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Bears are positioned to pose the Cardinals’ biggest problems
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Bears are positioned to pose the Cardinals’ biggest problems

It’s amazing how much one play can damage a team’s reputation.

Two weeks ago, the Bears were still celebrating their third straight victory, their international success with a 35-16 victory over the London/Jacksonville Jaguars.

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

It was enough to make everyone forget that they have the best pass defense in the league in passer rating, and are #1 in red zone defense, and they scored five touchdowns in consecutive games for the first. time since 1956.

There are still things the Bears do right when they don’t put it back on the goal line while the game is on the line or when they don’t yell at the fans while the game is on course.

For that reason, the Arizona Cardinals might find out Sunday that just because the Bears are glorified, they’re not really clowns.

There are Bears who can cause a lot of problems for the Cardinals and here’s who.

QB Caleb Williams

That’s right, 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 were against better defenses than Williams faced on Sunday. The Bears talk about how difficult it is to understand Arizona’s unique scheme, but not everyone seems to have a problem with that. The Cardinals pass defense is 26th overall, 27th in passer rating against and 29th in preventing passes on first downs. If Williams gets the time, he should do some damage.

RB Andre Swift

As mediocre as the Cardinals are defensively against the pass, they are 26th against the run. Swift has averaged 96.5 yards per game over the last four games without a game under 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 are now trying 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 lining up left, but so far he and Williams have struggled to connect on deeper routes. Williams only targeted him nine times from behind 10 yards and completed two of them. But they face a Cardinals pass defense ranked second-to-last in completion percentage on deep passes to the left (62 percent completions) and 28th in yards allowed per completion to deep left (17.5 yards).

WR Keenan Allen

The Cardinals play with some odd looks in their secondary, but Allen has seen everything a defense can throw at him and other than that, Arizona has allowed 9.86 yards per short pass completion over the middle, which ranks good last in the NFL. Allen should be the third master who opens up to extend training 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 shelled more than 41 percent of the time. Tight quickies can hurt blitzers, as can tight 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’ve usually set about finding him quickly in the next game. Kmet could find himself facing Budda Baker because he’s not a traditional free safety as much as he is a small strong safety. Even though Baker gets praise from Bears coaches, his passer rating is 122.2 and it was 106.8 last year according to Stathead. The 5-10, 195 pounder won’t really be a match for the 6-6, 260 pound tight end. Additionally, Kmet is vital in edge blocking when they run their wide zone schemes and the Cardinals have been particularly prone to outside runs on the right side of the field.

RT Darnell Wright

Their top starting run blocker according to Pro Football Focus. The Cardinals rank 25th in stopping runs behind the right tackle (5.33 yards per carry) and 21st in stopping them (5.97) around the 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 invitation to get swallowed up by a 6-6, 333-pound tackle on surprise runs used on passing downs, on screen passes and on throwing plays in general.

CB Jaylon Johnson

They may not put Johnson over Harrison all over the field, as he will usually be right on top of Johnson on the right side of the defense. But the Bears don’t seem like a good defense for Harrison on paper, as they use the zone a lot and he hasn’t been at his best against the zone according to Jonathon Macri of PFF. Harrison has 15 catches for 166 routes run against zone and 11 catches for 54 routes run against man-to-man.

Sweatshirt DE Montez

Sweat has a shin injury and it must be painful but the fact that he is questionable should be a formality. You can always complete this and rush. Plus, he’s going up against Kelvin Beachum and isn’t one of the highest-rated tackles in the league. Beachum is 6-3, 308 and ranked 47th among NFL tackles. He’s always posted respectable grades in PFF, but he’s now 35 years old and has allowed three sacks this season according to PFF.

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