Jaguars' report card from Texans game: Offense, defense, special teams, coaching all get Fs

Times-Union sports columnist Gene Frenette grades the Jacksonville Jaguars’ performance against the Houston Texans based on execution, effort and game circumstances.

Offense: F

It doesn’t matter how respectable Trevor Lawrence’s numbers (27 of 40, 279 yards, 1 TD) ended up, the offense couldn’t make a play when it mattered and failed to take advantage of an injury-riddled Houston secondary. The tone was set in a terrible first half when the offense was held scoreless and never got inside the Houston 30.

A bad trend started when Calvin Ridley had a deep ball from Lawrence go right through both hands in the end zone on the Jaguars’ third play from scrimmage. Later in the first half, he would drop another slant pass and commit two false start penalties.

One play that was a microcosm of a bad day came when Lawrence’s feet got tangled up on a handoff to Travis Etienne, stopping him short of first down on third-and-2. The deepest Jaguars’ penetration came when receiver Jamal Agnew caught a pass, then took a hit from safety Eric Murray at the Texans’ 29 and fumbled the ball away, which set up a Ka’imi Fairbairn field goal at the halftime gun.

The first-half possessions went missed field goal, punt, blocked field goal, punt and fumble. Except for a 26-yard TD pass to a wide open Christian Kirk, the offense looked every bit as shaky as last year when the Jaguars stumbled 13-6 at home against Houston.

Defense: F

Despite the Texans’ offensive line being decimated by injuries, it found a way to protect quarterback C.J. Stroud, permitting no sacks and allowing him to complete 14 of 21 passes for 162 yards in the first half.

A 46-yard bomb to Tank Dell, who beat the double coverage of Tyson Campbell and Rayshawn Jenkins, set up the Texans’ first touchdown. While the special-teams mishaps were the biggest culprit in this Houston rout, the defense gave up too many big plays to even remotely stay in contention.

The biggest downer was not being able to put any significant pressure on Stroud, who had been sacked an NFL-high 11 times in the first two games. An all-out blitz late in the game resulted in a wide open Dell catching a 68-yard TD pass, allowing him to jog the last 20 yards to the end zone.

The Texans converted 9 of 15 third-down chances, another sign of how listless Mike Caldwell’s defense played from start to finish.

Special teams: F

Normally the Jaguars’ most consistently reliable unit, special teams had one of the worst days in franchise history with two huge gaffes that led to game-altering touchdowns.

The first momentum flip happened when Brandon McManus’ 51-yard field goal attempt was blocked by Will Anderson, who came up the middle and easily got both hands on the ball. It gave Houston possession at the Jaguars’ 41. That blunder set up the second Texans’ touchdown, a 4-yard pass to TE Brevin Jordan.

So instead of potentially cutting the lead to 7-3, the Jaguars trailed 14-0. The next breakdown happened on a kickoff right after the Jaguars cut the lead to 17-10 and had all the momentum. A designed short kickoff was fielded by fullback Andrew Beck, who had the ball inadvertently jarred loose by teammate Mike Boone.

Still, Boone picked it up at the 14, then got into the open field on the right side. Daniel Thomas, Caleb Johnson, Jacob Harris, Tre Herndon, McManus and D’Ernest Johnson all had tackle opportunities and couldn’t get Beck on the ground. That total lack of discipline, leaving an entire side of the field wide open, was the defining play of a nightmare day.

McManus got special teams off on the wrong foot when he pushed a 48-yard field goal wide right on the Jaguars’ first possession.

Coaching: F

It’s impossible to find one thing that anybody on the coaching staff did right. This will go down as the most disappointing loss since the Jaguars lost the 2017 AFC Championship game to the New England Patriots when they blew a 10-point lead in the last 12 minutes, but at least Jacksonville performed admirably and was in that game the entire way.

For whatever reason, the Jaguars got off to a ho-hum start and it just kept going south from there. What makes this loss so disheartening, other than it came at home against an AFC South rival, is the Texans had major injury issues along the offensive line and their secondary.

It’s inexcusable that Doug Pederson’s team didn’t win this game by a comfortable double-digit margin. Instead, they got smoked in the September heat and gave a fan base legitimately galvanized by a promising 2023 season to hit the brakes.

Yes, it’s only Week 3 and this team did win the division last year after trailing by four games with seven weeks remaining. But this disaster does raise red flags about whether the expectations for this year might have been set too high by fans, media and many in the NFL world.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Gene Frenette gives Jaguars all Fs in 37-17 loss to Houston Texans