In statement game vs. Indianapolis, Bears offense is a no show

The Indianapolis Colts showed up in Chicago with the NFL's number one defense.

As Chicago waved goodbye to them after taking a 19-11 beating we know the Colts defense is good, but just how good still remains to be seen.

That's because what we can say with certainty after Sunday is the Bears have real problems on offense.

Sunday's game was Nick Foles' turn to show us Mitch Trubisky has no corner on awful quarterback play as we watched him miss one third down throw after another. Foles arguably was less accurate than Trubisky was in any of his three starts.

Of course everything in life is much harder when you're getting no help.

The Bears offensive line and running game appeared to take real strides weeks one through three, but it hit a wall vs. the Colts. The pass protection, which has been problematic all season, was also particularly leaky Sunday.

Justin Houston has been one of the best pass rushers in the game for some time, but if Charles Leno is going to let Houston beat him across his face without even getting a hand on him, the Bears have to sit him down and give someone else a shot.

If you can't run the football and Ryan Nall is one of only two true running backs in uniform, would it make sense to give him the ball at least once or twice and see what happens? And if not why is he one of only two true backs on the field?

Is Jimmy Graham on the roster for any reason other than to post up DBs in the red zone and where exactly is Cole Kmet?

Why did it look until late in the game like rookie Darnell Mooney had taken over the number one receiver spot from Allen Robinson?

I can ask questions all day long but right now the Bears aren't providing any answers.

After the game Matt Nagy had one thing to take back to the drawing board.

"None of it was effort, our guys all care. You would love to be 4-0 right now, we're not, we're 3-1," Nagy said.

"It's the first time all year that we lost a game, so being in that locker room, just understanding how do we react to that and, again, just responding to adversity.

"Can we play better? Absolutely. Can we coach better? Absolutely. And that's what we've gotta do."

That's fair enough but it's also fair for all of us to be asking how exactly they're going to do it.

All week analysts and fans felt the Bears were a better or more confident team with Foles in for Trubisky.

Asked after the game if there was a difference Allen Robinson wasn't going there.

"Um, that's tough to say, it wasn't too much difference, and it really hasn't been too much difference in terms of things that you can actually feel.

"Whatever the case may be, just all around, we gotta play better."

On defense there were again small signs of improvement.

Inside linebacker Roquan Smith said it, but he also made it clear he wasn't looking for style points.

"I feel like we're getting better each and every week. We're not where we want to be yet, but we're just working our tails off to get there so we're just going to bounce back and go from there.

"At the end of the day, if they don't score, they don't win. So when you live with that mindset, at the end of the day, they got too many points on us.

"That's not the goal so we just got to get better and obviously we didn't play good enough to get the W."

There it is again, "we've gotta play better."

Smith and Khalil Mack both left take-aways on the field that two years ago might have turned the game around but Sunday you had the feeling even if they'd made those plays the offense wasn't going to take advantage of them.

Fortunately for the Bears it's a short week and redemption could be just four days away against a now red-hot Tom Brady and his Buccaneers.

But the Bears will be home underdogs again and off what we saw Sunday it's hard to imagine things getting much better soon.