Watt, Mercilus to test Jags' young tackles

Jaguars offensive tackles Will Richardson and Jawaan Taylor held their own last week in the 40-26 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, considering both were playing in their first NFL games.

Taylor gave up one sack, for a modest 3-yard loss, and Richardson yielded none, pretty good against Chiefs ends Frank Clark, Alex Okafor and Emmanuel Ogbah.

It also wasn't bad considering the Jaguars had to throw the ball 33 times trying to dig out of an early hole -- and Kansas City knew it.

Now, they face one of the toughest tests in the NFL for any tackle, rookie or All-Pro: trying to block Houston Texans' defensive end J.J. Watt and outside linebacker Whitney Mercilus when the two 0-1 teams play on Sunday at Houston's NRG Stadium (1 p.m., CBS).

Watt was held without a tackle in the Texans' 30-28 loss to New Orleans on Monday but Mercilus had a sack, a quarterback hurry, an interception and four solo tackles.

It was the first time in 105 career games that Watt was held without a tackle or a quarterback pressure.

All that might have done is rile him up. In 13 games against the Jaguars, Watt has 16 sacks, two fumble recoveries and three forced fumbles.

"J.J. Watt is a challenge for anyone," Jaguars coach Doug Marrone said on Wednesday. "You're talking about someone who's definitely a Hall of Fame player who has a motor like I've never seen before."

Watt has 92 career sacks, the third-most in NFL history through 105 games. Mercilus has 43.5 sacks in 100 career games.

That means Richardson and Taylor are spotting Watt and Mercilus 203 games and 16 combined years of NFL experience.

Richardson, who did not play last season as a rookie and was at right guard for most of the preseason until Cam Robinson suffered another knee injury, had a unique approach to the task at hand.

"I'm thankful for the opportunity," he said after the Jaguars' practiced on Wednesday. "I'm going to keep preparing and go into every day thinking, what's the one thing I need to do to get better? I have to get the most out of my technique, the most out of my work and the most out of my reps."

Taylor said going against Jaguars rookie defensive end Josh Allen has helped get him ready him for players such as Watt and Mercilus.

"Josh was the best defensive end I played against in college," said the ex-Gator, who went against Allen each season when UF played Kentucky. "J.J. Watt is an explosive guy, a big physical guy and one of the best in the business. But Josh has helped prepare me. We push each other every single day in practice, finding ways to make each other better. He teaches me, some things I teach him."

Richardson said the difficulty of playing against Watt and Mercilus is their variety of pass-rushing moves. Against ends and outside linebackers with the whole package, Richardson said it's best to study for tendancies and keep it simple.

"Both of them have a plethora of moves," he said. "It's knowing their techniques, the small things, and try to get used to what they do before they do it. What down do they like to work this move? What do they like on third-and-10? You hope you get a good idea of what they want to do on each down and distance."

Taylor also said it's important to try and match the intensity level of Watt and Mercilus.

"You need to have a lot of energy," he said. "Come out ready to go."

Marrone said the Jaguars will try to give the young tackles help, such as using a tight end or back to "chip," or slow them down, or use double-teams.

"They're going to work hard this week and hopefully they won't be alone too much on him [Watt]," Marrone said. "There's combinations and things of that nature but it's the NFL and you're not always going to have the best match-up."

Marrone also continued to praise Richardson for turning his career around after last year essentially turned into a redshirt season. The fourth-round draft pick from N.C. State was inactive for the first five games, active but didn't play in one game, and then went on injured reserve on Oct. 20.

"Will's worked hard ... he's really overcome a lot," Marrone said. "I didn't know where he was going to go. I didn't know whether he'd be out on the street today or he'd be playing and I give him a lot of credit after what he went through last year. It was really tough ... not having a lot of positives to build on. He's turned it around."