Jaguars' Star RB on Sunday's Loss to Texans
The Jacksonville Jaguars' played solid football for a majority of Sunday's, 24-20, loss to the Houston Texans on the road. Although, there were still several issues that plagued the team from earning its first win of the 2024 campaign.
Running back Travis Etienne was in and out of the game periodically, suffering a shoulder injury early in the contest. He was questionable at halftime but would finish the game healthy and on the field.
"It's good, just football, just football," Etienne said regarding his injury. "Just got to play through a little something at times but that's why we signed up for this."
With Etienne sidelined for a lot of the first half, running back partner, Tank Bigsby , stepped up in a big way, rushing for 90 yards on seven carries. It was Bigsby's best performance as a Jaguar in his second season in the NFL.
Leading by three, late in the third quarter, the Jaguars came up empty in prime position to take a two score lead with first and goal inside the Texans 5-yard line. No points were able to be scored as quarterback Trevor Lawrence's attempted run was stopped short of the goal line on fourth down.
That was the last time the Jaguars would knock on the door to score points and ultimately lost because of a late, fourth quarter Texans touchdown to fall behind by four. Etienne expressed his frustrations with the results of the first month of the season.
"No one likes to work all week to lose," Etienne said. "It's kind of that same feeling, kind of getting repetitive, no one like that and everyone's frustrated. But, talking about it won't help us do anything, we just have to keep working. I feel like we put a lot of great things on tape today, I feel like we just got to finish, just be a little more mentally tough. When we get in the red zone, we got to come up with points, I feel like that's been a common theme of the season and I feel that's why we are taking L's instead of W's, we just got to finish in that red zone."
Etienne praised the defensive effort, allowing 24 points to a Texans team that has a myriad of weapons at every skill position. One more score and the Jaguars had a great opportunity to upset the Texans on the road.
"Defense played lights out they had did a great job and know we just got to help them we just got to finish in the red zone and it'll be a whole different story."
Next week will present more important challenges as the Jaguars will host the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday afternoon at Everbank Stadium. If the Jaguars can keep Etienne and Bigsby fully healthy, they will have a better chance at finishing in the red zone which has been the team's kryptonite all year.
Our Jaguars on SI beat writer
