WASHINGTON — The quartet of quarterbacks set to star in the NFL’s version of the Final Four is, shall we say, unexpected:
The conference championship games are set.
Tom Brady has as many Super Bowl wins (5) as the other three starting QB have playoff starts (5). pic.twitter.com/I16Xm2pe9g
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) January 15, 2018
By now, we can assume Case Keenum is legit, and Nick Foles at least has his magical mirage 2013 season to give Eagles fans hope. Any reasonable prediction before the season involved Tom Brady and the New England Patriots playing at home in the championship round.
Then there’s Brady’s opponent, Blake Bortles.
Bortles is living in quarterback purgatory: not quite a first-round bust, but not an entrenched franchise player, either. Not only is Bortles the NFL’s most-intercepted quarterback since breaking into the league as the third overall pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2014 — he’s thrown the most Pick 6s of anyone in that span. Bortles has been a league-wide punchline labeled as trash by opponents.
Yet Bortles is getting the last laugh.
Yes, Bortles finished with modest numbers on Sunday: 14-of-26 passing for 214 yards and a touchdown aren’t exactly going to make us forget about Brady. But Bortles was exactly what the Jaguars needed him to be.
Effective.
Sunday, Bortles had a 94.1 QB rating, which is exactly the kind of number a team like the Jags can win with. His playoff completion percentage (53.1) is woefully low, but the key stat for Bortles is interceptions — and he has yet to throw one in the postseason.
Therein lies part of the reason why Bortles is so easily dismissed: He’s more of a passenger than a consistent passer. The Jaguars rushing attack and defense ranked in the top two in the regular season and have yet to let up in the playoffs.
But Bortles wasn’t just a bystander Sunday. In the fourth quarter, he confidently completed a 45-yard pass to Keelan Cole two plays after missing a deep shot to Marqise Lee. That led to the third Leonard Fournette touchdown of the day, to put the Jaguars up by 14 points.
The Steelers answered with a quick touchdown drive of their own, but Bortles completed a 40-yarder to T.J. Yeldon and capped the five-play drive with a 14-yard touchdown to Tommy Bohanon.
Bortles rarely has sexy stats, but he does enough to help an otherwise great team win. Trent Dilfer on the 2000 Baltimore Ravens or Mark Sanchez on the 2009-10 New York Jets immediately come to mind, and Bortles actually has much better numbers this season than either player did during their respective playoff runs.
You remember those teams, right? The Ravens went on to win the Super Bowl that year, and those Jets teams went to consecutive AFC championship games — all using the same formula as the present-day Jaguars.
In fact, Sanchez is probably Bortles’ closest comp. Way before the Butt Fumble (you know, I wasn’t going to pass up a chance to repost that legendary piece of unintentional comedy), Sanchez was the former 5th overall pick leading Rex Ryan’s defense and “Ground and Pound” offense deep into the playoffs despite lackluster passing numbers. In 2010 — the season the Jets advanced to their second straight AFC championship game — Sanchez threw only 17 touchdowns and had a middling 75.3 passer rating.
Bortles in 2017? An 84.7 QB rating with 21 touchdowns.
Obviously, Sanchez is a low bar. And Bortles was virtually unwatchable in the Jags’ wild card win over the Buffalo Bills (he threw for just 87 yards and a woeful 3.8 yards per pass en route to a passer rating of 75.8).
But Bortles has found a way to contribute. He rushed for 88 yards on 10 carries against Buffalo and Sunday came up with some clutch throws when the Steelers were storming back against the vaunted defense that’s carried Jacksonville all season long.
Perhaps most endearing about Bortles is his attitude about being dissed and doubted at every turn.
“Everybody is in the NFL here. It’s the highest level of football there is in the world. It’s tough to say that someone is not a good football player or is trash. Everybody is a professional football player and is able to do it for a living. I will always be respectful of everyone we play.”
He’s right. Nobody’s saying Bortles is the cream of the crop at QB, or even good. But he’s obviously good enough for his teammates Jalen Ramsey and Malik Jackson to boast with supreme confidence that the Jaguars can upset their way to improbable glory.
Oh, by the way … only two teams have beaten the Patriots in Foxborough in the postseason: the Ravens (twice) and the 2010 Jets.
The Jets quarterbacked by Sanchez.
Maybe that history, along with the Tom Coughlin factor, will allow Jacksonville to enter a New York state of mind on Sunday.
