The Texans defense turned in a suffocating effort on Sunday against Jacksonville.
The Jaguars managed just 150 yards of offense. Only three other times have the Texans held an opponent to less in franchise history.
"We just kept fighting," cornerback A.J. Bouye said. "One thing that Coach (O'Brien) told us was that we were going to face adversity and that's what happened today."
Bouye and company were on their heels twice in the first half after a pair of Texans interceptions, but the Jaguars mustered just 10 points off drives that began on Houston's side of the field. Jacksonville found the end zone at the 8:32 mark of the second quarter, when Blake Bortles got in for a 2-yard touchdown run to make it 13-0.
After that, though, the Jaguars next eight offensive possessions ended in a safety, the end of the half, punt, punt, punt, punt, downs and an interception.
"None of us panicked," defensive end Jadeveon Clowney said. "I don't think anybody hit the panic button on our sideline. Defense, we already knew what we had to do."
And the offense took notice.
"Defense did a good job," wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins said. "Clowney, Rob Nelson for a guy that hadn't played a lot of football, came out and made some plays out there. There's a lot you can play about that defense. They made plays when we needed it."
Houston was without starters in cornerback Johnathan Joseph, and outside linebackers Whitney Mercilus and John Simon. But that didn't matter.
"We have a lot of great players, so it really wasn't too tough," linebacker Benardrick McKinney said. John and Whit are great pass rushers, they can stop the run, but we had a lot of guys come in, step in and they did their job."
The Texans defense held Jacksonville to 83 passing yards and 3-of-13 on third down.
Check out the best photos of the Texans as they take on the Jaguars at NRG Stadium.
