Battle Red Massacre

The Houston Texans don’t play on Monday Night Football often, but maybe they should. The Texans continued their dominance over the Jacksonville Jaguars, 30-17 in front of a national audience. The Texans resembled the playoff contender that many thought they would be entering the season.

The Texans drew first blood on their opening possession as starting quarterback Sage Rosenfels drove the team down the field with relative ease as he went two for three for 43 yards including a 31 yard touchdown strike to Andre Johnson to put the Texans up 7-0.

Following an exchange of Rosenfels and Garrard interceptions, the Texans took over at the Jacksonville 48 yard line and marched into the red zone before their drive stalled. Kris Brown booted a 38-yard field goal to give the Texans a 10-0 first quarter advantage.

Following the Jaguars second turnover in their first three possessions as running back Maurice Jones-Drew fumbled away the ball at the Jacksonville 28. The Texans couldn’t make good on their gift as they went backwards and were forced into a Matt Turk punt.

The Texans defense was strong throughout the first half and held the Jacksonville offense to just 113 net yards. Mario Williams had four tackles and one sack by intermission, and Andre Johnson had six first half receptions for 67 yards and a touchdown.

The Houston offense was aided by a big Jacoby Jones punt return which put them in business at the Jacksonville 38. Although the Texans offense couldn’t register a first down, they did manage to get three points on a 50-yard Kris Brown field goal.

The Jaguars finally put a crooked number on the scoreboard when David Garrard and Fred Taylor helped lead the team down the field all the way to the red zone. Then the Jaguars offense predictably bogged down and Josh Scobee connected on a 29-yard field goal.

Immediately following the field goal, the Jaguars inexplicably tried an onsides kick which Houston promptly recovered and thus granted a short field. Houston took advantage of the short field as Sage Rosenfels hit Steve Slaton on a screen pass for 46 yards that took the ball down to the three-yard line. The Texans failed to punch it in, but Kris Brown booted his third field goal of the night, this one from 20 yards to put Houston up 16-3.

Mario Williams sacked Jaguars quarterback David Garrard for the third time, this time causing a fumble which defensive tackle Jeff Zgonina recovered. Steve Slaton did the honors as he was barely touched on his way to the end zone. Steve Slaton added more insult to injury as the Texans recovered another onsides kick and took a handoff 40 yards to the house for his second score in 13 seconds. Slaton finished with 130 yards on 21 carries.

The Texans defense forced timely turnovers and was able to shut down the Jaguars offense for much of the game. Mario Williams had six tackles, three sacks and a forced fumble, and safety Eugene Wilson had seven tackles. The Jacksonville defense was played better than the 30 points they gave up, but faltered at the end.

Houston didn’t do much on offense, but they took advantage of the myriad of Jacksonville mistakes to secure their fifth victory of the season and thus climb out of last place.