What in the world is happening to Jacksonville? The Jaguars crashed to their eighth consecutive defeat with a gut-wrenching 25-16 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. They simply had no answer for Sam Bradford who threw for 292 yards and a touchdown. With the loss, the Jaguars’ record is now a whopping nine games below .500.
It won’t get any easier for them this coming weekend as standing in their way are the AFC South-leading Houston Texans. Houston is sixth in the league in total defense, allowing just 316.1 yards per game this season. The pressure then is on quarterback Blake Bortles to step up his game this coming Sunday. He completed 23 of 37 passes for 257 yards and a touchdown in the loss to the Vikings. Quite encouraging for the Jags is the fact that Bortles didn’t throw a single pick in this game. Bortles has already thrown an NFL-worst 15 interceptions this campaign.
It’s also paramount for the Jaguars that they sort out their pass rush and secondary defense against the Texans. Jacksonville hasn’t had an interception since Week 4 against Indianapolis in London. The Jaguars will need to put some pressure against the struggling Brock Osweiler who has already thrown 14 picks this season. The Jaguars will look to replicate their performance against the Texans in Week 10 wherein they held Osweiler to just 99 passing yards.
The Houston Texans will head into their showdown with Jacksonville with momentum on their side after beating the Indianapolis Colts, 22-17, on Sunday. It was a morale-boosting win for the Texans, who finally snapped their three-game losing streak. With their victory against the Colts, the Texans improved their season record to 7-6 as they remained tied with the surging Tennessee Titans atop the AFC South standings.
The Texans will look to make it back-to-back wins when they lock horns with the reeling Jacksonville Jaguars this coming Sunday. For Houston to achieve this feat, it needs to execute much better on the offensive end. The Texans settled for just five field goals against the Colts, including twice after it took over inside the Indianapolis 20-yard line. Brock Osweiler struggled in this ballgame, completing 14 of 24 passes for 147 yards with one interception.
Regardless of that fact, the Texans will still fancy their chances against the Jaguars as they have fared extremely well against them of late. The Texans have won each of their last five games against the Jaguars, including a 24-21 thriller at EverBank Field last month. The Texans have covered the spread in four of those five outings. The Texans have dominated the AFC South in recent years, winning nine consecutive games against their division foes.
The Texans are 8-2 SU and 6-4 ATS in their last 10 home games against the Jaguars.
Writer’s Prediction
Houston (-5.5) piles more misery on Jacksonville with a 27-20 win.
