It will do Blake Bortles a world of good this week to take a break from newspapers, social media, cable television, talk radio and any bar, tavern or street corner where people talk sports.

And he’d be wise to pass this advice on to the entire extended Bortles family.

If what’s being said about him turns out to be true, it might be the only pass he completes this week.

Bortles, God bless him, was the quarterback of record Sunday in the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 45-42 divisional playoff victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers. And no sooner had the game ended did Bortles emerge as a living, breathing symbol of what’s being viewed as a free ride to the Super Bowl for your New England Patriots.

Had the Steelers won, the living, breathing symbol would have been their coach, Mike Tomlin, whose strategical missteps have been known to make Pats fans spit up their beer from the laughter. (And it surely continued Sunday, what with that fourth-quarter fourth-and-1 pass call, or when the Steelers went for the goofy onside kick rather than pin the Jags deep in their own territory.)

Well, the Steelers lost. That gives Tomlin a whole year to talk with Tony Dungy – remember how he guaranteed to Dungy the Steelers would meet New England in the AFC final? – about his team’s next game against the Patriots.

And it introduces Bortles as a fresh new face – or, if you will, fresh meat – in the ongoing chucklefest about how easy life is these days for the Patriots.

Bortles is the perfect Pats patsy for these debates. He is by no means a headliner as quarterbacks go, and considering he’s already four years into his career, he probably never will be. But while his passing numbers Sunday were in no way eye-popping – 14 of 26, 214 yards – he completed a 45-yard fourth-quarter pass to Keelan Cole to set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Leonard Fournette, and connected with Tommy Bohanon for a 14-yard touchdown.

Good stuff. Makes no difference. Bortles isn’t just a quarterback anymore. He’s graduated to symbol. During what is certain to be a festive, week-long run-up to the AFC championship game Sunday at Gillette Stadium, the guy is going to be propped up as Reason No. 1 why the Pats are going to win bigly.

Don’t take my word for it. Make a visit to Twitter, and punch in “Bortles” and “Brady” as your key words and see what pops up.

A sampling:

• “I really want a Blake Bortles led team to go thru Ben, Brady and Brees for a Lombardi. I would laugh forever.” (@DragonflyJonez)

• A GIF of Brady gleefully high-fiving his teammates is accompanied by this: “Tom Brady seeing he gets Blake Bortles and not Ben Roethlisberger.” (@KeganReneau)

• And there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tweets anticipating a Minnesota Vikings victory over the New Orleans Saints: “Imagine if someone told you the last 4 QBs standing were Tom Brady, Blake Bortles, Case Keenum, and Nick Foles.” (@IgglesNest)

It’s all good, clean fun for the whole family. Nobody needs to be convinced that Blake Bortles is no Tom Brady. If the Pats do the expected Sunday and roll to an easy victory over the Jags, Bortles is in line to become part of the narrative in the oft-told tale of the Patriots’ march to their sixth Super Bowl title.

It’s dangerous to think this way, of course. As much as Pats fans like to view Brady as a Forever Young quarterback whose daily sessions with his trainer, Svengali Alex Guerrero, keep him lean and pliable, he’s a 40-year-old man getting ready to face a tough Jacksonville defensive line. And the Jags ranked first in pass defense this season.

It’s like what Apollo Creed’s trainer warned about a proposed rematch against ham-and-egg left-hander Rocky Balboa: “He’s all wrong for us, baby.”

Let’s keep in mind that Jacksonville’s eye in the sky is vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin, the man who coached the New York Giants to two Super Bowl victories over the Patriots. And since we’re citing connections with the past, it should be noted that Belichick’s game planning for Sunday will include watching film of Jimmy Garoppolo throwing two touchdown passes to lead the San Francisco 49ers to a 44-33 Christmas Eve victory over the Jags.

Informed Pats fans see a tough game Sunday against the Jags. But that won’t stop everyone else from making a pinata out of Blake Bortles.

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