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Jags stun Texans on Hail Mary pass on game's final play

Nov 15, 2010 - 3:11 AM Jacksonville, FL (Sports Network) - Mike Thomas caught a deflected ball on a Hail Mary pass from David Garrard on the final play of the game to give Jacksonville a 31-24 win over Houston at EverBank Field.

"(Glover Quin) had one or two options - either knock it down or catch it," said Texans head coach Gary Kubiak. "If you are under no distress or anything then just catch the ball. He did what we coached him to do. I couldn't see it from where I was, but it obviously got tipped up to one of their players."

Garrard threw for 342 yards and two touchdowns on 24-of-31 passing while Maurice Jones-Drew rushed for 100 yards and two scores on 24 carries to lead the Jaguars (5-4) to a second straight victory.

Thomas caught eight passes for a career-high 149 yards and Zach Miller caught four passes for 79 yards and a score in the win.

Matt Schaub threw for 314 yards and two touchdowns on 22-of-32 passing for the Texans (4-5), who have lost three straight.

Andre Johnson caught nine passes for 146 yards and a score while Kevin Walter added six receptions for 90 yards and a touchdown in defeat.

"What a thrilling end to a hard-fought divisional game here at home," said Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio. "I thought we did some things extremely well today. In the first half I thought we were really solid on defense, and did things like we've been talking about, feel like it's been coming, getting closer."

The game was tied at 24-24 and Houston got the ball back with 1:34 remaining at its own 33 after Josh Scobee missed a 43-yard field goal for Jacksonville. However, on the seventh play of the drive Joel Dreessen fumbled after an eight-yard catch and the Jaguars recovered with eight seconds remaining.

Garrard connected with Marcedes Lewis for an 11-yard pass that the tight end took out of bounds with three ticks left and after Houston's Antonio Smith was called offside the Jaguars were at midfield with a last chance at the end zone.

The pass toward the goal line was knocked down by Houston's Glover Quin, but the ball went directly into the arms of Thomas, who fell into the end zone for the stunning finish.

Jacksonville took the game's opening kickoff and after working the ball to the Houston 20 had to settle for a Scobee 38-yard field goal to take an early 3-0 advantage.

After taking the resulting kickoff, the Texans fell into a similar situation as they used a 10-play, 69-yard drive to get the ball deep into Jacksonville territory and had to settle for a Neil Rackers 24-yard field goal to even the game at three.

The Jaguars got the ball back after a Houston punt at 10:33 in the second and used their potent running game to score the first touchdown. Jones-Drew rushed for eight of the nine plays and capped the drive with a three-yard scoring run to give Jacksonville a 10-7 lead.

Houston was forced to punt just after the two-minute warning and the Jags took the ball 55 yards in just 73 seconds, capped by a nine-yard Jones-Drew rushing score, to take a 17-3 advantage heading to the locker room.

The Texans took the second-half kickoff and Foster capped a six-play, 80-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown run. The highlight of the drive was a 60-yard completion from Schaub to Johnson that brought the ball to the Jags' six. Foster punched it in three plays later to make it 17-10.

Houston then evened the game at 17 with another 80-yard drive, this time a quick six-play set that was capped with a nine-yard Schaub-to-Johnson connection with 5:10 left in the third.

The Jags followed with a lengthy march that ended with a field goal try on the first play of the fourth quarter. After a false start penalty wiped out Scobee's successful 34-yard kick, he missed from 39 yards away to keep the game tied.

With 7:47 left in the fourth the Jags faced a 4th-and-1 at their own 43, but instead of punting Garrard took the quarterback keeper up the middle for five yards and a first down. On the next play he connected with Miller for a 52- yard TD strike to restore the Jags' lead at 24-17.

The Texans responded with 4:19 remaining when Schaub hit Walter in stride for an 18-yard touchdown. The original call on the field was ruled as a dropped pass but after a challenge the officials decided that Walter released the ball as a secondary action to the catch.

Game Notes

Jacksonville has won three straight against the Texans...Scobee came into the game 13-for-13 in field goal attempts before missing two of his three tries...Dreessen caught two passes for 24 yards...Foster recorded his 10th rushing touchdown of the season and tied Domanick Williams as the only Texans players to rush for at least 10 scores in a single season. Williams had 13 in 2004...Garrard threw two passes of 50 or more yards, both resulting in touchdowns.