JACKSONVILLE – The in-box changed tones a bit from early Sunday afternoon to early Sunday evening. All in all, it is not a happy place, but there is hope. The future is here.

OK, then.

Let's get to it …

Jerrell from Columbia, SC:
Same ole Jags.
John: This was the first in-game email Sunday. And it was sort of fitting considering what was to come. Succinct, to the point, with a dose of anger for good measure … a nice little tone-setter.
Eric from Long Beach, New York/DTWD:
John, something has to change. This is just ridiculous. Clearly getting out-coached, out game-planned.
John: This was the second email.
Steve from Atlanta, GA:
Um ... These guys know there isn't a rule against winning a game in September, right?!
John: And the beat went on.
Scott from Aurora, IL:
All joking aside, John: it's less than three minutes into the second quarter and I already feel like I should be turning this game off. I don't claim to know a great deal about the nuances of football play, but the offense is just bad and the defense can't cover anyone in the middle of the field.
John: All right, enough of posting people's emails and letting people know when I got them. Scott, you were right at this point, and it was a point that made sense all through the game. The offense was bad early, at least until rookie quarterback Blake Bortles entered the game. And the defense really struggled. I can point to many reasons the offense struggled, with most of them having to do with youth. But the defense? I didn't expect the defense to struggle like this. Jaguars Head Coach Gus Bradley seemed equally surprised after the game Sunday, and so did middle linebacker Paul Posluszny. Bradley said there were times it seemed like 10 players were getting the job done defensively with just one player not making a play. He also called the performance disappointing. He was right. The performance of the defense has been surprising. And disappointing. The unit was supposed to be better than this.
Jason from Jacksonville:
0-16?
John: No.
Tim from San Dimas, CA:
The game ... no THE SEASON started for me with the first play of the second half. We could have won this game, O-Man.
John: I'm not ready to say the Jaguars would have won Sunday with Blake Bortles playing quarterback the whole game. That would be ignoring a defense that struggled, not to mention ignoring the fact that the Colts were well ahead in the second half when Bortles entered the game and probably not playing with the intensity they had at the beginning of the game. But does the rest of the season have a chance to look different? Yes, I will say that.
Dean from Rochester, NY:
I'm going to guess this game will be Jaguars fans favorite 30-point loss.
John: Why's that?
Biff from Jacksonville:
You like happy. We like happy. Could I bother you to only publish happy questions? The Era of Bortles has started.
John: There indeed was a feeling of happiness and relief when the Jaguars inserted Bortles into the game. You could feel it in the crowd. You could feel it in the in-box. You could feel it on Twitter. Shoot, you could feel it in your bones. This is not going to be a cure-all. There are still a lot of area where this team is struggling. But indeed the Bortles Era has begun. There will be a lot of learning and a lot of hiccups, but the uncertainty and debate … those things apparently are in the past.
John from Orlando:
Well, Bortles came in and shut up all the critics. He proved that no matter who plays quarterback we are always going to lose and always going to be junk.
John: He did?
Stephen from Charlotte, NC:
The second year of a rebuild, we should not be playing seven rookies (eight if you count Joeckel) on offense. I am starting to doubt our GM. We should be better than this. We have gotten worse, not better.
John: I won't argue that the Jaguars are having better results than last year. That's not the case. But I do wonder why the Jaguars should not be playing seven rookies (eight if you count Joeckel) in the second year of a rebuild. There is only so much you can do each offseason rebuilding your roster. The Jaguars' goal last season was to figure out where the roster needed improving, and they drafted this offseason with that in mind. Now, you have Blake Bortles, Allen Robinson, Marqise Lee, Allen Hurns, Luke Bowanko and Brandon Linder starting. That is an enormous amount of youth, true, but I'm not sure what Caldwell should have done last year to prevent those players playing this season.
Kevin from Orange Park, FL:
Pathetic! That's what I would consider a pretty unprofessional display of professional football. At least Bortles looks like he's going to be a player even though he's made some mistakes. He definitely gave the Jags a spark. Will he start from this point forward?
John: Yes.