Blake Bortles beat the Buffalo Bills and no one knows how to feel

Blake Bortles might not be the easiest quarterback to defend, but he almost single-handily beat the Buffalo Bills.

Love him or hate him, Blake Bortles beat the Buffalo Bills on Sunday afternoon. Everyone was expecting some asinine interception, but Bortles instead had his best rushing game of his career en route to leading the Jaguars to the AFC Divisional Round.

Here’s the problem: outside of what he did with his legs, Bortles didn’t have that great of a game. Jacksonville won, which is ultimately what counts, but nobody who watched that game should walk away from it feeling good about Bortles.

We all just watched a professional football player win a playoff game by running for more yards than he threw (88-yards rushing versus 87-yards passing). Jacksonville beat Pittsburgh the last time the two teams played, but Bortles threw for 85-yards in that game, meaning in Jacksonville’s two biggest games of the season Bortles had less than 100-yards passing. That’s not so much impressive as it is a crippling example of why no one feels comfortable with him under center.

The idea that the Jaguars can go into Pittsburgh and win next weekend exists almost solely because of the defense. There’s a very good chance that field goals make up the difference, which might not be the case if the Jaguars had a capable quarterback. If Jacksonville has Eli Manning or even Sam Bradford under center, we look at them very differently.

Jaguars fans can’t be blamed for being drunk on Bortles. Despite all of the mistakes and the low stats, Bortles has quarterbacked the team to the second round of the playoffs. He finds the most unsexy ways to be as minimally efficient as possible and wins games. That should be an even bigger badge of honor for the Jacksonville defense, which has given Bortles enough wiggle room to go full-Bortles and not have it weigh them down completely.

Then again, who knows? Maybe Bortles having a Forrest Gump moment and discovering he can run is the type of anomaly that breaks the playoff algorithm. Everyone assumes he’s good for at least one back-breaking interception per game, but he has yet to throw one in his postseason career.

Imagine the Steelers planning to beat Bortles with pass defense, but he just runs all over them again. Is that the variable, when combined with the loss of Ryan Shazier, that gives the Jaguars the edge they’ve been missing?

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Whether we want to admit it or not, Blake Bortles is an unpredictable variable — which is progress from where we thought he’d be right now.