Bears vs Colts: Snap counts, stats and more

That wasn’t the debut of the “real” Matt Nagy offense we we’re all hoping to see, in fact, it was the worst offensive output of the 2020 season so far. The Indianapolis Colts had a hand in the Bears latest sputtering that led to their 19 to 11 defeat, but let’s not act like there weren’t a few plays left on the field.

The Bears had their chances, but they didn’t get it done.

We’ll find out in the coming weeks if Sunday was just some rust getting kicked off Nick Foles, and if Indy’s top ranked defense is the real deal, but for now we’re left to speculate.

This game was a defensive struggle as the Colts barely outgained the Bears 289 total yards to 269 for Chicago, but Indianapolis came through when it mattered by converting 8 of 19 on third downs (42%), and 1 of 2 on 4th downs, while the Bears only managed to go 4 for 14 (29%) when faced with third downs.

Indy also had more first downs (18 to 16), ran more plays (68 to 59), had the ball longer (32:28 to 27:32), and were penalized for fewer yards (8 for 76 yards to 8 for 103 for Chicago).

But now let’s take a closer look at the playing time break downs for the Bears, and also some individual stats.

OFFENSE

Rookie Darnell Mooney continues to be the Bears number 2 wide out in terms of playing time, and he’s now the teams number 2 wide receiver in terms of targets (20), receptions (13) and yards (145) too. Yesterday he had a career high 5 catches for 52 yards, and he had the first rushing attempt of his career for -3 yards.

Allen Robinson had a game high 7 receptions for 101 yards, and he had the Bears lone touchdown.

Nick Foles had a rough first start for the Bears by going 26 of 42 (61.9%) for 249 yards, 1 TD and 1 interception, for a passer rating of 76.4.

David Montgomery couldn’t find any running room on his 10 attempts for 27 yards, but he did catch 3 passes for 30 yards. As a team, the Bears struggled on the ground with 16 runs for 28 yards. Chicago’s o-line was regularly pushed back on Sunday and I was amazed that the Colts only had 3 tackles for loss.

For as bad as Chicago’s o-line was bullied, at least they didn’t get penalized.

The tight end group was again led by Jimmy Graham who had 4 grabs for 33 yards. Rookie Cole Kmet played a season low 15 snaps on offense.

DEFENSE

Roquan Smith was very active against the Colts with a game high 13 tackles and 3 tackles for loss. Danny Trevathan had 4 tackles while still coming out on some sub packages.

Tashaun Gipson had 9 tackles and a pass defended, and Eddie Jackson had 5 tackles and a TFL.

Kyle Fuller had the same number of tackles that he did pass interference penalties (2), and fellow corner Jaylon Johnson had 2 tackles himself while also getting 2 passes defended.

Chicago’s lone sack went to Brent Urban, who also had 4 tackles.

Akiem Hicks had 6 tackles, 1 TFL, and 2 quarterback hits.

As a team the Bears racked up 9 tackles for loss as they held the Colts to 103 yards rushing on 38 carries (2.7 ypc), and they held Colt QB Philip Rivers to 16 of 29 passing (55%), for 190 yards, 1 TD and a passer rating of 86.9.

Khalil Mack had 2 tackles and a TFL and Robert Quinn had a tackle. Not the kind of production the Bears expected from their edge rushing tandem this year, but at some point you’d like to see the Bears score some points which would allow the pass rushers to attack quarterbacks.

SPECIAL TEAMS*

*The above image has players that only played in the third phase.

Patrick O’Donnell had a punt blocked but placed 2 of his 7 punts inside the twenty, and he had a 35.9 net average.

Cairo Santos made his only field goal.

Cordarrelle Patterson averaged 21.7 on his 3 kickof returns and he had a special teams tackle.

Ted Ginn Jr. returned 3 punts for 18 yards, and

Josh Woods had 3 special teams tackles.

To check out the full Bears vs Colts box score I find that ESPN has an easy to navigate site.

All statistics and snap counts are taken directly from the NFL’s Game Statistic and Information System, as are the accompanying pictures.