CHICAGO (670 The Score) -- The Bears' 33-22 loss to the Cardinals on Sunday had all the tidings of a standard late-season clunker. There was gross weather and grosser orange jerseys and a half-empty stadium full of fans who couldn't have cared less. All that was worse than the Bears' offense – and the defense and the coaching – was the turf's condition. We only have five more of these to go! Let's hand out grades as Chicago dropped to 4-8.
Offense: C-
At least the Bears have David Montgomery? Once again, Montgomery was the only player on offense who had meaningful contributions Sunday. Not only did he rush for 63 yards in the first half, but he went into the locker room as the team's leading receiver at halftime too (with a whopping four receptions for 26 yards). If you can believe it, Montgomery only got half as many carries in the second half and finished with 90 rushing yards. Cole Kmet's day would get a lot of players benched – the Bears' second interception of the first quarter hit his hands approximately 75 times before Budda Baker plucked it out of the air and ran 77 yards the other way. The Cardinals scored six plays later. Kmet followed that up with a false-start penalty in the second quarter that negated a seven-yard gain on third-and-9. The Bears didn't score six plays later. He finished with three catches for 41 yards. Jimmy Graham continued thriving in the cushiest tight end gig in pro football, making a one-yard touchdown catch in the third. It wasn't the easiest day for Andy Dalton to throw the ball around, but Kmet, Darnell Mooney and Rodney Adams all had pretty egregious drops at different points. Dalton had plenty of his own struggles though – three of his four (!!!) interceptions were bad, bad throws. Like, really bad. Before you wipe this game from your memory completely, I feel obligated to point out that Dalton finished 26-of-41 for 229 yards with two touchdowns. Now go forget all about this.
Defense: D+
I mean, at this point, what did you really expect? Xavier Crawford's attempted tackle on Cardinals running back James Conner on Arizona's second touchdown of the day was maybe one of the worst attempts anyone on defense has made (or tried to make) all season. The good news is that Roquan Smith made a great play on Kyler Murray toward the end of the first half, so that was nice? Robert Quinn got credited for the 12th sack of his season too. Even if the Bears had all their studs on the field – and they extremely didn't -– the Cardinals probably would've torched them. Arizona, which was playing with Murray and DeAndre Hopkins for the first time in more than a month, scored twice within the first 15 minutes, though the Cardinals compiled modest net totals in passing (120 yards) and rushing (137). Chicago's defense was on the field for 11 fewer minutes of game clock than Arizona's was and still gave up more than 30 points for the fourth time this season. This is who they are now.
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Special teams: Any grade you want
Rookie offensive lineman Teven Jenkins made his NFL debut on one of the Bears' two extra points, so that's a cool story for him and kind of a boring story for everyone else. Cairo Santos scored two points – congrats to him – and Pat O'Donnell landed one of his two punts inside the 20-yard line. Congrats to him as well. Stay tuned for next week when you read this exact same paragraph again.
Cam Ellis is a writer for 670 The Score and Audacy Sports. Follow him on Twitter @KingsleyEllis.
