JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It'll be hard for anyone around the NFL to have anything derogatory to say about Blake Bortles after Sunday night.

He's not trash, a subpar quarterback, and he certainly didn't choke. In fact, he was pretty darn good -- maybe the best he has ever been.

Bortles played the best game of his career -- and outperformed the greatest quarterback in NFL history in the process -- and led the Jacksonville Jaguars to a 31-20 victory over the New England Patriots at TIAA Bank Field. It wasn't a perfect day, but, as he did throughout the postseason, Bortles made some clutch plays late in the game to keep the Jaguars unbeaten (2-0).

"I think anytime you win it is a good game," Bortles said. "It's a good football team obviously, so to beat them is a good win. I try to do whatever I can to make sure we can win, if it's throwing for 300 yards or getting us in the right run-game checks or whatever it might be. It was definitely good for the most part today."

That's a bit understated. Bortles finished with 377 pass yards and four touchdowns, making him just the third quarterback to put up numbers that good in a game against Tom Brady (Alex Smith last season and Drew Brees in 2009). The Jaguars needed him to come up big because Leonard Fournette sat out the game with a right hamstring injury. Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett put the game in Bortles' hands and he delivered.

Bortles wasn't great in a Week 1 victory over the New York Giants, but he was really darn good against the Patriots. Bortles outdueled Brady in the first half, completing 17-of-25 passes for 200 yards and three touchdowns to different receivers (Donte Moncrief, Keelan Cole and Austin Seferian-Jenkins). That staked the Jaguars to a 21-3 lead at halftime.

Bortles made one poor decision in the second half, forcing a throw to tight end Seferian-Jenkins between two Patriots defenders that was intercepted, but other than that, he played a nearly flawless game.

He had plenty of time to throw (he wasn't sacked), and three times he scrambled to convert third downs: a 9-yard gain on third-and-6, a 10-yard gain on third-and-7, and a 10-yard run on third-and-9 with less than three minutes remaining. He also lowered his shoulder and tried to run over Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore on another third-down run and came up a yard short.

"We go against Blake in practice and he has some days where he's just lights out," defensive end Calais Campbell said. "He gets us and we're like, 'If he can get us he can get anybody,' because we feel pretty good about ourselves.

"I was grabbing popcorn. Every time he was with the ball in his hands I was like, 'He's about to do something great.' And then he's running and spinning. It was impressive."

Despite playing turnover-free football in the 2017 playoffs -- and making some clutch fourth-quarter throws in the Jaguars' divisional victory in Pittsburgh -- there were still a ton of skeptics about the Jaguars' decision to sign Bortles to a contract extension. Especially with Kirk Cousins available.

However, the Jaguars stayed with Bortles. Executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin saw the improvement from 2016 (the worst season of Bortles' career), especially in cutting down turnovers, and felt that with the run game and the Jaguars' stacked defense that Bortles would be good enough to get to -- and potentially win -- a Super Bowl.

Sure looks like he may be right. Bortles has thrown for 553 yards and five touchdowns with two interceptions through the first two games and has eight touchdown passes in his past five games. More importantly, the Jaguars are 2-0 in 2018 heading into Sunday's home game against Tennessee (1-1).

"It puts him in that Pro Bowl conversation," defensive tackle Malik Jackson said. "I think the way he went out here and played against that defense is awesome. Yes, it's early in the season, but I think he's put himself in the conversation to really be [one of the] top-tier quarterbacks right now. At least in the first two games."

So despite what Jurrell Casey (Bortles will choke), Jadeveon Clowney (he's trash), Vontaze Burfict (he can't beat the Bengals) and Earl Thomas (he's a subpar QB) said, Bortles has shown he's good enough to win big games.