Rourke seizes opportunity in impressive preseason debut with Jaguars

While the football world on both sides of the border buzzed about what he’d just done before a crowd of more than 80,000 at Jerry’s World, Nathan Rourke stood as calmly at his locker as he’d been on the field and shrugged, “it’s just football.”

Rourke, however, was the only one underselling the play on which he’d broken four tackles while facing third-and-16 to fire his first NFL touchdown pass, a 21-yarder to Quadree Ollison that turned out to be the difference in a 28-23 Jacksonville Jaguars win over the Dallas Cowboys.

It was a heckuva play for anyone, much less someone seeing their first live action in the NFL, and one that caused Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson to comment that he’d never seen many plays like that one.

There is a long history of players who have “flashed” in NFL preseason games, never to be heard from again. At this time of year, the starters rarely play and with 90-man rosters there’s all kinds of ways for players to take advantage of situations that won’t exist during the regular season.

That said, there was nothing fluky about Rourke’s play, given the elusiveness and escapability it required and the composure it took to find the open receiver on the fly and hit him with a perfectly thrown ball — all while being taken to the ground from behind.

To put it bluntly, you can’t discount that kind of ability, preseason or not.

The spectacular nature of that play obscured the rest of Rourke’s performance in which he looked absolutely in his element while completing 9-of-17 passes for 153 yards, one touchdown on the ground and one through the air, in one half of football. It was his first live action since last November’s playoff loss to Winnipeg as a member of the B.C. Lions, the team that celebrated when his touchdown pass was shown on the board at BC Place on Saturday as they were trouncing the Calgary Stampeders.

After starter Trevor Lawrence and backup C.J. Beathard split the game’s first half, Rourke began the second half completing just 1-of-5 passes on his first drive, one of which fell incomplete due to a miscommunication with a receiver and another that he had to unload to avoid a sack on a Cowboys blitz.

The next two drives both ended in touchdowns as Rourke settled in.

He looked calm throughout and demonstrated a superb sense of time and space on the field, occasionally and appropriately using his legs to gain yards when he couldn’t find an open receiver.

He faced uphill situations during both drives as the Jaguars' propensity for penalties had him facing plenty of first- or second-and-long situations which he handled by going 4-for-4 on third-down conversions during those two series. He then made it 5-for-5 on his only designed run of the game during the final series which ended in victory formation.

One preseason appearance can’t tell you a player is capable of playing in the NFL, but there was nothing that occurred in Dallas to suggest he can’t. The game never seemed too big for him as he consistently made the right decisions, even on the throws he might have wanted to improve upon.

So what does it all mean for Rourke and his immediate future in the NFL? Probably not very much.

Rourke signed in Jacksonville understanding that the No. 1 job is firmly in the hands of Lawrence, the 23-year-old former first overall pick who had a dominant college career at Clemson before coming to the NFL.

Behind him, the 29-year-old Beathard is entrenched for now as the No. 2, given his experience through six NFL seasons and Lawrence’s endorsement, no small factor when backing up a legit franchise quarterback.

The path for Rourke to play meaningful snaps in Jacksonville goes something like this: Lawrence gets injured for an extended period, Beathard plays and is unspectacular, Rourke goes in and makes magic.

But since the Jaguars would be happy to have Lawrence take every snap for the next 15 years, that may never happen.

Which is why it’s so critical for Rourke to make the most of his opportunities during the preseason, where he can demonstrate the qualities that can separate him from other backups.

Rourke in college was known as a “gamer” a dual-threat guy who could extend plays with his escapability and was as likely to run with the ball as he was to throw it once he got out on the edge. In the CFL, he refined his throwing and became a pure passer, taking his instinct of when to run with the ball and putting it in his back pocket.

The combination of those skill sets is what produced the touchdown pass that was everywhere by Saturday night.

Including planted in the minds of all 32 NFL general managers.

It should be noted that throughout his life, from high school in Oakville, Ont. to Alabama, to junior college in Kansas, to Ohio in the NCAA and to the CFL, Rourke never had to regress before he found success.

So in that sense his NFL preseason debut falls in line.

Rourke knows he is playing the long game here and that his NFL journey is going to require a lot of patience.

But Saturday in Dallas was a tremendous start.