This should be a near replay of the defensive battle last week in New England with the Dolphins. It will be cold again though without the fans needing to remove snow in order to sit down. Jacksonville has a defense that is coming together well in the final weeks of the season and the Patriots have no big rusher to rely on. But at home, the Pats defense is enough to handle Leftwich who only thinks he is getting over his turnover problem.

Jacksonville Notes

The Jaguars rise to 4-9 on the season with their win over the Texans.

Quarterbacks:: Byron Leftwich threw 18 of 29 for 194 yards and one score against the Texans last week, a near replay of his first game against them with the exception that he did now throw an interception in their second game. Oh yes, and he won this time. Leftwich continues to hover around 180 to 200 yards a game lately, with normally one score a week.

Running Backs: Fred Taylor comes off his best game of the season last week when he ripped the Texans for 163 yards and one touchdown on 24 carries. It was his third consecutive 100 yard game and his fifth for the season. The running was so good last week that even Labrandon Toefield had his career best 54 yards on ten carries and scored his first NFL touchdown.

Receivers: Kevin Johnson started out with a nice 77 yard game three weeks ago but has only posted 20 and 29 yard games since that introduction to the team. Jimmy Smith led receivers last week with 58 yards and a touchdown. The coaching staff is particularly pleased with the progress of Cortez Hankton who had four catches for 49 yards against the Texans. Hankton is an undrafted rookie that has quietly had catches in eight games this year.

Match against the Defense: It will be a tall order for Taylor to go to New England and continue his 100 yard streak. No visiting runner in New England has had over 71 yards on the ground and the only running back to score there was Tiki Barber and that was on a pass, not a run. Look for Taylor to do well enough to reach the 70 mark where Barber and Ricky Williams maxed out.

If Leftwich wants to see bleak, consider that the Patriots have not allowed a passing score at home since week three and that was just one by Testaverde. The last three quarterbacks there have topped out at 210 yards passing and in those three games the quarterbacks had seven turnovers.

New England Notes

The Patriots rise to 11-2 and clinched a playoff berth with the best record in the NFL of 11-2 shared with KC.

Quarterbacks:: Last week against the Dolphins was a bitterly cold, defensive war won by the Patriots defense - not by the offense. Tom Brady only had 163 yards passing last week but had no turnovers, unlike his opponent. As a sign of how great the defense for New England has been, consider that Brady has not actually thrown a touchdown at home since week five. In the four road games during that time, he had nine touchdowns and never less than two scores. Odd, eh?

Evidently Brady knows he does not have to score when he is at home because the defense takes care of the game. So far, he has been 100% correct.

Running Backs: The bad weather last week put cold weather specialist Antowain Smith to work, carrying the ball 27 times for 60 yards while Kevin Faulk only had five runs for 20 yards in the frigid game. It was the most meaningful work for Smith this season though he had scored twice this season.

Receivers: Even in the bad weather and lower passing yardage, Deion Branch continues to provide Brady with a primary passing target. Branch had six catches for 93 yards while no other wide out had more than two catches or 17 yards. Daniel Graham also provided a nice big outlet with six catches for 24 yards.

Troy Brown has not played in four weeks but is reported to be close to returning from a hamstring injury.

Match against the Defense: The Jaguars have been death to running backs this season and the Patriots do not really have one anyway. Look for a low numbers game from the runners, with a mixture of Faulk and Smith.

Brady should manage at least one score in this game since every quarterback that hosted Jacksonville has had at least one. The Jaguars secondary has consistently improved this season and no team has thrown for over 234 yards against the visiting Jags.

This game is shaping up to be yet another defensive war not unlike last week in New England.

* Fantasy point rankings calculated using standard Huddle fantasy points