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Blake Bortles and Jaguars offense excels in loss to Buccaneers

By Daniel Lago

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The Jacksonville Jaguars have to be questioning where they are as a roster and an organization after an embarrassing defensive outing in a terrible loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but they can take a little bit of solace in the encouraging performance by the offense. Second year QB

Blake Bortles

had the most productive day of his career (23/33 for 303 yards, 4 touchdowns and 1 interception) and he did more than enough for the Jaguars to win this game.

Constantly against the ropes because his defense couldn’t stop the Bucs rushing attack, Bortles had to put the offense on his back through the first 3 quarters to keep the game within reach. Bortles missed some opportunities, but he also made plays with his feet and found the open receiver more often than not.

Just as encouraging as Bortles was the performance of Bortles’ fellow second year players – receivers Allen Hurns and Allen Robinson. The Allens combined for 3 touchdowns and almost 200 yards receiving and probably should have had more production. Bortles and Robinson just missed connecting on a couple of deep throws and those are plays that will hopefully come to fruition with time.

The Jaguars finally got Julius Thomas on the field in limited snaps, but the bigger takeaway from the tight end position is just how bad Marcedes Lewis has become. Bortles forced the ball to Lewis on a handful of occasions and literally nothing good has happened when he’s targeted Lewis.

It’s clear the Jaguars are going to shift a majority of those targets to Thomas as he gets comfortable and in a groove.

There’s little consolation in losses anymore, but it was nice and borderline exciting to see the offense put up some yards and points. Maybe one of these games both the defense and offense will show up.

Next: Jaguars lose to Bucs 38-31

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