Houston Texans: Reactions from Week 9 win over Jaguars

The Houston Texans won in Week 9 as they enter their bye week, gaining a solid 26-3 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, England.

The Houston Texans are now 6-3 overall, and with the Week 9 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars by a 26-3 score, they are three games over the .500 mark as they enter their bye week. The win also gives the Texans the season sweep over the Jaguars.

How did the Texans gain their sixth win of the season, in a game played at Wimbley Stadium? For starters there is always the play of starting quarterback Deshaun Watson as the Texans will go as far as he can take them. So far this season he continues doing great things for this franchise.

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Against the Jaguars on Sunday, Watson was 22-of-28 for 201 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also carried the football seven times for 37 yards, averaging 5.3 yards per carry.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Watson is one of the very best quarterbacks in the entire NFL, and for that he deserves great praise for his play each and every week he’s on the field.

Sunday the Texans were missing their left tackle Laremy Tunsil due to injury, and Watson and the rest of the offense overcame not having Tunsil on the field, as he’s such a difference maker for the franchise.

Another standout for the Texans was running back Carlos Hyde. Hyde rushed for 160 yards on 19 carries, but had no touchdowns. One negative to his play against the Jaguars was he did fumble and lose possession, but that happens sometimes.

Another running back stood out as well, and that was Duke Johnson who had seven carries for 13 yards and one touchdown, but he also collected five receptions for 68 yards, catching all five targets. The Texans are fortunate to have the running back duo this season.

With DeAndre Hopkins and Darren Fells also having touchdown receptions, the Texans took advantage of the secondary of the Jaguars, and without Jalen Ramsey in their secondary, the Jaguars had a different look to their team. That said, they once again, kept Hopkins to under 100 yards receiving, in fact they held him to 48 yards on eight receptions (11 targets), but he did have a touchdown.

Going into this game there were questions for this defense with this being the first game without J.J. Watt in the lineup as he’s out for the season with a torn pectoral, but they played well in Week 9.

Props must be given to the defense of the Texans with two interceptions of Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew, plus they also held the rookie QB to no touchdown passes, as he also rushed for 34 yards on four carries. The Texans also had two fumble recoveries with Zach Cunningham and Dylan Cole having those, while Jake Martin had a forced fumble.

The interceptions by Jahleel Addae and Justin Reid were huge for this defense, and the same defense also had seven passes defensed, which are big for any defense, but especially for a defense that needed a pick me up. Houston’s pass rush was fine for this week with the unit having four sacks of Minshew, as Brennan Scarlett had two sacks, while Briean Boddy-Calhoun and Carlos Watkins each had one sack.

This game was a good way for the Texans to go into their by week with not only a winning record, but gaining a solid road win as well.

Watson is playing some of his very best football this season, the offensive line is better than it has been in the past, and now if the defense can overcome not having Watt from here on out, the Texans will be a dangerous team to watch moving forward. Enjoy the win Texans fans.