Jaguars @ Texans · Week 8

WEEK 8 · FINAL

THE READ

Jaguars edge Texans by 1

Jacksonville won 17-16 in a 1-point margin that belied the Jaguars' control of the game. Bhayshul Tuten rushed for 129 yards and 2 touchdowns on 16 carries while the Jacksonville ground game outgained Houston 147 to 101, yet C.J. Stroud kept the Texans within reach, completing 14 of 23 passes for 236 yards and 2 touchdowns despite 2 interceptions. Houston's defense generated 3 sacks and controlled the line of scrimmage, but the Texans turned the ball over twice to Jacksonville's once—a differential that shows up clearly in a team that has now built an 8-point scoring margin per game better than Houston's when adjusted for schedule strength. The Jaguars remain undefeated at 7-0; the Texans fall to 5-3.

Sierra Vaughn Analyst

THE WIDER PICTURE

Team	SRS	SOS	MARGIN	TO +/-
Jaguars	+2.7	-4.0	+6.7	+7
Texans	-1.3	-1.2	-0.1	-4

SRS is how many points a side beats an average team by once you account for who they played — beat a good team by 3 and it counts for more than beating a bad one by 20. SOS is how hard that schedule has been. Full table.

Jaguars — AFC #2 · division · 12-2 Texans — AFC #6 · 8-6 Playoff picture →

In the MVP race

#11 Brian Thomas Jr WR · Jaguars · 0.4% of the field

The whole board →

IN THE BOOTH

Ava Collins Beat reporter

Bhayshul Tuten punched in 2 touchdowns on 129 yards and the Jaguars' ground game won the point of attack — Jacksonville leaned on the run when it mattered and held off a Texans team that had to throw its way back into it.

Talia Morgan Beat reporter · replying

Jacksonville's undefeated run survives, but Houston showed enough defensive pressure—3 sacks to 1—to suggest this gap closes if they meet again. The Jags haven't had to win ugly before.

They only ever read the box score and this league's own numbers — none of them has a source, and none of them can report anything that did not happen.

C.J. Stroud

Texans

14/23, 236 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT

Bhayshul Tuten

Jaguars

16 carries, 129 yards, 2 TD

Tommy Togiai

Texans

2 sacks

THE STORY SO FAR

⭐ Malik Benson has not had a better afternoon this season.

⭐ Bhayshul Tuten has not had a better afternoon this season.

WHAT DECIDED IT

Through the air Texans 236, Jaguars 173 Texans

On the ground Jaguars 147, Texans 101 Jaguars

Total yards Texans 337, Jaguars 320 Texans

Pressure Texans 3 sacks, Jaguars 1 Texans

THE ROOM Final. The recap is below.

📺 THE WEEK 8 SHOW this game is in the week's show ▶ Watch the show

THE MATCHUP SCOUT every number below is counted from the export or read off the roster — nothing is inferred about playcalling

LEAGUE DATA counted by Madden, and arithmetic on top of it

Balanced Pass 59% · Rush 41% · 30.0 scored, 23.3 allowed

8.8 yds/att 54.3% completions 5.1 yds/carry 349.7 yds/game 1.4 giveaways/game 9.0% sack rate last 5: 4-1

Primary weapon: Brian Thomas Jr WR — 38% of the receiving yards · DEPENDENCY HIGH

SAPPHIRE METRICS QB efficiency 58 · Aggressive Balance 91 Ball security 62 Back usage 33% QB runs 4.0/game

Most exposed: pressure -- sacked on 9.0% of dropbacks

PERSONNEL off the roster — unit averages, best starters only

QB 88 WR 84 TE 83 RB 87 OL 80 DL 88 LB 83 DB 89

Best: Travis Hunter CB 94 Fastest: Brian Thomas Jr WR 97 SPD 5 at star dev or better

YOUR NOTEBOOK what you wrote about them — private, and never a Sapphire statistic

HOW THEY PLAY the man, not the franchise — only weeks the record attributes to him, this season

Lor_mn

Texans · his last 8 games

Balanced Gives it away One target

Pass / run58% / 42% Points for / against20.6 — 23.4 Margin-2.8 Giveaways a game2.0 Sacks taken5.5% of dropbacks Lead backMark Fletcher Jr · 10.2/g Top targetNico Collins · 38% QB carries1.2 a game

Tone

Jaguars · his last 8 games

Balanced

Pass / run56% / 44% Points for / against23.0 — 22.5 Margin+0.5 Giveaways a game1.1 Sacks taken8.7% of dropbacks Lead backBhayshul Tuten · 11.6/g Top targetBrian Thomas Jr · 31% QB carries4.6 a game

Counted from the weeks each man actually held his team — so a franchise that changed hands is not credited to whoever has it now. Nothing above is a playcall: the export does not carry those, and neither does this.

THE SERIES Tone against Lor_mn — the men, not the teams

Tone leads it 2-0. Tone has won 2 straight.

2 meetings avg 29.0 — 25.0 biggest: 7 pts to Tone

S2 · week 8 Tone 17 — 16 Lor_mn TONE

S2 · week 3 Tone 41 — 34 Lor_mn TONE

Only meetings Sapphire can attribute to both men are counted — a Madden export never says who owned a team last season, so the series starts where the record does.

MATCHUP ADVANTAGES unit averages against each other — inside three points is a push

Jaguars receivers vs Texans secondary 84 v 91 TEXANS

Texans receivers vs Jaguars secondary 88 v 89 EVEN

Jaguars line vs Texans front 80 v 86 TEXANS

Texans line vs Jaguars front 84 v 88 JAGUARS

Jaguars backs vs Texans run defence 87 v 84 JAGUARS

Texans backs vs Jaguars run defence 82 v 86 JAGUARS

Jaguars passer vs Texans secondary 88 v 91 TEXANS

Texans passer vs Jaguars secondary 89 v 89 EVEN

TOP PERFORMERS

C.J. Stroud QB Texans 236 pass yds

Dante Moore QB Jaguars 173 pass yds

Bhayshul Tuten HB Jaguars 129 rush yds

Malik Benson WR Texans 96 rec yds

Brian Thomas Jr WR Jaguars 77 rec yds

Mark Fletcher Jr HB Texans 67 rush yds

Dalton Schultz TE Texans 54 rec yds

Tank Dell WR Texans 50 rec yds

Tommy Togiai DT Texans 2 sacks

Jalen Pitre SS Texans 1 INTs

🎬 The Game Recap
this game as an episode -- the score, the stars, the numbers that decided it -- and a video you can post ›

BOX SCORE

JAGUARS

PLAYER	C/ATT	YDS	TD	INT	SCK	LNG	RTG
Dante Moore QB	11/19	173	0	1	3	50	66.3

TEXANS

PLAYER	C/ATT	YDS	TD	INT	SCK	LNG	RTG
C.J. Stroud QB	14/23	236	2	2	1	73	88.3

JAGUARS

PLAYER	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	BTK	YAC	LNG	FUM
Bhayshul Tuten HB	16	129	8.1	2	2	74	54	0
Dante Moore QB	4	18	4.5	0	0	7	8	0

TEXANS

PLAYER	CAR	YDS	AVG	BTK	YAC	LNG
Mark Fletcher Jr HB	15	67	4.5	1	23	11
C.J. Stroud QB	1	15	15	0	-1	15
Foster Moreau TE	1	12	12	0	3	12
Woody Marks HB	1	7	7	0	0	7
Jaylin Noel WR	0	0	0	3	0	0
Dalton Schultz TE	0	0	0	1	0	0
Nico Collins WR	0	0	0	1	0	0

JAGUARS

PLAYER	REC	YDS	AVG	YAC	LNG
Brian Thomas Jr WR	2	77	38.5	8	50
Bhayshul Tuten HB	3	30	10	27	16
Nate Boerkircher TE	1	7	7	2	7
LeQuint Allen Jr HB	1	6	6	2	6
Brenton Strange TE	1	2	2	1	2

TEXANS

PLAYER	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	YAC	LNG
Malik Benson WR	3	96	32	1	26	73
Dalton Schultz TE	3	54	18	0	33	31
Tank Dell WR	3	50	16.7	1	6	30
Nico Collins WR	3	26	8.7	0	4	15
Marlin Klein TE	2	10	5	0	1	6

JAGUARS

PLAYER	TKL	SCK	INT	PD
Jarrian Jones CB	4	0	0	0
Foyesade Oluokun MIKE	3	0	1	1
Jourdan Lewis CB	2	0	0	0
Caleb Ransaw FS	2	0	0	0
Whit Weeks MIKE	1	0	0	0
Jalen Huskey FS	1	0	1	0
Antonio Johnson SS	1	0	0	1
Ruke Orhorhoro DT	1	0.5	0	0
Travis Hunter CB	1	0	0	0
Josh Hines-Allen REDG	0	0.5	0	0

TEXANS

PLAYER	TKL	SCK	INT	PD
Will Anderson Jr LEDG	3	0	0	0
Calen Bullock FS	3	0	0	2
Azeez Al-Shaair SAM	3	0	0	0
Nehemiah Pritchett CB	3	0	0	0
Kayden McDonald DT	2	1	0	0
Jalen Pitre SS	2	0	1	1
Tommy Togiai DT	2	2	0	0
Reed Blankenship SS	1	0	0	0
Brice Pollock CB	1	0	0	0
Derek Stingley Jr CB	1	0	0	0
Jermaine Johnson II REDG	1	0	0	0
Kamari Ramsey FS	1	0	0	1

JAGUARS

PLAYER	FG	XP	LNG
Cam Little K	1/1	2/2	60

TEXANS

PLAYER	FG	XP	LNG
Ka'imi Fairbairn K	1/2	1/2	45

RECENT FORM

Jaguars

W 42–10 vs Chargers WK 6

W 34–14 vs Falcons WK 5

W 31–23 vs Titans WK 4

Texans

W 34–31 vs Panthers WK 7

W 30–24 vs Falcons WK 6

W 52–42 vs Dolphins WK 5

TEAM STATS

Jaguars		Texans
320	TOTAL YARDS	337
173	PASSING YARDS	236
147	RUSHING YARDS	101
3	SACKS ALLOWED	1
1	SACKS MADE	3
1	GIVEAWAYS	2
2	TAKEAWAYS	1

Bold is the side that won that line. Giveaways come off a team's own offensive rows and takeaways off its own defensive rows — two separate payloads, so they need not tie out against each other.

ALL-TIME HEAD-TO-HEAD

2 JAGUARS — 0 TEXANS

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