HOUSTON — Southern lost 24-21 to Texas Southern on Saturday at Reliant Stadium. Here are three takeaways from the game:

Heartbreaking loss

Southern suffered its most painful loss of the year. Before this game, every contest it competed in was decided by 13 points or more. Southern had a good chance to finally win back-to-back games for the first time. The offense injected life with a late touchdown to potentially force overtime. However, Texas Southern did its job. It moved the ball, got to field goal range and trusted Miguel Arana to bury a 46-yard kick to hand Marshall Faulk’s group a defeat that could’ve been avoided.

Points left off the board

The Jaguars’ special team issues once again showed themselves. They left a potential six points off the scoreboard. Southern had a 37-yard field goal blocked. Faulk also chose not to attempt a potential 41-yard field goal in the second quarter on fourth-and-7. He went for it, and it didn’t pay off. Ultimately, Southern allowed an intense but winnable game to slip through its grasp because it couldn’t execute or was fearful that it couldn’t do what’s necessary on special teams.

Tailback bright spot

A consistent silver lining remains Trey Holly. The 5-foot-7, 192-pound redshirt junior trusted his offensive line to create gaps and ran through them. When spaces weren’t large enough, he burst outside and bulldozed through multiple Texas Southern defenders in each quarter. Even though his longest run was only for 13 yards, it was rare for him not to have a positive gain with each touch. Holly averaged 4.5 yards per carry and looked like arguably the best tailback in the SWAC.