Colts defense shows why its one of the NFL's best Sunday vs. Bears

The Indianapolis Colts played with two high safeties for much of Sunday’s win over the Bears, keeping everything in front of them.

That made it hard for the Bears to make any big plays Sunday.

“The Colts defense, by scheme and structure, is to try and keep everything in front of them,” receiver Allen Robinson said. “We kind of let them do that. We didn’t have many explosive plays, especially early in the game. We didn’t have any explosive runs, we didn’t have many explosive passes, maybe one or two. With a team like that, you have to be able to threaten them to get them out of their comfort zone.”

The Bears simply couldn't do that.

A better rushing performance from the Bears might have opened up more opportunities over the top. The Bears ran for only 28 yards in Sunday’s 19-11 loss. Running back David Montgomery totaled 27 yards on 10 carries. Cordarrelle Patterson had five yards on three carries.

Robinson made a couple of nice plays late in the game on the Bears’ only touchdown drive, but they came much too late. Robinson had seven catches for 101 yards and a touchdown.

The Colts continued to dominate third down. They are one of the best third-down defenses in the NFL, and they held the Bears to 4-for-14 on third downs.

“The key for us was stopping their run,” Colts coach Frank Reich said. “They’ve got a good play action game, and so to be able to stop the run and kind of nullify the play action was a big help for us.”

Bears coach Matt Nagy said that the Bears “have to be able to run for more than 28 yards.” The Bears totaled 16 rushing attempts, compared with 42 pass attempts from Foles.