FOXBOROUGH - All week long, the Patriots were asked about the Jacksonville Jaguars and whether the AFC's fifth-seeded team posed, perhaps, the toughest draw in last night's divisional playoff game at Gillette Stadium.
It didn't matter if the Jaguars, with their potent 1-2 rushing attack of Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew, intended to knuckle up and brawl with the Patriots or if they intended to come to Foxborough and box.
"We can get down with whoever," said veteran safety Rodney Harrison.
Harrison and his defensive teammates stood toe-to-toe with the Jaguars and landed their share of shots, but absorbed some as well. In the end, though, the Patriots claimed a 31-20 victory and a berth in the AFC Championship game next Sunday.
Asked if it was a playoff-worthy defensive effort, Harrison didn't skirt the issue.
"We need to get better, we need to get better," he said. "But the thing I'm probably most proud of is the way [we played] after the first half, the way we came back and persevered. We understood that we didn't play particularly well, but we came back and we stayed focused, we stayed together and we executed in the second half a lot better."
While the Patriots took one more step in their quest for perfection, improving to 17-0, the defensive effort was far from perfect. Although the Patriots managed to hold Taylor and Jones-Drew to 66 yards rushing combined, they were consistently gashed from one end of the field to the other by quarterback David Garrard, who completed 22 of 33 passes for 278 yards and a pair of first-half touchdowns.
Hey, putting the clamps on two out of three wasn't bad, right?
Not for the Patriots. Even though they walked off the field winners of 10 consecutive home playoff games, it just wasn't good enough.
"That's our goal, to go out there and really put forth a great effort execution-wise," said Harrison, who offset a pair of 15-yard personal fouls, for unnecessary roughness and a late hit, by making a game-clinching interception of a Garrard pass intended for Matt Jones at the New England 31 with 4:04 left.
It was the second turnover the Patriots forced, following Ty Warren's strip-sack of Garrard and fumble that Mike Vrabel recovered at the Jaguars' 29 late in the first quarter. That play set up New England's second TD, a 1-yard plunge by Laurence Maroney that gave the Patriots a 14-7 lead.
"We work so hard and to go out there and not play with the energy and fire and to be able to play smart and intelligent like we normally play was kind of disappointing," said Harrison, who registered 7 tackles (4 solo) and 2 passes defensed to go with his interception. "I'm really not a negative person, but a lot of times even if you win you focus on the negative things that happen and some of the things that you need to improve on."
Harrison paused and chuckled. "I need to get over it," he said.
Reminded that he needed to smile because his next game would be for the right to go to the Super Bowl, Harrison replied, "Yeah, I need to smile. I didn't play last year in the playoffs, so I'm excited, thank you."
It came as little consolation to Harrison that his interception was his seventh in seven career playoff games, making him the Patriots all-time leader in postseason picks. Harrison has intercepted a pass in four straight playoff games.
"I'm just trying to do my job," Harrison said. "I mean, I'm not trying to get any records or anything like that. I'm just trying to do anything to help my team. I'm kind of disappointed that I missed one in the end zone, so I was just fortunate that it came back to me."
After the Jaguars opened the game by putting together a nine-play, 80-yard march, resulting in an 8-yard TD pass from Garrard to Jones, it became readily apparent that the Patriots offense was going to be New England's best defense.
"I didn't pay much attention to 'em, but I just kept seeing points go up on the board," Harrison said. "I mean, [the offense] carried us. It was 7-0, then 7-7, and they just kept scoring. It's just a huge threat. It's really nice to have, on the offensive side of the ball, you know every time they get it they're going to take it down and score.
"As a defense, we need to be better."
Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.
