CHICAGO (AP) — Nick Foles could stage no magical comeback Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts.
Facing a smothering defense, the Chicago Bears had difficulty coming up with yards — let alone points — in a 19-11 defeat.
Foles led a 16-point comeback in the fourth quarter in his first appearance with the Bears (3-1) after relieving Mitchell Trubisky against Atlanta last week. But the Colts (3-1) held him in check and came up with a key fourth-quarter interception by Julian Blackmon.
“It wasn’t the best game,” Foles said. “You know what, I think the Indianapolis Colts are a great team but I didn’t execute well enough and we didn’t. I have to be better. I can be more crisp. And it’s as simple as that.”
Foles went 26 of 42 for 249 yards and a late 16-yard touchdown pass to Allen Robinson, but the Bears had only one other serious bid at the end zone.
Bears coach Matt Nagy saw problems with timing in the passing game, besides the Colts playing strong defense.
“I think that this is not going to happen overnight with Nick,” Nagy said. “This is going to take a little bit of time as he gets going with the timing of these players and what we get to. There’s a little bit of that.
“At the same time, we’ve all got to keep pressing forward, but hopefully we get better there in that area, and we grow and we understand. We don’t get frustrated. But we all know that we’ve got to score more points and that’s what we’ll do.”
Foles found Darnell Mooney for 33 yards and Robinson for 27 early in the second quarter to spark an 84-yard drive, leading to a 27-yard field goal by Cairo Santos.
However, the Bears could do nothing else on offense until their final possession and now must rebound against Tom Brady and Tampa Bay on Thursday night.
Robinson caught a 16-yard toss along the sideline in the end zone and David Montgomery’s 2-point conversion pulled the Bears within eight at 19-11 with 1:35 remaining. The Bears’ onside kick attempt bounced right to former Chicago tight end Trey Burton, and he fell on it to lock up the Colts’ win.
The interception thrown to Blackmon in the fourth quarter came in high in the middle of the field on a third-and-10 throw intended for Anthony Miller at the 7-yard line.
“You know what, I’ve got to be more accurate, I’ve got to help him out,” Foles said. “I was trying to lead him out, have him split the safeties and it was probably about 6 inches too high. That’s on me and it’s something that is an easy fix for me. Obviously it’s my fault.”
The passing game went nowhere from the start for the Bears as Indianapolis held a third straight opponent to 11 points or less.
“The Colts' defense by scheme and structure is to try to keep everything in front of them,” Robinson said. “We kind of let them do that. We didn’t have many explosive plays, especially early in the game. We didn’t have any explosive runs, we didn’t have many explosive passes, maybe one or two.
“With a team like that, you have to be able to threaten them to get them out of their comfort zone.”
The Bears ran for only 28 yards, which didn’t help their passing game much.
“You have to be able to run for more than 28 yards in a game and I think that that’s where our guys will know that,” Nagy said. “And then you can’t become as one-dimensional when you can’t run.”
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