Sunday, February 16, 2025, 6:50PM |  38°
MENU
Advertisement
Blake Bortles celebrates with Chad Henne after a touchdown against the Steelers on Sunday.
1
MORE

The weirdest Steelers season ever is dead. Blake Bortles killed it.

Matt Freed/Post-Gazette

The weirdest Steelers season ever is dead. Blake Bortles killed it.

If there was one thing we knew about the Steelers’ 2017 season as we lived it — one where a coach getting escorted from one of the worst bars in the Western world on New Year’s Eve and summarily breaking his pelvis couldn’t crack the top-five list of insane moments — it was this: The end, however it came, was going to be spectacular.

And the end came on Sunday afternoon. It didn’t happen in Minneapolis. It didn’t happen in Foxborough. It happened at Heinz Field, at the hands of one Robby Blake Bortles.

The pride of Oviedo, Fla. The apple of Jason Mendoza’s eye. The patron saint of one of the few decent parody Twitter accounts. Blake Bortles. The Steelers are on an ice floe, and Blake Bortles set them adrift.

Advertisement

It’s appropriate, really. The weirdest season had, in its way, the weirdest possible end. Because for all the things Blake Bortles is, what he isn’t is a particularly good NFL quarterback. All told, he’s probably closer to bad — but on Sunday, that couldn’t have mattered less.

Ben Roethlisberger is pressured by Lerentee McCray.
Gerry Dulac
Plenty of blame to spread around after Steelers' loss to Jaguars

For every off-target throw — he went 14 for 26 and put grass-stains on his share of balls — there was an effective checkdown. He didn’t turn the ball over. He didn’t take a sack. He rushed for 35 yards, including a crucial 16-yarder in the fourth quarter on one of Jacksonville’s eight third-down conversions.

“Blake Bortles this, Blake Bortles that,” strong safety Barry Church said. “All he did was dominate their defense.”

I laughed a little at that. Because Bortles didn’t dominate the Steelers’ defense … right? That wasn’t what happened, was it? The Steelers’ loss was about their own utter schematic failure, and their own inexplicable coaching decisions, and a first-quarter that was the football equivalent of ending up behind the eight-ball immediately after your break, and their hubris.

Advertisement

That’s why they went down, right? Not because of anything Bortles did. Eventually, though, I came around. He may well be big-picture bad, and it’s impossible to imagine that team beating the Patriots if they play similarly in the AFC championship. But say this about the dude: He did his part.

Midway through my laugh, I remembered the 45-yard bomb he threw to Keelan Cole with 11:21 remaining that eventually let the Jags reopen a two-touchdown lead. It was the single biggest play of the game (non fourth-down division). Who should’ve been laughing, really?

“One thing I learned is when you talk negative about him, he comes out and just proves you wrong over and over again,” cornerback A.J. Bouye said. “He did it against Seattle. He did it the first time [against the Steelers in October]. He did it today. I got a lot of respect for him.”

It’s impossible not to feel the same. Bortles, over the course of his career, has been more of a meme than a quarterback. There are a few reasons for this.

A Steelers fan sits in near empty stands after the Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Steelers, 45-42, in a AFC Divisional Playoff Sunday at Heinz Field.
Ed Bouchette
'It's embarrassing': Steelers talked a good game, but didn't play one vs. Jaguars

1) The pick-sixes. He throws a lot of them, including a three-game streak against the Texans. “I’ve gotta be a better tackler,” he said at the time. It was one of the single best quotes of 2016.

2)The Good Place. This is where Jason Mendoza enters the mix. NBC’s “The Good Place” is a show about people navigating the afterlife. Mendoza, played by Manny Jacinto, is the cast doofus and, of course, a Jaguars fan. At one point, Mendoza — an amalgam of stereotypes about Jacksonville that I was unaware existed until the last few months — asks the character played by Ted Danson if the Jags had won a Super Bowl since his death.

“Oh you’re serious,” Danson says. “No.”

“Will they ever win the Super Bowl?” Mendoza asks.

“Jason, I can’t predict the future. But no,” Danson says. “They won’t.”

Mendoza name-drops Bortles constantly. At one point, he wears a jersey. At another key moment, he lobs a Molotov cocktail at a speedboat and yells “BORTLES.” And that leads us to …

3) His name. It’s objectively funny. Blake Bortles. Blurk Burtles. Bleep Blooples.

4) His general mediocrity. If Bortles was one of the 15 best QBs in the league, none of this would be a thing. He’s not, though, so it is.

5) Stuff like this.

Again — this is the dude who ended the Steelers’ season. It’s perfect. Smart money is on him realizing how funny it is.

“I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less what anyone in the world says about me. I enjoy going to work every day with those guys in that locker room and the coaching staff,” Bortles said after the game. “I enjoy everything we do, and this is the type of thing that you dream of — to get opportunities to play in games like.”

In a week, he’ll get another opportunity — and the Steelers won’t. Of course that’s how it happened. They got beat by a meme. They died as they lived.

Sean Gentille: sgentille@post-gazette.com, Twitter: @seangentille

First Published: January 15, 2018, 12:57 a.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS (0)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
Citing the substance's risks, the FDA in late 2023 issued a public safety alert warning that consumers "should not purchase or use any Neptune’s Fix products, or any other product with tianeptine."
1
news
‘Gas station heroin’ arises as a new threat
2
news
Medicaid on the chopping block: Proposed cuts threaten coverage of vulnerable Pennsylvanians
Novo Asian Food Hall on Thursday May 23, 2024, Strip District.  (John Colombo/For the Post-Gazette)
3
news
Legal battle stirs the pot at Novo Asian Food Hall
Sarah Siplak, operations manager, assembles a donated car seat inside JFCS Pittsburgh on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Squirrel Hill.  Local
4
news
Federal funding freeze leaves Pittsburgh refugee aid groups scrambling
Bryan Rust #17 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with Rickard Rakell #67 and Sidney Crosby #87 after scoring a goal in the first period during the game against the Edmonton Oilers at PPG PAINTS Arena on January 9, 2025 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
5
sports
From The Point: Putting every Penguins player into trade buckets ahead of NHL trade deadline
Blake Bortles celebrates with Chad Henne after a touchdown against the Steelers on Sunday.  (Matt Freed/Post-Gazette)
Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
Advertisement
LATEST sports
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story