Starting LT Khalif Barnes was arrested and charged on Saturday with DUI.  He’s out of jail but his status is unknown for the game against the Texans.

The Texans will try to sweep the Jaguars after punishing them just three weeks ago (27-7)!  The Jaguars will be looking for revenge and they’ve played well since that beat down winning both of their games by a combined score of 50-13.

The Texans offense has looked much better the last three weeks.  Wali Lundy has been running the ball well and David Carr has been getting time to throw.  The Texans will try to run the ball first against the Jaguars with Lundy (309 yards rushing) against a tough Jags defense that allows 98.3 yards rushing per game and 3.6 yards per carry.  If Carr keeps getting protection against the Jags, he could have success throwing the ball to Andre Johnson (65 rec, 732 yards), Eric Moulds and TE Owen Daniels.

The Jaguars with revenge on the mind will try to beat up the Texans defense physically with their running game.  Fred Taylor (633 yards rushing) and Maurice Drew (320 yards rushing) will keep the offense humming against the Texans who allow 133.0 yards rushing per game and 4.5 yards per carry.  QB David Garrard is also a threat to run the ball, but he will likely try to pass short off of play-action and he should have success against a very giving pass defense of the Texans (216.5 net yards passing).

I think the Jags will probably get their revenge on Sunday, but the Texans should come into this game very confident because of the beating they administered just three weeks ago to the Jags.  This will be a much better game than most people think it will and the Texans will definately cover the 10.5 point spread.

Rookie defensive end Brent Hawkins will miss the rest of the season for the Jaguars.  He finished his rookie season with 2 sacks.  This hurts the Jags a bit because of all the injuries along the defensive line.

Coach Del Rio is planning on starting David Garrard until Byron Leftwich is 100%, which likely won’t be until next season as Leftwich’s ankle could need surgery to repair it.  Leftwich is trying to gut out the injury, but Del Rio thinks that Leftwich favors the ankle and that it will hurt the team.

Leftwich has completed 59.0% of his passes for 1,159 yards with 7 TDs and 5 INTs.  Leftwich has a QB rating this season of 79.0 which is about average.  Byron is a much better passer than Garrard is, but Garrard is much more mobile especially with Leftwich’s ankle bothering him.  It is possible that the Jags will entertain trade offers in the off-season for Leftwich if Garrard continues to play well.

David Garrard is a scrambling type QB that likes to roll the pocket.  Garrard doesn’t have the gun that Leftwich has, but his arm is strong enough to get by.  He has completed 56.4% of his passes for 264 yards with 3 TDs and 0 INTs.  Garrard has a QB rating of 102.9 and has looked good in leading the team on the field.  Garrard also is a good runner with 10 carries for 50 yards so far this season.

David Garrard led an efficient Jags offense in a rainstorm.  Garrard completed 12 of 22 passes for 177 yards and 3 TDs, he also carried the ball 2 times for 14 yards.  Fred Taylor had an outstanding game with 13 carries for 79 yards (6.1 ypc).  Maurice Drew carried the ball 8 times for 56 yards (7.0 ypc) and caught 2 passes for 29 yards.  Matt Jones caught 3 passes for 66 yards in his first game back from injury.  Ernest Wilford had a huge game with 3 catches for 44 yards and 2 TDs.  George Wrighster only caught 1 pass, but it was a 14 TD reception.

LB Clint Ingram led the way on the defense with 10 tackles.  CB Rashean Mathis had another great game with 4 tackles and 2 interceptions!  DB Scott Starks had 3 tackles and an interception that he returned 55 yards for a TD.  The Titans ran the ball 32 times for 108 yards (3.4 ypc).  The Jags allowed the Titans to complete 15 of 36 passes for 154 net yards passing.