Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Houston Texans Pick: Week 17 Pick

Jacksonville is really up against it in this one. It knows that it needs a win and a loss by the Indianapolis Colts to win the AFC South and to get into the playoffs, something that isn’t likely to happen. To make matters worse, in this game that might be a do or die for Head Coach Jack Del Rio as well, he isn’t going to have his starting QB David Garrard or his Pro Bowl RB Maurice Jones-Drew. There aren’t a lot of offensive options to turn to at this point, as RB Rashad Jennings and QB Trent Edwards don’t exactly spark fear in the Houston defense, but this is a team that has a history of really showing some great grit and tenacity in spite of the fact that there are so many problems. The Jags don’t really have any problems on the defensive side of the ball in terms of health, but execution is a different story. They’re allowing 363.5 yards per game and 25.7 points per game, ranking No. 25 and No. 26 respectively in the league.

A disappointing season for the Texans finally comes to a close on Sunday, and you can bet that there are a lot of fans coming to Reliant Stadium merely to root for the team to lose. Not only would that mean a better draft choice in this coming NFL Draft, but it would probably also mean the departure for Head Coach Gary Kubiak, something that caused a rally to spark in Houston last week. Needless to say, the team has gone the wrong direction this year, though there are clearly a number of games that easily could have gone the other way. Not only has that gone wrong, but LB DeMeco Ryans, DE Mario Williams, and WR Andre Johnson have all missed extensive time this year, and these are three of the cornerstones on this team. QB Matt Schaub has thrown for 4,116 yards this year and could still reasonably end up with the passing title, while RB Arian Foster, who has rumbled for 1,436 yards and has a total of 16 TDs, can become the first man in franchise history to run for 1,500 yards in a year with a decent game against Jacksonville.

We’ve learned our lesson one too many times with these Texans. They just find ways to lose games regardless of who the other team is on the field. The oddsmakers didn’t learn when they made Houston a favorite against the Denver Broncos last week, and they didn’t learn this week either. We know that Edwards is going to have to have a big game for the Jags to pull off this “upset,” but if Tim Tebow can do it, he can do it, too.