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Jaguars hope to avoid embarrassment vs. lowly Bengals

Nov 2, 2008 - 2:07 PM JACKSONVILLE (3-4) AT CINCINNATI (0-8), 1:00 pm EST

CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- The Jacksonville Jaguars will have back-to-back contests against the remaining winless teams. If they want to make a playoff push, they cannot afford a loss over that stretch.

David Garrard and the Jaguars attempt to rebound from a heart-breaking loss when they visit the woeful Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.

Matt Jones could not come down with Garrard's pass attempt in the final seconds as Jacksonville suffered a 23-17 setback to the Cleveland Browns last week.

After getting the ball at his own 30-yard-line with 1:51 left in the game, Garrard orchestrated an impressive drive that was highlighted by a 35-yard pass to Jones.

But with nine seconds to play, Garrard fired a pass to Jones in the end zone that fell incomplete. The ball had bounced off Jones' hands twice before falling out of bounds.

Garrard completed 25-of-42 passes for 283 yards and two touchdowns with 59 rushing yards for Jacksonville (3-4), which faces the winless Detroit Lions next week.

The hapless Bengals appear to be getting worse as they dropped their eighth straight game, falling to the Houston Texans, 35-6, last Sunday.

"Yeah, 0-8 is embarrassing, just in general," Bengals quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said. "Again, this game we went into halftime feeling like offensively we did some good things, but our defense was holding up pretty good."

It marked the second time in as many weeks the Bengals collapsed in the second half. In last week's 38-10 loss to Pittsburgh, they only trailed at the intermission, 10-7.

"We came out after halftime, just like in the Steelers game, feeling like we had a good shot, and it all kind of fell apart in the second half again," Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick completed 20-of-32 passes for 155 yards with two interceptions and a fumble.