John McClain, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, is in his 48th year of covering the NFL in Houston, including 45 seasons at the Houston Chronicle.

After losing to Tennessee at NRG Stadium, the Texans need to find solutions at Jacksonville for the problems that have plagued them during their current 2-4 stretch.

In each of the last six seasons, the Texans have returned from Everbank Stadium with a victory. Obviously, the Jaguars and Head Coach Doug Pederson want to end their losing streak to the Texans, who are 7-5 and own a two-game lead in the AFC South over Indianapolis, a team they conquered in both games this season.

The Texans have lost four of six games since their 5-1 start. The high point of the season has been the 23-20 victory over Buffalo. The Bills (9-2) have a six-game winning streak since losing at NRG Stadium.

The low point was Sunday's 32-27 loss to the Titans, who came to Houston with a 2-8 record and one of the worst offenses in the NFL. The Texans can't afford to have a repeat performance against the Jaguars.

Head Coach DeMeco Ryans is confident his team will bounce back on after the week of practice they had after losing to Tennessee.

My message is to intensely focus on the things we can control," Ryans said. "Our guys have attacked this week the right way. They've attacked with the right mindset. Guys are locked in on what we're doing. They're flying around. Energy is up.

"I attack it with a positive outlook, making sure our guys are encouraged and upbeat with everything we do. A lot of times, when you lose a game or something doesn't go your way, you'd think the sky was falling. Everything is just doom and gloom because you lost a game, and everyone has the answers on what you should be doing (and) what changes you need to make.

"In the NFL, you're going to lose some games you don't want to lose, but it happens. That doesn't zap all our energy and what we're made of. We bounce back."

And the Texans need to bounce back in the worst way. They want to extend their winning streak to seven games at Jacksonville. They couldn't run the ball against Tennessee. They've been called for 20 penalties in the last two games, including 11 for 81 yards against the Titans. They also couldn't run the ball, had dropped passes, two C.J. Stroud interceptions and surrendered too many explosive plays.

"Negative plays happen," Ryans said. "You talk about technique, poor eye discipline, poor decision-making with penalties. Maybe it's a lack of focus in certain areas.

"It's just a lot of different things and different people that make certain mistakes. It's all about making progress on things you can control, and when we get out of our own way, we can focus on beating the opponent opposed to beating ourselves."

Losing to Tennessee put the Texans in a must-win predicament. Defeating the Jaguars would give them an 8-4 record going into the bye week. When they come out of their weekend off, it's like they'll be stepping into a hurricane. They play the Dolphins at home, the Chiefs on the road and the Ravens at home on Christmas Day.

Ryans knows what he wants from his team in all three phases, each that contributed to the loss to the Titans.

"Too many times in games that haven't gone our way, it's been solely because of us and things we can control," Ryans said.

The Texans have suffered offensive problems during their recent struggles, especially their inability to score touchdowns in the second half. They are 16^th in yards (336 per game), including 20^th in rushing (114.6) and 15th in passing (221.4).

The offense has one second-half touchdown in the last six games, one fewer than the defense. Stroud has been pressured a league-high 191 times. The Titans recorded seven unblocked pressures on him. He's been sacked 39 times, one more than his rookie season. He has four consecutive games with a sub-80 rating. His season rating is 87.3.

The Texans should be able to move the ball and score points against the Jaguars, who are 32^nd in defense (413.7), 26^th against the run (135.5) and 32^nd against the pass (278.3). They're allowing 28.7 points a game.

When offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik had his weekly interview session with the media this week, the primary topics were the lack of success scoring second-half touchdowns, getting the running game back on track, the interior offensive line and Stroud.

Specifically on the Tennessee game, he said, "We've tried all kinds of different things (and) we'll continue trying a lot of different approaches in a lot of different areas until something fits.

"In the second half, we had an immense amount of penalties. We were bad on third down, and we couldn't run the ball. Every second half hasn't been bad (but) the ones that have been bad, we've played bad football."

Slowik was asked about Joe Mixon's career-worst 1.6-yard average per carry against the Titans.

"We've had two games where he's played and hasn't gotten 100 yards," he said. "That would be Detroit and this last one. Those I would say are probably the two games that us as an offense would look at and say we did our worst job in the run game, starting with me, and the schemes we were doing and how we executed them.

"We've had a lot of errors we've continued to clean up and has led to a lot of inconsistency. I would say there has been inconsistency across the whole offense."

Stroud has consistently been forced to throw under intense pressure, especially up the middle.

"It's really just everywhere across the offense we have a fatal error somewhere along the way at a critical spot," Slowik said. "I think a lot of the time it's easy to see the guys up front. That's the easiest place to see where something breaks down.

"But there are some run plays where we're not blocking the edge player like we're supposed to, whether it's the tight end or receiver position."

Slowik was asked if he believes Stroud is putting too much pressure on himself.

"No one in the world is going to have higher expectations for C.J. than himself," he said. "He's fervent in his desire to be coached hard (to) be as good as he can possibly be.

"He's going to challenge himself to be better all the time. We have to be better around him. I have to do a better job with some of the play calls for him."

The Texans are coming off a weird game against Tennessee. Since 1960, teams that recorded at least eight sacks and had at least one touchdown return (safety Jimmie Ward's 65-yard pick-six) had a 3-33 record. Now they're 3-34.

They've given up a league-high 24 touchdown passes – one more than Jacksonville – even though they're second with 42 sacks and lead the NFL with 197 pressures. Ends Danielle Hunter (10.5) and Will Anderson Jr. (9.5) have combined for 20 sacks.

The Texans went into the weekend with a plus-9 in turnover differential (tied for third), 15 interceptions (second) and 23 takeaways (first). But their red zone defense (67.9 percent) is 30^th.

And the Texans need to do better on special teams, especially avoiding penalties. The kicking game is terrific. Even though he missed a 28-yard field goal that would have tied the Tennessee game, Ka'imi Fairbairn has already set a league record with 12 field goals of at least 50 yards.

In his first season with the Texans after leaving the Chiefs, punter Tommy Townsend has been outstanding. He has a 47.5-yard gross average and a 44.2 net (fifth in the league). He has 31 punts inside the 20 (first). Only 18 of his punts have been returned for 76 yards (second). Ten have been fair catches (tied for second).

"What I want to see our guys do is to play clean football," Ryans said about the Jacksonville game. "Eliminate the negative plays that are self-inflicted. That gives us a chance to compete and see where we are."

Where the Texans need to be on Sunday is the winning sideline.