In The Red Zone – Jaguars @ Patriots Preview – AFC Divisional Round

This Week

The New England Patriots host the Jacksonville Jaguars at Gillette Stadium on Saturday at 8 p.m in an AFC Divisional Playoff game. 

The Patriots are 8-0 at the Razor this season and 12-0 against the AFC. The Jaguars, including the Wild Card game, are 6-3 on the road this year and 9-4 versus the AFC.

Here are the rosters for the Jaguars and Patriots.

The Line/Prediction

As of Tuesday the line on the game from Yahoo Sports is Patriots -13.5.  The over/under is 49.5.

My prediction is Patriots 38, Jaguars, 21. Give the points and take the over. I am 9-7 against the spread and have called the over/under twelve out of sixteen times in 2007.

Tickets

The Patriots are reporting the game as a sell out.  It is the 148th consecutive sellout dating back to the 1994 season opener.  The record includes preseason, regular season and playoff games.

Tickets to the game, if available, may be purchased through Ticketmaster. You can check the availability here. Many times tickets are released in the last 48 hours prior to the game.

Getting To The Game

If you’re lucky enough to be going to the game make sure you check out the links.

Here is the up to date weather forecast for the game from The Weather Channel.

Click for stadium directions, parking information, parking map, specific MBTA train times for this game and a Gillette Stadium seating chart.

Tailgating

Here’s a bunch of different tailgating recipes from Tailgaiting America. There’s something there for everyone and every type of meal or snack. I’ve tried some of the recipes and they’re very good and for good measure here is one of my own.

And with tailgating many people enjoy some adult beverages.  With that in mind check out Drink Nation for how to make all sorts of great drinks.  You can look things up by name, ingredient(s) or by theme. 

Whether it’s at the game, a bar or someone’s house moderation is always the key to a great time.  Please don’t drink and drive and designate a sober driver.  Remember You Drink, You Drive, You Lose.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Television

CBS is televising the game to the nation and the play-by-play duties will be handled by Jim Nantz with Phil Simms doing game analysis. You can check here for your local CBS Station.

Radio

The Patriots Rock Radio Network broadcasts the game from flagship station WBCN-FM 104.1 in Boston. Gil Santos handles the play-by-play and former Patriot Gino Cappelletti does the color.

It all starts with Gary Tanguay, Scott Zolak, Pete Brock and Andy Gresh and the pregame show at 5 p.m. along the network.

The post game starts after the final gun and continues for three hours.

If you are outside of the broadcast area of the stations on the Patriots Rock Radio Network you can purchase NFL Field Pass which allows you to listen to any NFL game live. You can also pick which teams broadcasters you want to listen to.

All NFL games are also available on Sirius Satellite Radio. The Patriots radio call is available on Channel 123 and 181, the Jaguars radio call is available on Channel 124 and 126.

The game can be heard nationally on Westwood One. Dick Enberg has the play by play, Dennis Green will do game analysis and John Dockery is the sideline reporter for the game.

Looking for a post game report with all the angles?  Well join Comcast SportsNet New England for the complete wrap up immediately after the game (around 11:30 p.m.).  Check your local cable listings for the channel near you. 

Last Week

The Patriots were off last week as they had a first round bye courtesy of being the top seed in the AFC.  The Jaguars won their AFC Wild Card game at Pittsburgh beating the Steelers 31-29. 

History

This is the second time in the last three seasons the teams have met in the AFC Playoffs.  The Patriots beat the Jags in the 2005 playoffs 28-3 at Gillette Stadium.  This is the fourth playoff meeting between the two clubs the Patriots have won 2 of the previous three meetings.

This is the eighth meeting between the teams overall, the Patriots have won all four regular season games including the 2006 season finale in Jacksonville, 24-21. 

Connections

• Patriots tight end Kyle Brady played for the Jaguars for eight seasons from 1999-2006. 
• Patriots wide receivers Donte’ Stallworth and Kelley Washington, Patriots defensive lineman Rashad Moore and Jaguars defensive tackle John Henderson were teammates at the University of Tennessee.
• Jaguars assistant head coach/tight ends Mike Tice was Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss’s head coach with the Minnesota Vikings from 2002-04.
• Jaguars defensive line coach Ray Hamilton played on the Patriots defensive line from 1973 to 1981 where he started a team-record 110 consecutive games and racked up 54 sacks to place him fifth on the team’s all-time list. He later had two coaching tenures with the Patriots, as a defensive line assistant (1985-89) and a defensive line coach (1997-99).
• Patriots head coach Bill Belichick hired Terry McDonough as a scout while Belichick was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns in 1992. McDonough, an Executive Scout with the Jaguars, is the son of the late Will McDonough, a longtime sportswriter who covered the Patriots for the Boston Globe and brother of ESPN announcer Sean McDonough.
• Jaguars fullback Montell Owens played at the University of Maine from 2002-05. 
   

Other News

This is the link to head coach Bill Belichick’s Wednesday press conference on the Jaguars. You can also see what Jacksonville head coach Jack Del Rio had to say about the game in a conference call with the New England media.

Here is the injury list for the game.

This is Tom Brady’s 125th consecutive start including the playoffs. It is the third longest streak among NFL quarterbacks behind only Peyton Manning and Brett Favre. He is 86-24 in his career during the regular season and 12-2 in the playoffs.

Including playoff games, since December 17, 2006 the Patriots are 21-1, since September 10, 2006 they are 30-5.

This is the 16th time in 48 years the Patriots have qualified for the post season.  Ten of those have come since Robert Kraft bought the franchise in 1994.   Overall they are 19-12 in the post season as a franchise. 

Their .613 playoff win percentage is second in the NFL (minimum 10 games) to only Green Bay who has a .632 winning percentage (24-14).

The Patriots are the only NFL team to have won at least one playoff game in the last four seasons.

The Patriots roster has 42 players with playoff experience, of the 11 with no playoff experience the biggest name is WR Wes Welker.

The Patriots have won 9 consecutive home playoff games and have not lost a home playoff game since December 31, 1978 against the Houston Oilers, 31-14.  Overall the team is 44-9 at home since Gillette Stadium opened in 2002. 

This is the Patriots 22nd playoff game since Robert Kraft bought the team in 1994.  It is the most in the league over this period. 

The Patriots are 7-5 in divisional playoff games and have won 5 of the last 7 divisional games.

Head coach Bill Belichick is 3-2 vs. Jacksonville in his coaching career, 3-0 while with New England.

NFL MVP Tom Brady will be making his 4th career start vs. Jacksonville, he is 3-0 including 1-0 in the playoffs.  In the three previous games he is 65 of 100 for 678 yards with 6 TD’s and 0 INT’s. 

The Patriots set a club record for fewest turnovers in a season with 15 (9 INT’s/6 Fumbles).  The previous low was 17 set in 1982. 

News from this weeks opponent:

The Jaguars are only one of four teams to have never beaten New England in Foxboro.  The Jags are 0-4. 

Jacksonville is one of six teams that New England has beaten at least twice in the playoffs losing to the Patriots in 1996 and 2005.

Head coach Jack Del Rio has never beaten New England he is 0-3.

This is QB David Garrard’s second career start vs. New England he is 0-1.  In his one start he was 17 of 23 for 179 yards and 1 TD and 0 INT’s. 

The Jaguars defense finished the season with 37 sacks (2.3 per game) for -244 yards for 4th best in the league.  They are going against an offensive line who only allowed 21 sacks (1.3 per game) all season. 

The Jags were +9 in turnover differential for the season. 

I saw this in the Boston Herald Tuesday afternoon.  Seems the Jaguars team website is even getting into the act when it comes to the Patriots.  Just like the New York tabloid did the Jags have put up their own asterisk.  If I was Jack Del Rio and I saw this I’d have been on the phone last week but ol’ Jack doesn’t think much of the Pats because of the camera incident.  These people just fail to learn that this team uses the slightest of the slight to motivate. 

Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio believed the Patriots had committed a breach of the game’s ethics, drawing a baseball analogy after the news broke.

“It’s quite obvious that when you’re signaling defensively, the other bench is like a guy on second base,” Del Rio said. “If the pitcher or catcher is giving away signals, then he can relay things. But that’s part of the game. You’re not talking about having a camera set up on the center field fence that you’re looking and shooting the catcher’s signals and then studying that before you go play that opponent.

“That’s a different issue. Do we look at each other’s sidelines and look for hints at what might be coming? Sure. I think all teams do that. That’s been going on forever. That will continue to be part of our game.”

That wasn’t Del Rio’s only issue with the Pats. Last Christmas Eve in Jacksonville, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was able to gain a few extra yards on a scramble by starting to slide, only to keep running as the Jags’ defenders pulled up.

“They should’ve speared him then,” Del Rio told Jaguars.com.

 The images are courtesy of our friend Awful Announcing.

Next Week

The winner of this game faces the winner of the San Diego/Indianapolis game for the AFC Championship.