Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles thinks his team has the right makeup.
"Everybody kind of says 'consistency,' but when it comes down to it nobody's trying to make mistakes," Bortles said, via the team's official site. "Nobody's trying to hold. Nobody's trying to throw an interception. I don't really know how else to put it except that we have to be better. At every position, we have to be better.
"One thing that's good about it is we have seen it before. We've done it this season. We did it last year. We have the ability and the right guys in the locker room to be successful and be a powerful offense. We just have to find it."
For everyone calling the Jaguars (2-4) a massive disappointment this season, I say look around. Should the Jaguars win on Thursday night against the Titans (a game airing exclusively on NFL Network) and should the Colts falter in a game this Sunday against the favored Kansas City Chiefs, Jacksonville is tied for second place behind a Texans team that spent more wayward cash this offseason than anyone.
Jacksonville was a trendy pick this year to make the playoffs thanks to the injection of promising young talent over the past few offseasons and a big summer in free agency. While the team is still below .500, it is safe to say that the foundation of talent on the roster is better than anything the Jaguars have had in roughly eight years. But it is also important to note that this was not going to be the type of turnaround where the team goes from 5-11 to 11-5 overnight.
With such a young roster, players are going to have to learn how to grind it out. Change needs to be ugly.
At the moment, Jacksonville is 29th in points scored and still does not possess the ball for a majority of the game (their average is roughly 27 minutes). Bortles has a 1:1 touchdown to interception ratio and is averaging just 6.6 yards per completion. And while his yards per game and total yards are on pace to mirror that of Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers this season, he knows the rest of the unit needs to step up to create a more all-encompassing offense.
"We're trying to find things that really work for us consistently," Bradley said. "For us to go out there and be a team throw 40 times a game, that's not who we want to be about. We want to mix in the run and pass. I think it's important for us to get some points early and get a feel for what that's like."
That's what makes Thursday Night Football against the Titans so important this week. The winner of this game propels themselves into the halfway point with a legitimate chance of making a run. If Bortles thinks the team has the right guys, why can't it be Jacksonville?
