Halfway through the 2024 NFL season, the standings in the AFC South remain the same as they were after Week 1: the Houston Texans on top, followed by the Colts in second place with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans trading off sitting in last place.
But the Texans, following their 21-13 loss to the New York Jets on Thursday, don't look quite as dominant as they did at the beginning of the season, and the Titans and Jaguars both put together close, competitive games against the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles, respectively. The Titans were the only AFC South team to win in Week 9, beating the Patriots 20-17 in overtime at Nissan Stadium.
Texans' Thursday night loss to Jets a "wakeup call"
Running back Joe Mixon continued his trend of tearing opponents' run defense apart against the Jets on Thursday, with 24 carries for 109 yards and a touchdown. He now has four consecutive 100-yard games, and has also scored a touchdown in each of them. Wide receiver Tank Dell also had a career night with 126 receiving yards to put him at over 1,000 career receiving yards. But on the whole, quarterback C.J. Stroud missed wide receivers Stefon Diggs and Nico Collins and his offensive line didn't do him many favors.
Stroud completed just 11-of-30 passes for 191 yards. He was sacked eight times and the Jets combined for 11 quarterback hits.
The Texans took a 7-0 lead into halftime, but were able to only score two field goals in the second half. Kicker Kaimi Fairbairn missed a 56-yard field goal in the second quarter and a 27-yard field goal in the fourth quarter.
The Jets defense was also able to limit Stroud to just 76 passing yards in the second half.
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, after completing just seven passes for 32 yards in the first half, completed 15 passes for 179 yards and three touchdowns on consecutive drives.
With the 21-13 loss, the Texans are now 6-3 on the season.
"It's not time to hang our head down and feel sorry for ourselves," Stroud said. "It's time to answer the call. We got guys in that locker room that I believe in and I trust in."
"We're going to be able to be a really good football team and it doesn't define us," the second-year quarterback added. "But it definitely is a wakeup call."
The Texans next face the Detroit Lions (7-1) at NRG Stadium Sunday night.
Titans play "long enough, hard enough" to beat Patriots in OT
The Titans almost didn't need overtime. With eight seconds left on the clock in the fourth quarter, they led the Patriots 17-10 and forced quarterback Drake Maye to throw an incomplete pass. Maye would have time for one more play to try to get the ball in the end zone and tie the game.
The Titans defense forced Maye to scramble out of the pocket and hold on to the ball for a total of 11.82 seconds before he fired it into the endzone for a touchdown. Then, Tennessee was back at square one.
But whereas they might have crumbled in previous games – they gave up 34 unanswered points to the Buffalo Bills two weeks ago and 38 unanswered points to the Detroit Lions in Week 8 – the Titans didn't back down.
"I just told the guys before we went out: Mental toughness right here, that's all that counts," quarterback Mason Rudolph, starting for the third straight week in place of an injured Will Levis, said postgame. "(I told them): 'We're going to overcome this, and we're going to do it together. Forget everything that happened.' And that's hard to do as human beings. But I thought we all went out there with one goal in mind...I couldn't be prouder of the guys."
Kicker Nick Folk hit a 25-yard field goal in overtime after the Titans won the toss, and an interception by safety Amani Hooker secured the 20-17 win.
"What a definition of what we want our football team to look like and play like when things get tight," head coach Brian Callahan said. "A tremendous amount of resilience. I'm proud of those guys, and I love what we're made of in the locker room. We finally played long enough, hard enough and well enough to put ourselves in a position to win the game."
The Titans played complementary football and controlled much of the game, holding the ball for 38 minutes and 44 seconds and outgaining the Patriots in total yards, 400-295. Rudolph completed 20-of-33 passes for 240 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. On the defensive side of the ball, the Titans had four sacks, nine quarterback hits, eight tackles for a loss and two interceptions.
"It's huge to win," wide receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine said. "We felt like we had the game, should have won it (in regulation), it didn't happen but it didn't matter. I feel like it was huge for us to have a game like that where we were able to fight through it, and show some resiliency."
Jaguars unable to mount complete comeback against Eagles
The Jacksonville Jaguars gave up 22 straight points to the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, unable to put any points of their own on the board until 5:26 remained in the third quarter. But despite three touchdowns – two of which were followed by successful two-point conversion attempts – the Jaguars couldn't pull out a crucial road victory.
"We just have to improve," head coach Doug Pederson said after the 28-23 loss.
Jacksonville got off to slow start that put them at a disadvantage for the whole game, forced to play catch-up after quarterback Trevor Lawrence completed only four-of-10 passes for 23 yards in the first half and the Jaguars offense rushed for just 15 yards on seven carries.
"We'll look at everything, and it has been an issue," Lawrence said. "It's something we have to fix. We didn't do anything in the first half for one reason or another. We have to improve there. We gave ourselves a chance to come back and win the game, but we had to have a lot of plays go our way. We put ourselves in a tough spot. We shouldn't have to do that every week."
"It puts our defense in a terrible situation: time of possession, yards," center Mitch Morse said. "We'll take a good hard look at it. I wish I had all the answers today. I don't."
The Eagles had 447 total yards to the Jaguars' 215; Philadelphia rushed for 237 yards as running back Saquon Barkley had 27 carries for 159 yards. However, the Jaguars defense still had some standout moments as they had three sacks, three quarterback hits and six tackles for a loss.
"We're 2-7, and there's no quit in us," Lawrence said. "We're fighting every week. We're giving ourselves a shot. It all comes down to the end and we're just not finishing the games. That's what's tough now. I felt like if I do some things better, we win the game. That's tough to swallow, but I have to take accountability for that."
