The Sports Xchange

HOUSTON — Heading into Sunday’s road game against the Miami Dolphins, the Houston Texans expressed hope that a 31-20 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars could provide a kick-start to their losing season.

At 2-4, the Texans are no longer in last place in an AFC South division that’s arguably the worst in the NFL.

“That’s the message across the board that we’re going to get this thing turned around,” said outside linebacker Whitney Mercilus, who had two sacks against the Jaguars as he started at Jack outside linebacker in place of an injured Jadeveon Clowney. “We got a win and we need to keep it going.”

The Texans had 382 yards of total offense and 24 first downs as quarterback Brian Hoyer tied a career-high with three touchdown passes and zero interceptions. The defense intercepted Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles three times.

“It’s one, and that’s really what we needed just to get us going and kick-start us in the right direction,” said inside linebacker Brian Cushing, who led the Texans with 12 tackles Sunday. “It was a good win and we needed it to get going.”

Texans running back Arian Foster rushed for 53 yards on 18 carries and caught five passes for 59 yards and a touchdown, his first score of the year.

“This feels like a team that’s going to fight and hopefully right the ship,” Foster said. “Hopefully, we can build on this. We passed a test. Every week in the NFL is a new day. If we can keep building on this, we’ll be happy with the results.”

Now, the Texans have to turn their attention toward Sunday’s road game against the Dolphins.

“We definitely want to build off these wins and try to keep this thing going,” fullback Jay Prosch said. “We need to start looking forward to next week. We can’t celebrate very long.”

With the win, the Texans snapped a two-game losing streak.

“We definitely have the potential to get something started,” defensive end Jared Crick said. “This is the best week of practice we’ve had throughout the whole year. Hopefully, we can have the same results next week.”

SERIES HISTORY: 8th regular-season meeting. Texans lead series, 7-0. They defeated them, 30-10, in the most recent game.

GAME PLAN

–The Texans will attempt to bottle up running back Lamar Miller and set the edge to cut down on his perimeter runs. The offense will try to get the ball out quickly to counteract Cameron Wake’s pass-rushing skills. He had four sacks last game and is the reigning AFC Defensive Player of the Week.

MATCHUPS TO WATCH

–Texans WR DeAndre Hopkins vs. Dolphins secondary.

Hopkins set a franchise record with his fourth consecutive 100-yard game Sunday. He set an NFL record with three consecutive games of nine catches or more and 145 yards or more. The Dolphins will have their hands full with Hopkins.

–Texans DE J.J. Watt vs. Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill.

Despite being sick last game, Watt played all but two snaps and had six quarterback hurries. Watt needs one more sack to pass Richard Dent (61.5 sacks) for the most sacks in the first five seasons of a player’s career. Tannehill is one of the more mobile quarterbacks in the NFL.