This Sunday morning, Wembley Stadium will play host to an AFC South battle between the Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars for the first time since the 2019-2020 season. In that game, Houston blew out then-Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew and co. by a score of 26-3, which was punctuated by a 17-0 boat race in the second half by the Texans.
This time around, the "visiting" team in the Texans faceoff against the 4-1 Jaguars and quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who just defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in the same stadium this past week due to one of the most egregious special teams failures of the 2026 season (and that's saying something). Houston comes in fresh off of a week five 26-3 blowout of the Tennessee Titans, in which it seemed like the team had finally begun to find its collective rhythm again (if only for one day). Additionally, the Texans might also be coming equipped with a brand-new toy in former Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.
Bells and whistles aside, Houston needs this game at the moment more than Jacksonville does. However, desire by itself doesn't win football games. Thus, here are four boxes that the Texans must check if they want to walk out of London, England with their second win of the 2026 campaign.
Four things that the Houston Texans must do to defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars in week six
1. Take advantage of the absence of left tackle Anton Harrison (knee surgery)
News broke on Tuesday morning that Jaguars left tackle Anton Harrison will be lost for an undetermined amount of time due to a major knee injury sustained in Jacksonville's aforementioned contest against the Eagles the week prior. This is major, as Jacksonville is currently tied with five other teams for the ninth-fewest sacks allowed with 10, and Harrison's departure could see an inflation of that number in short order.
This would be due to the Texans' second-best-in-the-NFL sack-generating defensive line (18) who currently employs an NFL Defensive Player of the Year favorite in defensive end Will Anderson Jr. who leads the league in both sacks (7.5) and tackles for loss (12). For Houston to come out with a resounding victory this weekend, it's going to start by creating havoc at the line of scrimmage.
2. Eliminate Parker Washington from the game
Jaguars breakout wide receiver Parker Washington currently has the fourth-most receiving yards in the AFC with 352 through five games, while also being tied with three other pass catchers for the most touchdown receptions in the conference with four. If you're head coach DeMeco Ryans, wiping out Washington should be priority #1 for cornerbacks Derek Stingley Jr. and Kamari Lassiter in coverage.
Houston's secondary had arguably its best game of the year against Tennessee this past Sunday, holding quarterback Cam Ward to only 170 passing yards, which included not allowing a single receiver to accumulate over 60 yards. This is especially considering the job done against the Titans' #1 receiving option in fourth-overall pick Carnell Tate, who was smothered to the tune of only one catch for six yards (after he went ballistic for over 140 yards against the Philadelphia Eagles the week before).
If they can contain Washington like they did Tate, Houston will have a much easier day at the office.
3. Don't play call your way into getting embarrassed by Jacksonville's league-best run defense
Texans offensive coordinator Nick Caley has taken more than his fair share of criticism for perceived warts in his game planning throughout his 24 total games (regular + post) at the position. This season in particular, one of the most specific—and highly-consistent—complaints about his scheme has been his tendency to force run plays into the teeth of antsy defenders at the line of scrimmage in "gotta have it" moments.
The most glaring examples being against both the Cincinnati Bengals and Indianapolis Colts in back-to-back weeks (weeks two and three), where Caley botched the same exact 4th & inches situation by hammering running back David Montgomery into either defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence (Bengals) or defensive tackle DeForest Buckner (Colts) on doomed-from-the-start play designs.
All that to say this: The Jaguars are not the team to mess around with when it comes to poorly-constructed rushing attacks, considering they currrently own the best ranking in the league at stopping the run at 63.8 yards allowed per game. If that's not a Batman signal to Caley to avoid as many ill-conceived run calls on Sunday morning as he can, then I don't know what will be.
4. Ride the hot hand of C.J. Stroud against the Jaguars' porous pass defense
C.J. Stroud has the fourth-most passing yards in the NFL through five weeks of play with 1,402. Likewise, the Jaguars currently have the third-worst passing defense in the league at 266.2 yards allowed. Of course Jacksonville will be expecting Stroud to be aggressive early and often, but that shouldn't stop Caley and Stroud from being willing to attack their defense as decisively as they can.
Especially with the addition of Harrison Jr. as a potential game-changer in the offense, Stroud and his unit could potentially keep the pressure on Jacksonville's secondary all throughout the contest if done properly.
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