Change of plans: Jaguars decide time is now for Blake Bortles

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- There wasn't much to be said in the locker room at halftime Sunday with the Jacksonville Jaguars down 30-0 to the Indianapolis Colts and fans already demanding for Blake Bortles to replace Chad Henne at quarterback.

Nothing, that is, except for what coach Gus Bradley said to Bortles and Henne that will change the prism through which the Jaguars are viewed going forward.

All the talk since that night in May when they drafted Bortles out of UCF with the third overall pick and intended to have him spend his entire rookie year watching and learning wound up lasting less than three regular-season games. Suddenly Bortles had to cast aside a baseball cap for his helmet and, perhaps just as importantly, find his protective mouthpiece.

But to suggest the change was a spur-of-the-moment reaction to as lifeless of a half of football as there has been in the franchise's 20-year history would be another mistake on an afternoon full of them. Bradley's explanation following the 44-17 drubbing at the hands of the Colts was that he met privately with both players in the week leading up to the game and said that though Bortles was still getting only a handful of snaps in practice, his time was coming.

"As the week went on, it felt clear to me that Blake's body of work, as far as in practice, (his) mentality, all those things we wanted to challenge him on from OTAs until now -- it's in a pretty good place," Bradley said. "And I just felt like he was ready for his body of work to begin on the field. That's what I told Chad."

"I don't think any of us thought it would come this week," said Henne, who had almost as many sacks (3) as completions (4) in his two quarters of work. "I figured we'd put on a better showing than that."

Only in Hollywood does the new kid in town come off the bench and turn certain defeat into the stuff of legends. Bortles was intercepted twice, with the last being what called he called "definitely a stupid throw," which was returned 47 yards for a touchdown by cornerback Greg Toler. And only an illegal contact penalty against the Colts kept a fumble by him in the end zone from turning into a safety.

But he also was responsible for five plays of 20 yards or more. On back-to-back plays in the third quarter, Bortles eluded a blitz by outside linebacker Bjoern Werner and found fullback Will Ta'ufo'ou open down the right sideline for a 26-yard completion and then ran for 20 yards on a read option after faking a handoff to Denard Robinson.

The crowd went as wild as a crowd with its team trailing by 30 points could possibly go.

"I went out there and tried to do my best to bring some enthusiasm, bring some emotion," Bortles said. "When you're down 30-0 at halftime, you've got two options. You can lay down, or you can continue to compete. And I thought we did a good job of continuing to compete. My job was to keep those guys upbeat and positive and not worry about looking at the scoreboard."

"He was very poised," said fellow rookie Allen Hurns, who turned a short slant-in pass from Bortles into a 63-yard touchdown with the help of some shoddy tackling by the Colts. "I saw a snippet of it when we were in the preseason, how poised he was."

Bortles finished with 14 completions in 24 attempts for 223 yards, with the last of his throws being a 10-yard score to Cecil Shorts III to make the final outcome slightly more presentable. He insisted that things didn't seem to move any faster than during the preseason, when he played primarily with and against second-stringers.

"It was average," he said of his performance. "I mean, I thought there was some good stuff and there was some bad stuff we need to correct. There are definitely some things we'll see on film I need to work on."

Added Bradley: "I just love his mindset. I love the strength that he has. He is tough, hard-nosed, a competitor. And he will attack. The team felt that part of it. I think it's no coincidence that all of a sudden we blocked a little bit better, the receivers played a little bit better. He has a way to uplift people."

But to lift the Jaguars out of their current doldrums might require someone who can operate heavy machinery. Until Bortles' pass to Shorts, they had been outscored 119-27 since the first half of their opener at Philadelphia. There mercifully weren't as many sacks allowed as a week ago, but it doesn't say much for the running game that the dash by Bortles that set up a field goal represents their longest gain of the season.

And the less said about a defense that has surrendered almost 1,000 yards the past two weeks, the better.

"To make mistakes is human," Bradley said. "To make mistakes repeatedly ... we know how that ends up and what the final word on that is."

Amen.

You can follow Ken Hornack on Twitter @HornackFSFla or email him at khornack32176@gmail.com.