Blake Bortles says he changed the play at the end of Jaguars loss

Blake Bortles takes the blame for the pick-6 that helped cost the Jaguars the game against the Steelers Sunday

In their 17-9 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Jacksonville Jaguars failed to find the end zone. It’s been a rough start for rookie rookie Blake Bortles, who threw two interceptions in the game. One of those came in the fourth quarter, with the Jags down just 10-9, when his pass intended for Allen Hurns was intercepted by Steelers corner Brice McCain and returned for a touchdown.

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Bortles took over a struggling team, now 0-5, and is learning on the job. He learned a lesson on that throw.

Via Michael DiRocco, ESPN.com:

"Though it may have looked like receiver Allen Hurns should have come back for the ball on the pass that cornerback Brice McCain intercepted and returned for a touchdown, quarterback Blake Bortles said it’s his fault alone. Hurns ran the right route but Bortles said he shouldn’t have thrown the ball — and should have stuck with the run play that was called instead of changing it to a pass. “It was a bad read, bad throw,” Bortles said. “Worst case scenario I should have just thrown it over his head and gave us a shot on third down. … It wasn’t a good decision. We could have kept the run on and it wouldn’t have been a bad play.”"

Reading NFL defenses is much different than reading basic college defenses and changing plays is certainly a big boy move. And while the Jaguars coaching staff may not be letting Bortles audible to plays of his choosing, it seems they are allowing him to check out of plays on his own. He checked out of a run here to put the ball in his hands.

This play alone did not cost them the game, but it put it that much more out of reach. This will be a valuable lesson for Bortles as he continues in his development.

It’s not that the good quarterbacks don’t make mistakes, it’s that they learn from them.

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