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Pats meet Jaguars in rematch from playoff game last season

Dec 24, 2006 - 5:46 PM New England (10-4) at Jacksonville (8-6) Sunday 1:00 pm EST

JACKSONVILLE, Florida (Ticker) -- The Jacksonville Jaguars were beaten by the New England Patriots in a wild-card round game last January. Both would like to make the playoffs again.

The Patriots can clinch their fourth straight AFC East title with a win over the Jaguars on Sunday or a loss by the New York Jets, who visit Miami on Christmas Day.

The Jaguars can also seal their second straight postseason berth with wins in their last two games against New England and at Kansas City. Jacksonville is tied with Cincinnati, Denver and the New York Jets for the two wild-card spots.

Tom Brady threw for 201 yards and three touchdowns and cornerback Asante Samuel scored on a 73-yard interception return to lead the Patriots to a 28-3 triumph over the Jaguars in last season's playoff contest.

Neither team was able to establish a running game. Corey Dillon of the Patriots was limited to 40 yards on 17 carries and Jacksonville's Fred Taylor gained 24 yards on eight carries.

A two-time Super Bowl MVP, Brady has extra incentive for this game after not being selected to the Pro Bowl. Peyton Manning was named as the starting quarterback and Carson Palmer of Cincinnati and Philip Rivers of San Diego were selected as the AFC reserves ahead of Brady, who has passed for more yards and touchdowns than Rivers.

David Garrard has replaced injured Byron Leftwich as Jacksonville's starting quarterback. Leftwich underwent left ankle surgery on November 21 and will miss the rest of the season.

The Jaguars are 5-3 since Garrard took over as the starter, although the team relies on a rushing offense which ranks second in the league.

But Jacksonville will have to make do without Taylor, who will be sidelined with a strained hamstring. The Jaguars' leading rusher, Taylor aggravated the injury in the first quarter of last week's 24-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans.

Jacksonville is 6-1 at home, yielding just 9.1 points per game.

The Patriots have allowed an average of 13.8 points this season, ranking second to Baltimore (13.4).

Last week, the Patriots intercepted David Carr four times and Brady passed for two touchdowns in a 40-7 win over Houston.

Samuel is tied for the league lead with eight interceptions, but was not selected to the Pro Bowl. The only member of the Patriots named was defensive end Richard Seymour, who earned his fifth Pro Bowl berth in his six-year career.

The only member of the Jags to make the Pro Bowl was cornerback Rashean Mathis, who was selected for the first time.

Jacksonville ranks third in the league against the run, but tackles John Henderson and Marcus Stroud were not selected.

Taylor has rushed for 1,120 yards this season, but he had little chance of making the Pro Bowl in a conference with LaDainian Tomlinson, Larry Johnson and Willie Parker.

Last week, the Jaguars nearly quadrupled Tennessee in yards, 396-98, but lost to the Titans thanks to three turnovers by Garrard that were returned for touchdowns. Adam "Pacman" Jones and Chris Hope scored on interception returns of 83 and 61 yards, respectively, and rookie Cortland Finnegan picked up a fumble by Garrard and returned it 92 yards for a score.

Rookie Maurice Jones-Drew rushed for 98 yards on 25 carries and caught three passes for 47 yards for the Jaguars.