LiveBlog: Jaguars-Patriots, fourth quarter

Chris Littmann breaks down the action of the Jaguars-Patriots AFC Division Playoff matchup:

Final score: Patriots 31, Jaguars 20. I was impressed with the effort of the Jaguars, but ultimately the Pats come out of this one 17-0, one game away from the Super Bowl. Will it be San Diego or Indianapolis next week? Hope everyone had fun with today's games. Come back tomorrow for more of the live blog fun. Please bring a side dish.

:32
Is Chris Hanson, the Patriots seldom-used punter, often confused with Chris Hansen, the Dateline NBC host of "How To Catch A Predator?" Like I said during the Seahawks-Packers game, we all run the clock out our own way.

[img=http://i.tsn.com/i/photos/20080112/85650.jpg]

4:08
That should do it. Rodney Harrison did a good job of playing a space, reading David Garrard and picking off a pass that was intended for Matt Jones. Harrison ties an NFL record by picking off a pass for the fourth consecutive postseason game.

4:34
Credit to Dennis Northcutt, who dropped a huge pass earlier in this game near the goal line, for making the critical fourth-down catch. An unnecessary roughness call moves the ball to New England's 45. Also, if David Garrard literally saw a kitchen sink flying at him, would he just sidestep it and jog up ahead for a first down?

4:42
The Jaguars burn their second timeout, but the number of timeouts won't matter if they can't pick up this fourth down. Here's the game.

5:15
The Jaguars haven't moved very far in about a minute and a half. They might want some sense of urgency.

6:43
A rare mistake by the Patriots as Wes Welker fails to pull in his 10th catch of the night on third down. Stephen Gostkowski boots the field goal and the Patriots make it a two-score game at 31-20.

9:02
OK, maybe the conservative approach was better. Six rushers come for Jacksonville and the end result is a 53-yard completion to Donte Stallworth. Rashean Mathis gets a piece of the receiver's ankle to stop what was otherwise a sure touchdown.

Before the Patriots get it back
As much as I've approved of this game plan, Tom Brady is far too perfect tonight to not throw in a new wrinkle at this stage of the game. Do something to disrupt them.

9:47
First pass that I thought was really weak to this point from David Garrard. Still, Jacksonville gets points and its 28-20. It almost doesn't matter; field goals won't beat the Patriots.

10:45
I'm just going to say it: Ellis Hobbs doesn't want it with Maurice Jones-Drew. Did everyone else notice how he finished that run? I don't care if he's shorter than me, he puts hits on people. Just ask Shawne Merriman.



12:44
Who are these Jaguars receivers? Where did this offense come from? I know this group really is a bunch of first-round draft picks, but they've never played like it in the past. It seems like the perfect storm of maturation on their part and defenses being forced to respect such a formidable ground game.

14:36 remaining
Ernest Wilford makes a great catch and pays the price on a critical third down. He also gets lit up, but the flag against Rodney Harrison for unnecessary roughness costs the Patriots another 15 yards.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.