Jaguars are scratching out victories instead of stumbling into losses

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The biggest difference for the Jacksonville Jaguars this season: They’re scratching out victories instead of stumbling into losses.

The Jaguars (5-3) topped their win total from 2024 with a 30-29 gut-wrencher in overtime at Las Vegas on Sunday, a performance that reminded players and coaches more of their 4-1 start than their two-game skid.

Jacksonville still has concerns — most notably dropped passes and inconsistent pass rush — but the team also has plenty of traits that were missing under previous coaches Doug Pederson and Urban Meyer: confidence, cohesion and credibility.

All of them were on display against the Raiders. And not everything that happens in Vegas needs to stay in Vegas.

The Jaguars hope to carry that success through the rest of November, which includes three more road games that begin with a trip to AFC South rival Houston (3-5) on Sunday.

“We try to create a contagious environment,” defensive end Josh Hines-Allen said. “When one play goes good, let that be contagious and let that affect the next play, the next play.”

The Jaguars scored on their final six possessions against Las Vegas, their longest such streak this season. It started with Cam Little’s NFL-record, 68-yard field goal on the final play of the first half.

“That was what ignited us,” coach Liam Coen said.

Jacksonville started rolling from there. Trevor Lawrence fought through an illness and ran for two touchdowns. The Jags finished with 151 yards rushing, allowed just one sack after giving up a combined 14 the last two games and got huge plays from reserve receivers Tim Jones and Austin Trammell down the stretch.

Hines-Allen tied the franchise record for career sacks (55) with an overtime takedown of Geno Smith, and Little tied the game with a 48-yarder with 16 seconds to play in regulation and hit an all-important extra point in overtime. The biggest play, though, came from nose tackle DaVon Hamilton, who batted down Smith’s 2-point conversion pass on the final play in the extra frame.

“Just do your job and make that contagious throughout the game,” Hines-Allen said. “And if we can do that, I think we’ll be hard to beat.”

Lawrence’s legs have been a boost. The fifth-year quarterback is on pace for a career year in carries and touchdowns. He has run 39 times for 137 yards and four touchdowns this season. He carried 73 times as a rookie and scored five times in 2022.

He had two rushing scores against the Raiders, including one in overtime. His athleticism is something Coen has been trying to get him to use more in certain spots.

“He competed his tail off, very proud of him,” Coen said.

Penalties continue to plague the Jaguars, who were flagged nine times for 80 yards against the Raiders. They have been penalized 93 times — the most in the league — and had 19 more declined. Defensive end Travon Walker was ejected in the third quarter for throwing a punch at Raiders left tackle Stone Forsythe.

“We can’t have that, and he knows that," Coen said. "Frustrating moment for sure, but those are the things we have to avoid as a team, as an organization because all it does is make us a little bit handcuffed.”

Parker Washington caught eight passes for 90 yards and could be Lawrence’s No. 1 target in the second half of the season. The Jags had planned to run their offense through rookie Travis Hunter before he landed on injured reserve with a knee injury last week.

Walker has been mostly a nonfactor since having surgery to repair his left wrist in late September. He has just one tackle in three consecutive games, the least-productive stretch of his four-year NFL career. The club on his left hand surely has something to do with his performance.

WR Brian Thomas Jr. (ankle), WR Dyami Brown (concussion), CB Jourdan Lewis (shoulder/neck), TE Hunter Long (hip/knee) and LG Ezra Cleveland (ankle/knee) left with injuries. LB Devin Lloyd (calf) is expected to return against Houston after missing two games. TE Brenton Strange (hip) is out one more game before he can be activated from IR.

4 — Number of times Jacksonville has swept the season series against Houston.

The Jaguars can sweep the Texans for the first time since 2017.

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Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence (16) celebrates with wide receiver Austin Trammell, left, after scoring a touchdown during overtime of an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence (16) scores a touchdown against the Las Vegas Raiders during overtime of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Steve Marcus)

Jacksonville Jaguars place kicker Cam Little, second from right, is congratulated by head coach Liam Coen, center, and teammates after making a 68-yard field goal during the first half of an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Josh Hines-Allen (41) reacts after a sack during overtime of an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence (16) exits the field after the team's victory over the Las Vegas Raiders in an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. service member who has been missing since Iran shot down a fighter jet has been rescued, President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post early Sunday.

A frantic U.S. search-and-rescue operation unfolded after the crash of the F-15E Strike Eagle on Friday, as Iran also promised a reward for anyone who turned in the “enemy pilot.”

A second crew member was rescued earlier.

“This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour,” Trump wrote.

Trump said that the aviator is injured but “will be just fine,” adding that the rescue involved “dozens of aircraft” and that the U.S. had been monitoring his location “24 hours a day, and diligently planning for his rescue.”

The fighter jet was the first U.S. aircraft to have crashed in Iranian territory since the conflict in late February.

Trump said last week that the U.S. had “decimated” Iran and would finish the war “very fast.” Two days later, Iran shot down two U.S. military planes, showing the ongoing perils of the bombing campaign and the ability of a degraded Iranian military to continue to hit back.

In Kuwait, an Iranian drone attack caused significant damage to two power plants and put a water desalination station out of service, according to the Ministry of Electricity. No injuries were reported from the attack, the ministry said.

In Bahrain, the national oil company said that a drone attack caused a fire at one of its storage facilities, which was extinguished. It said the damage was still being assessed and no injuries had been reported.

In the United Arab Emirates, authorities responded to multiple fires at the Borouge petrochemicals plant, a joint venture of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and Borealis of Austria. They say the fires were caused by falling debris following successful interceptions by air defense systems, but production at the plant in Ruwais, near the UAE’s western border with Saudi Arabia, has halted.

The strike came a day after Israel struck a petrochemical plant in Iran that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said generated revenue that it had used to fund the war.

The war began with joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Feb. 28 and has killed thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened and hit civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes.

The other jet to go down was a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft. Neither the status of the crew nor exactly where it crashed was immediately known.

Trump renewed his threats for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy shipments that has been choked off by Tehran, by Monday or face devastating consequences, writing Saturday in a social media post: “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.”

“The doors of hell will be opened to you” if Iran’s infrastructure is attacked, Gen. Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi with the country’s joint military command said late Saturday in response to Trump’s renewed threat, state media reported. In turn, the general threatened all infrastructure used by the U.S. military in the region.

But Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, told The Associated Press that his government’s efforts to broker a ceasefire are “right on track” after Islamabad last week said that it would soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that Iranian officials “have never refused to go to Islamabad.”

Mediators from Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt were working to bring the U.S. and Iran to the negotiating table, according to two regional officials.

The proposed compromise includes a cessation of hostilities to allow a diplomatic settlement, according to a regional official involved in the efforts and a Gulf diplomat briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, issued a veiled threat late Friday to disrupt traffic through a second strategic waterway in the region, the Bab el-Mandeb.

The strait, 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide, links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. More than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships pass through it.

“Which countries and companies account for the highest transit volumes through the strait?” Qalibaf wrote.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed. In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Ten Israeli soldiers have died there.

This report has been corrected to show that Borealis is an Austrian company and not Australian.

Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia; and Seung Min Kim, Will Weissert, Michelle L. Price, Lisa Mascaro and Ben Finley in Washington, contributed to this report.

Followers of Iraq's Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr chant slogans as they wave national Iraqi flag during a protest against U.S. and Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, in Tahrir Square, Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

A bedroom is damaged in a building struck in an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Pedetrians walk by a destroyed building within the Grand Hosseiniyeh, with the mosque visible in the background, which officials at the site say was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes Tuesday, in Zanjan, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Police officers and their horses take cover in an underground parking garage as sirens warn of an incoming missile fired from Yemen in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

A man looks at a destroyed building within the Grand Hosseiniyeh complex that officials say was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes Tuesday in Zanjan, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)