Jordan Black expected to start at right tackle

With Eben Britton out for the season with a shoulder injury, the Jaguars will turn to seventh-year pro Jordan Black to start at right tackle on Sunday at Dallas.  Black has plenty of NFL experience to draw upon.  He has played in 71 games with 31 starts since entering the league as a fifth-round draft pick of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2003.

Black will be making his first start at tackle since the 2006 season, when he started at left tackle for the Chiefs in the AFC Wild Card Playoff game against Indianapolis on January 6, 2007.  He started two games in 2009 for the Jaguars when the team opened up with a two-tight end alignment.

"I think we feel pretty good about sliding Jordan out there," Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio said. "That's one of the reasons he's here. He's our backup swing tackle that has started in this league and knows our system inside and out, and that's one of the reasons he's here.  We'd love to keep him in a reserve role but he's going to be called on and we'll need him to step up for us."

Setting the stage

The Jaguars play a second consecutive road game on Sunday when they visit the Dallas Cowboys.  Sunday will be the Jaguars' final game before they observe their bye in week nine.

The Jaguars and Cowboys are meeting for the fifth time overall and first time since the 2006 season-opener in Jacksonville. The series is tied, 2-2, with the Jaguars winning 24-17 in the last meeting on Sept. 10, 2006. The Jaguars own a 17-12 mark against the NFC under head coach Jack Del Rio and are facing all four NFC East teams in 2010 for the fourth time in franchise history. The Jaguars own an 8-8 all-time mark against teams from the NFC East including wins in two of the last three games.  The club last faced the NFC East in 2006 and finished 3-1 with wins over Dallas, Philadelphia and the New York Giants. 

Not the same Jaguars

There are just seven players on the Jaguars' current roster who played in the last game against the Cowboys (9/10/06) including four who started. Linebacker Daryl Smith and cornerback Rashean Mathis are the only remaining defensive players that played in the last game against the Cowboys.

Looking for victory before the bye

The Jaguars will observe their bye on Sunday, November 7. The Jaguars own a 10-5 mark in the game before the open date in 15 seasons, including a 5-2 mark under head coach Jack Del Rio.  The Jaguars have won five consecutive games before the open date including a 23-20 overtime win against St. Louis in 2009.  Three of the Jaguars' first four games after the bye are against teams with a winning record including back-to-back road games at the New York Giants and Tennessee.

Kampman leads Rushmen

The Jaguars significantly upgraded their defensive line with the addition of veteran defensive end Aaron Kampman in free agency. Kampman has wasted little time making his presence felt in Jacksonville.  He leads the Jaguars with four sacks and 25 quarterback pressures and leads all defensive linemen with 49 tackles. The four sacks already surpass his total from a year ago with the Packers when he finished with 3.5 in nine games played.

The two-time Pro Bowl selection (2006, 2007) has registered 58.0 career sacks and has recorded at least 9.5 sacks in three of the last four seasons.

The former Iowa standout is tied for fourth in the NFL from 2006-10 with 44.5 sacks. Here's the list:

NFL sacks leaders 2006-10

Quarterback timeline

The Jaguars have been forced to play four quarterbacks through seven games due to injuries, the most that have played in a season in franchise history. Here's a closer look at the quarterback situation:

• Luke McCown injured his knee in the fourth quarter at San Diego in week two and was placed on injured reserve.
• Trent Edwards was claimed off waivers from Buffalo on Sept. 28 after starting the first two games for the Bills this season. He saw his first action for the Jaguars in week six against Tennessee and finished 14 of 24 passing for 140 yards with two interceptions.  He injured his thumb on his throwing hand during the game and served as the backup quarterback last Sunday at Kansas City.
• Starting quarterback David Garrard suffered a concussion against Tennessee in the first half and did not return.  He was inactive last Sunday at Kansas City, snapping a streak of 38 consecutive starts. 
• With injuries to Edwards and Garrard, the Jaguars signed 11th-year pro Todd Bouman and eighth-year pro Patrick Ramsey on Oct. 20.  Bouman was earlier signed by the Jaguars on September 21 and served as the backup quarterback for two games before he was released on October 5. He is in his 11th NFL season and has played in 43 games with seven starts with Minnesota and New Orleans.  Ramsey, a former first-round pick of Washington in 2002, has spent time with the Redskins (2002-05), the New York Jets (2006), Denver Broncos (2007-08), Tennessee Titans (2009), Detroit Lions (2009) and New Orleans Saints (2010).  
• Bouman became the 11th player in Jaguars history to start a game at quarterback.

Garrard on the quarterback shuffle

"We have had a little bit of a revolving door this year with keeping us healthy but I don&39;t think it&39;s just necessarily us taking a pounding. It&39;s just when your head hits the ground you never know how it&39;s going to play out, whether or not you&39;re just going to get dinged a little bit, because you know I&39;ve gotten dinged plenty of times in a game before but not to the point where a cloud rolls in and you can&39;t focus, so those things are pretty normal and they&39;re going to happen.

"You try to make a tackle, injuring your finger, there are a lot of quarterbacks that hit their hands on helmets, so it just seems like those kind of things keep happening each week. We got to continue to fight, we&39;re professionals and we&39;re men and you&39;re going to be injured sometimes but you got to continue to go out there and give it your all."

Welcome back

Linebacker Justin Durant returned to the starting lineup the last two weeks after missing three games with an ankle injury. Durant, a second-round pick in 2007, has made his playing time count in 2010.  In four games, Durant has 42 tackles (30 solo) and a team-high five tackles for loss.

Hitting the big play

Second-year wide receiver Mike Thomas leads the team with 29 receptions for 346 yards through seven games.  Thomas is tied for the fourth in the AFC and fifth in the NFL with a team-high eight receptions of 20-plus yards.

2010 AFC most receptions of 20-plus yards

Thomas has at least four receptions in five of seven games. In addition, he is averaging 14.2-yards per rush on five carries and 11.0-yards as the club's punt returner.  He had a career-long 49-yard punt return last Sunday at Kansas City but fumbled as he was going down and the Chiefs recovered.  He is one of only 10 players in the NFL this season to have two returns of 20-plus yards.

2010 NFL punt return leaders

Did you know?

The Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants are the only two teams Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio has not faced as a visiting head coach.

Kitna has experience against Jaguars

Cowboys quarterback Jon Kitna is expected to start on Sunday after starter Tony Romo suffered an injury on Monday night against the Giants. Kitna has played against the Jaguars four times, once as a member of the Seahawks and three times with the Bengals, and owns a 1-3 mark as a starter.

Del Rio returns to Dallas

Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio played linebacker for 11 seasons in the NFL, including three seasons with the Dallas Cowboys from 1989-91.  Del Rio was part of the Cowboys' playoff team in 1991.  In addition, Del Rio played for Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips in New Orleans in 1985.

Cowboys house former Jaguars

The Cowboys have two former members of the Jaguars coaching staff and one former player in safety Gerald Sensabaugh.  Sensabaugh was a fifth-round draft pick of the Jaguars in 2005 and made 12 starts for the club in three seasons.

Cowboys secondary coach Dave Campo spent three seasons with the Jaguars from 2005-07 while special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis served in the same capacity for the Jaguars from 2007-08. 

Knighton stepping up game

Defensive tackle Terrance Knighton is in his second season as the anchor of the Jaguars defensive line and he ranks second on the team with a career-high three sacks along with 10 quarterback pressures and five tackles for loss.  He has 18 tackles including four tackles for loss and three quarterback pressures in the last two games.

Jones-Drew shows durability

Running back Maurice Jones-Drew ranks second among NFL running backs with 26 consecutive starts. Here's the list:

NFL running backs most consecutive starts (active players only)

The last word

"I thought it was awesome, the way he started out the game, the way he was energized. He looked like a kid out there for a 38-year old man. He had fun, things just didn't work out for him toward the end."

Jaguars quarterback David Garrard on the play of Todd Bouman against the Chiefs