Houston, TX (Sportsbooks) - Steve Slaton was ready for prime time with 130 yards on the ground and two touchdowns, and the
Houston Texans opened up the offense in their first-ever Monday Night Football appearance, leading to a 30-17 victory over Jacksonville.
"They drafted me to be a third down guy," said Slaton, a rookie from West Virginia. "I thought in any situation they put me in I can play. I just want to prove everybody I could do that."
Mario Williams, the defensive end taken ahead of Reggie Bush in the 2006 NFL draft, also played up to the spotlight with three sacks and a forced fumble. Sage Rosenfels was an efficient 14-of-24 for 200 yards with one touchdown and one interception for the Texans (5-7), who also got 75 yards receiving and a touchdown from top target Andre Johnson.
The Jaguars' rushing duo of Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew combined for 116 yards and a Taylor touchdown on 21 carries. David Garrard piled up most of his passing stats late in the contest, completing 25-of-35 attempts for 287 yards with one touchdown and an interception.
Matt Jones caught a game-high eight passes for 104 yards for Jacksonville (4-8), which began the season with high expectations only to drop into the AFC South basement with the loss.
The Texans marched 69 yards on six plays to paydirt on their opening possession. Rosenfels' deep ball followed 15-, 7- and 4-yard bursts by Slaton. Johnson came back to the football on a deep in, turned cornerback Rashean Mathis around and sprinted to the left sideline and into the end zone for a 31-yard score.
Mathis responded with an interception of Rosenfels on Houston's next drive, but Garrard gave the football right back as his pass intended for Jerry Porter was intercepted.
Houston took advantage with a seven-play march that ended with Kris Brown's right foot adding three points to the scoreboard. Rosenfels found Owen Daniels for 14 yards early in the drive, but the Jaguars defense held and Brown was true from 38 yards away.
Josh Scobee misfired wide right from 43 yards away early in the second stanza and the teams exchanged punts for the remainder of the half.
Jacoby Jones' 28-yard punt return set up Houston's first second-half series at the Jaguars 38-yard line. The Texans didn't pick up a first down, but Brown drilled a 50-yard field goal attempt through the uprights for a 13-0 lead.
Jacksonville finally got on the scoreboard thanks to a time-consuming, 12-play march. Garrard's 17-yard strike to Matt Jones highlighted a mostly dink-and- dunk drive that took up 6:43 of game time. The march stalled in the red zone, and Scobee connected from 29 yards out.
Curiously, Jags head coach Jack Del Rio tried to maintain the momentum with an onsides kick, but it failed, setting the Texans up with great field position. Brown's 20-yard field goal and a 16-3 lead were the result of Del Rio's gamble.
Jacksonville typified its season the rest of the way. It marched to the Texans five-yard line early in the fourth, even converting a 4th-and-2 attempt deep in Houston territory. However, on 4th-and-goal, Garrard was tripped by an offensive lineman's leg, got up and heaved a desperation attempt into the end zone that fell to the turf. On the play, the slot receiver fell down and Matt Jones was jammed at the line of scrimmage and stopped running his route.
"The execution is not crisp," said Del Rio. "We struggled to score points when the game was on the line. We had several opportunities, but I thought overall defensively, other than the first drive and the last drive, we played pretty good. I thought we gave ourselves a chance."
Garrard was sacked by Williams and fumbled as the game clock ticked under five minutes. Slaton slashed off right guard for a seven-yard score on the first play after the turnover for a 23-3 margin.
Each team reached the end zone in garbage time. Taylor capped a 73-yard march with a four-yard burst with 2:14 left, then Slaton had a shifty 40-yard run that started off guard and ended in a foot race down the right sideline for the score.
Jacksonville scored again, after totaling just three points over the first 57- plus minutes. Reggie Williams cradled in an 18-yard scoring pass from Garrard for the final margin.
Game Notes
The Jaguars star cornerback Mathis left the game at halftime with a sprained right knee and did not return...Reggie Williams caught five passes for 55 yards in defeat...The game marked the first Monday Night game in Houston since the Oilers hosted the Giants on November 21, 1994 -- the debut for Houston's interim head coach Jeff Fisher, who is now the NFL's longest-serving head coach with the 11-1 Tennessee Titans..Slaton's performance pushed him to 904 rushing yards on the season and into 10th place in the league, just behind San Francisco's Frank Gore and ahead of Green Bay's Ryan Grant...Each team ran for 126 yards, and Jacksonville actually outgained Houston, 388-326.
