It’s pretty easy to focus on the good things in preseason. For the Jaguars, the good has been obvious and the not-so-good has been a little hidden. Quarterback Blake Bortles has be a big part of the good, again against the Lions producing points with the first team offense.

“I think it was a good outing for the offense,” Bortles said. “But definitely some things to look back at and learn from.”

Bortles completed 20 of 29 passes for 245 yards and a TD. He hit Rashad Greene for six points when he caught former Jaguars CB Rashean Mathis peeking into the backfield. Perhaps most important is that Bortles and the first team offense has scored eight times in 11 possessions during the preseason.

“I think everything is just slowing down,” Bortles said. “Getting more reps; feeling more comfortable. I think the new additions we’ve had through free agency and the draft have been huge. I think we’ve done some good stuff.”

For his first night as an NFL player, T.J. Yeldon was productive running and catching the ball. While he was a star at Alabama, Yeldon is the same player but is finding out the competition is bigger and faster. He scored in the second quarter on a reviewed carry up the middle and took a big hit at the line of scrimmage. Nonetheless, he looked like the guy the Jaguars are hoping he’ll be after spending a second round draft pick on him in April.

“It felt pretty good finally getting a chance to play after a couple of months having not been able to play since college,” Yeldon said after the game. It felt good. I got a little adjusted to the game speed. I have stuff to improve on, so I’m going to watch film and see what I can do to improve.”

“I thought that first offensive drive showcased some things,” Head Coach Gus Bradley said in his post-game press conference. “There was some adversity, but we fought back and different guys made plays. Marcedes, Hurns, Blake. It was very good by the offense.”

While they’re not playing with who they expect to be in the lineup through the season, the defense is still giving up what they call “explosive” plays too often. It wasn’t a good night for Aaron Colvin as he got beat deep on a Matt Stafford to Golden Tate 62-yard TD pass and then got caught inside instead of sealing the edge on third and short that lead to a 43 yard run.

“I think there was enough good things to build on defensively but we’ve just got to eliminate those. The defense knows that, they players feel it and we can get those things corrected, is my hope,” is how Gus talked about it after the game.

Bradley wants his team to play with one single-high safety, eight in the box and single coverage on the outside, stopping the run and pressuring the quarterback. But if they get beat at the point of attack, or they don’t harass the quarterback, big plays are going to happen.

That’s what happened against the Lions and we’ve seen too often in the preseason. Some of that is incorporating Jared Odrick and Dan Skuta into the scheme or how Sen’Derrick Marks might fill the gap once he’s ready to play.

Next week’s final preseason game against the Washington Redskins will be a battle for roster spots with the starters resting and preparing for the opener against Carolina on September 13. That game will be live on Channel 4 at 7:30 with the pregame show at 7 pm.

Rosters must be cut to 75 players on Tuesday, September 1st, with the final cut to 53 coming Friday, September 4th.

It didn’t take long for Gus Bradley to start lauding his team after practice today. He was barely in front of the microphone when he said, “I really like what’s going on with this team.” Look over there, Linder is working after practice, Parnell is working after practice. Cyp is working on open field tackling,” he said as he pointed to players who were getting some extra work in after today’s “helmets only” session.

“What I like about it is it’s starting to feel more real,” Bradley continued. “It’s not just talking about it or us telling guys to do it. They’re doing it on their own, and that’s good.”

Although they weren’t in pads today, the tempo was still up for practice, with some red zone work and some situations in the middle of the field. The team did work against some Pittsburgh formations preparing for Friday night but only one period.

It would be hard to overstate how much work Doug Marrone is doing with the offensive line when it comes to technique. Marrone is stressing footwork and hand position as well as hand speed and small head movements. “A good technical coach can really make a big difference,” one former Jaguar said after practice. “He can make the whole group better right away.”

T.J. Yeldon was again in a red jersey but Bradley said it was “just precautionary.” Yeldon said in the locker room that he’s ready to go on Friday and has gotten a lot of help and advice from his teammates. “It’s faster but the guys have really helped. They just say do what you’re doing and it’ll be fine.”

Jared Odrick worked on the side, still dealing with knee soreness. He’s consistently doing the drill where he puts over 200 lbs. on a low sled, puts a strap around his back and hooks it to the sled and walks backwards. That’s hard work and it shows.

Dwayne Gratz was back at practice today on a limited basis. Paul Poszluzny, Clay Harbor, Andre Branch and Tyson Alualu were all given the day off.

Tony Washington and Allen Robinson both made great catches in the red zone “install” toward the end of practice. Denard Robinson also, listed as the co-starter at tailback, got some serious work done near the goal line.

Former Jaguars Kyle Brady and Mark Brunell were at practice today. Brunell will be doing the color commentary on Channel 4 for the preseason games starting Friday against the Steelers at 7:30.

Today was the final day of camp open to the public but the Jaguars will be back on the field tomorrow morning at 11:20 for their final walk through before the game Friday night. Pregame starts on News4Jax at 7 o’clock.

Plenty hot for the 5th Jaguars practice of training camp, the first one in full pads. Working out on the far field, fans in attendance didn’t have much of a view of what was going on with the offense and defense.

The team did do some one-on-one offensive line vs. defensive line drills. A straight-ahead, bull rush from the defensive line was effectively held off by most of the offensive linemen, especially rookie AJ Cann. He’s in a position battle with Zane Beadles at left guard as the Jaguars coaches try to assess whether Beadles was below expectations last year because of the guys around him (Joeckel/Bowanko) l or if he took a step back from his days in Denver.

Aurelious Benn was working with the first team offense at wide receiver. At 6’2″ and 220 lbs, he’s the kind of physical receiver the Jaguars would like to have compliment the rest of the pass catchers.

Marqise Lee took a mis-step running the long crossing routes about midway through practice and stepped out of the drill. He walked over to the sideline and eventually wandered into the cool zone. He didn’t grab anything but it appeared he tweaked either his knee, ankle or hamstring. He’s just working his was back from knee problems in the off-season so Gus Bradley will update his status at the end of practice.

Jonathan Cyprien, Davon House, Aaron Colvin, Sergio Brown and Demetrius McCray were working with the first team defensive backfield in the nickel package. Brown and McCray are easy to spot because of their size. Colvin is quick to react to the break coming off his injury last year. House will start at one corner.

Bryan Walters, a free-agent receiver brought in from Seattle this year made a couple of nice catches during the 2 minute drill. Walters is listed at 6′ and 190 lbs but looks a little smaller than that. Good hands and quick feet though, Welker-esque.

While the team was working the second team 11-on-11 drill, Blake Bortles went to a separate field to throw routes to Julius Thomas and Marcedes Lewis, exclusively. Haven’t seen that before.

We’ll update the practice report this afternoon after hearing from Bradley, Bortles and the rest of the players in the locker room.