What is better? Stevenson is just a player. The entire squad is now in doubt.

They did it and in the process showed that their future is completely in doubt.

“We still have nine games or something,” quarterback Caleb Williams said.

After Sunday, that sounded more like an uncertain threat than a rallying point.

This could get ugly.

Here’s something equally ugly: the Bears’ report card 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. His long run was 13 yards, but the silver lining of 69 yards rushing was the fact that Doug Kramer didn’t have to take a carry.

Passing game: F

Williams played exactly as he has on the road all season, which is to say he looked dazed and confused. He didn’t locate Cole Kmet for a single target, took it to DJ Moore, where he was able to average just 8.3 yards per reception, and began desperately coming out of the pocket from the first series. Pass blocking betrayed him for six sacks and even Keenan Allen fouled out on a dropped pass.

Run Defense: F

The injury added to the insult, as Andrew Billings left with a pectoral injury. He’s the reason their run defense went last year from terrible in 2022 to the best in the league in 2023. And pectoral injuries are often season-ending for linemen. So chew on that for a while. In other words, more beatings are coming.

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

BEARS OFFENSE AND CALEB WILLIAMS LOOKING FOR ANSWERS

THE BEARS HAD NO PRAYER IN THE 29-9 LOSS TO THE CARDINALS

Pass Defense: B

The good news is that they only allowed 154 yards passing to Kyler Murray and sacked him three times even without the injured Montez Sweat and 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 mistake was positive. Congratulations on that.

Special Teams: C-

Cairo Santos’ excellent kicking and Tory Taylor’s punting were offset by Gervon Dexter’s penalty for illegal leverage and Greg Dortch’s 27-yard punt return set the Cardinals up for 11 more points than they could have had. . The punt return set up their first touchdown at the Bears’ 41-yard line and the penalty took three off the board and allowed the Cardinals to add seven instead. Even if the penalty was demanding and probably not even the right decision, Dexter wasn’t going to benefit from his intention with the slightest effort he made, so there was no reason to even try to block it.

Coach: F-

The rare F- is reserved for someone who contributes far below and beyond all expectations. The coaching staff began preparing them for this by handling the Tyrique Stevenson situation in a way that dragged down the entire team and created doubts in the minds of everyone, from the players to Caleb Williams’ father, Carl. They then made blitz calls before the half for no reason and gave up a 53-yard touchdown as a result. They had an offensive game plan that resulted in another slow start. At least no one could complain about the lack of offense in the first quarter this week. Their offense this week played the other three quarters exactly as it normally does in the first quarters.

Total: F

Losing on the road by 20 to a team they beat by 11 last year is even worse than losing with a Hail Mary to a team they beat by 20 last year. The free fall has begun.

Twitter: BearsOnSI