Jaguars lament missed opportunities after 24-20 loss to Texans leaves them winless

AP Sports Writer

HOUSTON (AP) — The Jacksonville Jaguars were up by three late in the third quarter Sunday with a chance to pad the lead after a 58-yard run by Tank Bigsby gave them a first down at the Houston 4.

But instead of a score, the Jaguars came up with a goose egg and the Texans rallied for a 24-20 victory to leave Jacksonville (0-4) winless.

After Bigsby’s run put them in scoring position, he had carries on the next two plays that got them to the 2. Trevor Lawrence then threw an incomplete pass intended for Gabe Davis to bring up fourth down.

Jacksonville went for it, but Lawrence was stuffed for no gain on the first play of the fourth quarter.

“Coach puts it in our hands, so we got to figure it out and make the play,” Lawrence said. “We had the opportunity. I felt like we had some good looks down there to do more with it and we weren’t able to capitalize.”

Coach Doug Pederson declined to discuss the play.

“It’s a moot point,” he said. “It doesn’t matter now, so I’m not going to talk about it.”

Lawrence threw for 169 yards and two touchdowns as his streak of consecutive starts without a win stretched to nine games.

The Jaguars fell to 0-4 for the first time since opening the 2021 season with five straight losses. Tennessee is the NFL’s only other winless team, bringing an 0-3 record into a Monday night matchup against Miami.

“No one likes to work all week to lose,” running back Travis Etienne said. “It’s kind of that same feeling, it’s kind of getting repetitive. No one likes that. Everyone’s frustrated but man, talking about it won’t help us. We just have to keep working… we just have to finish.”

Pederson seemed caught off-guard when he was asked if he’s worried about his job status after the dismal start.

“My status? I mean, no,” he said. “That’s kind of a strange question, but OK.”

Though the goal line gaffe was their biggest missed opportunity Sunday, the Jaguars had other chances to close this one out after getting blown out by the Bills on Monday.

Lawrence brought up the team’s missed chances nine different times in his postgame comments.

“We had a lot of opportunities, run game and throwing the ball down the field,” he said. “Didn’t capitalize on all of them, unfortunately, and that’s kind of why we’re here now and didn’t win the game in my opinion, because we didn’t take advantage of some of those opportunities.”

Christian Kirk put the Jaguars up 20-17 with an 8-yard TD grab with about six minutes left in the third quarter. Brian Thomas powered that drive with a 32-yard reception and a 13-yard run.

After stopping the Texans to get the ball back, Derek Stingley knocked down Lawrence’s pass to force a punt with about six minutes left.

Jacksonville’s defense stopped Houston again after that, but the Jaguars managed just three plays before punting and ate less than a minute of the clock to give the Texans one last chance.

C.J. Stroud then put together a nine-play, 69-yard drive, capped by a 1-yard pass to Dare Ogunbowale with 18 seconds left, to give Houston the win.

Etienne said the Jaguars must look forward instead of worrying about what’s already happened.

“How can we be better next week? That’s the question I feel like we should be asking ourselves,” he said. “How can we be our best selves? How can we go 1-0 next week? Dwelling on how we got 0-4 or losing those games is not going to get us over the hump to win one game.”

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