Going into the regular season finale against the pesky Houston Texans, the Jacksonville Jaguars are virtually playing for nothing more then a meaningless 12th win. Already locked into the 5th seed of the AFC playoffs, the Jaguars can not move up or down in the standings regardless of the outcome. Coach Jack Del Rio is expected to rest his star players on Sunday. The main players such as running back Fred Taylor, quarterback David Garrard and cornerback Reshean Mathis are almost certainly going to be watching from the sidelines.

The last time the Jaguars made the playoffs, they went into the final game of the year in the same situation. With nothing to gain, the Jags actually lost their key defensive player to injury. Middle linebacker Mike Peterson broke his hand and had to play the playoff game against the Patriots with a cast. He ended up missing an important tackle on Ben Watson who scored a back breaking touchdown to seal another New England playoff win. This time around, Del Rio will not make the same mistake as he knows the only thing his jags can lose is possibly a little bit of the momentum that they have sparked up lately. Garrard does not see that happening, “Well I missed three games and came back and did pretty decent,” the starting quarterback said. “I’m not going to think if I do miss some time in this game that the passing game is going to be off. It shouldn’t be. We’re professionals and we know how to play.” A couple of series for Garrard and the first team offense is normal for teams trying to stay healthy for the playoffs but don’t expect to see them in the second half.

The Jaguars will either play the Pittsburgh Steelers or San Diego Chargers on the road in the wild card round of the playoffs. They have beaten both already this year including the jags biggest win of the season coming in Pittsburgh in terrible conditions. They proved they have the right kind of mix to get it done in cold weather by pounding the ball with Taylor and his tag team partner Maurice Jones-Drew. The defense plays a smash mouth kind of football and without Willie Parker, the Steelers might have to become a one dimensional team, but this is a topic for next week. The Texans have a chance to finish .500 for the first time in franchise history and they always play Jacksonville tough to begin with. It should be an interesting game even without the Jaguars playing their starters.

Prediction: Jaguars 27 Texans 21.