Bears Put Down Colts

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Sep 8, 2008 5:30PM

When the NFL released its 2008 schedule a few months back, we cringed at the prospects of our Bears being embarrassed on national television at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts. Since facing each other in Super Bowl XLI, the Bears had fallen on hard times while the Colts continued to rank among the league's elite.

As expected, Sunday night's game was a blowout. Surprisingly, it was the Bears who stunned the Colts and won 29-13 as Indy broke the seal on their new Lucas Oil Field.

So how'd the do it? The same way they made it to the Super Bowl two seasons ago. The offense ran the ball effectively all night long and didn't turn the ball over. The defense held Peyton Manning in check most of the night, limiting the Colts to field goals on two long drives.

The breakout star of the game was rookie runningback Matt Forte, who quickly made Bears fans forget the Cedric Benson era. Forte broke free for a 50 yard touchdown early in the first quarter and the Bears never looked back. He finished with 123 yards on 23 carries, while the team as a whole managed 183 yards on the ground. Kyle Orton will never be expected to put up the kind of passing numbers Manning does, but he looked poised, completing nearly 2/3 of his passes and he never turned the ball over.

The defense, ranked near the bottom of the NFL in '07 and not looking any better throughout the preseason, regained their swagger just in time. They frustrated Manning all night while shutting down the Colts running game. The defense also scored nine of the Bears points on a safety and a TD return of a fumble, while also giving the offense good field position after preventing the Colts from converting on fourth downs.

Was this game a fluke? Or will the Bears surprise its fans and the NFL like it did in 2005, the last time Kyle Orton was this team's starting QB? We'll know more this Sunday when the Bears take on the Carolina Panthers.

AP Photo/Darron Cummings