Jacksonville Jaguars: Blake Bortles should only play in odd-numbered weeks

The Jacksonville Jaguars are having an up and down season. Exemplifying that, it looks like Blake Bortles should only play in the odd-numbered weeks.

The Jacksonville Jaguars lost a very winnable game against the New York Jets on Sunday in Week 4. The Jaguars fall to the Jets 23-20 in overtime. Offensively, they were a shell of themselves following a dominating win in London. Winning back-to-back games has been difficult lately. Last season, Jacksonville won two games in a row, but the bye week came in between both games. In 2015, they won five games, but only Weeks 10 and 11 were back-to-back victories.

One reason to explain the difficulty is the ineffective quarterback play. Winning teams have consistent play by their signal caller. Blake Bortles is, at the most inopportune time, very inconsistent. His statistics are proof.

John Oehser of Jaguars.com highlighted the issues:

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"Blake Bortles isn’t “over the hump.” Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles looked good and very improved in a four-touchdown, no-interception performance against Baltimore a week ago. He looked equally improved on the first series Sunday, completing four of five passes for 42 yards and a touchdown. He went 11 of 30 for 98 yards and an interception after that. He wasn’t helped by a late drop by Lee, but Bortles looked inaccurate as the passing game stalled."

He had very good games in Weeks 1 and 3. He had very bad games in Weeks 2 and 4. Week 5 is in Pittsburgh. It’s fair to say, Bortles will play well since its Week 5, an odd number, given the current trend.

In Week 1 against Houston on the road, Bortles threw only 21 times. In Week 3 in London, he threw 31 times and in both games he was interception free. Most of all, he was not sacked in either game. Jacksonville notched lopsided victories in both contests.

Bortles threw two interceptions and his quarterback rating was 63.7 in Week 2. He attempted 34 passes, far more than he did in Houston. In New York, he had a quarterback rating of 52.1 and an interception, which proved to be costly. The Jaguars losses were embarrassing. At best, Bortles is an average NFL quarterback.

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The jury is out as to whether he can find consistency, which would surely elevate his stock some. Until he does, Jacksonville should only play him in the odd-numbered weeks to come, or at least that’s what early season results would have us believe.