Most of the shine has come off Blake Bortles at this point. Yeah, it was great that he looked so "NFL ready" in the preseason, and hell, we all know Chad Henne was never the answer anyway. But this train looks like it might be about to jump the tracks. After a pretty hot start Bortles has fizzled faster than dollar store soda. There's no going back at this point; he is just going to have to fight his way through it.
Blake Bortles’ big chance
A rocky start to his NFL career could be exactly what Blake Bortles needs, if the Jaguars don’t ruin him completely.
Melina Vastola-USA TODAY Sports
Last Sunday, Bortles threw not one but two pick-sixes, that ain't easy to do. Both balls were bad decisions and bad passes. On the first, he ran a bootleg to his left and tried to hit his tight end on a deep crossing route. With the safety just sitting there waiting in the flat, it was a bad decision. If he was going to throw it anyway then the pass should have been higher to try to get over the corner's head instead of flat where he could pick it off. I'm sure Dolphins safety Louis Delmas has Bortles on his Christmas card list after that. Mind you the score was 0-0 prior to that play.
The second pick was even worse. The receiver runs a sluggo (slant and go) route, and Dolphins cornerback Brent Grimes doesn't bite on it at all. Instead of looking for another option, Bortles decided to try to throw it to him anyway. Bad, bad decision. Then he also decided that instead of throwing a jump ball to give the receiver a chance, he would throw another low trajectory pass behind the receiver.
The problem was that Grimes, while never biting on the slant fake, also never took his eyes off of Bortles. When the pass came low and behind the receiver, Grimes pounced on it and took it back for six. You just can’t do that if you’re Bortles, especially in the third quarter with the score 10-3. Plus, the difference in the game at that point was the previous pick six he threw.
After Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins, Bortles now has thrown 12 interceptions in just six starts. His completion percentage the last few games has hovered just above 50 percent. He’s also been sacked 12 times in the last three weeks. It’s one thing for a rookie quarterback to not be able to get his team over the hump in games, but it’s all bad when the quarterback becomes a big part of the reason why they’re losing.
That's where the Jaguars are now with Bortles, but it doesn't have to end that way. He isn't getting pulled anytime soon, so the team will be able to see how he deals with a little adversity. He has an opportunity now to learn from all these mistakes, or get buried by them. The Jaguars had better hope it's the former and not the latter.
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