Category: In The News

Texans, Jaguars Facing QB Questions Again

It matters for one. It’s moot for the other.

The Texans likely lost Matt Leinart for the season because of a broken collarbone in Sunday’s 20-13 victory against the Jaguars. The injury comes two weeks after starter Matt Schaub suffered a season-ending foot injury.

The Jaguars benched rookie Blaine Gabbert in the fourth quarter, turning things back over to journeyman Luke McCown.

For Houston (8-3), losing Leinart would mean the franchise’s playoff hopes are in the hands of a third-string quarterback. For Jacksonville (3-8), benching Gabbert means little in a season in which the only remaining question is if coach Jack Del Rio gets fired.

Leinart injured his throwing shoulder in the second quarter Sunday. He said all indications point to a broken collarbone, but coach Gary Kubiak said X-rays were inconclusive.

“There’s a pretty strong possibility I probably won’t be coming back this season,” Leinart said. “It’s pretty disappointing. It’s tough to swallow, but we’ll just move forward. Everything that’s happened to me, this was a great opportunity. … It’s unfortunate, but I’m not going to give up. It’s not my nature. I’ll just keep moving forward and figure this thing out one step at a time.”

Assuming Leinart is done for the season, it would be a serious setback for a team that is closing in on its first AFC South title. Sure, the Texans have one of the league’s best running games. But as Jacksonville showed, Arian Foster and Ben Tate will have a tough time carrying the load against eight- and nine-man fronts.

Foster ran for 65 yards and a score, with 43 of them coming on one carry, and Tate added 26 yards on the ground. Along with Leinart’s perfect touchdown pass to Joel Dreessen and a defensive effort that included seven sacks — Connor Barwin had four of them — it was enough for Houston to win its fifth consecutive game.

“I’m very proud of this team,” Kubiak said. “It’s hard to win in this league, and when you face some of the adversity we’ve faced and will be facing again, and to continue to find a way to win, that’s a sign of a very solid football team.”

But with Schaub (foot) and Leinart out, the Texans are down to T.J. Yates and newly signed Kellen Clemens.

Yates completed 8 of 15 passes for 70 yards in relief of Leinart, doing just enough to help the Texans win. Houston led 20-10 at halftime, but managed just 47 yards and two first downs in the second half.

Del Rio benched Gabbert after six sacks and an interception. McCown led the team to a late field goal, but his fourth-down pass with about a minute remaining fell incomplete.

Del Rio said Gabbert remains the team’s starter.

“Blaine is our starting quarterback until I tell you otherwise,” Del Rio said.

Of course, Del Rio said the same thing about David Garrard in the preseason before cutting him five days before the opener. And said the same thing about McCown until benching him after two games.

“Offensively, we just are struggling to generate enough productivity to have any fun,” Del Rio said. “It’s tough to win in this league when you’re not scoring. … We are working hard at it, but we are just not making enough plays.”

Leinart, making his first start in two years, was hit hard by defensive end Jeremy Mincey late in the second quarter. He went to the sideline, headed to the locker room for tests and did not return.

Leinart completed 10 of 13 passes for 57 yards and a touchdown, a 20-yard pass to Dreessen under heavy pressure. He got hurt on the next possession.

Yates replaced him and drove the Texans into position for a field goal that put them ahead 20-10 at the break.

Jacksonville outgained Houston 255-215. But Josh Scobee missed a 55-yard field goal and Marcedes Lewis dropped a pass in the end zone with no one around him. It was the latest in a growing list of drops for the former Pro Bowl tight end. His latest one prompted Jacksonville to settle for a short field goal.

Jacksonville’s only touchdown came on Ashton Youboty’s 38-yard fumble return on the opening series. Foster fumbled for the first time in 172 carries this season.

“There are no excuses,” said running back Maurice Jones-Drew, who finished with 166 yards from scrimmage. “We aren’t playing well. That’s it. Teams are beating us. They aren’t beating us because they are outscoring us. They are beating us because we can’t score points on offense.

“To score six points today is ridiculous, complete nonsense.”

Notes: Texans WR Andre Johnson, back in the starting lineup after missing six games because of a hamstring injury, caught two passes for 22 yards. … Neil Rackers’ 53-yard FG tied the franchise record. … Jaguars C Brad Meester played in his 172nd career game, breaking the previous franchise record held by Jimmy Smith. … Jones-Drew has 1,040 yards rushing, his third consecutive 1,000-yard season.

Jaguars Come Up Short in 14-10 Loss to Browns

The Jaguars’ comeback came up short. They couldn’t take the final step.

Rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert threw an incomplete pass into the end zone on the game’s last snap, capping a curious sequence of plays by Jacksonville in the closing seconds and giving the Cleveland Browns a 14-10 win Sunday over the Jaguars.

Gabbert, who had some good and bad moments, threw behind wide receiver Mike Thomas in the middle of the end zone with the ball bouncing off Thomas’s outstretched hands, denying the Jaguars (3-7) a victory that was within reach.

“Plain and simple, I have to make a play,” Gabbert said. “I have to find a way for us to score. That’s on me. I have to learn from that and get better. At the end of the day, it’s my job to score a touchdown.”

After Browns kicker Phil Dawson missed a 38-yard field goal with less than three minutes left, Gabbert drove Jacksonville from its own 29 to Cleveland’s 5, helped along by a pass interference call against the Browns. But with the end zone and a thrilling victory right in front of them, the Jaguars got bogged down when they couldn’t afford to.

On third down, Maurice Jones-Drew picked up 3 yards and a first at Cleveland’s 2 with 33 seconds left. Coach Jack Del Rio elected not to use his only timeout, and by the time the Jaguars snapped the ball again, 20 seconds had elapsed. Jones-Drew then picked up another yard and Del Rio called time with 8 seconds left.

Del Rio said the play took too long to run.

“We were way too deliberate,” Del Rio said. “You get lined up in that situation for sure. It wasn’t a matter of the timeout after that play, it was a matter of how long we sat there to get that (first down) play off. It was not what it needed to be.”

On second down, Gabbert’s pass to the back corner of the end zone bounced off wide receiver Jason Hill’s chest with 3 seconds left. Browns cornerback Joe Haden believed he got a hand on Gabbert’s throw.

Then, on the final play, Gabbert couldn’t connect with Thomas, allowing the Browns to escape.

Gabbert wasn’t going to second-guess anything that happened. He just wants to learn from the experience.

“Hindsight is 20-20,” said Gabbert, who went 22 of 41 for 210 yards. “Everyone is going to have their opinion and think they have the best play to call, but it’s our job to go out and execute. We’ve got to put the ball in the end zone.”

Jones-Drew rushed for 87 yards and a 6-yard TD.

Del Rio was asked why he didn’t give the ball to his best player on the last play.

“”You can make a case for doing that,” Del Rio said. “You can guess any number of plays when you don’t connect. We had two guys with the ball in the air in the vicinity — missed opportunities.”

Jones-Drew didn’t second-guess the late-game decisions. He reasoned that wouldn’t change the final score.

“It hurts every time you lose, especially when you have an opportunity to win,” he said. “We’ve just got to keep working. Somehow, some way, the locker room has to get tired of losing. That’s on the offensive side. Ten points is not going to win the game in this league at all. Our defense has been good week after week. We’ve got to make plays.

“If you can’t make plays, there’s no need to be playing football.”

When the Jaguars moved inside Cleveland’s 10, quarterback Colt McCoy took a knee on the sideline, closed his eyes and the young quarterback asked for some help from above.

This week, the Browns got it.

“There’s nothing wrong with praying,” McCoy said. “We deserved this one.”

Last week, the Browns lost 13-12 to the St. Louis Rams when Cleveland botched a snap and reliable kicker Phil Dawson missed a 22-yard field goal try. This one nearly ended under similar circumstances as Jacksonville’s final drive was set up by Dawson missing a 38-yarder that sailed over the top of the right post.

“Everybody played their hearts out and it’s about time it went our way,” said Browns linebacker D’Qwell Jackson, who covered Thomas tightly on the final play. “We knew it was up to us. Right there. We had to make the play and we did.”

McCoy shook off an apparent shoulder injury and threw a 3-yard TD pass to Josh Cribbs in the fourth to give Cleveland a 14-10 lead. But Dawson’s stunning miss with 2:49 left gave the Jaguars (3-7) a final chance and Gabbert, who had some good and bad moments, nearly pulled off the comeback.

Notes: Browns RB Chris Ogbonnaya rushed for 115 yards and scored on a 1-yard run … Jaguars LBs Clint Session, Matt Roth and CB Kevin Rutland left with head injuries. Del Rio provided no details. … Jaguars TE Mercedes Lewis had 7 catches for 64 yards. … Jaguars S Dawan Landry intercepted McCoy near the end zone in the third. … Jacksonville’s TD drive took 18 plays, covered 92 yards and ate up 9:53.

Texans Handle Jaguars in 24-14 Victory

Arian Foster rushed for 112 yards and a touchdown, and Houston shut down rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert and the NFL’s worst offense in a 24-14 win over the Jaguars on Sunday.

Matt Schaub threw a touchdown pass and ran for another score for Houston (5-3), off to its best eight-game start. The Texans also took one more step toward the franchise’s first division title and playoff berth by improving to 3-0 in the AFC South.

“We knew it was going to be a tough, dirty game,” said Houston linebacker Brian Cushing, who led his team with seven tackles. “In this league, it’s tough to get a win. We just had to do what we had to do.”

The Texans have outscored their division opponents by a total score of 99-28. This was the closest of the three games, mostly due to two Houston fumbles that led to Jacksonville touchdowns.

Schaub completed 16 of 30 passes and was sacked twice, and the Texans once again missed star receiver Andre Johnson, who sat out for the fourth straight game with a hamstring injury.

Unlike past seasons, Houston can rely on its defense to pick up the slack.

The Texans stayed in control by holding Jacksonville to 61 yards and five first downs in the second half. Gabbert, making his sixth career start, completed 10 of 30 passes for 97 yards and two interceptions in the game, for an anemic 26.7 rating.

“We had a defense that stood up and said, ‘We’re gonna win the game,'” Houston coach Gary Kubiak said. “They were excellent all day, exceptional.”

The Jaguars (2-6) couldn’t carry over momentum from their surprising 12-7 win over Baltimore on Monday night. Maurice Jones-Drew was limited to 63 yards on 18 carries, and says the entire offense bears some of the blame for Gabbert’s struggles.

“We have to continue to give him time in the pocket. We have to catch the ball when he throws it,” Jones-Drew said. “The quarterback is only as good as the players around him. So obviously, if he’s not doing well, we’re not doing well.”

The Texans got off to another fast start, scoring on their opening series for the fifth time. Schaub went 4 for 5 and then sprinted for a 2-yard touchdown with 8:21 left in the first quarter.

Jacksonville’s sixth-ranked defense held Baltimore to 34 yards rushing Monday night, but Houston matched that total on its first three possessions.

Gabbert was hurt on Jacksonville’s first series. Forced to scramble, he slid awkwardly at the end of an 11-yard run and was hit by safety Glover Quin and Cushing.

Trainers helped Gabbert off the field with bruised ribs, and Luke McCown replaced him. Gabbert returned on Jacksonville’s next possession, then threw five straight incompletions.

The Texans’ offense bogged down, too, failing to convert three consecutive third downs.

“We wanted to get everyone involved,” Schaub said. “We had some opportunities down the field, and I missed a few of the throws. I’ve got to make those plays for us to be successful as an offense.”

A slick play by Jacksonville’s defense midway through the second quarter created the Jaguars’ best scoring chance of the game.

Clint Session sacked Schaub and forced a fumble, triggering an impromptu double-lateral. Defensive end Matt Roth scooped it up, then flipped the ball backward to defensive tackle Terrance Knighton. Knighton chugged 7 yards, then pitched to Session who reached the Texans 10 before Foster tackled him.

Two snaps later, Gabbert threw a short TD pass to Jason Hill, Jacksonville’s first touchdown since the third quarter of a 17-13 loss to Pittsburgh two weeks ago.

The Jaguars were lucky to be tied at halftime after producing 113 yards in the half.

“We are working our butts off,” Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio said, “and I’d sure like to have a little more validation for the type of effort that’s being put forth.”

Jacoby Jones returned a punt to the Jaguars 44 early in the third quarter, and Schaub threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Joel Dreessen.

Jason Allen intercepted Gabbert’s pass to Mike Sims-Walker on the first play of the fourth quarter, and the Texans stretched the lead on Foster’s 4-yard touchdown run.

Jones-Drew scored on a drive set up by Ben Tate’s fumble. The Texans used nearly the rest of the time to set up Neil Rackers’ 39-yard field goal.

Notes: Foster has 12 100-yard rushing games, a franchise record. … Texans LB Darryl Sharpton is out for the season after tearing a tendon in his right leg. … Jaguars PK Josh Scobee had his streak of 15 games with a field goal snapped. … Jacksonville is 5-9 in the week after playing a Monday night game.