Blake Bortles’ 11 TDs in 2014

2-6-CIN 40 (Q3, 9:45) (Shotgun) 5-B.Bortles pass deep right to 88-A.Hurns for 40 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

The Jaguars run a play action stretch to the left, and Bortles pulls the ball and runs out on a bootleg. The DE is not fooled, so he gets pressure on the QB. Because of the pressure Bortles is forced to throw on the run. Hurns has a step on the defender, so ideally this ball would be placed to the middle of the endzone over the defender’s head so Hurns can run for the catch. However, the pressure causes the throw to come up short. The CB is playing Man Coverage and isn’t tracking the ball so he doesn’t have time to adjust to the short pass, while Hurns does. Hurns makes a great adjustment for the catch and then takes the ball the remaining two yards for the TD.

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1-10-CIN 18 (Q4, 10:04) (Shotgun) 5-B.Bortles pass deep right to 88-A.Hurns for 18 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

This is a terrible decision and a bad throw by Bortles and he got totally bailed out by Hurns. Hurns is bracketed by two defenders. He should not throw this football. And if he’s going to throw the football, he shouldn’t be throwing it directly at the CB. Hurns makes a spectacular play to jump the pass like a DB. It’s a great play on his part. I don’t know what Bortles was thinking.

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1-10-NYG 30 (Q3, 1:58) (No Huddle, Shotgun) 5-B.Bortles pass deep right to 11-M.Lee for 30 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

Here the Jaguars run a very strange formation with two offensive linemen split wide, presumably to block on a potential screen play. The Giants’ defense is visibly confused by this. The Jaguars don’t actually run the play to that side of the field, and instead Marqise Lee just outruns the opposing CB. This is a great throw from Bortles, and the first one of these plays I’d classify as such. He leads Lee past the CB, the throw is just inside the boundary, and the deep safety is completely taken out of the play. This is the throw you would have liked to have seen to Robinson against the Dolphins and to Hurns on the first TD against the Bengals. Great play by Bortles.

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2-4-HOU 4 (Q1, 3:48) 5-B.Bortles pass short right to 88-A.Hurns for 4 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

On another bootleg, Bortles’ underneath option, the fullback, was taken out by a defender knocking him to the ground. This leaves no fewer than five Texans defenders between Bortles and his WR Hurns. Bortles does a very good job of extending the play for as long as possible, and Hurns fights hard to get free. Eventually, a small window opens and Bortles rockets the ball in for the TD catch. While not a particularly long pass, it’s a good play by the pair of rookies.

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3-1-TEN 4 (Q2, :36) 5-B.Bortles pass short left to 89-M.Lewis for 4 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

This is a goal line fade route. It’s a standard NFL play and Bortles makes a good throw that allows his big TE to go up and catch the pass. The thing that makes the throw a bit difficult is that he needs to get it over the CBs head and outstretched arm, and Bortles does a good job of this, putting it in the perfect spot. Lewis finishes the job with a good catch.

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There are definitely positives to take away from Bortles’ TD throws in 2014. First of all, you have to love his aggressiveness and willingness to trust his receivers and throw the ball down the field. Then, if you look at his last few TD passes you see drastic improvement in his ball placement from early throws, which indicates some progression on his part throughout the season. However, there are also some things you see in these throws that are cause for concern. There’s one really awful play on the part of Bortles that he got completely bailed out on, and there are a number of other plays where he struggled to hit his receivers in stride, either throwing it in front of or behind them. These are things you should expect him to improve upon next year, because he needs to work on them. If he doesn’t improve, that would be a big cause for concern.

Degree of Difficulty

Easy	2
Normal	6
Hard	3

 

As I said above, you have to commend Bortles for being fearless throwing the football. He did not throw many “easy” TD passes. I think a big reason for that is that his targets generally did not do a good job of getting open. Three of his TDs were on very difficult pass attempts. He also threw quite a few moderately difficult passes that went for TDs. It was a strong showing in terms of degree-of-difficulty for Bortles, at least. He wasn’t perfect in executing all of these passes, but he did do enough to get the job done.

Now that I’ve covered their TDs passes, look for articles coming up about the turnovers that rookie QBs committed in 2014.

Click here for all of Blake Bortles plays in our GIF Database.