Offense
- Nick Foles certainly does have his fair share of weaknesses. His release isn’t especially quick and he wasn’t especially accurate. Passes outside the numbers hung in the air like balloons due to his limited arm strength.
- Having said that, Foles looked to me like a rusty quarterback who really needed a preseason to get his legs under him. He’s the kind of quarterback that has to live by his wits and throw with anticipation. His timing was frequently off and it looked to me like he is still getting to know his receivers.
- The Colts obviously identified Allen Robinson as the only player that they thought would be able to burn them and they concentrated on stopping him. It was an opportunity for Darnell Mooney to step up. He had a decent game (5 receptions for 52 yards) but nothing that will cause future opponents to shift their attention.
- Why was Tyler Bray promoted to the roster before the game?
- Unlike the first three games, David Montgomery got most of the carries with Tarik Cohen on IR. Cordarrelle Patterson didn’t get many carries.
- The offensive frequently looked discombobulated to me. Members of the Colts front seven got very good pressure on Foles. He needs better protection that that to succeed. They really struggled with the Colts front seven.
- The Bears really struggled to run the ball. The had 1.8 yards per carry. To their credit, they kept trying and it did occasionally get them some good looks on play action.
- The Colts defense is very, very well coached. They are athletic and were rarely out of place.
- The Bears were 3 of 13 on third down. They were a pitiful 4.4 yards per pass until late in the game when the Colts were protecting a lead.
Defense
- The Bears defensive back field didn’t look ready to play. A game after giving up a long pass to Calvin Ridley on the first play of the game last week, most of the players had a rough day right from the get go. Kyle Fuller was flagged for multiple damaging pass interference penalties and gave up the touchdown in the first half to Mo Allie-Cox. Jaylon Johnson got burned for 36 yards to get the Colts inside the red zone on their first possession. Eddie Jackson had a pass interference penalty and struggled in coverage. It was a bad day.
- On a related note, TY Hilton had a very good game and burned the Bears badly on occasion.
- Similar to the defensive backs, the Bears were a step behind elsewhere all over the field. It reminded me a little bit of the Raiders game in London last season when they were obviously jet lagged. There were a lot of missed tackles.
- Roquon Smith, in particular, struggled in coverage. He needs to perform better in this aspect of the game. He did have a better second half as he showed his instincts and speed playing the run.
- On a good note, the Bears got good pressure on Philip Rivers.
- They also did a reasonably good job of stiffening in the red zone through out most of the game. They forced a lot of field goals.
- Brent Urban’s name got called a lot.
Miscellaneous
- Greg Gumbel, Rich Gannon and Amanda Balionis were your announcers. This was a good crew. Gannon notices a lot of little details and certainly did a good job of pointing out the many Bears offensive problems. Gumbel is a pro.
- Like a lot of the team, special teams looked a little behind the eight ball, especially at the beginning of the game. The Bears gave up a blocked punt early in the first half that gave the Colts great field position for their first possession. Ted Ginn was you punt returner with Cohen on IR. The Colts did a good job of blanketing Patterson on kick returns as he took two out of the end zone for less than 20 yards.
- Khalil Mack dropped an easy interception. Patterson dropped what would have been a good catch deep in Colts territory in the second quarter.
- There were a lot of damaging penalties, in particular on the Bears defensive backs as documented above. Robert Quinn had a horse collar tackle on a drive that eventually resulted in a field goal. Patterson had a dumb unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for taking his helmet off while arguing with the referee over a non-call. Special teams were responsible for their fair share of penalties as well. When it was all said and done the Bears had 8 penalties for over 100 yards.
- Foles threw an interception in the fourth quarter as the Bears desperately tried to get back into the game. Smith had a timely interception in the end zone near the end of the first half which was, unfortunately, rightly overturned on review. The Colts eventually settled for a field goal.
- This game was moved to late Sunday due to the postponement of the New England-Kansas City game and I’d like to apologize to the rest of the country for subjecting them to the Bears offense. I anticipate having to do so again Thursday.
- The Bears were ready to lose going into this game. LAst week they played a sloppy game and got away with it. This game, that just wasn’t going to happen. They were a step slow all game, they committed too many penaties (again) and made too many mistakes, this time against a good team that could take advantage. Here’s hoping the loss finally wakes them up and they pull it together on a short week.