It was a win-ugly type of game for the Indianapolis Colts, but it was an all-important win nonetheless. The Colts now sit at 1-2 on the year, avoiding the dreaded 0-3 start.
Led by a strong overall defensive performance and Jonathan Taylor on the offensive side of the football, the Colts were able to fend off a late push by the Bears.
With the game behind us, let’s go down-by-down and take a look back at the key elements that defined this game for the Colts:
First down: Success starts with the run defense
The Bears’ offense came into this game averaging only 3.5 yards per rush. But overall, this was still a much more buttoned-up performance by the Colts’ defensive front. A few examples of this include the ends doing well to set the edge, defenders getting off blocks, and running lanes being filled.
The end result for the Bears was 63 rushing yards on just 28 carries–or 2.3 yards per rush. The trickle-down effect of this is that it put the Chicago offense in long down-and-distance situations, where the pass rush could pin its ears back and more stress was put on the shoulders of a Bears passing offense that was averaging only 99.0 yards per game through the first two weeks.
Overall, it was a good performance by the Colts defense, but that success started with stopping the run. Every player benefits when that happens.
Second down: Winning the turnover battle
You win the turnover battle, you probably win the game and that held true for the Colts. The defense’s ability to force three takeaways helped the Colts overcome two turnovers by their own offense.
Making the takeaways even more impactful was that the offense put up 14 points off of them–not to mention that Laiatu Latu’s forced fumble came as momentum had shifted in the Bears’ favor late in the game.
Third down: Jonathan Taylor gets going
There definitely seemed to be an added effort to get Taylor involved this week. After having 28 total carries in the first two games, Taylor had 23 against the Bears. And as Taylor does, he was effective with those touches, totaling 110 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
Taylor’s impact in the run game gave the offense some consistency when it came to moving the ball on offense.
Fourth down: Ups and downs in the passing game
The Colts and Anthony Richardson again showcased their ability to create explosive passing plays. Richardson had a 44 yard completion to Alec Pierce and a 40 yard completion to Kylen Granson. However, as had been the case in the first two games, the Colts struggled to move the ball on short to intermediate routes in the passing game.
Richardson’s accuracy was off on several throws and the ability to pick up steady yards through the air resulted in short drives. Even with the defense’s ability to get off the field on third downs, the Colts lost the time of possession battle by more than 10 minutes because their own offense couldn’t sustain drives.
With that said, I don’t know that any of this should be considered alarming. We knew coming into the year that as Richardson gained experience that there would be days like this.
