Sorry folks but it has taken me a few days to catch my breath after Saturday night’s Wild Card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers that certainly lived up to the word wild. To start, hats off to the Steelers. Down by 18 going into the 4th quarter, the Steelers came storming back without a handful of their starters thanks to injuries. It started with a 4th and 12 when Ben Roethlisberger hit Santonio Holmes on a quick slant and Holmes proceeded to break two tackles and take it to the house. Pittsburgh didn’t stop there as they continued to claw into the Jaguar lead. The “cardiac cats” definitely lived up to their nickname as they saw their big lead disappear and gave every Jaguar fan a near heart attack.

Thanks to a 96 yard kickoff return by Maurice Jones-Drew to set up Fred Taylor’s 1 yard and two interceptions (one for a touchdown) by Rashean Mathis on consecutive Roethlisberger passes the jags had a 14-7 lead and were ready to strike again. A few plays later on 3rd down David Garrard hit MoJo on a swing pass and the human bowling ball did the rest as he out raced Ike Taylor and found the end zone to give Jacksonville a 14 point lead. In the 3rd quarter MJD struck again as he scampered for ten yards and found the end zone again for an 18 point Jaguar lead. Even with Jones-Drew providing a comfortable lead it was anything but comfortable with six minutes left in the 4th as an 18 point lead turned into a one point deficit, thanks largely to Steelers coach Mike Tomlin’s decision to go for two 2 point conversions instead of kicking extra points.

Jaguar quarterback David Garrard finished up the regular season with 18 touchdowns and just 3 interceptions. Garrard almost matched that total on Saturday night alone. The six year veteran making his first postseason start threw two picks in the second half as the Steelers got 10 points from the turnovers including the go ahead touchdown with 6:21 remaining. About 4 minutes later he redeemed himself on a 4th and 2 with the season in the balance. On a designed quarterback draw, Garrard hit the hole and did not stop running until 32 yards later. “They kind of lost their gaps, they thought pass, I was able to get through there,” Garrard said. “I just wanted to get a first down. I did enough to get into field-goal range and that was all I was thinking about.” Josh Scobee booked the Jaguars second playoff trip to New England in the past three seasons when he connected on a 25 yard field goal with 37 seconds left.

Jack Del Rio watched as his team was suffering the worst collapse in playoff history only to rebound with less than two minutes left, reminiscent to week 15 when his Jaguars squandered a big lead only to score late and escape Heinz Field with a win. “I was very proud of our guys for responding after watching that 18-point lead evaporate,” Del Rio said. “Certainly, getting this experience will benefit our football team. We wanted to stay calm, stay poised and understand that that’s what you need to do, make some plays. We needed every bit of them.” Going to New England, Del Rio and the Jaguars will need to be much sharper and Garrard will need to hold onto the ball as he did during the regular season.

All in all a win is a win and the bottom line is Jacksonville is moving on. To beat the undefeated Patriots, the Jags will need their offense to keep Tom Brady off the field. For now the Jaguars and their fans can relax for a couple of days and enjoy their first playoff win since 1999.

Game ball goes to…Cornerback Rashean Mathis. Mathis intercepted Roethlisberger twice in two plays and returned the first one 63 yards for a touchdown. The next pass Big Ben threw was picked off by a leaping Mathis as the Jaguar offense capitalized on the turnover and put 7 more points on the board. Mathis will be tested this weekend as he matches up against the NFL’s top receiver, Randy Moss.

The Jaguars inched one step closer to a playoff berth with their biggest win of the season on Sunday against the Steelers. Both teams were 9-4 coming into the game. Pittsburgh certainly did not offer the usual comfortable weather that Florida has consistently for the jags. A mixture of snow, heavy winds and freezing temperatures was expected to keep the Jaguars from even competing in this game. The weather factor was supposed to play into the hands of the Steelers as they are one of the few NFL teams who rely on bad weather to expose their opponents. Coming in 7-0 at home, the Steelers fell behind 22-7 in the 3rd quarter before making a quick comeback in the 4th. However, Fred Taylor and the Jaguars offense once again stepped up when they needed to and pulled out the win on the last drive.

The Jaguars played almost a flawless game on both sides of the ball throughout the entire game. The Steelers capitalized on David Garrard’s second interception of the season to begin their comeback in the fourth quarter. Ben Roesthlisberger was pressured all day by the Jags defense and had a difficult time getting anything going on offense with his bad shoulder. The Jaguars swarmed Big Ben all day long and finished with 5 sacks, including 2 by Brent Hawkins. Roesthlisberger missed practice all week except for Friday and could not get the Steelers offense clicking. Willie Parker had another 100 yard rushing game as he continues to lead the league in most rushing categories. Minus Pro Bowl Defensive Tackle Marcus Stroud, the Jags defensive line had a hard time containing Parker as he repeatedly broke to the outside and into the secondary. However, the Jaguars did not have a problem getting to Roesthlisberger as they consistently pressured him to make inaccurate throws and scramble out of the pocket.

As for the Jacksonville offense, they brought their A game once again. For the eighth straight game, the offense put up at least 24 points. The game would have been a lot easier for the Jaguars but after two Garrard touchdown throws, Josh Scobee could not connect on the extra points and kept they Steelers within 2 scores. Jack Del Rio showed how much confidence he had in his offense and because of the weather conditions, went for it on 4th down three times, converting each one including twice on the same drive that ultimately ended with Garrard hitting Reggie Williams in the end zone on 3rd and Goal. One minute and thirty-three seconds later after a 3 and out by the Pittsburgh offense, Garrard rolled out of the pocket and launched a beautiful bomb to Dennis Northcutt for a 55 yard touchdown. Northcutt had single coverage downfield and Garrard exposed the big mouth safety Anthony Smith, who was burnt for a long touchdown for the second week in a row. Northcutt finished the game with 81 yards on 4 receptions and the touchdown. Ernest Wilford finally got his first touchdown of ’07 when Garrard hit him in the front corner of the end zone to give the jags a 10-7 lead in the first half.

For all of the big plays made through the air, it was the running game that once again broke through for Jacksonville. Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew again proved to be a killer duo on the ground for the Jaguars. Taylor, who will be looking to make his first Pro Bowl of his 10 year career on Tuesday, racked up his 4th straight 100 yard game. He piled up 147 yards rushing including the game winning 12 yard touchdown run with under 2 minutes to go in the game. MoJo compiled 99 total yards (69) rushing as he picked up two crucial first downs when Del Rio elected to go for it on 4th down. Jones-Drew also had two first down runs on 3rd and long to keep Jaguar drives alive. Once again, MJD proved to be a receiving threat as well making 5 catches for 30 yards.

But it was Taylor who once again led the way and got the Jaguars within one win of returning to the AFC playoffs. For a guy who has played his entire football career in the Sunshine State where he grew up, the wintry mix was supposed to keep him in check on Sunday. Doubt it, “I love it,” said Taylor, who now has 46 career 100 yard games with 15 of them in December. “I heard some of our guys talking this week about the weather, and I told them they were making too big a deal out of it.” Taylor continues to lead this team on and off the field as the Jaguars now control their own destiny.

 A win against the Raiders this Sunday would ensure the Jags will be playing in January and their first round game could very well be right back here in Pittsburgh, with similar conditions. Not that’s necessarily a bad thing, “The Jaguars are the Pittsburgh of the South,” said Willie Parker, who admired what the Jags did on Sunday from both sides of the ball. “The weather was kind of bad, and they came in like they’ve been playing in it for a while. We’ve got to use our weather to our advantage.” Del Rio agreed, “We know we have to play in this kind of weather in order to advance in the AFC tournament, so it was a good experience.” The Jags have the 3rd best record in the AFC at 10-4 but since the Indianapolis Colts clinched the AFC south division again, the Jaguars sit in 5th place with the top wild card spot.

Game ball goes to………Fred Taylor. You can make a case for the entire offense from the offensive line to Garrard to the receivers, but bottom line is Taylor was the game breaker again for Jacksonville.

The Jacksonville Jaguars showed up on Sunday with a mission and played with a vengeance. Led once again by the familiar faces of David Garrard, Fred Taylor and the solid defensive corps, the Jags routed the Panthers 37-6 to improve to 9-4 on the year. Sitting comfortably with the top wild card spot in the AFC playoff picture, the Jaguars head north to face the Steelers, who took a spanking at the hands of the New England Patriots 34-13. The Steelers are the only AFC North team Jacksonville will play this season. For now, let’s recap the dominating win by the Jags on Sunday!

What more can you possibly say about David Garrard? The 6 year veteran quarterback provided yet another stellar game under center. Garrard completed 20 out of his 36 passes for 230 yards and threw 2 more touchdowns. Garrard again protected the ball extremely well by not throwing an interception as he now has 13 touchdowns compared to 1 interception with three games remaining. David’s quarterback rating for the season actually dropped from 104.7 down to 103.3 and he played a flawless game. He eclipsed the 2,000 yard mark for the first time in his career and his game management continues to impress people around the NFL.

Another impressive performance was turned in by cornerstone running back Fred Taylor. Fred has essentially discarded the “Fragile Fred” label and has had a resurgence in the past two seasons. Playing with fire and determination again because he is finally healthy, Taylor is unquestionably the leader of the team and continues to lead by example every Sunday. Taylor put up 132 yards on just 18 carries including a franchise record 80 yard touchdown run. It was just the third touchdown of the year for Taylor as once again he had to break a long run to get in the end zone. It does not seem too fair to the longest tenured player on the squad that he can’t get any handoffs inside the red zone. I understand MoJo is more of a power back and bowls his way into the end zone but Taylor has taken it to the house enough times throughout his career that he deserves more opportunities.

The receiving corps once again did a good enough job to be productive and get in the end zone more then once. Reggie Williams started the scoring by catching a short pass and breaking a couple tackles for a 22 yard touchdown catch. Matt Jones continues to see limited playing time but snatched a 6 yard touchdown toss from Garrard for his second score of the season. If Jones were healthy the Jaguars would be a very scary passing team. For now though, Garrard must continue to get the ball into the hands of his top three receiving options is Dennis Northcutt, Ernest Wilford and the aforementioned Reggie Williams. Williams had another solid game grabbing five balls for 90 yards including the one TD. Wilford had a mediocre day, catching four passes for just 38 yards but continues to have a quietly productive season. Northcutt who has consistently led the Jags receivers for most of the year had just three catches for 37 yards. The fact is that Garrard spreads the ball out nicely and uses all of his targets whether it is a receiver, tight end or running back.

With the return of All Pro defensive tackle Marcus Stroud, the Jaguars defense was in control from the first snap of the game. As I wrote in last weeks column, the defense needed to shut down Steve Smith and Drew Carter to ensure DeShean Foster would have a rough day. To say the defense shut them down would be an understatement. The jags pressured Vinny Testaverde and prevented Smith from making the big play all day. Clint Ingram picked off Testaverde in the beginning of the fourth quarter and returned it for a touchdown to ice the game. Testaverde finished 13 for 28 throwing for 84 yards and no touchdowns before being lifted in favor for rookie Matt Moore, who did not fare much better. Foster carried the ball only 11 times for 46 yards as the Carolina offense simply could not get anything going.

Next up for the Jaguars are the Pittsburgh Steelers, who also sit at 9-4 but lead the AFC North division and are in 3rd place overall in the conference. The jags match up quite well with the gold and black but it will come down to execution again. Can the Jaguars take advantage of the Steelers who are coming off a lopsided loss against the Patriots? Find out later on the week as I go inside the huddle and pick out what each team will need to do.