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The Chicago Bears are a semi-surprising 3-0 on the year. Now they face a tough 2-1 Indianapolis Colts team in Week 4.
So far, Chicago has not had the hardest schedule. In fact, they beat the Detroit Lions in Week 1, that is the only team they've faced that has a win on the year.
The Lions are now 1-2. Meanwhile, the other two opponents of the Bears (the New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons) are both 0-3.
With that in mind, the Bears are sort of still waiting for their first real “test” of the season – and that might be coming in the form of the Colts.
Will they be able to withstand that pressure? How will Nick Foles perform in his first start of the season? Who will step up big and will anyone fold?
There are a lot of questions surrounding this game, and that means there is a lot of room for predictions.
With that in mind, let's get bold. Here are four bold predictions for the Bears in their Week 4 matchup with the Colts.
Nick Foles Struggles
Foles took over for Mitchell Trubisky at quarterback during their Week 3 comeback against the Atlanta Falcons.
To be fair to Trubisky, he was not playing terribly but he wasn't very good either. As a result to that, the Chicago offense continued to stall out. Foles provided a pretty major spark though.
Foles sparked a massive comeback and put up solid numbers in the process.
The quarterback threw for 188 yards despite not playing the whole game, and managed a fantastic three touchdowns compared to one interception.
All the momentum is on his side now. Foles played a great game and led an incredible comeback. So the guess is that he will ride that wave, right?
Not so fast. We've seen how streaky the quarterback can be, and while the Indianapolis defense is not perfect, it is not as bad as Atlanta has looked lately.
Foles will not be miserable but he's going to struggle a bit. The quarterback situation in Chicago is confusing-at-best. Sadly, Week 4 is not really going to clear anything up in that front.
David Montgomery Runs Wild
Tarik Cohen is gone for the year with an ACL injury. That's tragic, he's a great player who just signed a new deal and although his usage was inconsistent, he has a high ceiling.
The Chicago offense is definitely going to feel this a little bit. But it also means that Montgomery is now the lone star back. And his workload is likely going to reflect that.
So far in his career, Montgomery has shown he's not only up for the task, but could be a superstar.
Montgomery has 191 rushing yards on 43 attempts this year (4.4 yards per carry). Meanwhile, he has six receptions for 64 yards and a touchdown. So the numbers definitely shown that he can produce big things.
Now imagine the running back getting all the work out of the backfield. In the ballpark of 20-plus carries and five-plus targets a game. That's a recipe for big numbers.
Indianapolis does not have a bad defense, but they have some holes. And Montgomery should be able to work through them.
Expect around 150 total offensive yards and a touchdown. This should be a great week for the running back.
New Team-High Sack Numbers
Chicago is known for it's terrifying defense. So far this year though, they have not really terrorized quarterbacks all that much. They have just seven sacks on the year.
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Currently,their high in a game is four. That came against the New York Giants in Week 2.
Meanwhile, Indianapolis has an incredible offensive line. They've only given up three sacks all year.
Hey, that's why this is bold predictions. The Bears are going to ramp it up and record five sacks against a team that hasn't even given up that many in all three games they've played combined.
Chicago definitely has the tools to get the job done too.
Akiem Hicks already has 3.5 sacks to lead the team. Barkevious Mingo has one and the always dangerous Robert Quinn has one as well.
Roquan Smith does not have any yet but he's liable to change that at any moment. Then there's Khalil Mack. Mack has 1.5 sacks on the year. Not bad, but nothing special either.
That's the thing with Mack though, he's special. A multi-sack game is never far away and multiple forced fumbles might be coming with it.
This Chicago defense is too good to have seven sacks so far on the year. It's not a bad number, but it's not great. And they have too many weapons to not be great. Could this be their surprising coming out party?
Forcing Turnovers
Another category Chicago's defense has not been superb in is forcing turnovers. They have just three interceptions and one fumble recovery. And that includes going up against a very turnover-prone New York team.
The good news for them though, is that Indianapolis quarterback Philip Rivers is known for turnovers as well.
Yes, don't get me wrong – Rivers is an all-time great quarterback. But we can't sit here and pretend like he has not had some serious interception problems in the past.
In fact, literally just last season it was a terrible problem. Rivers racked up 20 interceptions compared to just 23 touchdown passes. He threw 20-plus interceptions two other times and has not had a season with fewer than 10 picks since 2009.
So far this year, Rivers has three interceptions. And now he's facing the best defense he's seen all year.
Chicago could be in for a big night defensively. Yes, Rivers and the Colts are likely going to find a way to score. That does not mean they won't make some mistakes though – and the Bears have been waiting to capitalize on some mistakes.
The question that remains is, will all of this be enough to win the game?
If all of these predictions come true, it would be a massive game for the defense and a fantastic week for Montgomery. If Foles struggles though, will they be able to win?
No matter what it should be an intriguing matchup and one you might want to tune in to.
