Colts: Defense proves it’s the real deal after surviving Darius Leonard exit vs Bears

The Colts defense is one of the best in the NFL despite who they’ve faced so far.

The Indianapolis Colts stymied the Chicago Bears on the road this past Sunday, walking out of Soldier Field with a 19-11 victory. Once again, the defense shined, holding Nick Foles and the Bears offense to three points until they finally scored a touchdown with just over 90 seconds left in the fourth — and that was with the game out of reach at 19-3.

What’s even more impressive? Indy’s defense managed to continue dominating the Bears despite being without star linebacker Darius Leonard for the entire second half after he left the game late in the second quarter with a groin injury.

This unit was already without Malik Hooker, who was lost for the year, and TJ Carrie, who was hampered by a hamstring injury. Losing the heart and soul of your defense is an entirely different story, though, and this unit managed to get by and not miss a beat.

Critics will say they faced the Bears, so their margin for error was already large, but this is the NFL. There are no free wins (except for playing the Jets’ B-team in Week 3). Foles rejuvenated Chicago’s offense to stage a 20-point fourth quarter comeback against the Falcons last week. Matt Nagy is an offensive mind. This wasn’t exactly an easy assignment.

Without Leonard, the Colts still held the Bears to a season-low 28 rushing yards. Chicago was averaging 138 rushing yards per game heading into this contest. Nick Foles was just 26-of-42 for 249 yards. Indy also forced him to throw an interception in the second half.

So what does this tell us?

The Colts’ linebacking corps is extremely versatile. After Leonard went down, Bobby Okereke moved to middle linebacker (though he suffered a thumb injury that requires surgery) and Anthony Walker moving to weakside linebacker. Okereke is typically the strongside linebacker and Walker is the middle linebacker.

What else? The front four continues to be unbelievable. We talked about how the defense garnered the third-most pressure on opposing QBs despite ranking 29th in the NFL in blitz percentage, meaning Justin Houston, DeForest Buckner, Grove Stewart and Denico Autry are wreaking havoc. They didn’t start applying pressure until the second half, but you can’t ask for unrelenting pressure from just four guys for a full 60 minutes.

They also have a competent secondary to back them up. Rookie Julian Blackmon recorded his first career interception after logging 100% of the defensive snaps (he was limited in his first two games after recovering from ACL surgery). On top of that, Rock Ya-Sin made his return after missing the last two weeks and didn’t let much come his way. Xavier Rhodes had two pass breakups himself. All three of those guys broke up a pass over the middle or deep down the field.

This is a defense. It’s not just one or two guys. Matt Eberflus has gameplanned tremendously this year and just about everyone has done their job so far. Don’t get us wrong, the Colts need Darius Leonard, but they showed on Sunday that they’re much more than just one star player.

Colts: Frank Reich clearly knew how to pick apart old friend Nick Foles

Indianapolis Colts head coach Frank Reich clearly knew how to pick apart his old friend Nick Foles against the Chicago Bears on Sunday.