Jaguars coach Doug Marrone benched quarterback Blake Bortles during Sunday’s loss to the Texans and he said after the game that he would have liked to bench a bunch of other players as well.
Marrone was asked to explain his thought process for replacing Bortles with Cody Kessler in the third quarter of the game. Marrone responded by saying that he would have replaced everyone on the field if that was possible and that he chose to pull Bortles, who was 6-of-12 for 51 yards and lost two fumbles, in hopes that it would give his team some life.
“Thought process was you can take all 11 out, you don’t have enough people to put in,” Marrone said, via Michael DiRocco of ESPN.com. “Thought process: ‘Hey listen, I’m going to take the quarterback out.’ Not like he had he played worse anyone out there. He had two fumbles. I just literally did it to try and get a damn spark from this football team to put everyone on notice. They have to focus and go out there and play better. At points in second half they did it. That’s not fair to the QB, but that’s how the business is ... Questions will be who is your starting QB next week, focus will be on that. For me, it is on everyone.”
The Jaguars scored their only points with Kessler in the game, but the only real sparks for Jacksonville came in the locker room after the game. That will be something else for Marrone to deal with in addition to picking a quarterback as the team prepares to face the Eagles in a battle of 3-4 teams in London next Sunday.
