Jacksonville Jaguars: Blake Bortles showed flash in best game of 2017
By Larry Brake
Blake Bortles played his best game of 2017 in Week 8 while leading the Jacksonville Jaguars to victory.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are tied for first place in the AFC South after seven weeks of the 2017 season. Their defense has been very good due to their ferocious pass rush and elite talent in the secondary. Up front, they’ve worked their way to sacking the opposing quarterbacks 33 times in seven games. Many fans thought that the defense would be good, but worried about the play of Blake Bortles, going into Week 1 of the season.
Remember back in the preseason, the quarterback position was deemed to be up for grabs. The coaching staff would name the starter for the season opener to whichever quarterback would help Jacksonville win games. Bortles was given the starting nod because he was more able to extend plays. The decision was met with skepticism from many Jaguars fans.
In Week 1, at Houston, Bortles threw just 21 passes in the 29-7 victory. He completed 11 of those attempts for 125 yards and one touchdown. His next game was not so good. Bortles threw more passes for more yards but Jacksonville lost to divisional rival Tennessee. Most important, he threw two interceptions. His quarterback rating for the game was a terrible 63.7, a home game at that. He bounced back in London the following Sunday.
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He threw four touchdown passes and had a quarterback rating of 128.2, his best performance so this season to that point. The next two weeks, however, his quarterback ratings were 52.1 while losing in New York and 48.2 in winning at Pittsburgh. The defense carried the offense that day in Pittsburgh, winning in spite of Bortles’ poor play.
Against Los Angeles at home, Bortles had an average day. He completed 23 out of 35 passes for 241 yards and one touchdown and one interception. The Week 6 loss at home could be described as a special teams meltdown. Jacksonville was a 3-3 team. Then Week 7 happened, to everybody’s surprise.
With Leonard Fournette not playing due to an ankle injury, Bortles was going to have to make plays. The coaches would not be able to take the ball out of his hands like in Pittsburgh — or in most of their gameplans. In that situation, though, he played his best game with confidence and was able to make the deep throws.
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Bortles threw 26 passes and completed 18 for 330 yards with one touchdown. He had a completion rate of 69.23 precent and a quarterback rating of 124.7. He had long completions of 52, 50, and 45 yards. Most importantly, he did not try to squeeze the ball into tight windows. Bortles made very good decisions.
Hopefully, he will repeat this type of performance at home against Cincinnati. Either that, or Fournette will return to alleviate the pressure on him once again.