Bears beat the Jaguars 20-19, Blake Bortles impresses again

In back to back preseason games, Bortles has out performed Henne on both the stat sheet and with the eyeball test. Bortles didn’t look like the game was too big for him or too fast, consistently pushing the ball down the field and using his legs to create other plays. Henne has been up and down in the preseason so far, but if Bortles continues to play like he did on Friday night he might make them reconsider their plans.

The game had preseason sloppiness with 21 penalties being called between both teams, including 14 against the Jaguars.

Monday Night Football! The biggest football game of the week! It’s an American tradition! Everybody is watching! Howard Cosell! John Madden!

So of course, for Thursday night’s Jaguars-Bears preseason game, we were treated to this:

The Jaguars’ plan coming into the preseason was simple: don’t give Blake Bortles first-team reps until the fourth game and prepare him for being Chad Henne’s backup in 2014. But the No. 3 overall pick flipped the script with his 7-of-11, 117-yard performance against Tampa Bay last week. That prompted Gus Bradley to publicly consider handing Bortles more snaps with the first team. Who knows, another strong performance could have Bradley mulling a Week 1 start.

Jacksonville’s other star rookie, second-round wide receiver Marqise Lee, didn’t get the same opportunity to impress last week. Despite playing extensively with the ones, he didn’t get a single target. Look for Bradley to try to get Lee involved against Chicago.

If you had bet $100 on the UNDER every time Miami played Tampa Bay in NFL preseason action over the past two decades, you’d have $1,400 in your wallet.

In 18 games between these Florida rivals, the UNDER is 16-2. On Saturday night, the Dolphins visit the Buccaneers, who are 2-point home favorites. The more interesting number, based on the aforementioned trend, is 37.5, which is the over-under posted by most sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.