The Jacksonville Jaguars’ game against the Dallas Cowboys in London will be all about the quarterbacks — Blake Bortles and Tony Romo.

Or not.

There is some question whether Romo will be able to play, but thus far the word is that he will be a go.

The Jaguars, who are 1-8 for the third consecutive year, hope Bortles, their rookie quarterback, can hold it together enough to spring an international upset.

While it’s uncertain if Romo will play with his back injury, Bortles will start despite suffering a sprained left wrist against Cincinnati last Sunday. If Romo can’t go, backup Brandon Weeden will start. Romo didn’t practice Wednesday, but that’s normal for him.

The problem with Bortles isn’t the wrist but his habit of throwing costly interceptions. He is not only suffering the typical growing pains of a rookie quarterback, he seems to be regressing.

It’s probably a case of opposing defenses getting more time to study him and understand how to confuse him.

He threw only one interception in the 33-23 loss at Cincinnati, but it essentially ended the game.

The Jags had a first down on the Cincinnati 14 with 4:06 left, trailing 33-23. Bortles said he meant to throw the ball out of the end zone but instead threw it right into the arms of George Iloka in the end zone. When Bortles can’t even throw the ball away, it shows how much he is struggling.

He also could have had three or four more interceptions, but Cincinnati defenders dropped them.

It will be no surprise if he throws more interceptions against the Cowboys. He now has 13 and lost a fumble.

The Jaguars are sticking with Bortles and aren’t thinking about going back to Chad Henne, who led them to a three-game winning streak in the second half of last year.

“Blake is so confident and competitive.” Jaguars coach Gus Bradley said. “I think that with him, he’s constantly trying to get better; he learns from his mistakes. He goes out and tries to correct them. All of those signs are just part of his growth.

“Sometimes they’re unfortunate. Sometimes they sting you. What I really watch for is if there adversity or something goes wrong, is he learning from it and is he growing from it? As long as he does that, and that’s what we expect from Blake, then we have no issue.”

Bradley said the same things last week about showing confidence in Bortles.

“I think there are multiple ways it’s been shown to him,” Bradley said. “To come back and throw the ball after an interception, or when he comes off the sideline to see the strength that we have for him, I think he feels that. I think it’s something that we don’t take for granted, but I think we stayed true to that and want to really display that for him.

“Remember Chad Henne was in there and we said, ‘he really saw that when we’re strong for Chad that he can take it,’ that when he struggles or if he has some struggles that we’re going to show him that same strength for him? I think that lesson that he saw earlier is coming back and is now providing great strength for him.”

Bradley was asked about allowing Bortles to throw again right after an interception.

“Some people can look at that and say, ‘What a great message for Blake.'” Bradley replied. “You see? We have no fear. We don’t want you to have any fear. Just ball, man.

“Now, make good decisions. Fear doesn’t mean reckless. It’s just that we trust in him and I think because we sense that from him, it’s not that he doesn’t care about throwing interceptions. It hurts him, but I think the best thing we can do is to teach him to learn from these difficulties and grow from them. That’s really what we’re looking for him to do.”

And Bortles doesn’t seem rattled.

“One of our big things is to try and get better in any way,” the quarterback said. “If you’re throwing 20 interceptions, try and throw 10 the next time. Try and get better no matter where the bar is at, no matter what the situation is, just to improve on whatever it is.”

Bortles said the Jaguars put a lot of emphasis on improving his footwork because poor footwork caused many of his college interceptions. Now the emphasis is on better decision making.

But, so far, Bortles keeps making the same mistakes. The next task is to cut down on those mistakes against Dallas.

NOTES: Among those who did not practice Wednesday are DE Andre Branch (groin), G Brandon Linder (shoulder), LB Jeremiah George (high ankle sprain, out Sunday). … WR Marqise Lee suffered a sprained ankle in practice Wednesday and his condition will be updated Thursday. … WR Cecil Shorts left practice with tightness in his hamstring Wednesday and his condition will be updated Thurday. … Among those limited in practice Wednesday were S Sherrod Martin (shoulder) and FS Josh Evans (shoulder).