Bears in position to cause cardinals the biggest problems

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 fouls Hail Mary and the nation makes fun of them.

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

There are still things the Bears are doing right when they don’t hand it to the fullback at the goal line with the game on the line, or when they don’t yell at the fans while the game is in progress.

For that reason, the Arizona Cardinals could conclude Sunday that just because the Bears are shocked, they aren’t really clowns.

There are Bears that could cause the Cardinals a lot of trouble, and here’s who.

QB Caleb Williams

It’s true, Williams’ passer rating is 66.5 on the road and 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 will face on 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 in preventing passing first downs. Given time, Williams should do some damage.

RB D’André Swift

As bad as the Cardinals were defensively against the pass, they rank 26th against the run. Swift has averaged 96.5 yards per game over the past four without a passing game of less than 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 defender. They now look to use Khyiris Tonga up front, a former seventh-round pick of the Bears.

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WR DJ Moore

Moore will normally do most of his deep damage left, but so far he and Williams have struggled to connect on the deeper routes. Only nine times has Williams attacked him behind ten yards and completed two. But they’re going against a Cardinals pass defense that ranks second-to-last in completion percentage on deep left passes (62% completions) and 28th in yards allowed per completion left (17.5 yards).

WR Keenan Allen

The Cardinals are gambling with some odd looks in their secondary, but Allen has seen everything a defense can throw at him, plus Arizona has allowed 9.86 yards per short pass over the middle, which ranks last in the league. N.F.L. Allen should be the third-down master open to extending drives in this one.

TE Cole Kmet

Why the Bears targeted Kmet once in Washington is a total mystery, especially in a game where they were bombed more than 41% of the time. The tight end quickies can hurt blitzers, and so can tight end screens. But in this one they won’t make the same mistake. With a 90% catch rate, Kmet should be targeted more and when they ignored him in the past, they usually managed to find him quickly the next game. Kmet could match up with Budda Baker because he isn’t so much a traditional free safety as he is a small strong safety. While Baker gets a lot of praise from the Bears coaches, his passer rating is 122.2 and last year he was 106.8 according to Stathead. The 5-10, 195-pounder won’t be much of a match for the 6-6, 260-pound tight end. Also, Kmet is vital in blocking the flanks when they run their wide zone schemes, and the Cardinals are 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 in run stops behind the right tackle (5.33 yards per run) and 21st in run stops (5.97) around the right end. Wright should be able to overpower Dennis Gardeck, the former Crystal Lake South player who is on that side of the Cardinal pass rush. A 6-foot, 230-pounder on the edge is an invitation 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 put Johnson all over the field on Harrison, as he is usually right above Johnson on the right side of the defense. But the Bears don’t seem like a good defense for Harrison on paper because they use zone a lot and he doesn’t think he has been at his best against zone. PFF’s Jonathon Macri. Harrison has 15 catches on 166 routes running against the zone and 11 catches on 54 routes running man-to-man.

THE Montez sweat

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

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