Don’t count on the Jacksonville Jaguars to make it easy for the Houston Texans to extend their winning streak in the series to 10.
Jaguars coach Doug Pederson was adamant on Wednesday that the 7-8 Jaguars don’t consider their Week 17 matchup with the 2-12-1 Texans to be meaningless even though Jacksonville can’t win the AFC South until next week’s showdown with the 7-8 Tennessee Titans.
“There’s never a meaningless game,” Pederson said via Adam Stites of the Jaguars Wire. “Never, ever, ever. You play to win every game. The only way I rest players is if they’re hurt and can’t go.”
Nevertheless the elements surrounding the game in Houston provide a trap game element. The Detroit Lions are the most recent team surging in the playoff hunt to get whacked by a team with an inferior record. The 5-9 Carolina Panthers thumped the 7-7 Lions — winners of their past six of seven to that point — 37-23 on the road at Bank of America Stadium.
Pederson says the Lions falling apart in Carolina was a “wakeup call for us.”
Said Pederson: “It was on the road, we were in a dome, obviously it was cold weather there in Detroit. It’s supposed to be 80 degrees in Houston. It’s an AFC South opponent, and they beat us in Week 5. We’ve got to have a great week of preparation and we understand that, and we’ve still got some unfinished business.”
The last time the Jaguars beat the Texans was on Dec. 17, 2017, in a 45-7 thrashing at TIAA Bank Field. That was also the last time the Jaguars won the AFC South.
