Bear Digest

Bears Report Card Against Arizona: It's 'F' as in Free Fall

Grading the Bears: The Bears were so bad they made their previous game's conclusion seem like a faded memory from their past, and their future look entirely in doubt.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams is smashed to the ground by Zaven Collins in the Cardinals' 29-9 victory Sunday over the Bears.
Caleb Williams is smashed to the ground by Zaven Collins in the Cardinals' 29-9 victory Sunday over the Bears. / Michael Chow/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
In this story:

Rewind a week and it didn't seem possible.

Now fast forward to today and there's no doubting it happened.

The Bears managed in only 60 minutes of football to make everyone forget the Hail Mary pass in Washington D.C.

In losing on one fluke pass to Washington, everyone questioned Tyrique Stevenson. In losing 29-9 Sunday to the Arizona Cardinals, and everyone who wore a uniform is in doubt except possibly the kicker and punter.

What's better? Stevenson is but one player. The entire roster is now in doubt.

They managed to do it, and in the process they showed their future is completely in doubt.

"We still have nine games and so, or something like that," quarterback Caleb Williams said.

After Sunday, that sounded more like an uncertain threat than a rallying point.

This could get ugly.

Here's something else just as ugly: The Bears report card against Arizona.

Running Game: F

Averaging 3.0 yards a carry would be fine in a league where the chains are nine yards long. Their long run was 13 yards but on the bright side of 69 yards rushing was the fact Doug Kramer did not have to make a carry.

Passing Game: F

Williams played exactly as he has on the road all season, which is to say he looked dazed and confused. He didn't locate Cole Kmet for a single target, got it to DJ Moore where he could average only 8.3 yards a catch, and started hopelessly scrambling out of the pocket from the first series. The pass blocking betrayed him for six sacks and even Keenan Allen fouled up with a dropped pass.

Run Defense: F

Injury was added to insult with Andrew Billings went out with a pectoral injury. He is the reason their run defense turned last year from terrible in 2022 to best in the league in 2023. And pectoral injuries often are season-enders for linemen. So chew on that for a while. In other words, more beat-downs are coming.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY FROM BEARS LOSS TO CARDINALS

BEARS OFFENSE AND CALEB WILLIAMS SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS

BEARS DIDN'T HAVE A PRAYER IN 29-9 LOSS TO CARDINALS

Pass Defense: B

The good news is they allowed only 154 yards passing to Kyler Murray and sacked him three times even without injured Montez Sweat and without two starters available in the secondary. The bad news is the Cardinals didn't need 154 passing yards to win this game. Stevenson's play after his Hail Mary gaffe was a positive. Congratulations on that.

Special Teams: C-

Outstanding kicking by Cairo Santos and punting by Tory Taylor was offset by Gervon Dexter's penalty for illegal leverage and the 27-yard punt return by Greg Dortch set the Cardinals up for 11 more points than they could have had. The punt return set up their first touchdown at the Bears 41 and the penalty took three off the board and let the Cardinals add seven instead. Even if the penalty was picky and probably not even the correct call, Dexter wasn't going to benefit from his intent with the minor amount of effort he gave so there wasn't a reason for even attempting to block it.

Coaching: F-

The rare F- is reserved for someone who contributes far below and beyond all expectations. The coaching staff started preparing them for this by handling the Tyrique Stevenson situation in a way that dragged down the entire team and created doubt in the minds of everyone from players to Caleb Williams' father, Carl. Then they made blitz calls before the half for absolutely no reason and gave up a 53-yard touchdown as a result. They had an offensive game plan resulting in yet another slow start. At least no one could complain about the lack of offense in the first quarter this week. Their offense this week played in the other three quarters exactly the way they usually play in first quarters.

Overall: F

Losing on the road by 20 to a team they beat by 11 last year is even worse than losing on a Hail Mary to a team they beat by 20 last year. The free fall has begun.

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.