Gus Bradley says Blake Bortles 'can play better'

It's no secret that Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles has been struggling over the past four or five games. The problem is pin pointing what the issue is. Some of it is play calling, some of it is dealing with so many rookies on the offensive side of the ball, some of it is the receivers not getting themselves open and some of it is just Bortles himself not playing well.

"I would say this with Blake: he can play better. He can play better," Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley said at his Monday press conference. "I thought that the interception to Marcedes (Lewis), that could have been a better thrown ball. I think you look at the overall concept, what I’m challenging our team right now and I challenged our offensive staff, we just need to play with more confidence. And in order to play with more confidence, we need to repeat things. You build confidence off of repetition"

Coming off Sunday's abomination of an offensive performance, it sounds like something is going to change on the offensive side. Bradley noted as much, saying that they're going to go back and look at what has worked in the past and try to make sure they're able to get Bortles into a rhythm. Bradley also noted that maybe they're just adding in too many new plays during the week that don't even get used during the game, so that could get scaled back so the team can perfect their core plays first and foremost.

"If we have these new plays and we’re putting a lot of time into it, then we get to the game and we’re running our core plays, that’s not time well spent," Bradley said. "I think it’s an analysis of that. What are we spending our time on and what are we doing?

With all of Blake's struggles, especially with how he looked on Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts, there are some that are worried he's going to get shell shocked. He was hit a lot on Sunday and in some games towards the end, team's just begin sending the house. Bradley isn't worried about Bortles breaking, mentally, at least.

"He appears to be strong. He appears to be very confident. I think there’s, not to get confused with confidence and being frustrated. I think he wants to give more and wants to produce more, and that part is frustrating," Bradley said. "Confidence – I don’t see that. He’s confident going into it and the game plan and things like that, it’s just the execution."

"Some are under his control and some it happens. I think that’s what’s frustrating as a whole for the offense, so I think it’s more frustrating than lack of confidence," Bradley added.

For the first time it feels like the team has admitted publicly they have to completely change what they're doing offensively, so it will be interesting to see what actually changes on Sunday against the New York Giants.