Game Preview
Minnesota Vikings at Jacksonville Jaguars
sunday, november 23, 2008 - 1:00 pm
*Jaguars look to bounce back against Vikings*
MINNESOTA (5-5) AT JACKSONVILLE (4-6), 1:00 pm EST
JACKSONVILLE, Florida (Ticker) -- The Jacksonville Jaguars played a solid 30 minutes of football, putting themselves in position to cut down the last of the unbeatens in the NFL.
But after a lackluster second half resulted in a loss to the Tennessee Titans, the Jaguars will look to maintain some kind of playoff hope against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
Jacksonville led, 14-3, at halftime last Sunday and appeared poised to end the Titans' 12-game winning streak while improving to .500 on the season.
However, Kerry Collins threw three second-half touchdowns and the Jaguars were held off the scoreboard, suffering a crippling blow to their playoff chances.
"You have to give them credit," said Jacksonville running back Fred Taylor, who ran for 58 yards on 12 carries. "They came out and played their style of ball. They're 10-0, they deserve to be 10-0. We're 4-6 and we deserve to be 4-6 at this point.
"It's a 60-minute game, not 30 minutes. You have to finish the game. You have to give Tennessee credit, they came in here and did what they were supposed to do."
Maurice Jones-Drew scored a pair of touchdowns in the first half, but Jacksonville was not able to put anything together in the second half, accumulating just three first downs.
The Jaguars punted six times, turned the ball over on downs and lost the ball on David Garrard's interception in eight possessions. Garrard finished just 13-of-30 for 135 yards.
"We have to stop talking about the little things almost being there and how close we are because that is not going to get you wins," Garrard said. "Following through and finishing on the little things, we have to do a better job on that."
The Vikings endured a second-half meltdown of their own, surrendering a seven-point halftime lead while also being shut out after the break in a 19-13 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Vikings had a chance to take over sole possession of first place in the NFC North, but the NFL's leading rusher, Adrian Peterson, was limited to just 85 yards on 19 carries.
Peterson was held out of the end zone for the first time since Week Six and had his four-game streak of rushing for at least 100 yards snapped.
"We knew we would have to come down here and play error-free football," Minnesota coach Brad Childress said. "The last 12 games, those guys are 10-2 down here, they've got 21 takeaways, and we knew we weren't going to be able to do that."
Minnesota managed just 210 yards of total offense and lost a pair of fumbles.
But with Green Bay's 37-3 rout of Chicago, the trio of teams sit in a tie for the division lead at 5-5.
