In the desert, some good stuff and a lot of bad facing Bears

December 21, 2012, 9:14 am

	JOHN "MOON" MULLIN Archive
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First the bad news (and there’s a lot of it):
 
A team that spiraled down a nine-game losing streak is usually a doormat. If the Bears regard the Arizona Cardinals as such, they will spend Sunday night explaining a sixth loss in the last seven games.
 
Arizona bumbled away a 4-0 start because of problems on offense, not defense. Kind of like the Bears. The Cardinals are not in the Bears’ class at stopping points but they are 11th in scoring defense (21.6 per game). And the Bears have only managed to score that number in one of the past six games, which goes a very long way toward explaining why they lost the other five.
 
Of some significance possibly is that the Cardinals play a 3-4 defense, and the Bears have scored six (Houston), seven (San Francisco) and 13 (Green Bay) points in their last three games against that scheme.
 
“They show a lot of different looks, they’re not afraid to blitz you and have talented guys in the secondary and linebackers,” quarterback Jay Cutler said. “They create turnovers, they’re really good on third down so we’ve got our hands full.”
 
More bad stuff
 
Some specifics bode ill, or at least challenging, for the Bears.
 
The offense, what there has been of it, has run through Brandon Marshall. The Packers (twice) and 49ers in particular gave him problems and the Bears lost all three games in dismal offensive performances.
 
Arizona has an elite cornerback in Patrick Peterson, whose matchup with Marshall rates on the interest scale with Charles Tillman vs. Calvin Johnson.
 
“I got a text message from my college coach that also coached at LSU when he was there and he said, ‘This is the best athlete you’re going to go against this year,’” Marshall said. “I’ve got my hands full this week. I know he’ll follow me around a little bit.
 
“I heard some comments he made a week or two ago about how he’s playing the best at the position. I agree with him. Watching film now, he really is backing it up. Unfortunately their record doesn’t show that. That kind of put a damper on his play right now but he’s playing at a high level. This guy is going to be another Pro Bowler.”
 
A little more bad stuff
 
Defensive end Calais Campbell is 6-8, 300 pounds and has 4.5 sacks, and he likely will be facing off against struggling Gabe Carimi. The second-year right tackle lost his job over failures to block a speed rusher (San Francisco’s Aldon Smith); the hope is that other end of the size spectrum is a better matchup.
 
J’Marcus Webb has the task of staving off three-time Pro Bowl selection Darnell Dockett on the other side. Not a good matchup for the Bears.
 
But the rush nightmare for the Bears is inside linebacker Daryl Washington, who leads the Cardinals with both 120 tackles and 9.5 sacks. Bears' guard play has been spotty at best and rookie James Brown played so badly against Green Bay that he was benched in-game.
 
“We have some guys in place that we think we’re going to go with,” said offensive coordinator Mike Tice. “They’re from the group of guys that played in the game the other days. So we’ll have five guys out there.”
 
The Cardinals, fourth in takeaways with 32 (vs. the Bears’ 37) have intercepted 13 passes in the last five games, including the three that doomed Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions. They rank No. 1 in the NFL in interception percentage and fourth in sacks per pass play, meaning they are precisely what a shaky Bears offensive line and quarterback need with playoff hopes hanging by a thread of a thread.
 
The last two Bears losses and the one to Houston arguably turned on Cutler interceptions, which has helped quell any ripple of Cutler-for-MVP sentiment that appeared briefly when the Bears were 7-1.
 
For purposes of comparison, the Bears’ defense has held opposing quarterbacks to a combined passer rating of 71.4. That is very good.
 
The Cardinals have held quarterbacks to a combined 68.0. That is even better.
 
Now, a little good stuff
 
But for all that the Cardinals have done against the pass, they rank 28th in rushing yards allowed per game and 19th in yards per carry. In six of the losses in the nine-game swoon, opponents rushed for 165 or more yards.
 
The problem is that the Bears have been as inept running the ball as they have throwing it. They have scored a rushing touchdown (two) in only one of the last six games and the guy who scored those two – Michael Bush – went on injured reserve this week with a rib injury.
 
The Detroit Lions lost to the Cardinals last week when they rushed for only 84 yards. The Bears lost to Green Bay and San Francisco with sub-85 rushing totals and the tipping point clearly will be the run game.
 
“We’re all searching right now,” Tice acknowledged. “There’s a lot of what-if’s, is-it-him? but that’s the way it is when you’ve lost a number of games in the last six.”

Tags: Michael Bush, Jay Cutler, Arizona Cardinals, brandon marshall, Chicago Bears, Mike Tice, Gabe Carimi