Five Things Learned: Colts-Bears (2020, Week 4)

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» BLACKMON SHINES: Perhaps one of the more remarkable parts about Sunday's win over the Bears was that the Colts' defense played so well as a whole without an abundance of splashy plays. Indy had three interceptions and forced a safety in each of its last two games heading into Sunday's game, but would log just one sack and one interception on Foles in this Week 4 matchup. But that doesn't mean there weren't standout defensive performers for the Colts, and once again it was the rookie safety Julian Blackmon who found himself near the top of the list. In his second-career start, Blackmon was credited with one tackle, one interception — the first of his career — and three passes defensed, a couple of which he jarred loose with bone-crunching hits. The Colts raved about Blackmon's ability to always be around the ball coming out of Utah, and through his first three NFL games that's certainly proven to be the case. "Very excited about Julian's progress physically, mentally, in every way in our scheme, just the way he is in the huddle, his presence," Reich said. "You feel the confidence from him, he's making plays, he's playing with a lot of confidence and a lot of conviction right now and I just think that it will keep getting better. So it really adds a lot to our defense."


» TOUGH SLEDDING: The Bears' defense came to play, too, on Sunday, making things difficult at times for Philip Rivers and the Colts offense, which had just 289 total net yards of offense on the day, as Philip Rivers completed 16-of-29 passes for 190 yards with a touchdown, while Indy ran the ball 38 times for 103 yards for an average of 2.7 yards per carry. While the Colts did see improvements on third down on Sunday (8-of-19 conversions; 42 percent), they struggled to score touchdowns as they got closer to the end zone, as Indy converted just 1-of-4 red zone trips into touchdowns and was 0-for-2 in scoring TDs in goal-to-go situations. Reich, though, isn't too concerned about the offense moving forward. "We've got to get better," Reich said. "They're a good defense. They schemed us up a couple times. … I'll go back and look at the film and we had a hundred yards rushing or whatever we did and I think we left some out there. So I'm not concerned. I know how good our offensive line is. We just got to keep working at it."