The Bears ran 16 times for a measly 28 yards Sunday, reverting to the one-dimensional offensive attack that doomed them so often last season.
‘‘I know that our guys as an offense, collectively, they’ll figure out the ‘why’ part,’’ coach Matt Nagy said after a 19-11 loss to the Colts. ‘‘[Offensive line coach Juan] Castillo will get them right. We all care about it. We all want to get better. And we know we’ve gotta be better at that point.’’
In the Bears’ first game without do-everything running back Tarik Cohen, David Montgomery ran 10 times for 27 yards. Cordarrelle Patterson had three carries for five yards. Nick Foles — who doesn’t offer the speed element Mitch Trubisky does — ran twice for a loss of a yard, and Darnell Mooney was stuffed for a loss of three yards on his lone rush.
With the Bears unable to get the running game going, receiver Allen Robinson said the Colts sat back in the second half, playing two safeties deep and trying to keep the ball in front of them.
‘‘We have to just figure out how to be able to get the run game going to help us out a little bit,” Robinson said, ‘‘so we [can] try and get some single [coverage] high and be able to pass the ball a little bit more efficiently.’’
The Bears averaged 5.3 yards per carry in Week 1, 4.2 in Week 2 and 5.2 in Week 3. On Sunday, they averaged 1.8. Their longest running play was a six-yard gain by Montgomery in the fourth quarter.
‘‘That’s a really good defense,’’ Nagy said. ‘‘And this is the fourth week in a row that they’ve done this, so a credit to who they are and how they play together.’’
The Colts allowed four yards per carry in Week 1, 4.4 in Week 2 and 3.8 in Week 3.
‘‘We knew it wasn’t going to be easy to run the ball,’’ Nagy said. ‘‘You just felt, like, a rush for two, a rush for three, a rush for two, a rush for three, a rush for two, a long rush of six. You felt that.’’
