Can the Bears repeat last season’s rebound after a disastrous loss?

It’s time to give the Bears coaching staff some credit.

No, really.

After a week in which they were defeated by the Hail Mary pass and the decisions leading up to it on both sides of the ball, they actually did the right thing preparing for Arizona.

They took the day off to do the rounds due to the physical toll the loss took. More importantly, the theme of the entire week was centered on the difficult task facing the Cardinals.

It’s easy to make short work of an opponent who has struggled to win in recent years, especially after your own terrible defeat can hang over your team like a fog.

But the Bears have been talking all week about the Cardinals as the team on the verge of sweeping the NFC West, which they very well could do.

The attack treated Budda Baker’s safety as if he were the Terminator. You waited for one of them to say, “Baker is around here somewhere. You can’t bargain with him. He cannot be reasoned with. He feels no pity, no remorse, no fear. And he absolutely won’t stop.” always.” They didn’t say it, but it was close.

“Buddha Baker is moving around there, he’s coming in from the middle of the field,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “They have a look at three safeties, basically five downs, and he’s going to come in. He doesn’t always come in, but there are guys who come in, and he’s mostly the guy who does it.”

“When you notice your runs, sometimes it creates a little confusion. Our guys did a good job in practice, but again, it will be full speed. It’s going to be a really good player and a really good front because they move it around a little bit. Our guys have to communicate really well.”

The same respect was given to Kyler Murray, whom the Bears faced last year, as well as running back James Conner.

Last year, the Bears suffered their most gut-wrenching loss, blowing a 21-point lead over Denver, then turned around the following week, shook off the hangover and embarrassment, headed to Washington for a brief pregame on Thursday night and crushed the Commanders.

Eberflus and the team can only hope that something similar will happen now, when they win their first away win of the season. They really need a win.

Here are the keys to how to do it.

1. Pass protection

Whether it’s a standard pass block, a play-action pass after they’ve set up a pass, or moving Williams, they have to keep their quarterback’s feet clean.

Williams was completely ineffective when under pressure on the road. He has a passer rating of 57.11 when blitzing on the road and 45.09 when blitzing or not blitzing on the road.

The problem with all of this is that the Bears offensive line will have a new left tackle after Braxton Jones was sidelined with a knee injury. He will be replaced by Larry Borom, and while he has experience, he hasn’t played all year because he was on IR coming out of camp.

For this reason, tactics such as play action, creating the run for it, moving the pocket, and using counterfeits will go a long way in preventing Williams from being chased.

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If they give Williams time, he can see how they use Baker and burn down the gambling going on in their scheme.

2. Danger zone

The Cardinals are a nightmare for pass coverage defenses because of Kyler Murray’s scrambling ability and because their receivers are more effective against man coverage.

So the opponents hit the zone hard.

They faced the zone 75.6% of the time, according to Pro Football Focus.

The Bears’ defensive scheme is a zone defense, and they rank in the top 10 in defensive success rate (50.2) and yards per target allowed (7.4), according to PFF.

The zone situation also applied against Washington, and the Bears still lost but only allowed four field goals before the final desperate play. But Washington had better offensive zone coverage than the Cardinals.

It’s the same on defense as they play a strong zone pass defense as well as a strong red zone defense as they are #1 in the red zone.

3. Possession time

This is not just controlling the ball, but actually eating up time, as when in possession of the ball. This is important because Arizona’s offense can be explosive and the Bears want to keep them off the field.

In Arizona games, the winning team was usually the team with the most possession. When they lost three of their first four, Detroit, Buffalo and Washington had a big time advantage. Of course, this is usually achieved through effective ball control.

That wasn’t the case in their last game, when it was essentially a shootout at the end against Miami. The Chargers and 49ers games saw the Cardinals win, but from a ball control standpoint, the games played out much like the previous ones. Then key turnovers cost the Chargers and 49ers and made their efforts to control the ball almost detrimental.

For the Bears, that’s easier said than done. It shouldn’t have been this way, but the hallmark of Shane Waldron’s Seattle offense was its inability to run the ball. Twice they were last in time of possession and second to last in his other season. The Bears were roughly in the middle of the standings in terms of time of possession. Shooting for the moon and trying to make big plays should be less important than consistently moving the ball and scoring runs.

Waldron may even find that this approach helps them score early in the game without having to restart from the hole as they usually do.

Twitter: BearsOnSI