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The Jacksonville Jaguars first joint practice with the Minnesota Vikings went without any major hitches on Wednesday. No one was seriously hurt, there were no fights and both teams seemed to just put their head down and work. One potentially concerning thing however that came out of the practice was that Jaguars starting quarterback Blake Bortles had a rough practice, to put it lightly.
That's it for 11-on-11 today:
— Phillip Heilman (@phillip_heilman) August 15, 2018
Bortles, 24 snaps, 4/13, INT
Kessler, 20 snaps, 9/11
Lee, 9 snaps, 3/5#Jaguars
One slight correction is that Bortles interception was in red zone drills, but that doesn’t it make it much better. Bortles, by accounts of people at practice on Twitter, had roughly at least five other dropped interceptions in mostly red zone drills. That’s atypical of Bortles, who is generally really good once he gets into the red zone.
I wrote prior to the start of practice that it would be a good gauge for where Bortles was at so far this offseason, going against the Vikings defense. He goes against a good Jaguars defense every day, albeit usually the second and scout team, but going against another defense right on the same level but with different parts would be a nice judge of where he is.
"..Yesterday, Blake looked indecisive and especially not great in red zone drill, for first time since last year."
— Burnt Out Couch (@BCBCouch) August 16, 2018
- Oesher/Sexton
*The Vikings are the only defense he'll see all year that's close to ours, so this isnt shocking really
Sure, he struggled, but by my count this is really the first actual rough day of practice for Bortles this offseason. By all accounts, even by his “haters”, Bortles has picked up where he left off from the playoffs last season. He showed it in the first preseason game, going right down the field on the first drive of the game scoring a touchdown.
Does it trigger the little “oh no” in the pit of your stomach, sure, but at this point I don’t think it’s much of anything other than just one of those days he’s going to have every so often.
Hopefully.
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