The Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars are both eager to put last week’s heavy losses behind them as they face off in Houston on Sunday.
Houston began the season with two wins but suffered a 34-7 defeat against Minnesota in Week 3. The Jaguars are in a tougher situation, still without a win and coming off a rough 47-10 loss to Buffalo on Monday night.
“Look, there’s going to be adversity in this league, you’re going to be faced with it year-in and year-out,” Jacksonville coach Doug Pederson said. “But it’s how you bounce back from it, fight through it.”
Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, who threw his first two interceptions of the season last week, emphasized the need to learn from the defeat against the Vikings and not let the negative feelings linger.
“Don’t let one game define who we are,” he said. “It is early in the year; we are still a really, really good football team, and we are going to go out there and prove that.
We have to learn from our mistakes but also, we can’t hold our head down and not learn from it and just start soaking in our own sorrow. So still keep the swag.”
Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence has lost eight straight starts and has only thrown two touchdown passes this season. However, he had success in his last game against Houston, winning 24-21 on November 26.
He remains hopeful that the team can turn things around despite the rough start.
“Obviously we’re frustrated, and the game the other night was just a disaster on pretty much every level,” he said. “But we still have the confidence in our group, our coaches, our team. That’s not going to change and that can’t change. I think that’s when you have problems, when you lose that confidence and start pointing fingers, and there’s been none of that.”
