Bears vs. Cardinals: Good, bad and ugly of Chicago's Week 9 loss

The Chicago Bears dropped to .500 (4-4) after losing 29-9 to the Arizona Cardinals (5-4) in Week 9. The Bears have lost two games in a row coming out of their Week 7 bye. After putting up 35-plus points back-to-back in Weeks 5 and 6, the Bears have scored a combined 24 points in their two games out of their bye week.

Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams started hot and went 7-of-11 passing, but finished 22-of-41 for 217 yards. Kyler Murray didn’t do too much for the Cardinals, finishing 13-of-20 for 154 yards, but he didn’t have to as Arizona ran for 213 yards.

There is a lot to breakdown from the Bears loss, especially since it followed another defeat. Without further ado, here’s the good, bad and ugly from Chicago's 29-9 loss to the Cardinals.

The Good

Rome Odunze: The rookie wide receiver has not been targeted much this season. But he’s finally getting more involved in the offense and is showing why he deserved to be picked No. 9 overall. Odunze finished with five receptions for 104 yards. Not only did Odunze get open down field, but found holes in the defense when Williams had to escape the pocket.

D’Andre Swift: Swift continues to prove the doubters that arose when he sustained a fairly large contract from the Bears during free agency. While the season started off rough for Swift, he’s been one of the few positives for the Bears’ offense over the last two weeks. While Swift’s 51 yards won’t blow anyone out of the water, he only had 16 carries. He was very under utilized on the ground. Swift also had six receptions for 31 yards. He needs to keep being utilized by Shane Waldron to take some pressure off of Williams, who doesn’t get much time in the pocket.

Pass coverage: Even without Jaquan Brisker and Kyler Gordon, the secondary held Kyler Murray to 154 passing yards and kept him from throwing a touchdown pass. There were a few plays where receivers found an opening over the middle of the field, but that’s bound to happen when you’re missing two key pieces to your secondary. Tyrique Stevenson bounced back from an embarrassing Week 8 and had two pass deflections, even though he didn’t start the game.

The Bad

Run defense: While the secondary shined, the Bears couldn’t stop the run. The Cardinals run is what beat them — on defense, at least. Arizona ran for 213 yards and averaged 6.3 yards per carry as a team. Murray could just hand the ball off to James Conner and the Bears defense had no answer at all. The open-field tackling is a mess, but a lot of it comes down to the signal-calling and personnel groups sent out — which is mostly under control of Matt Eberflus.

Offensive play calling: Not all of the offensive struggle was on the offensive line or Williams. Waldron has improved as a play caller throughout the season, but still struggles. He doesn’t take what the defense is giving him and doesn’t get his star-powered offense involved enough. Williams is young, so just get him easy completions. He has DJ Moore, Odunze, Keenan Allen and Cole Kmet — who wasn’t even targeted yesterday. A big reason that the Washington Commanders have had so much success on offense is because offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury finds a way to get Jayden Daniels easy completions. Waldron has a plethora of playmakers around Williams and needs to start using them, especially with the limited time Williams has in the pocket.

The Ugly

Pass protection: It’s so hard to see such a promising rookie quarterback get sacked as much as Williams does. Williams has been sacked at least three times in all but one game — where he was still sacked once. Aside from the sacks, Williams was hurried an unbelievable 45 times. What are you supposed to do in those situations? The Bears have gone cheap on the offensive line over the past couple of years, and it hasn’t worked. Ryan Poles should heavily consider getting a veteran interior lineman before the deadline, because this is getting out of hand.

Coaching: Eberflus has once again shown that maybe he isn’t the guy for the Chicago Bears. After last week’s coaching malpractice, Eberflus admitted that he called a bad play with the first half running down that allowed Demercado to run for a 53 yard touchdown with 12 seconds left in the half. We can’t be 100% sure of the state of the locker room, but I’m sure it isn’t the best after some interesting calls and responses from Eberflus over the last two weeks. Eberflus’ seat is getting hotter by the day.

This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears vs. Cardinals: Good, bad and ugly of Chicago's Week 9 loss