Of course the bears were very lucky to face Andrew Luck in his first NFL game, before he had the chance to gain a few games’ experience.
On the Colts’ first drive, with no score, they passed for 8 yards on first down. When they lined up for the second-down play, my son said to me (we were at the game), “the bears have stacked the line.” We could both easily see they were playing everyone up to stop the run. Did the Colts audible out of a run? Of course not. They ran for a loss of 2. It was so obvious in the stands what the bears were doing, yet the Colts played right into it. On third down, the receiver was wide open in the flat for an easy first down, but Luck well overthrew him.
When it was 7-7 in the first quarter, the Colts passed on first down and got a first down, then ran on first down for a loss of 4 and punted. On this first-down play, they lined up with 2 running backs, so I said it was obvious to the bears they would run. They did and lost the 4 yards. On third down, the receiver was again wide open in the flat for an easy first down, but again, Luck well overthrew him. On the next possession, they ran on first down for 1 yard and punted. On third down, the receiver dropped an easy short pass that would have gotten the first down easily and possibly a lot more.
Down 14-7 in the second quarter, the Colts passed for a first down. They then threw a bomb on the next first down. The receiver had beaten the defender, but Luck underthrew it, and the bears intercepted. The bears were offsides on the play, which replay clearly showed, but the refs didn’t call it. This not only stopped a Colt drive, but the bears scored a field goal after the turnover. This bad call had a big effect, as the bears were up 10 at half, which this call contributed to. The Colts cut the lead to 17-14 after this call, so this call made a big difference.
The Colts got the ball back with 0:44 left in the half and passed so moved the ball easily, but missed an easy 37-yard field goal.
So, in the first half, when the tone of a game can be set as I always point out, the Colts stopped themselves on three drives by missing wide-open receivers and dropping an easy short pass, the refs stopped a Colt drive which also resulted in a bear field goal, and the Colts missed a short field goal. Despite all these gifts from the Colts and refs, it was only a 10-point lead at halftime. During the first half, the Colts scored a touchdown on one possession, and the other five were stopped by themselves or the refs, having nothing to do with the bears! This could have been a completely different game if the Colts had sustained drives by making easy third-down conversions and if the refs hadn’t stopped the Colt drive and given the bears a field goal.
I said the Colts needed to come out aggressively offensively in the second half to score, cut the deficit, and get momentum. What do they do? On their first drive, they run on first down for 1 yard and punt. They punted to Hester (which is ridiculous), who had a nice return, setting up a bear touchdown. The Colts then fumbled the kickoff, giving the bears a field goal. Again, a first-down run backfired. The bears now led 34-14, basically ending the game since the Colts have a rookie quarterback and aren’t a very good team.
A terrible gameplan, multiple missed easy third-down conversions stopping rather than sustaining drives, a bad call, a missed easy field goal, etc., all gave the bears this game.
Wow……..what a surprise that Larry thinks the Colts should have won the game that they only lost by a score of 41 – 21! Actually should have been 41 – 14 since Cutler “gave them 7 points” on his own 3 yard line with a ridiculous throw.
I didn’t say the Colts should have won the game, I said it would have been a completely different game had the Colts and refs not stopped 5 first-half drives. The bears had nothing to do with stopping these drives–it was Colt mistakes when guys were wide open on third down and a missed easy field goal, and the ref’s bad call. Had these drives been sustained, the Colts would have scored more and the bears less, and it would have been a much different game.