Bears vs Cardinals: Takeaways from the snap counts, stats, and more

The Arizona Cardinals moved to 10-2 with their 33 to 22 win in a sloppy Soldier Field, and at 4-8 the Chicago Bears are one step closer to being officially eliminated from the NFC playoff race. With any luck the networks will stop slapping the orange C at the bottom of their in-the-hunt graphics, because that’s just sad to see.

Chicago had the edge in most of the stats on Sunday, but I don’t care what the numbers say, because the Bears were never in this game. Chicago had more yards (329 to 257), more first downs (26 to 14), the time of possession edge (34:45 to 25:15), and less penalties (6-45 to 8-63). The Bears were a respectable 40% on third down tries (Arizona was 45%), and they went 4 for 4 on their fourth down attempts.

But four interceptions doomed them and allowed the Arizona offense to coast to a victory. It’s near impossible for good teams to overcome four turnovers, and these Matt Nagy coached Bears aren’t overcoming a thing.

Now let’s take a closer look at the playing time break downs for the Bears and also some of their individual statistical leaders.

OFFENSE

The weather was wet, the field was a mess, but Andy Dalton made bad decisions all afternoon in ending up 26 of 41 for 229 yards, 2 touchdowns, 4 interceptions, and a passer rating of 54.9. He was sacked three times, had 2 runs for 6 yards, made 2 tackles, and recovered a fumble.

David Montgomery led the Bears in rushing with 90 yards on 21 carries and a TD, and he led the Bears with 8 receptions for 51 yards.

Jakeem Grant led the Bears with 62 receiving yards on 5 catches and he had a TD. He really saw his playing time on offense increase with two Chicago receivers inactive. The other TD catch was from Jimmy Graham who only had that one yard reception, but Graham also caught a 2-point conversion from Dalton.

Darnell Mooney caught 5 passes for 27 yards, Cole Kmet had 3 for 41, and Damiere Byrd had 3 for 36.

Khalil Herbert ran 4 times for 16 yards and had 1 reception for 11 yards.

DEFENSE

Roquan Smith led the Bears with 8 tackles and a tackle for loss and he didn't miss a snap after working though a hamstring injury all week.

Artie Burns had 5 tackles on D, 1 TFL, 1 pass defended, and another tackle on special teams.

Eddie Jackson had 5 tackles and a TFL, Tashaun Gipson Sr. had 5 tackles, and Robert Quinn had 3 tackles and 2 TFL.

Xavier Crawford had 2 tackles and a penalty from his nickel spot.

The Bears had 0 quarterback hits on the day, but they did have a sack credited to the Team when Kyler Murray dropped the ball on their first play of the game.

SPECIAL TEAMS*

*The above image has players that only played in the third phase.

Cairo Santos hit both extra points.

Patrick O’Donnell punted twice for 91 yards and had 1 inside the 20 yard line.

Herbert averaged 24.5 on his 2 kickoff returns, and Grant picked up 8 yards on his punt return.

Teven Jenkins made his NFL debut.

All statistics and snap counts are taken directly from the NFL’s Game Statistic and Information System, as are the accompanying pictures.

To check out the full Bears vs Cardinals box score I find that ESPN has an easy to navigate site.