CHICAGO -- The Jacksonville Jaguars believe Blake Bortles is their franchise quarterback. He certainly didn’t play like one for nearly three quarters Sunday.

When offensive coordinator Greg Olson put the game on Bortles’ shoulders in the fourth quarter, though, the former Central Florida standout delivered. Bortles rallied the Jaguars from a 13-0 deficit with 17 fourth-quarter points and the Jaguars left Soldier Field with a 17-16 victory over the Chicago Bears.

It was a good sign for Bortles, whose struggles so far in 2016 have re-ignited questions about his mechanics, his body language, his inability to avoid turnovers and whether he really is the quarterback that can lead this franchise back to respectability -- and to a championship.

"It’s challenging on a quarterback throughout the whole game," coach Gus Bradley said. "We had a couple possessions left in the third and fourth quarter that we had to take advantage of, and he came through for us. His frustration level may be that he just wants consistency throughout the whole game, and we have to work toward that."

Blake Bortles rallied the Jaguars from a 13-0 deficit with 17 fourth-quarter points. Patrick Gorski/USA TODAY Sports

Bortles completed just 6-of-11 passes in the first half for 78 yards and threw an interception in the end zone on the Jaguars’ first series of the game. It was a good throw -- low, so that only receiver Allen Robinson could catch it -- and Robinson should have caught it, but it bounced off his hands and was picked off by cornerback Tracy Porter.

That play seemed to send Bortles and the offense into a shell, and they didn’t break out until they were down by 13 points.

Bortles completed just one of his first five second-half passes -- his first two throws on the Jaguars’ first possession in the third quarter were his worst of the day -- before offensive coordinator Greg Olson went to the no-huddle. From that point on, Bortles completed 13-of-18 passes for 187 yards and a touchdown.

"It’s something that I feel comfortable in," Bortles said of the no-huddle attack. "I think it helps us find our rhythm when we’re struggling. I think it was a perfect time for [Olson] to make that call and go no-huddle because we weren’t getting things done."

Going no-huddle needs to be something the Jaguars do more often, and not only when they’re trailing by double digits. They have shown, with the Indianapolis game the lone exception, that they cannot run the ball (54 yards on 27 carries against the Bears). Defenses haven’t had to bring an extra defender down to stop the run and have been able to play split safeties, which has limited Bortles’ ability to go down the field. That was the strength of the offense last season.

Bortles is at his best when he's running the no-huddle. He plays more freely and gets into a rhythm, and one thing we've seen in his two-plus seasons as a starter is that Bortles is a rhythm quarterback. Get him rolling and heated up early in games.

Bortles still has plenty of issues. His mechanics do look sloppier than they were last season, when he debuted a shorter windup and longer follow-through. He is holding the ball lower, and his windup has lengthened. His accuracy, while better (61.1 percent completions), is still not consistent. He’s also still turning the ball over way too much (nine in five games). Overall, he seems to have regressed from 2015 when he set franchise records in passing yards and touchdowns.

Maybe it’s just a slump. Those do happen, even to elite quarterbacks. But elite quarterbacks also find ways to break those slumps and deliver when the game is on the line. For one of the few times in his career, Bortles was able to do that against the Bears.

His next step is proving that he can do that regularly instead of it being an aberration. For little more than a quarter on Sunday, Bortles played like a franchise quarterback. The Jaguars need him to start doing that for 60 minutes.