JACKSONVILLE – Doug Pederson knows well the Jaguars' reality.

That reality: That they must win a lot in the last six 2024 regular-season games – and even that may not be enough. That's the situation coming out of the bye.

"These are all sort of must-win games in order for us to even have a shot," he said.

Pederson, in his third season as the Jaguars' head coach, spoke to the media Wednesday as the Jaguars (2-9) prepared to play the AFC South-leading Houston Texans (7-5) at EverBank Stadium Sunday. It's a matchup of the past two division champions, with both teams struggling entering the game.

The Texans have lost four of six games, with the Jaguars losing four consecutive games before a Week 12 bye week and trailing the Texans by four and a half games with six remaining.

"You see some crazy things," quarterback Trevor Lawrence said. "We don't feel like we're necessarily out of anything. It's definitely a challenge, it's an uphill battle, but that's what we got in front of us. It's a situation we put ourselves in."

Lawrence called the final six games "super important."

"The season hasn't gone how we wanted it to," he said. "We got to regroup and kind of reflect a little bit over the bye week. We have six weeks. That's what we're guaranteed."

A loss Sunday would eliminate the Jaguars from the AFC South race, with tight end Evan Engram on Thursday saying "I know everybody has the right mindset."

"We're not out," Engram said. "Anything can happen. We'll take it one game at a time. We have each other's backs. We'll continue to play for the love of the game, for each other and give everything we've got and see what happens."

Four of the Jaguars' final six games are against AFC South teams. They play host to the Texans Sunday, visit the Tennessee Titans in Week 14, play host to the Titans in Week 17 and visit the Indianapolis Colts in Week 18.

"They just happened to be division games, four of the last six," Pederson said. "We have to take each one week by week and we have a good Houston team that's coming in here."

The Jaguars lost to the Texans, 24-20, in Week 4 – one of six losses for the Jaguars this season decided by five points or less. The Jaguars last beat the Texans in Jacksonville in 2017, when they swept the Texans on the way to the AFC South title.

"We understand what happened last game down in Houston," Pederson said. "We just as a team have to learn to finish, do some little things a little bit better and strain and all of that. It doesn't get any easier. It's a tough sled but we just got to go one at a time."

Added Lawrence, "So there's a lot of motivation for us. We just want to go play our best football Sunday and find a way to win and then we will move on after that. We have six games of football left and so it doesn't really matter what the big picture is, you want to go out there and play your best and really play better than we have."

NOTABLE

• Outside linebacker Yasir Abdullah was the lone Jaguars player not practicing Wednesday, missing practice with a hamstring injury. Lawrence, who missed the last two games with a left – non-throwing – shoulder injury, and cornerback Tyson Campbell (shoulder) practiced limited. Running back Tank Bigsby (ankle) and right guard Brandon Scherff (knee/shoulder) both practiced full Wednesday.
• Pederson said running well offensively will be a focus moving forward. Bigsby missed the last game before the bye – a 52-6 loss to the Detroit Lions – with an ankle injury, with running back Travis Etienne Jr. missing Weeks 6-8 with a hamstring injury and playing through the injury in subsequent games. The Jaguars rank 24^th in the NFL in rushing at 101.6 yards per game. "That's something that we have to do better as an offense," Pederson said. "We have to run the ball better and it's not just the running backs. It's all 11. It's the quarterback putting us in the right run if we have run checks. It's obviously the offense line, the tight ends and the running backs, so that's an area that we have to improve. But having two healthy run backs right now definitely helps. It's good to get them both out there and get them both back in the offense."