JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — With some help from the opposition, the Houston Texans are still clinging to playoff hopes.

Houston turned a costly Blake Bortles interception into a touchdown, and the Texans emerged with a 27-13 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday at EverBank Field.

The Texans (7-6) posted back-to-back wins for the first time since the opening two games of the season. Houston beat the Tennessee Titans 45-21 the previous week.

“I’ve heard it said a million times, when you look at the December schedule, that’s when you need to be playing your best football,” Texans coach Bill O’Brien said. “I’m not telling you that this is our best football, I’m just saying that we’re fighting and we’re playing pretty good complementary football. I’m very happy for the guys that they’re playing meaningful games in December.”

Jacksonville (2-11) must win two of its last three games to match its 4-12 mark last year.

Houston put together a 16-play, 84-yard march on its first possession of the third quarter to take a 17-13 lead. Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick had completions of 10, 11 and 12 yards, and running back Arian Foster added 26 yards on eight carries. The scoring march took just under 8 1/2 minutes.

Jacksonville’s defense no sooner got to the sideline for a breather when it was forced to return to the field after Bortles was picked off by Texans safety D.J. Swearinger.

Swearinger stepped in front of Jaguars running back Toby Gerhart, grabbed the pass and returned it to the Jacksonville 26-yard line. It was the NFL-leading 16th interception thrown by the Jaguars’ rookie quarterback this season.

It took Houston just six plays to cover the 26 yards, with Foster scoring from a yard out on fourth down. Foster, who finished with 127 yards on 24 carries, was hemmed in on the right side but broke a tackle and reversed direction to score easily around left end.

Fitzpatrick completed 13 of 19 passes for 135 yards.

Houston’s defense limited Jacksonville’s offense to 73 yards in the second half after the Jaguars compiled 189 yards in the first two quarters.

What the Texans said:

“We didn’t have a lot of plays in the first half because I was real poor in finding the right guys on third-down plays. We knew we would have to be patient, that we needed to possess the ball. We ran the ball well throughout the game. We just weren’t on the field enough in the first half. In the second half the guys up front did a good job in terms of controlling the line of scrimmage.” — Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.

What the Jaguars said:

“I think this team [is better now than a month ago]. I think in every aspect. We had a stretch where we were running the ball very in the middle of the season, and now I think we’re doing other things well. We’re all on the same page more often. The decision-making has been good, I think, all around our offense and we just kind of lacked and missed out on some opportunities.” — Quarterback Blake Bortles.

What we learned about the Texans:

1. Wide receiver Andre Johnson is a big part of the Houston offense. When he went out with a possible concussion early in the second half, the Texans offense bogged down and never totally recovered. They moved the ball just enough to put together a couple scoring drives, although one of their TD marches only had to cover 26 yards.

When Johnson was hit in the back near his head by Jaguars linebacker Telvin Smith, he lay on the ground for several minutes with a number of teammates gathered around him. “It was scary to see Andre laying out there. You saw the love and what he means to this team with all the players and coaches out there around him,” running back Arian Foster said. “It showed how much he means to our team. But I talked to him and he said he’ll be all right, so that’s good.” Johnson had four catches for just 17 yards in the first quarter. He walked across the field to the Houston locker room and did not return to the field the rest of the game.

2. Defensive end J.J. Watt continues to be a destructive force on defense. Watt, who is given free rein to line up in various spots along the defensive front, put constant pressure on Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles, sacking him three times and forcing him to run out of the pocket on a number of other occasions. “I was a little bit everywhere. That’s what you like as a player, you get to go all over the place and rush from different positions,” Watt said. “You want to see everybody (on their line), it’s fun. I just go out there and try to take advantage of whoever I’m playing.” Asked his preference between a sack or knocking a pass down, he didn’t hesitate. “Oh a sack, they’re harder to come by,” he said. “But it does give you a good feeling to knock down a pass, especially on a third-down situation. That can be frustrating to a quarterback when you do that to him.” Watt should know. He leads the Texans with nine passes knocked away this year.

–RB back Arian Foster rushed for 127 yards in 24 carries, the 31st time in his career that he’s topped the 100-yard mark, the most by any NFL back since 2010. Foster averaged bettered than five yards a carry and turned in a season-long gain of 51 yards. He was quick to give credit to the offensive line in front of him opening holes. “You bleed with these guys, you sweat with these guys,” he said. “Fans will say what they want to say and [the media] will write what you want, but if you have that respect of the people you work with day in and day out, that’s all that matters to me.”

–DE J.J. Watt was a topic of discussion all week long by Jacksonville offensive lineman. They talked about how tough he is to handle because he lines up in various positions along the defensive front. Watt did that again Sunday and it worked to perfection as he recorded three sacks of Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles and knocked the rookie QB down on a number of other occasions. Some have said that Watt is having the makings of a Player-of-the-Year type season. The humble Watt brushed aside the comment when asked about it after his effort against the Jaguars. “I have said all year long that all I can control is how I play on the field. I work as hard as I can in practice, watch as much game film as I can, work out as hard as I can and go out on the field and try to make as many plays as I can to help my team win,” Watt said.

–QB Ryan Fitzpatrick had barely faced three or four questions in his postgame interview when attention turned to next week’s key game against the Indianapolis Colts. Fitzpatrick tried to divert the attention back to the Jaguars game, but offered his take on the Colts’ game when questions continued. “This game was a huge one for us. I think just being able to string two together and what’s ahead now is important. We’re not in perfect shape, but we’re in better shape than we were last week. Momentum is a big thing,” Fitzpatrick said. “[Indianapolis] is a tough place to play and their fans are great. There are a lot of other factors that we are going to have to control.”

What we learned about the Jaguars:

1. The Jaguars can’t sustain a running attack. For the eighth time in 13 games this season, Jacksonville failed to rush for 100 yards. They finished with 74 yards on 22 carries. No running back averaged more than four yards a carry. Tight end Marcedes Lewis said a running game is a necessity for the Jaguars to be successful. “I feel like if you have a good running game, then that’s going to make everything easier. And not just for the receivers down the field, but for the line too,” Lewis said. “When we’re running the play action, when we have the run and can push them to the sideline, then Blake [Bortles] can step up and make throws that we want to make. The run game is very essential as far as that’s concerned.” Jacksonville’s three running backs combined for just 60 rushing yards on 18 carries.

2. The Jaguars failed to make good on their promise of using last week’s upset of the New York Giants as a momentum-builder for the final five games of the season. Jaguar players had talked about winning their final two home games and gaining a split on their last two road games, which would have given the team four wins in their final five games and some momentum heading into the offseason. Now they would need to win all three remaining games to achieve that goal, with a remaining schedule that includes road games at Baltimore and Houston. “Coming back the second half last week, we had momentum,” left tackle Luke Joeckel said. “It was a good week of practice. I thought the first half we came out pretty good. We weren’t as consistent as we needed to be and that’s been the thing we need to be better at all year. Some second-half things just weren’t clicking like we were hoping.”

–QB Blake Bortles was disappointed the team could not come up with another big second-half performance. A week ago, the Jaguars trailed the New York Giants at halftime 21-3 but played one of their best halves of the season in outscoring the Giants 22-3 to win the game by a point. Many were thinking another strong second half on Sunday that would add to the Jaguars 13-10 halftime lead and seal another win. It wasn’t to be. “We did some good things in the first half and were able to be productive and execute, but we were never able to get anything going in the second half,” Bortles said. “We never could really get into a rhythm. We just really didn’t make any plays.” A total of 73 yards of offense in the second half supports Bortles’ statement.

–RB Denard Robinson’s 16-yard run and four pass plays were the only plays of 10 yards or more produced by the Jaguars. The Jaguars simply couldn’t come up with big plays, explosive plays on offense that support a scoring march. Houston had no such problem with the big plays, breaking off 11 passes or runs for 10 or more yards. Last week, Jacksonville came up with 10 plays of 10 yards or more. Wide receiver Cecil Shorts said it was one of the reasons for the Jaguars downfall on Sunday. “I think as an offense we expect to make plays. We expect to go down there and keep moving in the second half and keep going even when we’re down,” Shorts said.

–Jaguars coach Gus Bradley has harped on winning the turnover battle all season. But unlike last week’s win over the New York Giants, when the Jacksonville defense scored 14 points, the Jaguars defense did not score against Texans. “We didn’t do good enough things on offense and on defense; we didn’t get the ball and get any turnovers,” Bradley said. “They scored and the interception gave them another short field [26 yards] to work with. They made more plays than we did and they did a good job with the time of possession.”