7 Jaguars players who stood out in 27-24 loss to Cardinals

I thought the Jacksonville Jaguars played their sloppiest game of the year last week. Nope. Not even close. The offense today against the Arizona Cardinals was absolutely horrendous, racking up just 271 total yards and going 1-of-12 on third downs.

Pathetic.

So, who stood out today? Let’s get to it:

1. Blake Bortles

The receivers and offensive linemen sure didn’t help him, but he didn’t really help them either. He was terrible in pre-snap reads of a Cardinals defense that blitzed early and often and when it counted the most he was at his worst. I mean, look at this pass on the most important drive of the game late in the fourth quarter.

Look at it.

Bortles is the worst starting quarterback in the league and it was confirmed by having Blaine Gabbert outplay him today. Disgusting.

2. The offensive line

We were woefully unprepared for the Cardinals defensive line today. They blitzed with regularity and stuffed Leonard Fournette. There’s nothing good to say about a unit that has been impressive so far this year but it looks like injuries have caught up with them.

3. The receivers

I lost count with how many passes these guys dropped. Granted, Blake Bortles had awful awareness and placement on a lot of his passes — both the completions and incompletions — but there were a handful of catchable balls (even on bad throws) that receivers should have pulled in.

4. Yannick Ngakoue

Let’s take a moment to be positive. His 10th sack of the year was an absolutely monstrous forced fumble on Blaine Gabbert that allowed Calais Campbell to run it in for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. He’s a cornerstone defensive end and the Jaguars need to make him a priority in 2020.4

5. Calais Campbell

NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

6. Nathaniel Hackett

Holy moly was the offense bad today. The execution, the play-calling, the scheme, the game plan — what are you doing, Nate? Why are we running long-developing pass plays against a good defensive line? Why haven’t we figured out yet how to play when Blake Bortles and Leonard Fournette are on the field? Why were we throwing when we were going for overtime on that last drive? Why? Why? Why?

7. Todd Wash

Why were we playing off the ball so much early in the game? Why were we giving Gabbert underneath stuff? Why did it take a 16-3 deficit to figure out that well-timed pressure and tight coverage would result in Gabbert being less efficient and prone to mistakes? The Cardinals offense is super complex — why was our typically elite defense so confused by it?

There are probably more but I’m tired and we really lost to Blaine Gabbert, man.

Blaine.

Gabbert.