Raiders @ Jags

[Vin+ 3,121]

STATS LLC Associated Press

Oct 19, 2016

 

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- One third-year quarterback has his team tied for first in the AFC West.

 

Another has an opportunity to put his team squarely into the thick of things in the AFC South.

 

The development of Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr and Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles will be on display Sunday at EverBank Field in a game between two teams trying to take a step toward snapping long playoff droughts.

 

"We'll always be tied together because we were in the same class," Bortles said. "Derek's an awesome guy, obviously an awesome quarterback. (He's) been doing a good job."

 

Both Carr and Bortles were selected in the 2014 draft by teams needing a fresh start after years of losing -- and losing big.

 

Carr went 36th overall to a Raiders franchise that hasn't achieved a winning record since losing Super Bowl XXXVII following the 2002 season.

 

Oakland was 29-51 in the five seasons prior to drafting Carr.

 

Bortles went third overall to a Jaguars franchise that had been even worse during that time frame.

 

Jacksonville was 26-54 from 2009-2013 and hasn't made a trip to the playoffs since the 2007 season.

 

So far in their young careers, Carr and Bortles have given their franchises reasons to be optimistic about the future.

 

Carr has the Raiders (4-2) tied with the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos for first in the AFC West and is proving to be a dependable quarterback who limits turnovers and can take advantage of the dynamic players he has around him.

 

He is tied for fifth in the league with 12 passing touchdowns and has the fewest interceptions (three) of any quarterback with at least 225 attempts.

 

Carr is completing 66.5 percent of his passes and averaging 7.1 yards per attempt.

 

"He is impressive," Jaguars coach Gus Bradley said. "We had him at the Senior Bowl. "His demeanor, his competitiveness. He is very, very accurate. He has the ability to extend plays.

 

"We watched him today extending plays, making big plays down field. You talk about a guy that is playing with a lot of poise and confidence right now. He is playing at a real high level."

 

The season hasn't been as smooth for Bortles, but he managed to play well enough during victories over Indianapolis in London and at Chicago in the last two games to keep the Jaguars (2-3) within 1.5 games of the Houston Texans.

 

Bortles has eight passing touchdowns with seven interceptions this season while being sacked 14 times as part of an offense that has seemed to regress.

 

The Jaguars were 14th in the league in scoring last season (23.5 points per game) but have tumbled to 21st (20.2 points per game) with inconsistent play.

 

Jacksonville has season a big improvement from its revamped defense, led by a pair of rookies.

 

Cornerback Jalen Ramsey knocked away a pass from Bears receiver Alshon Jeffery in the fourth quarter to seal a victory for the Jaguars last week. That came after defensive end Yannick Ngakoue earlier notched his fourth sack of the season -- joining Terrell Suggs as one of two players in NFL history to register at least four sacks and an interception in the first five games of their career.

 

Jacksonville's defense has gotten fourth-quarter stops against Green Bay, Baltimore, Indianapolis and Chicago this season. The Jaguars will need another strong effort defensively against Carr and his talented receivers.

 

Second-year receiver Amari Cooper surpassed 1,000 receiving yards as a rookie and is on pace to be even better this season. In six games, Cooper is fourth in the league with 585 receiving yards (97.5 per game) and is averaging 16.3 yards per catch.

 

Michael Crabtree has also been strong and is tied for the league lead with five receiving touchdowns.

 

A shootout could be ready to unfold between Raider coach Jack Del Rio's current and former team.

 

Oakland is last in the league in yards allowed (444.8 per game) and 24th in scoring defense (27.2 points per game) this season.

 

That could mean more big plays for Bortles and his own pair of talented receivers, Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns.

 

Each team should be mostly healthy heading into Sunday. Let the best third-year quarterback win.

 

"I love the culture that we've built here," Carr said. "Whenever you have four wins and two losses and you feel not very good about how you've been playing as a team, that's a good thing because you know that there is more out there for your team.

 

"You know that there are bigger possibilities. But we are what we've earned, and we hope to earn some more."

 

[RazorStar 4,025]

Ok the Jags had their fun, time to be losers again.

 

27

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[Vin+ 3,121]

 

Latavius Murray (toe) is active for Week 7 against Jacksonville.

Murray was expected to play after returning to a limited week of practice. He'll be part of a committee with DeAndre Washington and Jalen Richard, making Oakland's backfield a situation to avoid.

Inactive for the Raiders are QB Connor Cook, OT Menelik Watson, RB Taiwan Jones, CB Dexter McDonald, FS Brynden Trawick, OL Vadal Alexander, and TE Ryan O'Malley.

 

 

 

Julius Thomas (ankle) is active for Week 7 against Oakland.

Thomas only got in two limited practices this week, but there was never concern over his status. The Jaguars plan to get him more involved after he was held to two catches last week. Thomas should be downgraded to a TE2 at less than 100 percent.

Jacksonville's inactives are QB Brandon Allen, RB Corey Grant, WR Bryan Walters, TE Neal Sterling, OL Bryce Harris, DB Josh Johnson,and DE Chris Smith.

[DonovanMcnabb for H.O.F 2,241]

Good Lord, someone PLEASE fix Blake's throwing motion.

[Sparty 110]

[Vin+ 3,121]

On the bright side, that Jalen Ramsey fellow is pretty good. Amari Cooper did pretty much nothing today.

 

Outside of that, the team in general is a mess.

 

A defense that's generally bad for at least a half to three quarters per game (depending on how bad the team we're playing is).

 

Runningbacks that can't run the ball consistently. Maybe that's all on the o-line, maybe it's a shared suckage.

 

A QB that's, I don't know what. Like the defense, he's prone to at least a half or three quarters per game of suckage before turning into a competent QB. Stupid things are still happening, like getting grounding called when the defense is offside and it's a free play (though this could also be a ref thing for not stopping the play, I dunno.) There's a large amount of...complacency, or nonchalance maybe, when he throws the ball. I'm not sure how much it negatively affects his ability, but damn if it isn't annoying as hell to watch.

 

Things have to be turned around pretty quick, because if Bortles continues to suck, and if there aren't signs that he's the guy, then we're entering despair territory at that point, because then the cycle continues and we're a couple years out from being relevant.

[Bay 2,003]

Shared suckage

[SteVo+ 3,702]

I know we all want to say it's Gus Bradley's fault, and he could very well be unemployed in the near future, but there must be others to blame. Are the Jags really as talented as we all thought going into this year? Or are they still a mediocre team?

[Cherry 1,302]

Bortles sucks. Line overrated too.

[ATL_Predator+ 1,196]

Yesterday was actually a decent day all around for us.

 

Offensively:

 

Carr always starts out slow...missing some key throws early on you could tell he was off his rhythm. Once him and Crabtree got going, things started to change. The main difference was...our run game was efficient. ON the longest TD drive for us in the second quarter we ran the ball 9 out of 11 plays and went 60 some yards... so it's great to see Latavius back and making the most of his touches.

 

 

Defensively: We still have a lot to work to do but the more and more I watch this defense the more I see the major problems. The big thing is...we like to give up big plays...big plays that aren't TD's but most certainly change the battle of field position. Our secondary actually played pretty well overall and we were getting pressure on Bortles..but I'm not going to get too excited about it...as it leads to my next point.

 

 

Remember that time everyone was on the Jags hype train?? Yeah...that should stop if it hasn't already. Bortles is not that impressive of a QB to me...never has been, people wanted to compare him to big ben coming out of college and he's nothing like him.

 

He makes poor...poor decisions...and when he does he relies on his arm which isn't very good to begin with, IMO.

 

With Allen Robinson and Hurns... I was fully expecting to see them have like a 300 rec yard kinda day... amazed it didn't happen. The lack of Jags run game is amusing too, their defense isn't bad but when they are constantly on the field there's not much else you can ask from them.

[Vin+ 3,121]

 

Coach Gus Bradley said he "firmly, firmly believes" in Blake Bortles, and he'll remain the Jaguars' starting quarterback.

Chad Henne doesn't do anything for the Jaguars. He hasn't thrown a meaningful pass in over two years, and rookie Brandon Allen wouldn't be any sort of upgrade. Still, Bortles has been one of the worst, if not the absolute worst, starting quarterbacks in football through Week 7. He's 29th in both completion percentage (59.7) and passer rating (76.4), while tossing the third-most interceptions. Bortles' play has fallen off a cliff after what is looking like a fluke 2015 season. With Bortles not producing in a dream home spot against the Raiders this past Sunday, he's firmly off the fantasy radar until further notice.

Source: ESPN.com

[Cherry 1,302]

Once again, Bortles is the example of a guy who everyone wants to fix but seems unfixable. Unless he goes to a team with a true QB coaching wizard, he's in a pool of shit.