Take some happy pills and focus on the Texans

Look, we all know that David Garrard and Jack Del Rio's careers could be on the line this week. The controversy surrounding Garrard's finger injury has caused a lot of talk and certainly has raised some eyebrows. Jack Del Rio could be coaching to keep his job. Controversy is fun, and it's very easy to get dragged into the rumblings. I know, it's reaaaaally fun. Still, we can't let that distract from the task at hand. Whatever may be happening off the field must be secondary to the game itself. The Jaguars have a chance to have their first winning season since 2007, and as a fan, I certainly don't want the Jaguars to end the season on a three game losing streak.

We've seen the Texans once before this year. When we played them at home in the early part of our season, the Jaguars won a pretty evenly fought battle on the now-famous Hail Mary play. Glover Quin deserves an Emmy for all the drama he created with the "Q-tip." Of course, the situation has changed greatly since that game. With Garrard receiving surgery today on his finger and Jones-Drew still not a lock to play with his knee injury, it will fall on Trent Edwards to utilize Mike Thomas and Marcedes Lewis in the passing game against the absolutely terrible Texans defense. Thomas is having a good year for the Jaguars, leading the team with 65 catches for 804 yards. With a decent game on Sunday, he will officially have the best receiving season for a Jaguar since Jimmy Smith in 2005.

Houston has set a very unique NFL record this season: They are the first team to come back from a 14-point deficit to tie or retake the lead and then lose four times in one season. Ouch. They've lost 6 of their last 7 games in the fourth quarter. Ouch. They will be without Mario Williams, who is on IR, and Andre Johnson is not necessarily going to be able to go either. This is a team the Jaguars should beat. The problem is: so was the game last week. After losing to the Colts, it would be easy to consider the Redskins game a "letdown game." This week, there is no excuse and there is no reason to think that the Texans should break their four game plunge on a team with the playoffs still a possibility for the Jaguars. Injuries are going to hurt the Jaguars, but we cannot allow these distractions to take away from the importance of this game.