ORANGE CRUSHED
Colts’ defense dominates Foles, Bears lose first game of year
Philip Rivers threw a touchdown pass on Indianapolis's first possession, and the Colts shut down Nick Foles and the Chicago Bears in a 19-11 victory Sunday.
After Rivers connected with Mo Alie-Cox on a 13-yard score, the NFL's top-ranked defense took over from there.
The Colts (3-1) kept the Bears (3-1) out of the end zone until Allen Robinson caught a 16-yard pass with 1:35 remaining. Indianapolis recovered the onside kick and came away with its third straight win, their best streak since beating Kansas City, Houston and Denver last October.
As for the Bears, their offense didn't look much better with Foles starting instead of Mitchell Trubisky. There was no big comeback this time by the team that became the first, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, with two wins in the same season after trailing by 16 or more in the fourth quarter.
The Bears managed just 269 yards— only 28 on the ground.
Foles, who led Chicago back from 16 down at Atlanta last week after Trubisky got pulled, never found a rhythm. The Super Bowl 52 MVP was 26 of 42 for 249 yards with an interception to go with the late TD in his first start since the Bears acquired him in the offseason from Jacksonville.
The Colts' offense didn't exactly light up Chicago, either.
Rivers was 16 of 29 for 190 yards and a TD. He needs four completions to join Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Brett Favre and PeytonManning with 5,000.
Julian Blackmon intercepted Foles at the Indianapolis 7 early in the fourth quarter with the Colts leading by 13. And Rodrigo Blankenship kicked four field goals.
The opening kickoff got pushed back a few hours in order to fill the slot left open when the Kansas City-New England game got postponed because of positive COVID-19 tests on both teams. Once it started, the Colts wasted little time grabbing the lead.
Jordan Glasgow blocked a punt by Pat O'Donnell on the opening drive, and Rivers capitalized with his TD toss to Alie-Cox.
Chicago's Cairo Santos kicked a 27-yard field goal early in the second quarter. Indianapolis had chances to break it open, only to settle for two field goals by Blankenship in the final 3:47 of the half after drives inside the 10 stalled. His 30-yarder made it 13-3with 6 seconds remaining.
Blankenship added a 44yarder in the closing minute of the third.