Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Pittsburgh Steelers: Friday Fact or Fiction

The Jacksonville Jaguars have been away from home for most of the season, but they return to Everbank Field on Friday with plenty of reasons to be excited. The main reason is, of course, rookie quarterback Blake Bortles, but the Jaguars have made a number of changes with players who were underperforming, and the team showed some life in their week 4 loss to the San Diego Chargers.

In his first home start, Bortles is matched up against the quarterback he is most often compared to – Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bortles has a long way to go to match Big Ben’s impressive career thus far, but he appears to have the tools and the drive to get there.

With all that in mind, here are my rock solid predictions for this week’s game:

Ben Roethlisberger will complete at least 65% of his passes: FICTION

The Jaguars defense has been disturbingly ineffective against opposing quarterbacks over the last 3 weeks, allowing the likes of Kirk Cousins, Andrew Luck, and Philip Rivers to all have career days. The main culprits have been the linebackers, Winston Guy, inconsistent defensive line play, and maybe even poor coaching. With Winston Guy now gone, the Jaguars have at least one less gaping hole to worry about in their secondary. Additionally, the defense seemed to benefit tremendously from the help of a competent offense in the first half of their week 4 loss in San Diego. With all these factors taken into consideration, it’s not unreasonable to expect the Jaguars to keep Big Ben from having a monster day, and that starts with limiting his time with a clean pocket. Roethlisberger doesn’t always put up the gaudiest numbers in Florida, so hopefully the Jaguars can continue that trend.

Denard Robinson will average over 4.5 yards per attempt: FACT

The Jacksonville Jaguars have been one of the worst teams in the league running the ball over the course of the first four weeks, but they’ve smartly turned to second year player Denard Robinson to try and find a solution. With Toby Gerhart struggling to find holes and break past the first level of the defense, the Jaguars need a quicker, shiftier guy out of the backfield. Robinson only has 66 yards on 20 carries, but he’s been painfully close to breaking big runs several times. With Austin Pasztor coming back at right tackle, the Jaguars should be able to get the run going against a Steelers defense allowing 4.7 yards per attempt.

Blake Bortles will have 3 combined touchdowns: FACT

This is really more of a “gut-feeling” pick, but I think Bortles is going to go off in his first home start. The Steelers defense hasn’t been particularly staunch, especially now with starting linebackers Ryan Shazier and Jarvis Jones out, so there shouldn’t be too much pressure on Bortles. Even with Marqise Lee and Cecil Shorts ruled out, I think Bortles will manage to throw for 2 or 3 touchdowns and run for another.

So if Bortles is going to have a big day, are the Jaguars going to win? It’s all about how the defense performs, and I think they’ll manage to keep Roethlisberger and his guys in check enough to eek out the first win of the season.

PREDICTION: Jaguars 31 – Steelers 27