{"id":430408,"date":"2026-10-17T11:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T11:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/430408\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T11:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T11:10:10","slug":"jacksonville-jaguars-face-houston-texans-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/430408\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville Jaguars face Houston Texans in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2014 Plenty of attention will be on Marvin Harrison Jr. when the receiver makes his Houston Texans debut<\/a> Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an unheralded Jacksonville<\/a> receiver, though, whose been making big plays at key times: Parker Washington.<\/p>\n

And especially in London.<\/p>\n

Washington caught two touchdown passes from Trevor Lawrence last Sunday in an improbable 19-17 win<\/a> over the Philadelphia Eagles at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. His leaping, twisting grab in the end zone had given the Jags a fourth-quarter lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a huge playmaker for us,\u201d Lawrence said. \u201cYou\u2019ve seen all the different things he can do. He\u2019s great after the catch, he\u2019s physical through contact. He\u2019s made some unbelievable contested catches. He\u2019s good over the middle.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, you look at a guy that can do all that, and it opens up a lot for your offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 5-foot-10 Washington, drafted in 2023 by the Jags in the sixth round pick out of Penn State, leads the team with 22 receptions for 352 yards and four touchdowns.<\/p>\n

He also contributes on special teams. Washington returned a punt 96 yards for a touchdown in 2024 against the Patriots at Wembley Stadium, where the Jaguars will \u201chost\u201d the Texans to complete their London doubleheader.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s AFC South matchup brings to mind last season\u2019s game in which Houston<\/a> overcame a 19-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the Jags 36-29<\/a> with backup quarterback Davis Mills at the helm while CJ Stroud was out injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, have a tough feeling in our stomachs from the last time we played against these guys,\u201d Jags coach Liam Coen said. \u201d(We) know that every time that you line up against this team, it\u2019s going to be a fight, it\u2019s going to be a brawl. That\u2019s what\u2019s great about football, that\u2019s what\u2019s great about rivalries.\u201d<\/p>\n

After losing in Houston last season, Jacksonville closed out its regular season with eight straight wins.<\/p>\n

The Texans were set to arrive in London on Friday morning. They earned their first win of the season last week by beating the Titans 26-3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefensively, the thing that went well for us is we got off the field on third down,\u201d coach DeMeco Ryans said. \u201cWe took the football away and we stopped the run. We didn\u2019t give up many explosive passes. That was something that was hurting us the first couple weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryans had taken over defensive play-calling duties<\/a> ahead of the Tennessee game.<\/p>\n

Need to know<\/p>\n

What: Houston (1-4) vs. Jacksonville (4-1) at Wembley Stadium<\/p>\n

When: Sunday, 9:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

TV: NFL Network<\/p>\n

Latest odds: Jaguars by 2\u00bd<\/p>\n

Against the spread: Houston 1-4, Jacksonville 3-2<\/p>\n

Last week: Texans beat Titans 26-3; Jaguars beat Eagles 19-17<\/p>\n

Last meeting: Texans beat Jaguars 36-29 on Nov. 9, 2025, in Houston<\/p>\n

Series record: Texans lead 32-16<\/p>\n

Matchup to watch<\/p>\n

The Jaguars offensive line against Houston\u2019s pass rush. The Jaguars lost starting left tackle Anton Harrison against the Eagles. He will have knee surgery<\/a> when the team returns home from London. Veteran lineman Walker Little will take his place. Through Week 5, the Texans had the second-most sacks \u2014 18 \u2014 in the NFL. Defensive end Will Anderson Jr. leads the NFL with 7\u00bd sacks \u2014 including three last week \u2014 and 10 tackles for loss this season. Danielle Hunter has three sacks. Lawrence fumbled twice on strip-sacks last week; both were recovered by the Jags.<\/p>\n

Stats and stuff<\/p>\n

\u2022 Trevor Lawrence has thrown at least one touchdown pass in each of his eight London starts for the Jags. That\u2019s the most international starts<\/a> by a quarterback. His record in London is 5-3.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jacksonville committed 13 penalties for 100 yards last week.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud has yet to throw an interception this season.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Marvin Harrison Jr.\u2019s arrival<\/a> gives the Texans another big receiver. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Harrison can play opposite star Nico Collins, who is 6-4 and 222 pounds.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Texans are tied for the most completions of 20-plus yards in the NFL this season. They have 21, along with the Rams and Bills entering Week 6.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Houston has had at least one sack in 26 straight games. The Texans had four sacks last week against Tennessee, extending their franchise record for most consecutive games with at least one sack.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Jags won back-to-back London games in 2023 \u2014 beating the Atlanta Falcons at Wembley and then the Buffalo Bills at Tottenham.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jacksonville leads the NFL in rushing defense (63.8 yards per game allowed) and by limiting the Eagles to 22 yards rushing last week became the second team in the Super Bowl era to not allow an opposing player to rush for 40 or more yards in their first five games of a season, joining the 1969 Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 Plenty of attention will be on Marvin Harrison Jr. when the receiver makes his Houston Texans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,121,117,119,10728,76046,110],"class_list":["post-430408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-nfl","tag-professional-sports","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}