INDIANAPOLIS -- Indianapolis Colts coach Frank Reich is known as an aggressive playcaller.

He arrived in the winter of 2018 saying that’s the way he planned to run the offense. And that’s what Reich did throughout his first two seasons. One of his favorite things to do is go for it on fourth down.

But Reich has taken a more conservative approach this season. It’s not that the coach doesn’t have faith in his offense to get a first down, or even a touchdown. It’s more about believing his defense is good enough to get the ball back without giving up any points.

Reich adjusted his playcalling in Sunday’s victory over the Chicago Bears, when the offense sputtered along all game and the defense continued its dominant ways.

“One of the things that you got to be careful not to do, you can't, whatever, get a reputation for being aggressive and then let the reputation kind of be your guide,” Reich said. “That's not the way to coach. I've always got to check myself on that. And then, so I really try to feel it out and do the best thing for the team and it's not just about always being aggressive.”

One of those moments happened in the first half Sunday. The Colts were leading 7-3 and had driven 67 yards to Chicago’s 3-yard line before facing a fourth-and-goal. That’s often a situation where Reich would think hard about trying to get a touchdown and building a two-score lead.

But the coach elected to take the field goal because he knew points would be hard to come by against the Bears defense and he knew his own defense would make it tough on Chicago’s offense to score.

“I normally am going to go for that 9 times out of 10,” Reich said. “But that's an example where, listen, I'm not just putting it on autopilot on every one of those decisions to go for it when it's fourth and really short. But I just felt like the way our defense was playing at that point early in the game and we had the lead. I just didn't want to create a momentum shift that if for some reason we didn't make it on offense. And just had a lot of confidence in the defense.”

That’s the level the Colts have reached defensively. While the offense has carried the defense in Indianapolis for the better part of this century, this defense is that good in Reich's eyes.

The numbers bear that out:

• The Colts have held their last three opponents to 11 points or fewer. They hadn’t accomplished that feat since the final three weeks of the 2013 season.

• The 56 points allowed through the first four games, which is No. 1 in the NFL, is their fewest in a four-game stretch since 2013.

• The 28 yards rushing given up to the Bears in the fewest the Colts have allowed in a game since Arizona only rushed for 24 yards against them early in the 2009 season.

“We really believe we’re the best defense playing this game right now,” Colts veteran defensive end Justin Houston said.

The offense will get back on track at some point, but as they’ve shown the past three games, the defense has no problem carrying things, if necessary.

“I think the cool thing about this team as I’m learning and finding out, as we’re finding out together, is that I think we can win in a lot of different ways,” quarterback Philip Rivers said. “If we need 35 [points], I think we have a group that can go get 35. If we have a game like today, we can grind one out and win it this way and kind of an old-school NFL game style.”