Nico Collins' rare fumble keeps the Texans winless with a daunting road ahead

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Nico Collins is unlikely to forget his latest performance against Jacksonville.

Houston's star receiver lost a fumble for the first time in 53 professional games, a pivotal mistake in a 17-10 loss to the Jaguars on Sunday.

He coughed up the ball with less than 4 minutes remaining in a tie game and with the Texans driving. Cornerback Tyson Campbell stripped the ball out of his grasp at the end of a 10-yard gain, and it bounced right into linebacker Devin Lloyd’s hands.

Jacksonville scored a few plays later and kept the Texans (0-3) winless heading into Week 4. Only six teams in the Super Bowl era have rebounded from such an early season deficit to make the playoffs. Houston was the last team to accomplish the feat in 2018.

But the Texans appear to have a more daunting path this time around, facing a first-place slate that includes upcoming road games at Baltimore and Seattle. Buffalo, Kansas City and the Los Angeles Chargers also are on their schedule.

“Just fixing issues,” Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud said. “We’re really close. The problem is we just keep reiterating that we’re close, and now it’s time to fix the issues and be honest with one another.”

The Texans failed to total 300 yards of offense for the third consecutive week. They finished with a season-high 271 against Jacksonville and were ineffective on third down (4 of 15) again.

Stroud completed 25 of 38 passes for 204 yards, with a 50-yard TD pass to Collins, two interceptions and two sacks. Receiver Christian Kirk made his season debut but did little to take the focus off Collins.

“You turn the ball over three times, man, that’s tough to win in this league,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “It’s tough enough to win, but when you put yourself in a position where you are helping the opponent, that’s not a good recipe for winning football.

“We’re close, but close isn’t good enough.”

Houston played well enough to win defensively again. The unit stymied the NFL’s best rushing attack through two weeks, got help from six dropped passes and even intercepted a pass from Trevor Lawrence.

But untimely penalties, steady pressure and costly turnovers on the other side of the ball proved to be too much to overcome.

“I am not discouraged by my team,” Ryans said. “We played with outstanding effort. We played with the resolve to give ourselves a chance to come back and win the game. It’s another fourth-quarter drive, and that’s the first three games.

“So am I discouraged? No. We’ve been in all three ballgames. ... Do we want to be 0-3? No, we don’t want to be 0-3. But until we play cleaner ball and we find a way to finish and get on the winning side in the fourth quarter, that’s when we’ll get in the win column.”

Houston, with its leaky offensive line, lack of a running game and not enough playmakers, seems to have a small margin for error. Collins' rare fumble was proof. He had fumbled once out of bounds in more than 220 previous touches over five seasons.

“Just got to pick him up, just like they pick me up,” Stroud said. “We all know he doesn’t really do that, so it was just something we got to just coach up. Whatever happened, we got to just fix.”

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