball much. Settle for 44-yard Fairbairn FG.

Texans 3, Jags 0

10:22 left in the 1st qtr.

Fairbairn hits a 47-yarder.

Texans 6, Jags 0

4:13 left in the 1st qtr.

L Miller with the rare red zone rushing TD. 5 yards.

Texans 13, Jags 0

5:31 left in the half.

Score remains 13-0 in favor of the Texans at halftime.

After another Bortles fumble (Texans recover), Watson hits Dhop for a 10-yard TD.

Texans 20, Jags 0

10:50 left in the 3rd qtr.

Kessler leads the Jags to a score - a 6 yard TD pass to Yeldon.

Texans 20, Jags 7

2:18 left in the 3rd qtr.

Texans win a game by 13 points. Say hello to the 1st place Houston Texans.

Final score:

Texans 20, Jags 7

That's right. Another Sunday, another victory for our AFC South first place Houston Texans.
Yea fans like the Chuckster sitting at home right now saying this is getting so monotonous, Sunday after Sunday all they do is win.

Haha. Man, the season was just about over in September. They are relevant, again.... Really sucks when you know you're irrelevant. Much better for fans to have a relevant team rather than an irrelevant team....

You are for sure right about that Arky. And much better when we have something to play for which as division leaders we sure do.

Schedule still sets up nicely as well. Short week coming, but at least it is a home game. Dolphins coming to town after a loss and with a backup QB who may or may not be rattled coming back to Houston. Next game is at Denver, but with a 10-day break beforehand.

Following a much-needed bye, there's 4 of 7 at home. The looming road game is at Philly in December, but non-conference. Regardless, in spite of a road loss at the Titans, the division seems winnable so long as the OL can keep Watson's lungs inflated.

Hey man give it up for that OLine - they held the mighty Jags D to one sack this afternoon at their place and their RB got 100 yards rushing.

Early line has the Texans as a 7 to 7½ pt favorite over the Dolphins on Thursday..... that's a lot, hope they (oddsmakers) are right......

Great win. That's exactly how you play a team who can't score on offense. Kick your FGs and capitalize in the redzone. That offense can't score 20 without help and we did a great job not giving help. Watson didn't make a ton of highlight plays but he protected the ball from a very tough group. Great growth from him.

Also the Texans handling of the QB position was embarrassing between Schaub and Watson. But the Jags have been far worse managing their QB position.
They probably wish they had Osweiller, Mallett, and Fitzpatrick. Or maybe they don't. Maybe they believe in Blake Bortles as much as the $54 million extension they gave him this offseason.

Seriously how can you be the worst regular starting QB in the NFL for 4 years and get a $19 million 5th year option followed by the extension? That's $73 million for 4 years for a guy you could replace with a street FA tomorrow and not lose anything. The front office over there has just tripled down on their biggest mistake. At least our guys were smart enough to move on from our screw up.

Also the NFL schedule is the ultimate reward for failure. If you play in the AFC South you already have an easy schedule. Then if you get last place you get the last place schedule. No other sport openly manipulates the schedule to benefit last place teams. In every other sport you play the same schedule as who you compete against in the division. The NFL artificially creates turn around teams like the 2017 Jags and fans eat it up.

I'm not sure how I got brought into any of this but in the NFL a win is a win. This isn't college where some asshole somewhere is trying to decide which win is prettier or more meaningful or whatever. If you end up winning the worst division in the NFL, whichever one that may be, you go to the playoffs. Period. I've been watching football a long time and I eventually concluded that making the playoffs is an important first step towards Super Bowl success.

The Texans clearly are not a Super Bowl team right now and almost certainly will not grow into one this year. But I would much rather be trying to make the playoffs and see what happens (you get your ass kicked by the Chargers in the first round is what happens, probably) than be talking about what we're going to do with our picks. I just double-checked, and it appears that for some reason the Texans are currently in possession of a 2019 first round pick. (I'll share a little joke I heard that most of you may also have seen - the Raiders are eventually going to accumulate enough first round picks to be able to trade for Khalil Mack.)

Which brings me to the quarterback fkwittery of the Jaguars. Astonishing, I think is about the only word necessary. When they brought that other guy in the other day, I don't even remember what the hell his name is or where he came from or even if he actually is a quarterback, but the team immediately looked better and was obviously less likely to turn the ball over at inopportune times. And they gave Bortles 800 million dollars. Astonishing.

I guess my over-arching point is that despite all of the familiar flaws and problems, the Texans are not that far away from being able to think about a Super Bowl without being laughed out of the room. OL, CB, maybe get lucky with a late round DL, OLB, RB, then put the pads on and go out and see if you can find a way to keep up with KC.

It's a bit of a drag to see Deshaun go from magical last year to pedestrian this year, but as has been mentioned, if he can learn how to play the NFL position, that is a huge step forward, a crucial step forward. I think that may be what impresses me most about Mahomes, is that he seems to understand that while, sure, he can run, it is best not to. He has a far more nuanced understanding of what he should be doing than someone in his second year should.

In college Mahomes ran for 800 yards in 3 seasons. Watson ran for 2000 in 3 seasons. Mahomes didn't have to learn he can't run because running was never a huge part of his game. It was for Watson.

With that said, Watson is great at keeping his eyes down field and looking to throw when he scrambles. His problems are...

(1) what happens in the first 3 seconds after the snap. This is new this year and may be about how much pressure he's faced both years. He is taking the snap and immediately looking to scramble the play. There isn't even an attempt most times to get it out on time. He wants the off schedule play.

(2) His willingness to take hits. He needs to pattern himself after Russell Wilson or Aaron Rodgers. Both guys run around and then slide/step out of bounds/throw it away at the last second. Because of this defenders chase them for 40 yards of scrambling and never get a hit in. It must be the most frustrating thing ever. Watson needs to do this. Instead he models after Cam Newton and tries to run guys over and be tough. Cam Newton was described today as a fast dinosaur by an opposing defender he's about to face. Nobody relishes hitting Cam because he's HUGE. Defenders relish hitting Watson. The hits on scrambles are why he can't get in an airplane right now. Our OL is bad but hits in the pocket aren't killing him. Lowering his shoulder for no reason is killing him.

These are 2 relatively small things that are not unexpected for a guy who has played 13 NFL games. And these problems are offset by otherworldly talent so I remain optimistic about the present and pie in the sky optimistic about the future.