Here’s why Philip Rivers was trash talking Roquan Smith during Colts’ win over Bears


Everything was going Philip Rivers‘ team’s way during Sunday’s win over the Chicago Bears. The Indianapolis Colts were controlling the clock and holding on to a double-digit lead, which appeared even larger considering the Bears failed to muster any touchdowns against the No. 1 ranked defense in the league until the outcome was secure. 

Rivers had arguably his worst game of the year, but it didn’t matter with the Colts up 13 points and 7:40 left on the clock. The Colts were about to extend their lead to 16 points — or potentially more, if they could draw Chicago’s defense offsides — facing a fourth-and-1 deep in Bears territory. Rivers decided to use an interesting tactic to try to draw the Bears offsides while the play clock was winding down. The Colts quarterback trash talked Bears linebacker Roquan Smith. It came a few plays after Colts running back Jonathan Taylor had cut the corner on Smith.

That was all a good laugh for Rivers. 

“Yeah. No, that was, hey, it’s fun. It was fun competing. I love to compete, so there was some interaction with Roquan,” Rivers said after the win. “He’s a heck of a player. He was in on a bunch of plays. Him and (Danny) Trevathan, those two guys are good linebackers. Obviously they have a heck of a front. And that secondary is pretty salty as well. 

“So there was some good back and forth that made it feel a little bit more like a backyard pickup game. It just happens to be at the highest level and a 4 o’clock national time slot, but it felt that way. It felt like you got your buddies and said, We’re going to play someone across town.’ And it just so happened we got to play at Soldier Field today.  So it was pretty cool.”

Rivers completed just 16 of 29 passes for 190 yards and a touchdown, but didn’t turn the football over as Indianapolis won its third consecutive game. The Colts quarterback had a touchdown pass to Mo Alie-Cox in the first quarter that remained the only touchdown of the game until Nick Foles hit Allen Robinson with under two minutes left in Indianapolis’ 19-11 win. 

Rivers had nothing to fear with the Colts defense backing him up, as the unit limited Chicago to 269 total yards and just 28 yards rushing (1.8 yards per carry). The Bears finished 4 of 14 on third down and were held to 20 yards or less on seven of 10 possessions. The Colts defense ranks first in points and yards allowed, while surrendering the fewest passing yards and rushing touchdowns in the league. 

“D’s playing unbelievable. And so I think too that lends to a little bit of maybe when we get in that fourth quarter of we’re not going to go start saying, hey, let’s throw it five times in a row,” Rivers said. “There was no reason to do that with the way the game was going. Again, we did enough and did what we had to do to win.”



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