The Texans need Chris Brown and Ryan Moats to handle the load in the running game with Steve Slaton done for the year.  Chris Brown will be the starter this weekend at RB.  He has carried the ball 71 times for 249 yards (3.5 ypc) with 3 TD runs and he has also caught 13 passes for 69 yards (5.3 avg) this year.  Moats has carried the ball 66 times for 261 yards (4.0 ypc) with 3 TD runs and he has also caught 8 passes for 64 yards (8.0 avg) with 1 TD grab.  Brown & Moats are more than capable of doing a decent job the rest of the year for the Texans.

The Texans have lost Steve Slaton for the season due to a neck injury.  Slaton carried the ball 131 times for 437 yards (3.3 ypc) with 3 TD runs this year.  He also caught 44 passes for 417 yards (9.5 avg) with 4 TD grabs this year.  Slaton just wasn’t the same this year for the Texans and they hope an off-season of rest will get him back to the player he was as a rookie last season.

Starting QB Matt Schaub dislocated his left shoulder in last week’s game but he came back to finish it.  The Texans had better hope that he can go this week against the Seahawks.  Schaub has started all 12 games for the Texans this season and he has completed 295 of 434 passes (68%) for 3,449 yards with 22 TD passes and 12 INTs (97.2 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 37 times for 64 yards (1.6 ypc) this season.  The Texans need Schaub to bite the bullet and play with the pain or else they will have to turn to Rex Grossman.  Grossman came into the game when Schaub got hurt last week and he completed 3 of 9 passes (33.3%) for 33 yards with 0 TDs and 1 INT (5.6 QB Rating).  Grossman is not a good fit for a Texans’ offense built around passing the football.

Matt Schaub separated his shoulder on the Houston Texans’ first play and although he returned they could not recover against the Jacksonville Jaguars.  Rex Grossman came in for Schaub and surprise, he threw an interception.  When Schaub returned in the second quarter the Texans were already down 17-0.  He finished the game with 1 touchdown, 1 interception and 207 yards on 19/27 passes.  He didn’t get much help from the running game, as they only got 68 rushing yards on 22 carries as a team.  The Texans also had a terrible trick-play call, when running back Chris Brown tried the halfback pass and was intercepted.  It was a bad play to begin with, but they made the call when it was first and goal on the 5-yard line. I’m not sure what they were thinking on that call.

The Texans defense did their best to slow down Jaguars’ talented running back Maurice Jones-Drew, and they did a good job most of the game.  However, on the Jaguars final drive after the Texans made it a 5-point game, they could not stop Jones-Drew and he ran the clock out.  They also did not do a very good job on Jags’ quarterback David Garrard, who coming into this game had not thrown more than one touchdown pass in a game since week four.  He went 15/28 for 238 yards and 2 touchdowns.  Matt Schaub missing the first quarter really hurt the Texans, as Rex Grossman was terrible and put the Texans in a hole that Schaub could not dig the Texans out of.

The Houston Texans (5-6) are on the road against the Jacksonville Jaguars (6-5), a team they lost to 31-24 in week three.  These teams match up pretty evenly, and both offenses will find some success like they did in week three.  I expect Matt Schaub to have similar outing as the week 3 game, where he threw for 300 yards and 3 touchdowns.  The Texans will be without RB Steve Slaton, who was effective last time against the Jags rushing for 76 yards on 12 carries.  That means Chris Brown will probably get all of the carries and they will need a better effort than the 19 yards on 8 carries that he had in their last match-up.  If the Texans can get a good game out of Brown, they will probably win.

The Texans defense has not been very good this year at getting to quarterbacks, and when Jaguars’ quarterback David Garrard has time he is very accurate.  The Texans need to get some pressure on him and he will make mistakes.  The focus should be on Maurice Jones-Drew though, who killed the Texans last time for 119 yards and 3 touchdowns.  They cannot let him have a repeat performance or they will be on the losing end again.  I do think they will do a better job containing Jones-Drew this time, but he will still be effective no matter what they do, as they aren’t the strongest defense.  Neither defense is really that good, and I think the Texans have a better offense, so I think they can outscore the Jags this time around.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Houston Texans 28, Jacksonville Jaguars 21