With the loss to the Washington Redskins the Jacksonville Jaguars eliminated themselves from Wild Card contention. The AFC South division is still up for grabs, but it requires the Tennessee Titans to beat the Indianapolis Colts. Everyone seems to be worrying about if the Titans will beat the Colts. Forget about it, worry about the Jaguars beating the Texans. Nothing else matters at this point. Forget about the playoffs, just win the damn game.
I've already accepted that the Jaguars aren't going to make the playoffs in 2010. I didn't think they would to start the season, but they certainly overachieved and set themselves up to be in position to make it, only to squander it away again. Instead of worrying about the Titans beating the Colts, which I see as very unlikely, the Jaguars should focus on beating the Texans again in Houston. Worry about finishing the season above .500 for the first time since 2007. Worry about not losing three of the last five games and losing at least the last 3 games of the season for the third season in a row (well, 3 of the last 4 in 2008).
Jaguars fans are already furious. Many want to fire Del Rio. Many want to cut David Garrard right now. All of those feelings are warranted and understandable, but if the Jaguars can't close out the season with a victory and a 9-7 record, it's just going to get worse.
In the last match up with the Houston Texans the Jaguars won on a Hail Mary pass from David Garrard to wide receiver Mike Thomas. Garrard had 350+ passing yards. He's going up again against a defense who just let Tim Tebow throw for 300+ yards. The Jaguars are facing a crumbling 5-10 Houston Texans team who seems to find ways to lose football games, just like last week when the Broncos came back from 17 points down to win the game. It's a team who's coach is a dead man walking and fans are holding a "Fire Kubiak" rally prior to the football game.
This game is a lot like last Sunday against the Washington Redskins. The Redskins had no business winning that football game. The Jaguars allowed them to win the game with bad turnovers, poor special teams, and ill-timed costly penalties. The Jaguars, who are typically one of the lower penalized teams this season, had 7 penalties for 66 yards. The game started with a bad Jaguars penalty when kicker Josh Scobee was called for a face-mask on the kick return and just went downhill from there.
Instead of worrying about who needs to do what for the Jaguars to get into the playoffs, they need to first worry about winning.
Without a win, it doesn't matter what happens.