It’s ‘F’ as in Free Fall

What’s better? Stevenson is just one player. The entire selection is now in doubt.

They succeeded and in the process they showed that their future is completely in doubt.

“We’ve got nine games left and 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 that’s just as ugly: the Bears’ report against Arizona.

Running game: F

An average of 3.0 yards per carry would be fine in a league where the chains are nine yards long. Their long run was 13 yards, but on the plus side of the 69 yards rush was the fact that Doug Kramer didn’t have to make a carry.

Passing play: F

Williams played exactly how he has played on the road all season, which is to say he looked dazed and confused. He couldn’t find Cole Kmet for a single target, took it to DJ Moore, where he was able to average just 8.3 yards per catch, and started to crawl hopelessly out of the pocket on the first series. The pass blocking betrayed him for six sacks and even Keenan Allen fouled a missed pass.

Run defense: F

Injury was added to the insult when Andrew Billings dropped out with a chest injury. He’s the reason their defense went from poor in 2022 to the best in the league in 2023 last year. And pectoral injuries are often season-ending for linemen. So chew on that for a moment. In other words, there are more beat-downs to come.

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

BEARS INSULT AND CALEB WILLIAMS LOOKING FOR ANSWERS

BEARS HAD NO PRAYER IN 29-9 LOSS TO CARDINALS

Pass Defense: B

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

Special teams: C-

Excellent kicking by Cairo Santos and punting by Tory Taylor was offset by Gervon Dexter’s penalty for illegal leverage and the 27-yard kick return by Greg Dortch gave the Cardinals 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 allowed the Cardinals to add seven. Even though the penalty was picky and probably not even the right call, Dexter wasn’t going to take advantage of his intention with the little effort he made, so there was no reason to even try to block it.

Coaching: F-

The rare F- is reserved for someone who contributes far below expectations. The coaching staff began preparing them for this by handling the Tyrique Stevenson situation in a way that engulfed the entire team and created doubt in the minds of everyone from players to Caleb Williams’ father, Carl. Then they made blitz calls before halftime for no reason, giving up a 53-yard touchdown. They had an offensive game plan, which resulted in another slow start. At least no one could complain this week about the lack of fouls in the first quarter. Their offense this week played in the remaining three quarters exactly how they usually play in the first quarters.

General: 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