The Jacksonville Jaguars retained their top spot in the AFC South as they defeated the rival Houston Texans in Week 12, 24-21. C.J. Stroud and Co. defeated the Jags in Jacksonville in Week 3, and Trevor Lawrence got his revenge on Sunday.
They call football a game of inches, and that certainly rang true on Sunday, as Matt Ammendola's 58-yard field goal attempt, that would have tied the game at the end of the fourth quarter, hit the bottom crossbar and bounced out.
Stroud, who threw for 304 yards in the loss, surpassed Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (3,224) for the most passing yards by a rookie in the first 11 games.
Lawrence, meanwhile, put together his second straight impressive performance, completing 23 of 38 passes for 364 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Calvin Ridley caught five passes for 89 yards and a touchdown, and Christian Kirk also had 89 receiving yards on four catches.
Stroud couldn't lead a game-winning drive this week, but he turned in another great showing with two touchdowns through the air and a team-high 47 rushing yards plus another touchdown on the ground.
Nico Collins was his favorite target, as he caught seven passes for 104 yards and one touchdown.
Check back soon, as this article will be turned into a takeaways piece which dives more deeply into what went down in Houston on Sunday.
Why the Jaguars won
Jacksonville's offense ruled the day. The Jags put up 445 total yards, scored points in every single quarter, went 7 of 13 on third downs and punted just two times all game. Lawrence's 364 passing yards were four from tying his career high, and his four completions of 40-plus yards are the most in a single game in three years.
Why the Texans lost
It really felt like we were in for some more Stroud magic at the end of the game, but a couple of issues held the rookie QB back from recording his third career game-winning drive.
For one, the Texans had to use two timeouts before their final drive. Houston called one in the red zone on its first drive of the second half as the play clock winded down when the offense wasn't ready, and then the Texans had 12 men on the field on the Jaguars' punt with 3:07 left in the fourth quarter. Houston did have the two-minute warning to lean on at the end of the game, but it would have been interesting to see what the Texans could have accomplished with three timeouts AND the two-minute warning.
Secondly, Stroud took two sacks on the final drive. The second sack was more costly, as it took Houston from the 37-yard line to the 46-yard line. Ammendola's kick came from the 39-yard line, so if he had the privilege of taking it from the 37-yard line, it probably would have been successful.
Texans fans are going to be upset about the multiple questionable penalties committed by the secondary on third downs in the second half, but Houston was still in the mix at the very end.
Turning point
We were holding our breath deep into the fourth quarter. Ammendola's kick came up just short.
Play of the game
Tank Dell is a stud, and already has more receiving touchdowns than Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins had in their rookie seasons with seven. Sunday, the first-year pass catcher made a pretty incredible reception where he jumped and cleared a defender:
Check it out from this angle:
What's next
The Jaguars return home next week, and will play host to the Joe Burrow-less Cincinnati Bengals on "Monday Night Football." As for the Texans, they will remain in Houston and face Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos.