Blake Bortles’ first postseason victory came with a hefty dose of criticism Keke Coutee Jersey , maybe even more than ever before.
The Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback handled it as well as he did Buffalo’s pass rush.
”It’ll probably never stop,” Bortles said Wednesday. ”There’s people that think LeBron James sucks, so if that happens, I’m sure there will be a lot of people that always think I suck.”
The latest insults came from Tennessee Titans safety Kevin Byard and retired NFL quarterback Chris Simms.
Byard told the Tennessean this week he wants to make New England’s Tom Brady looks like Bortles. Byard intercepted two of Bortles’ passes in the regular-season finale in Nashville.
”This is a playoff game, so I don’t really care if it was Joe Montana,” Byard said. ”You know what I’m saying? I’m trying to go out there and win the game. I want to make him look like Blake Bortles if I can and try to catch a couple picks. Tom Brady is a great quarterback, but it’s a playoff game.”
Simms told The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz on Tuesday that Bortles is 70th in his NFL quarterback rankings, below backups Chad Henne (Jacksonville), T.J. Yates (Houston) and Nathan Peterman (Buffalo).
Former Jaguars left tackle Tony Boselli called into the show to defend Bortles, saying it’s ”the most ignorant, asinine statement I’ve ever heard.”
None of it seemed to bother Bortles, who has been sullied all season .
Titans defensive end Jurrell Casey told a Nashville radio station last week that ”as long as Bortles is back there Tanner Lee Jersey , if the ballgame is in his hands, he’s going to choke.”
Bortles also has been publicly ripped by Houston defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, Seattle safety Earl Thomas and Cincinnati linebacker Vontaze Burfict in the past two months.
”Players or peers talking about you is a little new,” Bortles said last week.
Bortles’ performance against the Bills was far from his best.
He completed 12 of 23 passes for 87 yards and a touchdown. He never settled into a rhythm, and with the game tied in the second half, he stopped throwing and starting scrambling. He finished with 88 yards on the ground, becoming the first quarterback since Atlanta’s Michael Vick in 2004 to win a playoff game with more rushing yards than passing.
”There’s two different ways to look at it,” Bortles said. ”You kind of look at the numbers and look at the game and say, `You played terrible.’ Or you look at it and say, `Things weren’t going right here and you found a way to win and be efficient and move the ball and do different things.’ I think that’s how I feel about it. We didn’t have our A-game. I missed a couple throws. Things weren’t going well.
”But you know scrambling around and doing some different things, and guys making some plays, we found a way to score one more time than they did. That’s all you’ve got to do.”
The Jaguars (11-6) won the wild-card game 10-3 Darqueze Dennard Jersey , with the lone touchdown coming on Bortles’ 1-yard pass on a fourth-and-goal play, and advanced to play at second-seeded Pittsburgh (13-3) on Sunday.
Jacksonville beat the Steelers 30-9 in Pittsburgh earlier this season. Bortles threw just one pass in the second half as the Jags dominated thanks to five interceptions, including two returned for touchdowns, and a season-high 231 yards rushing.
Bortles completed 8 of 14 passes for 95 yards, with an interception.
”Hopefully we can throw less,” Bortles said. ”That would be awesome. Leonard goes off again and those guys up front play as well they did last time and we can run the ball up there and not have to throw at all. That was something that happened last time, but you never know. … It could be another one of those games or it could be you go up there and throw it 50 times.”
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The Houston Rockets are so full of physical defenders that Golden State coach Steve Kerr said many look like they could play football.
And with three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt watching from a courtside seat Thursday night, this team long known for its powerful offense relied again on its defense to beat the Warriors 98-94 and take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference finals.
”Both teams are playing their guys heavy minutes so shots will fall or not,” James Harden said. ”But I think whoever can buckle down and get stops consecutively and create opportunities with their defense is going to win or have a chance at winning games.
”The last two games, we’ve done that.”
Indeed. The Rockets bounced back from an embarrassing 41-point loss in Game 3, when Golden State scored 126 points, to hold the Warriors to fewer than 100 points in two straight wins. Houston’s stingy defense helped the Rockets come out on top on a night when Harden Donte Moncrief Jersey , the MVP front-runner, was 0 for 11 on 3-pointers.
Critics of Mike D’Antoni’s teams often said they were too focused on offense and not good enough on defense. It looks like that’s changed now – against a team with four All-Stars in its starting lineup.
”Ninety-four points for a team like that, the guys are trying to find a way and they did,” D’Antoni said.
The Rockets have kept the Warriors from moving the ball the way they’re accustomed to, crowding them and forcing them into playing more isolation- style. They’ve also been relentless at throwing bodies at their shooters, and have often used bigger players to harass Stephen Curry to try and wear him down.
Houston has forced the Warriors into 34 turnovers combined and limited them to 19 total 3-pointers in the last two games.
The Warriors and Rockets were first and second in the NBA in points per game during the regular season, averaging 113.5 and 112.4, respectively. Golden State has managed just over 107 points a game in this series, and Houston has held the defending champions to 97 points in its three wins.
Curry noted that both teams have elevated their defenses in this series.
”It’s been high level,” he said. ”Nothing’s easy out there on either side.”
He shook his head at the fact neither team has broken 100 points in the last two games.
”I think (if you) guessed what the final score would be between the Rockets and Warriors, and neither team getting to 100 two straight games, don’t know what the odds (would be) on that Chris Harris Jr Jersey ,” he said. ”Defense is high right now.”
While everyone has been pitching in, the tone on defense, especially in these last two games, has been set by the aggressive play of P.J. Tucker and Trevor Ariza, and Clint Capela’s presence at the rim. Tucker knows that most people believe the way to beat the Warriors is to outscore them in a shootout. The Rockets have shown that energy and effort on the defensive end are a better formula for getting it done.
”Anybody says to beat Golden State they talk about scoring 120, 130 points,” Tucker said. ”We just feel like we play defense, (lock) down and make it tough for them.”
And if the Rockets are able to do that in Game 6 on Saturday night they’ll be on the way to their first NBA Finals since winning consecutive titles in 1994-95.
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