With the 2007 season over for the Jacksonville Jaguars, they can now sit down and look back at what was considered a very good year. After the 2006 season ended like a bad nightmare by losing their final three games and miss out on the playoffs, the Jaguars wasted little time getting the bad taste out of their mouths.

It started right after the preseason schedule concluded when Head Coach Jack Del Rio abruptly changed his mind and cut starting quarterback Byron Leftwich. Insert career backup David Garrard. This is where every football analyst and fan raised their eyebrows and scratched their heads thinking about how dumb Del Rio is. People across the country were taking bets as to which team Del Rio would become defensive coordinator for after Jacksonville floundered in the regular season and Del Rio would get canned. 17 weeks later it was Del Rio who got the last laugh as he had a new challenge; preparing for a playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Garrard was playing quite well through the first quarter of the season, leading the Jags to a 3-1 record before getting hurt on Monday Night Football against the Colts. After losing to Indy, it would have been easy for the Jaguars to fold with the inexperienced Quinn Gray under center. But Gray held his own and won two out of the three games he started in place of Garrard and from there Jacksonville found their identity as a team.

Led by the resurgent Fred Taylor, who has been the subject of just about every article I have written here, the Jaguars boasted the NFL’s second best rushing attack. Second year back Maurice Jones-Drew avoided a sophomore slump as he once again proved he can play at a very high level in the league. Forget all the touchdowns MoJo scores, it was evident that the 5’7 212lb. human bowling ball can hold his own when he planted Charger linebacker and steroid user Shawn Merriman flat on his back while blocking out of the back field. Taylor, who finally will be going to the Pro Bowl, was a little slow out of the gate but started racking up yards and touchdowns while continuing to lead the team as a captain.

 The Jaguars have a lot to look forward to going into 2008 as Del Rio has already let it be known what he wants and that is the AFC South crown. Jacksonville will need to make a couple of minor additions but nothing serious as they are already well built for next year.

It is no secret this week. The Jacksonville Jaguars are the underdogs going into their Divisional Playoff game against the only undefeated team since 1972. Listed as 13 point favorites, the New England Patriots will look to keep their magical season alive against what should be their most difficult match up to date. Everyone knows how lethal the Patriot offense is, led by NFL MVP quarterback Tom Brady and the resurrected Randy Moss, the Patriots put up 589 points and 79 touchdowns as a team which are both NFL records. The Jaguars will either make history or become another chapter in New England’s, here’s how Jacksonville can pull off the upset.

KEEP TOM BRADY ON THE SIDELINE

How do you keep Brady, Moss and company from putting points on the board? Make them watch impatiently from the sideline. The only way Jacksonville can do that is if the dynamic duo of Pro Bowl running back Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew are effective on the ground. Picking up about four yards a carry, which hasn’t been a problem for these two as Taylor averaged 5.4 during the regular season and MJD averaged 4.6 a carry, is pivotal for Jacksonville’s offense to stay on the field. By running the ball efficiently, the Jaguars can control the clock and tempo but most of all it will allow quarterback David Garrard to be relaxed and utilize the play action. This will be the most crucial part of the game for the Jaguars because the Patriots can score, on anyone, and the best defense against a team like this is a good offense.

 HIT THEM IN THE MOUTH

This shouldn’t be a problem at all for Jacksonville as they are known for being one of the more physical teams in the league. On both sides of the ball, the jags are very physical and play a smash mouth type of football that could present some problems for the Patriots who are more of a finesse team. The defensive front seven of Jacksonville are not afraid to mix it up, therefore watch for some heavy hitting. If the Jags can make their presence known early, they could make Tom Brady a little uncomfortable sitting in the pocket which could lead to some bad throws.

 GET TO BRADY

If the Jaguars want any chance of moving onto the next round then they have no choice but to put Brady under attack, often. There isn’t a quarterback in the league who likes to consistently feel heat from the defense. The Jags sacked Big Ben 6 times last week and in turn forced him to throw three interceptions. Even though Brady is the MVP of the league, if he gets enough pressure in his face there’s a good chance he will make a mistake. The Jaguars secondary, led by cornerback Rashean Mathis have to make sure Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Donte Stallworth are covered well when Brady gets pressured. If the coverage is bad then Brady still has the ability to hit his receivers when their open. Mathis will have his hands full with Moss but he will have over-the-top help from safeties Reggie Nelson and Sammy Knight. That leaves Brian Williams with an important role covering Stallworth and nickel back Terry Cousin trying to slow down Welker, who has had a well documented career season. Simply put, the Jags defense has their work cut out for them but if they can set an early physical presence then they could set the tone for the rest of the game.

KEY MATCHUPS

Here’s a look at some of the important match ups in the game:

      Jacksonville offensive line vs. New England front seven. The Patriots run a 3-4 style defense similar to what Pittsburgh had last week so tight end Mercedes Lewis and fullback Greg Jones will have to get to the linebackers quicker to open holes for Taylor and MoJo.

      Jaguars defensive line vs. Patriot offensive line. If defensive end Paul Spicer and his line mates can break the offensive line of New England then Jacksonville will have the opportunity to blitz their linebackers to put Tom Brady under fire.

      Taylor and Jones-Drew vs. Patriots aged linebackers. It is well known that the Patriots run defense is overrated and that they do not have a linebacker under the age of 30. The Jaguars blocking on Junior Seau, Adalius Thomas, Mike Vrabel and Tedy Bruschi should enable Taylor and MoJo to exploit the 16-0 Patriots only perceived “weakness.”

      Mathis vs. Moss. This should be a good one as the Jaguars top corner goes toe to toe with the leagues’ best receiver. If Mathis can keep Moss in check then it will make life easier for the other defensive backs.

      Terry Cousin vs. Wes Welker. This match up might be the most important, for both teams. Brady relies on his slot receiver for big plays and it is up to Cousin to keep that from happening.

If the Jaguars can play a flawless game and they will need to against a team this good, then there is no reason why Jacksonville can’t pull off the biggest upset of the year. The pressure is all on the Patriots, they are expected to win the Super Bowl but it is the Jaguars who have nothing to lose and you never want to play a team that has nothing to lose.

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.

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.

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.