Blake Bortles shines in preseason opener; Davon House has rough start

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Here are some highs and lows in terms of individual performances from the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 23-21 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers:

HIGHS

Blake Bortles: It would be hard to have a better stat line than the one produced by Bortles on Friday night. He completed 11 of 15 passes for 118 yards and ran for a touchdown. Three of his incompletions were drops by Allen Hurns, Clay Harbor and Bernard Pierce. Bortles made the right reads and was accurate with the ball.

Toby Gerhart: The Jaguars gave us a glimpse of how they’re going to use Gerhart in 2015. He ran for 13 yards on four carries -- one of those converted a third-and-1 -- and caught two passes for 30 yards. The way he ran the ball was more impressive than his stats. He got tough inside yards, broke tackles and drove the pile backward. That’s what the Jaguars had hoped to get out of him in 2014 but couldn’t because he was limited all year by an ankle injury suffered in the season opener.

Rashad Greene: The Jaguars haven’t had much success on punt returns the past two seasons, but Greene delivered a 37-yarder in the second quarter. Had this been a regular-season game, that would have been the team’s longest punt return since Mike Thomas had a 78-yarder in 2010.

LOWS

Davon House: The Jaguars gave House a four-year, $24.5 million contract ($10 million guaranteed) to be their top cornerback but he looked like anything but early. He was beaten easily by Martavis Bryant for a 44-yard touchdown. He even was penalized for defensive holding on the play and still got beat. To be fair, though, House came back and had a nice pass breakup against Darrius Heyward-Bey.

Storm Johnson: He's fighting for a roster spot and fumbling on a kickoff return obviously isn't going to help, especially after the Steelers converted the turnover into a touchdown and a 21-17 lead with less than five minutes remaining.

Stefen Wisniewski: He’s battling Luke Bowanko to be the starting center, and getting drawn into committing a false start isn’t something you’d expect out of a vet with four years of experience. Defensive tackle Matt Conrath flinched his left arm and that caused Wisniewski to flinch as well. Why is this a big deal? Because that came on third down and Conrath sacked Chad Henne on the next play.