Toughness no small matter to Drew, who plans to play
December 22
Jacksonville Times-Union
"There was a rare sight at a rare Sunday practice for the Jaguars - Maurice Drew was watching from the sidelines.
Drew missed only one game in his three years with the team, in the season finale in Houston last season when the Jaguars' regulars were held out, because they already had clinched a playoff spot.
He suffered a bruised knee at the end of Thursday night's 31-24 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. He rested it Sunday.
Because Fred Taylor is already on injured reserve, Montell Owens and Chauncey Washington split time with the first unit at running back Sunday.
But Drew was walking around the locker room without a limp or a brace on his knee and said he'll be ready to start in the season finale against the Baltimore Ravens next Sunday.
The Jaguars, who had Friday and Saturday off, will get today off, practice Tuesday and Wednesday and then get Christmas Day off. Drew said he'll be running later in the week although he didn't have a specific timetable.
The Jaguars have nothing at stake against the Ravens, but Drew is eager to test the Ravens' defense that went into the weekend ranked No. 2 in the NFL.
While the Jaguars are 5-10, the Ravens have the opposite record (10-5) after beating the Dallas Cowboys 33-24 Saturday night.
"The only way you get better at football is playing it,'' Drew said. "We're going to keep fighting and fighting and fighting and do everything we can to get a victory.''
He's looking forward to the the challenge of facing the Ravens' defense. "It's Ray Lewis, Bart Scott, Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs, Trevor Pryce - they've got some guys who can go," Drew said.
He then said with a smile: "If we didn't want a challenge we wouldn't be football players, we'd be sports writers."
Drew also wants to show how he can carry the load with Taylor sidelined. He already leads the team in carries (174) and rushing yards (746) and can get the team lead in receptions if he gets five catches.
Matt Jones, who will serve the third and final game of his NFL suspension for a violation of the league's substance abuse policy. leads the team with 65 catches. Drew has 61.
Drew had 27 touches against the Colts - 20 carries for 91 yards and seven catches for 71 yards. He accounted for 162 of the team's 409 yards.
Coach Jack Del Rio wasn't surprised that Drew was so effective in a full-time role.
"I never doubt that [he could carry the load]," Del Rio said. "That's never been a question for me."
On his final reception, he gained 10 yards to the Colts' 7 when he suffered the knee injury with 27 seconds left. The officials then ran 10 seconds off the clock because the Jaguars didn't have any timeouts left and the Jaguars had an incomplete pass and a sack in their final two plays.
Drew also took exception to some of the talk-show fodder that the injury late in the game showed he can't take the pounding of being a full-time player.
"That's ridiculous," D
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