Bear Digest

Bears Positioned to Give Cardinals the Biggest Problems

Caleb Williams and the Bears passing attack took a while before they got going last week but Arizona's struggling pass defense could provide opportunity to Chicago receivers.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams has had problems on the road against the blitz and pressure overall but Arizona's pass defense has problems.
Caleb Williams has had problems on the road against the blitz and pressure overall but Arizona's pass defense has problems. / Peter Casey-Imagn Images
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It's amazing how much damage one play can do to a team's reputation.

Two weeks ago the Bears were still basking in the glow of their third straight win, the international success they had with a 35-16 win over the London/Jacksonville Jaguars.

Then, one pass, one fouled up Hail Mary and the nation makes jokes about them.

It was enough to make everyone forget they do have the best pass defense in the league in terms of passer rating against, and they are No. 1 in the red zone on defense, and they scored five touchdowns in back to back games for the first time since 1956.

There are still things the Bears do well when they don't hand it to the fullback at the goal line with the game on the line or when they're not yelling at fans while the play is underway.

For that reason, the Arizona Cardinals could find Sunday that just because the Bears are being clowed, they aren't really clowns.

There are Bears who can give the Cardinals plenty of problems and here's who.

QB Caleb Williams

It's true, Williams' passer rating against is 66.5 on the road and it's 105.1 at home, and his completion percentage is 58.4% on the road and 67.3% at home. But those road games came against better defenses than Williams faces Sunday. The Bears talk about how difficult it is to figure out Arizona's unique scheme but everyone else seems to have no problem with it. The Cardinals' pass defense is 26th overall, 27th in passer rating against and 29th at preventing passing first downs. If Williams gets the time, he should do damage.

RB D'Andre Swift

As poor as the Cardinals have been defensively against the pass, they are 26th against the run. Swift has averaged 96.5 yards a game over the past four without a game below 71 yards and has been a receiving threat all season. The Cardinals lost former Bears defensive tackle Justin Jones after three games and he was a key run defender. They're trying to use Khyiris Tonga up front now, a former Bears seventh-round choice.

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WR DJ Moore

Moore will normally do most of his deep damage lining up left but so far he and Williams have had trouble hooking up on the deeper routes. Only nine times has Williams targeted him behind 10 yards and completed two. But they're going against a Cardinals pass defense ranked next to last at completion percentage on passes deep left (62% completions) and 28th in yards allowed per deep left completion (17.5 yards).

WR Keenan Allen

The Cardinals gamble with some strange looks in their secondary but Allen has seen about everything a defense can throw at him and besides that, Arizona has allowed 9.86 yards per short pass completion over the middle, which ranks dead last in the NFL. Allen should be the third-down master who gets open to extend drives in this one.

TE Cole Kmet

Why the Bears targeted Kmet one time in Washington is a total mystery, especially in a game when they were being blitzed over 41% of the time. The tight end quickies can hurt blitzers and so can tight end screens. But they won't make the same mistake in this one. With a 90% catch percentage, Kmet should be targeted more and when they've ignored him in the past they usually got around to finding him quickly the next game. Kmet could find himself matched up on Budda Baker because he's not a traditional free safety as much as he is small strong safety. As much as Baker gets praise from Bears coaches, his passer rating against is 122.2 and it was 106.8 last year according to Stathead. The 5-10, 195-pounder is not going to be much of a match for the 6-6, 260-pound tight end. Also, Kmet is vital in edge blocking when they run their wide zone schemes and the Cardinals have been especially prone to outside runs on the right side of the field.

RT Darnell Wright

Their best starting run blocker according to Pro Football Focus. The Cardinals rank 25th stopping runs behind right tackle (5.33 yards a run) and 21st stopping them (5.97) around right end. Wright should be able to overpower Dennis Gardeck, the former Crystal Lake South player who lines up on that side in the Cardinal pass rush. A 6-foot, 230-pounder on the edge is an invite to be swallowed up by a 6-6 333-pound tackle on surprise runs used on passing downs, on screen passes and on toss plays in general.

CB Jaylon Johnson

They may not be putting Johnson on Harrison all over the field because he's usually going to be right over Johnson on the defense's right side. But the Bears don't look like a good defense for Harrison on paper for one, because they use zone extensively and he hasn't been at his best against zone according to PFF's Jonathon Macri. Harrison has 15 catches for 166 routes run against zone and 11 catches for 54 routes run against man to man.

DE Montez Sweat

Sweat has a shin injury and it has to be painful but the fact he is questionable should be a formality. You can always pad that up and rush. Besides, he's going against Kelvin Beachum and not one of the highly rated tackles in the league. Beachum is 6-3, 308 and is rated 47th among NFL tackles. He's always posted respectable PFF grades, but he's 35 years old now and has given up three sacks this season according to PFF.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.