Jaguars’ Blaine Gabbert does just enough against Baltimore Ravens

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Blaine Gabbert’s performance for the Jacksonville Jaguars on Monday night might have looked pretty familiar to the Baltimore Ravens -- a quarterback who doesn’t do much to impress but makes no mistakes and rides a dominating defense to victory.

The Ravens had plenty of success that way for years, winning Super Bowl XXXV with Trent Dilfer as their quarterback and having some pretty decent seasons with Kyle Boller as their quarterback. Joe Flacco has been an upgrade at that position, although he didn’t do much on ‘Monday Night Football.’

Neither did Gabbert. He completed nine of 20 passes for only 93 yards, but it was enough to allow the Jaguars (2-5) to snap a five-game losing streak with a stunning 12-7 victory over the Ravens (4-2) for the rookie quarterback’s first NFL win.

Gabbert did not throw a touchdown pass; he had one each in his previous four starts. He went without throwing an interception for the third straight game and has just two all season.

His quarterback rating was a lackluster 59.0 on Monday night and just 69.4 for the season. That’s slightly worse than Dilfer’s 76.6 during the Ravens’ Super Bowl season. But Gabbert is still averaging almost 152 passing yards a game as a starter, which is better than Dilfer’s average of 136.5 the year he won a ring. Like Dilfer that year, Gabbert had the benefit of a dominating defense Monday night. The Ravens didn’t get a first down until well after the midway point of the third quarter and finished with only 146 yards of total offense.

Of course, these Jaguars aren’t about to make a Super Bowl run like the 2000 Ravens. After all, Jacksonville couldn’t even score a touchdown in Monday night’s game, relying on four Josh Scobee field goals (including three from 50 yards or more, which ties an NFL record).

But then again, didn’t Dilfer’s Ravens go five straight games without finding the end zone that year? Hmmmm ...

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