Head coach Dom Capers
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(recap of game) "I am proud of the way our team played today. I can't tell you how many times this last week I was asked the question, 'How do you get your team to focus when you have to travel on Christmas Day when you are out of the playoff chase?' Today was a great example of the heart and competitiveness of our football team. We challenged the guys to go out focus to give us their best effort, and we got that. We finished up our division schedule with a 4-2 record. We are proud of that. I thought our defense did a tremendous job today. I gave a game ball to our defensive staff and to the whole defensive team.
(on the first shutout in team history) "I thought all along our defense would improve because of the number of young players that we have. We have gone 11 straight quarters without giving up a touchdown. That gives you an indication the improvement our defense has made."
(on the Jaguars' low third down conversion) "I think we were able to keep the Jaguars in a lot of third and long situations. When the game becomes a one-dimensional game, you can do an awful lot more things."
(on playing the game as a playoff game) "We tried to take the approach that
this was a playoff game. Our goal, whether we are in the playoffs or not, is
to go out and have the focus to play our best football. I think we did that today.
This is the best defensive game we have had in the three year history of this
team. The way you finish your season off is an indication of the guys you have
on your team."
QB DAVID CARR (on winning at Jacksonville ): "All we want is respect. We didn't necessarily feel like Jacksonville was giving us that. We knew that they had playoffs on their mind and we wanted to come in and take advantage of that.
(on success of the running game): "I've seen these guys a lot so I knew what to expect. They came out trying to confuse us on some coverages, and we made some checks and had some success running the ball and on a couple of pass plays as well."
RB DOMANICK DAVIS (on his rushing performance today): "I just tried to do my thing today. The offensive line did a great job for me. There were some big holes, so there was no way I wouldn't come away with some decent gains today. I didn't expect to come out here today and do that much today because I knew the Jacksonville defense was a very good one. I got into a groove and when I got a little hole, I made the most of it."
(on rushing for over 1000 yards): "Jacksonville was looking towards the playoffs and this was the perfect setting. You want to play a team that has to beat you. They (Jaguars) don't have any margin for error. We just did what we had to do and that's what happened today."
LB ANTWAN PEEK (on defensive TD in fourth quarter): "It was funny. The ball bounced right to me. I didn't have any other choice, but to grab it and run. I was in college the last time scored a touchdown."
(on stopping Jaguar offense): "You could say they never got into a rhythm today, but at the same time we were on top of them. The coaches did a great job of preparing us and everything fell the way it was supposed to."
DE GARY WALKER (on shutout victory): "It was big, and it came against a divisional opponent. I think it was the first in our history. This was the fifteenth game on our schedule. I don't know what we have to do, but if our team can play like this every week and bring the same kind of effort, it would be great. If we can finish the season on the same kind of note and play with whatever kind of energy we had today, we will be fine.
(on overall effort by the Texans): "You saw the way guys were flying around the ball today. Regardless of the record, we're not quitters."
(on beating his former team): "I know a lot of those guys and I respect them. It seemed to me that the guys who were doing a lot of talking didn't do a lot today for them. My motto is to just shut-up and play football."
WR JABAR GAFFNEY (on returning to Florida): "I've only lost one game in this stadium, so it always feels good to keep my little streak alive here by winning."
(on the win and play of QB Carr): "We have a chance to finish 8-8, build off
of this and not finish in the bottom of the division. Hopefully, we'll be a lot
better next year. David (Carr) did a phenomenal job today. He managed the ball
very well, made great throws and reads. At one time, he may have been nine-of-10
passing, so he was tremendous for us today."
Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio
(On the game): "It was not a good day for a bad game. We weren't able to generate anything offensively and had difficulty moving the ball on third down. You don't win very many like that. In fact, you won't win any."
(On turnovers): "We were minus one in turnover ratio. When we have been on the positive side, we've done well all season."
(On defending the run): "They were able to pop some big runs on our defense which is uncharacteristic. It's pretty simple. If you don't gap it out properly and don't tackle well, you can't play run defense the way we expect it."
(On playoff hopes): "I don't know where this puts us in terms of the playoff hunt, but after a loss like this, you don't really want to talk about playoffs. We will take a peek at it sometime tonight or tomorrow and until someone tells me we don't have a chance, I'm not conceding anything."
(On the decision to play David Garrard): "As far as the decision to give David (Garrard) a chance late in the game, we had tried to let Byron (Leftwich) play through a tough day and thought David might give us a spark. It didn't turn out that way. We never moved the ball the way we needed to."
(On how not having Fred Taylor affected the game): "Going into the game there were a lot of questions about Fred being able to play. We didn't make a formal decision until game time or actually when we worked him out this morning. We talked to the team about the need to overcome adversity and how much we have overcome. We talked about how much we've overcome all season with the hurricanes and losing (Paul) Spicer. There are things that as a team you have to pull together to overcome. When we found out Fred couldn't go, our first thought was that the next guy had to step up and do the job. As far as how well we were able to run the ball, the guys did step up. We ran the ball well enough today when we were given the opportunity to move the ball."
(On if he if felt the Jaguars displayed a lack of effort): "It's hard to understand and I don't want to sit here and speculate. I made the statement that we are heading places here in Jacksonville and in this organization. We're going to have players here who love to play the game of football. We will take a hard look this week—like we do every week—and make our evaluations and move on from there."
(On the Texan defense): "We have not scored a touchdown against their defense. I don't know why. It could be the matchups, but we haven't been able to generate enough ourselves to take advantage of any positive matchups we may have. We haven't put the ball in the end zone against them in two games. I'm shocked and disappointed that we would allow any defense to hold us for two games without a touchdown."
(On if Byron Leftwich was affected by the head injury): "I think he was, in fact, I know he was, because the medical staff held him out. The cobwebs seemed to clear up, but he never got it going today."
(On what he thought went wrong): "There really is no one thing. You can't drop
the ball or have big penalties that bring back long runs. I mean there were a
lot of times—at least two or three—when the ball was rolling around on the ground
and we had our hands on it and couldn't come up with it. We just didn't have
any of those breaks that went our way."
Jaguars QB Byron Leftwich
(on the blow to the head) "I felt okay. I have to look at the film and see how I played and my reaction after the play, but I felt okay."
(did you have a concussion?) "I don't know what the definition of my injury was. I got hit pretty hard, but I was able to come back out."
(on the injury affecting his play in the game?) "I don't know. I have to go back and watch the film and see how I was moving around afterwards, but to be honest with you I thought I felt pretty good."
(on the game) "It just didn't work out for us today. As a whole we didn't play well and I didn't play well, so it's something we're going to have to take a hard look at Monday and keep fighting. I don't know all the scenarios, but I know we're going to keep fighting until someone tells us we're out of it."
(on playing without Fred Taylor) "I think anytime you don't have a guy like Fred Taylor in there, you miss him. At the same time the guys that we had in there today like Greg Jones, (Chris Fuamatu-)Ma'afala and (LaBrandon) Toefield did a great job of doing all they could do to help us win this football game."
(on the playoffs) "We're going to keep fighting until someone tells us we're out of it."
(on the game) "We came out flat and with no energy. When you come out flat you get beat and that's exactly what happened today."
