3 major duds in the Arizona Cardinals loss to the Bears in Week 16
By Sion Fawkes
Through the first quarter and a half of the Arizona Cardinals 27-16 loss to the Chicago Bears, quarterback Kyler Murray was struggling. At this point, he looked well on his way to becoming one of the major reasons this team would lose big, but he ended up putting together a solid performance, finishing 24 for 38 for 230 yards, two touchdowns, no picks, and a 97.5 passer rating.
Overall, Murray enjoyed one of his better outings, despite the final tally. But you can’t say the same for the following position units. Yes, we’re talking about units today as opposed to individual players since they seemed to struggle as one, whether it was running the ball, getting open, or getting to the quarterback. We also covered the rushing defenses struggles earlier, so you won't see them listed below either.
3 duds in the Arizona Cardinals Week 16 loss
1 - Running game
The Cardinals running game should have been the focal point today, raring to have another big performance following what they did to the San Francisco 49ers. Instead, the Cardinals saw just 93 yards on the ground for 4.7 yards per carry, the latter of which isn’t a bad number, but overall, it was their third-lowest rushing total of the season.
James Conner was especially disappointing, having rushed for just 45 yards on 12 carries, enough for just 3.8 per. However, despite how pedestrian his rushing numbers were, Conner led the team with 67 receiving yards on five catches, and a touchdown.
Kyler Murray also did little running the ball, collecting just five carries for 32 yards, good for 6.4 yards per carry. For a team supposedly built predominantly around the run with a dual-threat quarterback, it would be great to see Murray run the ball more during these final two games.