Colts Defense Makes Believers of Bears and Nick Foles
It was apparent from the opening kick Sunday Nick Foles wasn't facing the Atlanta Falcons again.
The top-ranked Colts defense totally smothered the Bears offense all game long Sunday and Chicago suffered its first defeat of the season 19-11.
"It wasn't the best game, you know what?" Foles said. "I think the Indianapolis colts are a great team but I didn't excute well enough and we didn't.
"I have to be better. I can be more crisp. And it's as simple as that."
The loss showed Mitchell Trubisky might not have been the entire problem, as Foles had difficulty completing passes with Colts defensive backs draped all over his receivers on every play.
"I think that this is not gonna happen overnight with Nick," Bears coach Matt Nagy said. "This is gonna take a little bit of time as he gets going with the timing of these players and what we get to. There's a little bit of that.
"At the same time, we've all gotta keep pressing forward, but hopefully we get better there in that area, and we grow and we understand. We don't get frustrated. But we all know that we've gotta score more points and that's what we'll do."
The only Bears touchdown came with 1:35 remaining in desperation mode when Foles completed a 16-yarder along the sidelines to Allen Robinson II.
Foles brought the Bears from 16 points back in the fourth quarter against the Falcons, but in his first start after relieving Trubisky in Atlanta the Colts held him to 26 of 42 for 249 yards and locked it up with a fourth-quarter interception by defensive back Julian Blackmon on a throw to Anthony Miller.
"I felt great with coach Nagy calling the plays," Foles said. "It's as simple as I have to execute better, we have to execute better.
"I think the big thing you see from that is guys didn't give up, we keep fighting."
The TD pass to Robinson ended a 90-yard drive in 2:12 and they got the two-point conversion to pull within 19-11, still possessing a shot. However, former Bears tight end Trey Burton recovered an onside kick try from Cairo Santos and the Colts killed the remaining time.
"It's a very good defense," Robinson said. "It's a very, very fundamentally sound defense. You can just tell by how they play. It's a team that plays a decent amount of zone coverage.
"At the end of the day, those guys know their responsibilities, they know where their help is at. They know things like that, so they’re able to play fast."
The passing game wasn't the total problem for the Bears, as they ran for only 28 yards
"For us, we have to just figure out how to be able to get the run game going to help us out a little bit so we try and get some single high and be able to pass the ball a little bit more efficiently," Robinson said.
The Colts had field goals of 21, 30, 44 and 30 yards by Rodrigo Blankenship and a third-and-5 touchdown pass of 13 yards from Philip Rivers of 13 yards to Mo Alie-Cox to end their first possession.
Rivers was 16 of 29 for 190 yards and a TD, with one sack. The Bears had an end zone interception by Roquan Smith but a replay reversal wiped it out.
"Much respect to their offensive line, much respect to their team," defensive end Akiem Hicks said. "They came out victorious today.
"But we fear no man. We play football. So when it comes to us meeting a challenge we are going to rise to that occasion and I think we did our best to do that today."
Foles never got much going after the first quarter, when he hit passes of 33 yards to Darnell Mooney and 27 to Robinson in an 84-yard drive to Santos' 27-yard field goal. That cut the deficit for the Bears to 7-3 but they never got closer.
They trailed 13-3 at halftime and failed all day to get help for the defense with a few points or long drives. At one point they were 1 for 6 on third-down conversions in the first half until picking up three of their final eight attempts.
"We just could not get into rhythm on offense, be able to get down there and let that defense to play from either a tie or with a lead, it just didn't happen," Nagy said. "I thought the defense played well, I just have to go back and watch them."
The Bears have to come back off the loss with a short work week since they host Tampa Bay on Thursday night.
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