QB Kyler Murray of the Cardinals is playing in his sixth game since tearing his ACL, and even after recovering from surgery, he might pose a threat against the Bears either as a passer or runner.
They appear incredibly eager to look ahead, especially in light of what Kyler Murray has accomplished for the Cardinals offense in the past and even in the short season.
Whether in Arizona or not, Murray might be playing for his future on Sunday against the Bears. Murray’s passer rating has been a career-worst 78.4 for the five games he has played since returning from his torn ACL injury last year, but he is still a reliable and accurate passer.
He gives the Bears with a completely different task than either Jared Goff or 38-year-old Joe Flacco did one week ago. Matt Eberflus said,
“It’s a big difference obviously from last week and even the week before that,” “The set of challenges there with him is, we’ve obviously played him in the past and a lot of our guys have played against him. We got to be able to keep in the well or in the chute there, so to speak. “That’s difficult to do. He’s very athletic. He’s very quick and you have to have a plan for him, for sure.”
Bears plan to keep Kyler Murray in Check
DeMarcus Walker and Montez Sweat, two defensive ends, will be under pressure to prevent Murray from running or throwing outside. Since both are capable run defenders who thrive at keeping a lead and gap integrity, it should be easier to keep the quarterback in the pocket.
Murray hasn’t got the wide receivers that can cause him problems downfield as a pocket passer, so it can be more effective to keep him in the pocket. His yards per attempt average under previous coach Kliff Kingsbury was 7.9 in 2021; prior to his injury, it was 6.4 last year. Eberflus said, “You have various ways of doing that,” “To answer (the) question, you rush four, you have a guy looking for him, you might have two guys looking for him, you game up your rush to move him a certain way and have somebody waiting for him. There’s a bunch of different things, pressures that are well pressures. There’s a lot of ways we can do it.”
Murray did lead two of his five games to victory, the most recent being a 23-10 victory over Pittsburgh on the road. He will put the Bears to the test because the Cardinals have only managed one other victory.
