Containing Kyler Murray a Bears Goal
Considering what Kyler Murray has done for the Cardinals offense in the past and even in a short season, they seem awfully willing to look to the future.
It's possible Murray is playing for his future against the Bears Sunday, in Arizona or otherwise.
However, Murray remains a viable, accurate passer even if his passer rating has been a career-worst 78.4 for the five games he's played since coming back from last year's torn ACL.
What he represents is a totally different challenge for the Bears than 38-year-old Joe Flacco was or Jared Goff a week prior.
"It's a big difference obviously from last week and even the week before that," coach Matt Eberflus said. "The set of challenges there with him is, we've obviously played him in the past and a lot of our guys have played against him. We got to be able to keep in the well or in the chute there, so to speak.
"That's difficult to do. He's very athletic. He's very quick and you have to have a plan for him, for sure."
Only two athletic QBs gained yards on them this year among those they faced. One was Patrick Mahomes with 28 yards scrambling. The other was Taysom Hill, who had 52 yards but wasn't really gaining yards like a traditional quarterback. He was lining up at tight end, running back and also shotgun QB or wildcat.
The pressure will be on defensive ends DeMarcus Walker and Montez Sweat to keep Murray from getting outside to run or throw. Both are strong run defenders whose strengths are maintaining an edge and gap intergrity, so keeping the QB in the pocket would be less difficult.
"You have various ways of doing that," Eberflus said. "To answer (the) question, you rush four, you have a guy looking for him, you might have two guys looking for him, you game up your rush to move him a certain way and have somebody waiting for him. There's a bunch of different things, pressures that are well pressures. There's a lot of ways we can do it."
Keeping Murray in the pocket can work better because he hasn't had the wide receivers who can do damage downfield for him as a pocket passer. His yards per attempt average is down to 6.4 and were 6.4 last year before his injury, after he had it at 7.9 in 2021 under former coach Kliff Kingsbury.
Still, Murray led two wins in his five games, the last one 23-10 over Pittsburgh in a road game. The Cardinals have only one other win, so the Bears will be tested by him.
Here are the other matchup challenges for the Bears against the Cardinals.
RB James Conner
Conner has averaged 5.0 yards a carry and has 717 yards. He's the lead back for a running attack ranked seventh in the league, just a few spots behind the Bears. Conner can run with power and speed. He gained 75 yards and a touchdown on their old defense under Matt Nagy and Sean Desai in 2021. He's going up against the No. 1 run defense in the NFL now so it shouldn't be easy as Justin Jones, Andrew Billings and T.J. Edwards have been shutting down all running attacks and limited Cleveland to 29 yards last week.
TE Trey McBride
The 2022 second-round pick is a 6-foot-4, 246-pound classic U-type tight end who will go all over the field like a wide receiver and line up all over the formation. The former Colorado State player has the second most targets among
on the team with 85 and has set the Cardinals tight end record for receptions with 66. He has 712 yards and two TDs and is coming off a 102-yard, 10-catch effort against the 49ers. The Bears appear to have players who can cover a tight end in Tremaine Edmunds and Jaquan Brisker but they thought that last week too and David Njoku hauled in 10 catches for 104 yards against them.
WR Marquise Brown
Hollywood Brown would normally be a major focus for the Bears defense but he's suffering from an injury and his status for the game is uncertain. He missed last week and had only three targets without a catch the previous week against the Steelers. He has 51 receptions in 101 targets for 574 yards and is definitely feeling the effect of having several QBs this year.
LT D.J. Humphries
Now in his ninth year, Humphries over the years has been solid left tackle for a struggling team. He isn't having his best season but is coming off his best blocking game of the season by Pro Football Focus grade. He is 38th of 83 pass blockers and 54th overall among tackles according to PFF. So far Humphries, who is 6-5, 307, has given up 24 pressures on four sacks.
Edge Zaven Collins
The 6-4, 260-pounder is ranked 37th among 111 edges by PFF and 13th against the run even though the Cardinals as a team are 31st stopping the run. Collins has four sacks. The other edge, Dennis Gardeck, is only 6-foot, 232 pounds and a liability in run defense, although he has more sacks than Collins.
S Jalen Thompson
He plays safety and slot cornerback but has been very effective in whatever place they have him in the secondary. Thompson is 23rd among 94 safeties PFF grades and 13th in pass coverage. He has three interceptions, tying him for sixth in the league among safeties.
G Will Hernandez
He's graded 16th among 77 guards by PFF. The 6-2, 332-pounder has balance to his game, ranking 16th as a pass blocker and 24th as a run blocker. He's given up three sacks with only one penalty for 91 snaps at right guard and will be going up against Justin Jones, and sometimes Gervon Dexter or Zacch Pickens.
WR Rondale Moore
The third-year Cardinals slot receiver is a do-it-all type and speed merchant who can break off a big play on occasion. The 5-7, 180-pounder who has 31 receptions for 265 yards also has carried 24 times for 159 yards with a 45-yarder for a long run.
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