Bears and Colts Live Blog: Colts 7, Bears 0

In-game reporting and analysis of the Week 3 game pitting the Chicago Bears against the Indianapolis Colts as Caleb Williams looks for his first road win as a starting QB.

Sep 22, 2024; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) stretches before the game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images / Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

Second Quarter

A short completion and Colts face third-and-3 with 1:02 left at their own 31.

• Colts get a first down and Gervon Dexter then forces Richardson to throw it away. Former middle school teammates. Dexter would have loved that sack.

• Shane Getsy with a horrible fourth-and-goal call.

• Option pitch. A horrendous call at the goal line. Swift is creamed and the drive ends with no points. That's three chances for points and they have zippo.

• A run inside gets nothing by Herbert. Fourth and inches coming.

• Herbert plods forward inside the 1 and Colts take second timeout.

• First and goal play is a direct snap wildcat to Herbert and he gets to the 2.

• First and goal at the 4.

• Terrible spot on a catch by Cole Kmet. Should have been a first down. Instead of calling for it to be looked at, they rush to the line and Roschon Johnson gets the yard on fourth-and-1. I'd have challenged. A blind man could have spotted that ball better. The official on the opposite side of the field had it marked and was pointing where it belonged and instead they moved it back behind the first down. Regardless, Johnson poked his nose through the scrum to get the ball half a yard past the sticks. First-and-goal. TWO-MINUTE WARNING!!!

• On second-and-9 from the 13, Swift powers off left guard and sets up third-and-4 at the Colts 9.

• Jaylon Jones climbs up the back of Gerald Everett for a first down by pass interference at the 14.

• Gerald Everett well covered in three-tight end formation on first down and could have been picked but only an incompletion.

• DeAndre Carter catches a WR screen, breaks a tackle and gets the first down. DJ Moore was holding on the play but got away with it.

• Rome with a big catch at the Colts 32 for a first down, nicely thrown. Then he throws a screen too hard to Swift for an incompletion. Should have been caught though.

• Braxton Jones is back on this drive.

• Roschon Johnson takes a sgort pass for the first down. Johnson is what they needed out there. He took it straight upfield and ran through a tackle for the first down.

• Bears get 2 yards from Swift on a first-down run to the 31and then he loses it back. Third-and-long again.

• Jonathan Taylor jump-cuts to the outside and takes it to the house. That's the big play you can expect at some point from a weapon like Taylor. The blown coverage set it up. The defense is getting gashed and the Bears offense isn't doing anything in support. Not a good combo. Colts 7, Bears 0

• Tight end Kyle Branson with a 40-yard catch and run. No one near him in coverage. T.J. Edwards took the short receiver but no one was there for the tight end. You have to think a safety should have been there.

• Colts from the 30 and Edmunds nicely forces Taylor back up into the waiting arms of Bears D-line for a 1-yard gain.

• Two young quarterbacks in scoring position and neither team gets a point. The defense is going to have to rise up again for the Bears. Total buzz kill after the first bomb from Williams to fellow first-round pick Odunze.

• Facing third-and-4. Jaylon Jones of the Colts reads Williams in a panic and picks him off along the sidelines. Bears are lucky Jones couldn't regain his balance or it was a pick-6. He fell OB. DeAndre Carter was blanketed. A field goal there by throwing the ball away would have been preferable. Probably the worst decision with the ball that Williams has made.

• Quick strike, play action bomb to Rome Odunze. Just like in practice. All the way to the Colts 34.

• The Bears redeemed themselves with a takeaway but Jaylon Johnson needed to take Pierce deep longer and Brisker should have been over quicker on the deep ball. When you're in zone on that deep pass no one should complete a pass that wide open. Pierce had to slow down and turn around to catch it and had no problem doing it.

• Richardson in a panic nmoving left on an option pass and throws into triple coverage 5 yards away, right into the waiting arms of Tremaine Edmunds, the fifth Bears interception of the season. Touchback and the Bears get it at the 20. Wow. A horrible play by Richardson. Almost as bad as the plays Will Levis was making in the opener.

• A textbook second-down tackle by Jack Sanborn leaves the Colts in third-and-goal. Wrapped up well.

• Jaylon and Brisker beaten for a 44-yard gain to Alec Pierce, the Glenbard West grad. The Bears completely blew the coverage on that play. If the secondary is going to do that then the game is already lost.

• After a 3-yard Taylor run, Austin Booker gets a tackle for loss to force thrid-and-10.

• Tyrique Stevenson spins around the receiver then lets him go. It's not fishing, catch and release.

• Colts to start at their own 39.

First Quarter

• Bears end quarter with 5-1 edge in first downs, and no points.

• Quarter ends after another poor punt and a 16-yard return by Gould for Colts. The quick screen was predictable on third-and-16. Don't need Williams getting decked from behind.

• Nate Davis gets in the game after all and Pryor moves to left tackle. Makes more sense than using Kiran Amegadjie, who has no experience.

• Williams holds it too long on second down and takes a 7-yard sack as he tries to get out of the pocket. Not really the fault of Teven Jenkins, who was blocking. Braxton Jones injured his knee on the play.

• A quick 5-yard out to DJ Moore came after Williams changed something on the play at the line. A good move by the rookie QB. Then more tough inside running from Roschon Johnson for the first down. They need that element.

• Carter eludes the gunner on the punt, then runs right into the traffic to his left side instead of going right where he had an opening. Bears starting out in a hole again at the 14.

• D-line sniffed out a screen first down, then Montez Sweat with his first sack, a strip sack. And Andrew Billings recovered but the officials said forward motion stopped before DeMarcus Walker arrived and knocked it out of Richardson's hand. Instead it just goes for Sweat's first sack of the year and a screen can't pick up the first down. So The Bears get it back on fourth-and-7 on a punt.

• On third-and-1 DeMarcus Walker can't stop the first down run but he did prevent a long gainer by tripping up Taylor from behind.

• From the 17, Taylor nosed ahead 5 yards. Could have broke it but he was wrapped up as he tried to step out of the jam.

• A rather poor 37-yard punt from Tory Taylor and the Colts have it back inside the 20. Taylor usually can get it down to the 10 on those.

• Braxton Jones held but the Colts don't care because they had Williams running around in the pocket and he had to throw it away. So a punt from the Bears 47.

• D'Andre Swift didn't get much, just 2 on second down, but put his head down nicely and ran hard, which he hasn't always seemed to want to do. Then an incompletion to Kmet and they're facing third-and-long again, like last week in the second half.

• Another big penalty on the Colts for pass interference against DeAndre Carter, who had the route run perfectly and it's a first down for the Bears at the Bears 45.

• Big Dog his second penalty in two weeks for a false start. Maybe they better stop giving him Thursdays off so he gets sharper.

• Caleb Williams clobbered high after throwing on the run on first down so the Bears are out of the hole. a rough way to get out of the hole though.

• Pass rush got nowhere near Anthony Richardson but he stepped up and threw wildly too high so the Bears get it back with a punt. If he just settled down and threw it, got his footwork down, he could be amazing. Bears take over at the 9 after the punt.

• After the Colts get the penalty back on a run off right guard, a dropped pass leaves them in third-and-10.

• Colts try a run-pass option on first down and botch it up for an ineligible man downfield. Quenton Nelson. But the play worked well. The Bears didn't defend it well at all.

• The drive worked fine when they ran straight ahead at the Colts but they kept trying to get the edge and then either went backwards or a couple yards. The push still isn't there like they need in wide zone scheme and when you run straight up the middle it's going to be hit or miss all the time in the NFL because the linemen are too big, too good and the linebackers are too fast into the gap to allow it much.

• Drive dies after an attempt by Williams to make a play on the run to his left but he can't hook up with Rome Odunze, then Cairo Santos misses from 56 yards short, his first miss of the year.

• Good Good third-down conversion to Cole Kmet after Williams and DJ Moore had a very frustrating second-down play, like last week. Then Roschon Johnson plows inside. Just what they needed. 8 yards.

• First play was right behind Pryor for 4. He had to turn around to check something before the play.

• Bears receive and it's a touchback.

Pregame

• GM Ryan Poles, in his pregame talk with Jeff Joniak for the ESPN AM-1000 pregame show, still believes in his offensive line and doesn't think the nine sacks allowed is a long-term problem.

"When you really watch the tape there's bits and pieces and different spaces that need to get cleaned up and our group has been challenged to figure that out," Poles told AM-1000.

He thinks the work done in practice the last week will make a difference in clarifying communications for the linemen. He said it's not a case of bad talent, which, of course, he picked.

• Parroting Matt Eberflus on Keenan Allen from Friday, he thinks it won't be long before the veteran receiver is back from a plantar fasciitis problem. "He's been running and it's been coming together well this past week," Poles said.

I see a breakout game coming for Bears offense today. Colts struggle against the run and don’t blitz much.

Simple defense scheme wise. If they can’t move the ball today might be time to get worried. #DaBears #Bears pic.twitter.com/G6nXYXHK24

— Clay Harbor (@clayharbs82) September 22, 2024

• For those keeping track of such information, here are all the Bears' starting offensive changes since the start of the Matt Eberflus coaching era.

Starting Bears Line Week 1, 2022 vs. San Francisco: LT Braxton Jones, LG Cody Whitehair, C Sam Mustipher, RG Teven Jenkins, RT Larry Borom

Week 3 Change: Lucas Patrick for RG Jenkins

Week 5 Change: Patrick for LG Whitehair, Jenkins for RG Patrick

Week 7 Change: Michael Schofield III for LG Patrick, Patrick for C Mustipher.

Week 8 Change: Mustipher for C Patrick, Riley Reiff for RT Borom

Week 9 Change: Whitehair for LG Schofield

Week 10 Change: Schofield for RG Jenkins

Week 12 Change Jenkins for RG Schofield

Week 16 Change: Borom for LG Whitehair, Schofield for RG Jenkins

Week 17 Change: Whitehair for LG Borom, Jenkins for RG Schofield

Week 18: Borom for RG Jenkins

Starting Bears Line Week 1, 2023 vs. Green Bay: LT Jones, LG Whitehair, C Patrick, RG Nate Davis, RT Darnell Wright

Week 2 Change: Ja'Tyre Carter for RG Davis

Week 3 Change: Borom for LT Jones

Week 4 Change: Davis for RG Carter

Week 6 Change: Jenkins for LG Whitehair, Whitehair for C Patrick

Week 7 Change: Whitehair for LG Jenkins, Patrick for C Whitehair, Jenkins for RG Davis

Week 9 Change: Jones for RT Borom

Week 11 Change: Jenkins for LG Whitehair, Davis for RG Jenkins

Week 16 Change: Whitehair for LG Jenkins

Week 17 Change: Jenkins for LG Whitehair

Week 18 Change: Dan Feeney for C Patrick

Starting Bears Line Week 1, 2024 vs. Tennessee: LT Braxton Jones, LG Cody Whitehair, C Coleman Shelton, RG Nate Davis, RT Wright

Reported for today: Matt Pryor for RG Davis