Philadelphia Eagles: Three keys to win over Jaguars in Week 8
By Jake Starr
Force Bortles to beat you
Bortles has been playing in the NFL for five years and has been underwhelming, to say the least. Last season, he was good, but not great. Their run to the NFC Championship game was in large part thanks to Jacksonville’s running game and their top-notch defensive unit.
This year, Bortles has returned to what we saw out of him for the first three years of his career. He has posted a lousy 9-8 touchdown to interception ratio and is throwing interceptions at the highest rate since his rookie year.
Bortles reached a low point last week when he was benched for Cody Kessler in the team’s loss to the Houston Texans. After the benching, Jaguars’ coach Doug Marrone announced the team would stick with Bortles as his starter, but said he would be on a “short leash.”
"I totally understand that I'm the scapegoat for this team," Blake Bortles told me last week. He's still standing--barely--as the @Jaguars prepare to head to London...https://t.co/8wnPZxB0ji
— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) October 25, 2018
The Eagles are going to have to force Bortles to beat them with his arm. Jacksonville is at their best when their defense is forcing turnovers, putting their offense is plus situations, allowing them to run the ball and set up Bortles for success.
If the Eagles can avoid putting the Jaguars in plus situations and shut down their running game, then they can pin this game on Bortles, who has struggled under pressure this season.
But, it does seem like the Eagles tend to allow struggling quarterbacks or sub par signal callers have big days against them. This tendency is a trend that the Eagles cannot let continue on Sunday against Bortles.