With New England Looming, a Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes to Blake Bortles

The Jacksonville Jaguars are one game away from the Super Bowl. Say that out loud. Actually, sing it; like Homeric poetry, it deserves to be set to music.

The Jaguars find themselves in this lofty position after beating the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday. It was a fun game, with Jacksonville jumping out to a 21-7 lead in the first quarter and the Steelers repeatedly threatening to come back through a series of incredible plays from its cadre of star receivers. The Jaguars held on to win 45-42, securing a date with the Patriots in New England. The winner will go to the Super Bowl.

The Jaguars will again be the underdogs (obviously). No matter the betting line, they will be an unfashionable pick, and if you wanted to describe the Jaguars in one word, you could do a lot worse than unfashionable. Their helmets are silly. They play in Jacksonville. Their quarterback is Blake Bortles.

Still, the Jaguars do a lot of things well. They have a fierce defense. Cornerback Jalen Ramsey is a star. Their run game is stout. As Bortles showed against the Steelers, he can do better than merely not mess up (which was his directive for much of the season).

In order to beat the Patriots in New England, everything needs to go right for the Jaguars. In fact, more than everything needs to go right. New elements will have to be conjured into existence, added to the periodic table, and imbued with pro-Jaguars properties. Still, there’s a chance, and it will be objectively hilarious if Jacksonville manages to unseat the vaunted Patriots dynasty this Sunday.

The Jaguars are the polar opposite of New England. The Patriots are all pomp and bloated gravitas. They have the “Patriot way,” which is the very serious ethos that’s promoted throughout the organization. There is no “Jaguars way.” They don’t have an ethos. All they have is a swimming pool in their stadium.

Before the playoffs began, ESPN’s Seth Wickersham published an article about the apparent discord within the Patriots organization. The story made waves, with some pro-New England writers going as far as to say that it was written in order to “divide” the Patriots. “For 17 years,” Wickersham writes, “the Patriots have withstood everything the NFL and opponents could throw their way, knowing that if they were united, nobody could touch them. Now they’re threatening to come undone the only way possible: from within.”

The Jacksonville Jaguars aren’t mentioned in Wickersham’s piece, but its very existence says a lot about the chasm between these two teams. No one would take the time to write a lengthy, in-depth story about palace drama within the Jacksonville Jaguars organization. No one is arguing whether or not, like Brady, Blake Bortles has grown too close to his shaman-like “body trainer,” or if he’s too preoccupied with his growing empire of sports therapy training centers.

These two teams might as well play on different planets, but on Sunday they’ll share the same field. The outcome of this cosmic mismatch will either be predictable or outrageous, and there is no room in between.