Preseason week 1, Jaguars at Patriots

Patriots 47
Jaguars 12

Alright to me, that score means nothing, as do these stats

Blaine Gabbert
9/16, 85 yards

What does mean something to me is that Blaine Gabbert seemed, to me, to be making good enough reads against a very good Patriots defense.
His teammates didn't help him very much with a very poor offensive line and more than a few dropped passes.
This may sound like nonsense to anyone reading this but the most promising things from Blaine Gabbert were not in the stats but in the things you don't see in the box score, he showed poise and seemed fairly comfortable in the pocket, and contrary to most people's beliefs he didn't break into cold sweats, start screaming, and fumble every time they put him under center.
He had a few bobbled snaps but he made good reads and accurate passes most of the game.
The problem he had was that his receivers wouldn't catch the ball on quite a few plays, and his linemen weren't making all of the blocks needed for a Quarterback to look flawlessly sharp.

Now a lot of people are comparing his numbers to those of fellow rookie Quarterback Ryan Mallet of Arkansas.
Mallet went 12 of 19 for 164 yards and a TD pass. But the thing to note is, let’s face it, the Patriots have a much better receiving core and offensive line than the Jaguars.
With guys like Stevan Ridley(who I will get to later) and Taylor Price, who had 105 yrds and a TD, the Patriots obviously have an advantage when compared to guys like Jason Hill, Kassim Osgood, and Zach Miller, and I think you will see why Ryan Mallet came out on top in this competition.
Also Blaine went up against the first string defense of New England, whereas Mallet went up against the Jags second string defense.
The positives that I saw from Blaine Gabbert,(good reads, accurate throws, pocket presence, ect,) far outway the negatives that I saw.
Now does he still have a way to go, yes, he needs to learn the whole offense, and get a few more games under his belt, but I think by the time the season starts he could be just as good, if not better than David Garrard.
He made accurate throws most of the time, and as I said before his receivers dropped more than a few passes.
I say that if the Jaguars want to win they need Blaine Gabbert to blow them away in the rest of their pre-season games and win the starting job because as I said before Garrard is Trent Dilfer with the occasional big play potential of Michael Vick.
The other promising thing that I saw was Deji Karim as a punt returner and a running back.
Mark my words, if Deji Karim gets enough carries, he will unseat Rashad Jennings as the second running back on the depth chart and offer a breather to MoJo occasionally.
And I personally think he has the potential to be much like Maurice Jones-Drew, and should he reach that potential the Jaguars will have a two headed monster much like when they had Fred Taylor and MoJo.
Now, if you have watched or read anything about this game, you have doubtlessly heard about Stevan Ridley, well I am going to talk about him as well, as he was by far the most impressive player on either team, with 111 yards of total offense (64 rushing, 47 receiving), and 3 TDs (2 rushing, 1 receiving), he beat the second most impressive player which was Taylor Price.
Now me being an LSU fan I had a feeling that Stevan Ridley was going to be a great sleeper and had he been drafted by anyone other than New England he would be a 1,000 yard rusher as a rookie.
 If he has a similar performance throughout the pre-season he will be the starting running back over The Law Firm of Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis.
And Danny Woodhead will be their 3rd down, Kevin Faulk-esque running back.

All and all I think Jaguars fans and coaching staff should be very happy with what they witnessed against the Patriots and should they start Blaine Gabbert, they will most likely have a winning record and have a shot at taking down the dreaded Indianapolis Colts.