Jaguars come up one foot short of first win

Houston quarterback DeShawn Watson looks to gain yardage against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. (AP Photo)

By Mark Blumenthal

One foot short.

The Jacksonville Jaguars came that close to winning their first game of the season on Sunday.

Instead of going for the tying extra-point kick with 30 seconds left to go after quarterback Gardner Minshew III found D.J. Chark in the end zone for a 4-yard touchdown pass, Jaguars coach Doug Marrone kept Minshew and the offense out on the field to try and win the game.

However, running back Leonard Fournette came up one foot short of the end zone, stopped by Houston's Justin Reid on the two-point conversion run, saving the Texans' 13-12 victory over the Jaguars in an AFC South tussle between two winless teams.

After being stymied by the Texans' defense throughout the day, the Jaguars put together a 14-play, 63-yard drive, the big play being a Minshew 18-yard scramble on fourth and 10 with the game on the line to the Texans' 13-yard line. After a Texans penalty for having 12 men on the field put the ball at the 8 after a Jaguars timeout, Minshew ran for four yards to the 4 before getting out of bounds.

On the next play, Minshew scrambled out of danger and found a wide-open Chark streaking in the end zone in front of him for the touchdown that cut the lead to a point.

Replay confirmed that Fournette came up short on the two-point conversion. Jacksonville had one more opportunity to possess the ball, but Josh Lambo's onside kickoff attempt was gobbled up by Houston's Darren Fells.

After coming in for an injured Nick Foles in last week's 40-26 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs at home and going 22-of-25 for 275 yards and two touchdown passes, Minshew had a strong starting debut against Houston, completing 23 of 33 passes for 213 yards and the touchdown toss to Chark. But Minshew was sacked four times, three being turned into forced fumbles and one of those fumbles turned into a recovery by J.J. Watt at the Jaguars' 11, caused by Whitney Mercilus, who had two of the four sacks of Minshew.

The Jaguars' defense held firm, forcing the Texans into fourth down, but on fourth down from the Jaguars' 2, Texans quarterback DeShawn Watson went outside, then turned back into the middle of the field and was able to push Jaguars cornerback D.J. Hayden back enough into the end zone for the touchdown. Ka'imi Fairbairn kicked the extra point to give Houston a 13-3 lead with 11:41 left in the game.

The Jaguars battled back on the next possession, marching 86 plays on nine plays before Lambo nailed a 32-yard field goal with 6:05 left in the game, making it 13-6.

After getting a first down on the next drive, the Texans were forced to punt back to the Jaguars with 3:46 left to go.

Carlos Hyde, playing for his fourth team in the last 11 months, one of those teams being the Jaguars last season, had 90 yards rushing on 20 carries. Watson had his troubles most of the afternoon against the Jaguars' defense, going 16-of-29 passing for 159 yards and sacked three times.

Minshew out-rushed Fournette on the day, going for 56 yards on six carries, while Fournette came up with 47 yards on 15 carries.

Fairbairn kicked first-half field goals of 39 and 22 yards, while Lambo had a 40-yarder for the Jaguars. However, it was after Fairbairn's 39-yard field goal that made it 3-0 that things got interesting on the Jaguars' sideline when star cornerback Jalen Ramsey had words with Marrone after Marrone refused to pull his red flag out to challenge a third-down catch by DeAndre Hopkins that Ramsey claimed Hopkins dropped on a diving catch in front of him.

Jacksonville hosts Tennessee in a game Thursday night.