These 5 matchups will decide Bears vs. Colts in Week 3

It's way too early in the season to panic, but for any NFL team that is hoping to make a playoff push, three weeks of football should be enough to give fans an idea of whether that's a realistic goal or not.

If there was a report card for the first two weeks of the season, the Chicago Bears would receive an incomplete. The defense has been lights out, single-handedly winning the game against the Titans in Week 1 and keeping the team alive against a strong Texans squad in Week 2. The offense has been a work in progress, though, with Caleb Williams struggling behind a subpar offensive line.

In Week 3, the Bears will continue their early season tour of the AFC South with a trip to Indianapolis to face a Colts team that is desperate for their first win of the year. Indy has problems of their own after losing a close one at home to the Texans to open the season and then falling to a Packers team that was without starting quarterback Jordan Love.

The NFL is about matchups, and there are plenty of interesting ones at play in this game. Here are five that will go a long way toward determining which team walks away with a victory.

Matchup No. 1: Caleb Williams vs. Gus Bradley

Caleb Williams hasn't exploded onto the NFL scene quite as the Bears hoped when they enthusiastically drafted him with the first overall pick in April's draft. It's not all his fault, as he's been running for his life most of the time, but the fact remains that Caleb has missed some throws that good quarterbacks make, and he's taken a few unnecessary sacks, as well.

Playing quarterback in the NFL is a ridiculously difficult job, and for a rookie playing behind an offensive line that has had issues with protection, it's like skydiving without a parachute. Caleb's natural talent is inarguable, though, meaning it's only a matter of time until he adjusts to the speed of the NFL and settles in.

Gus Bradley is in his third season as the Colts defensive coordinator, but his defenses have ranked bottom-five in the league in points allowed per game in each of the last two years. Caleb and the Bears are fresh off playing against DeMeco Ryans, Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter in primetime. This is an opportunity to get right.

Bradley and his defense had three matchups against rookie quarterbacks last year: two versus CJ Stroud and one against Bryce Young. As most fans would expect, Stroud played well, with 648 yards, four touchdowns and zero picks. As he did for most of his rookie season, Young struggled, with only 173 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions.

What this tells us is that the Colts will give you what you deserve to get. Stroud was great all season en route to winning Offensive Rookie of the Year, and he got his against Bradley's defense. Young, who was benched in favor of Andy Dalton this week, has never gotten on track since being taken with the number one pick. Unsurprisingly, he didn't fare well against Indy.

This will be a great litmus test to see what Caleb is capable of. If he puts up a stat line similar to Young's, it might be time for concern. If he approaches Stroud's gaudy numbers, then he's obviously turned a corner.

Matchup No. 2: Andrew Billings and T.J. Edwards vs. Anthony Richardson and Jonathan Taylor

The Chicago defense has been outstanding through two weeks, but the Colts offense presents a unique test. Unlike the Titans, whose offense is sort of toothless across the board, and the Texans, who love to air it out, the Colts are very much a ground-based attack.

Just as his scouting report coming out of college would suggest, Anthony Richardson has been extremely raw. He has the arm and top-end athleticism to make wow plays happen, but he lacks the accuracy to move the chains with regularity.

Richardson hit three passes of over 50 yards in the Week 1 loss to the Texans, but I'm not worried about the Bears' secondary holding up. Jaylon Johnson can blanket Michael Pittman, and Tyrique Stevenson, Jaquan Brisker, and Kyler Gordon should be able to keep Alec Pierce and Ashton Dulin from getting behind them.

It's the Colts rushing attack that the Bears need to focus on. Richardson is a threat every time he gets outside the pocket, and Jonathan Taylor is one of the best feature backs in the league. The Bears have the tools to contain them both, though. Andrew Billings was good for the Bears last year, but he's looked like a Pro Bowler through two games so far. He's been a vital cog in a Chicago run defense that led the league last year and bottled up Joe Mixon last week.

T.J. Edwards has 23 tackles through two games, and he's the last line of defense between a short gain and a big play when Richardson or Taylor gets through Billings and the D-line. If, as expected, the secondary can limit big plays through the air, it will be up to Edwards to keep the Colts from making chunk plays on the ground. Whether he can or not will be one of the most important factors in who wins this game.

Matchup No. 3: The Bears offensive line vs. the Colts defensive line

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and here we have the weakest links of their respective teams facing off directly against each other. The Bears offensive line has been the movable object, and the Colts defensive line has been the resistible force. It's kind of like an anti-matchup.

The Bears haven't even had the faintest hint of a running game through two weeks, because there's been nowhere to run. They also haven't been able to protect Caleb Williams, who's taken 10 sacks already. The Colts, on the other hand, have offered little to no resistance up front, and now they're without the best player on their front seven, DeForest Buckner, who was put on IR this week with an ankle sprain.

The Colts did manage to sack CJ Stroud four times in Week 1, but they had zero sacks of Malik Willis last week. They've been absolutely gashed on the ground, with Joe Mixon and Josh Jacobs combining for 310 yards on 62 carries. Chicago's ostensible top rusher, D'Andre Swift, has a mere 48 yards on 24 carries through two games.

If the Bears can't block this defensive line, it may be time to hold tryouts in the Soldier Field parking lot when they return to Chicago. Braxton Jones, Teven Jenkins, Coleman Shelton, Nate Davis and Darnell Wright: you're on notice.

Matchup No. 4: Matt Eberflus vs. Shane Steichen

It's always fun when two head coaches get to go directly against each other, and that's what we have here. Matt Eberflus, who used to be the Colts defensive coordinator, calls the defensive plays for the Bears, while Shane Steichen calls the offense for the Colts.

Say what you will about Eberflus and his 11-25 career record, but the man knows how to coach a defense. Ever since Montez Sweat was brought in last year, the Bears have looked great on that side of the ball, and they seem to have taken another step forward this year. Eberflus is pushing all the right buttons as he turned Will Levis into a meme and held Stroud and the explosive Texans to 15 first downs and three second-half points last week. Something tells me that defensive performance will age extremely well as the Texans light up the scoreboard this year.

Steichen was the Eagles offensive coordinator before taking the Indy head coaching job, and he's received a lot of the credit for helping Jalen Hurts become one of the NFL's elite quarterbacks. He's hoping to do the same for the physically gifted Richardson, though the rookie's season-ending injury in Week 5 last season stunted his development.

Steichen is a good playcaller and he'll no doubt try to get Michael Pittman going after a slow first two weeks of the season. Eberflus can counter in a variety of ways, from trusting Jaylon Johnson on an island with him to blitzing Kyler Gordon and Jack Sanborn so that Richardson doesn't have time to look downfield.

The cat-and-mouse game between Eberflus and Steichen is one of the most interesting subplots of this game, as whichever coach loses will start to feel the temperature rising on their proverbial hot seat.

Matchup No. 5: Rome Odunze vs. Kenny Moore II

It's still unclear whether Keenan Allen will make his return after missing the Texans game, but either way, this feels like a good time for Rome Odunze to break out.

The former Washington Husky was the third receiver taken in the NFL Draft, and while Marvin Harrison Jr. and Malik Nabers announced themselves with huge performances in Week 2, Odunze has yet to make his mark.

The Bears passing attack has struggled across the board, so Odunze is hardly alone in having a rough start to the year. He has just as much talent as the guys taken before him though, so there's no reason he shouldn't be able to improve upon his three catches for 44 yards in a big way this week.

Odunze will likely be lined up across Colts nickelback Kenny Moore II for much of the day, especially if Allen returns and lines up out wide. Even without the veteran in the lineup, though, these two figure to see a lot of each other.

Moore is one of the best slot corners in the league, but I would love to see the Bears try to test him with Odunze. Most slot receivers tend to be short, so Moore's 5-foot-9 stature doesn't hurt him. Odunze is 6-foot-3 though, so if Caleb can give him a shot in one-on-one situations, the rookie can use his size advantage to go up and make a play.

The Bears' slate this year is like a tale of two schedules. The last two months of the season are a real gauntlet, but there are a lot of winnable games before then, and this is one of them. If the Bears can get the best of these matchups and emerge from Week 3 with a win, they'll be 2-1 and primed to make a run with home dates against the banged-up Rams and hapless Panthers on deck.