What’s better? Stevenson is just a player. The entire list is now uncertain.

They succeeded in doing so, and in doing so they showed that their future was completely uncertain.

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

After Sunday, it felt more like an uncertain threat than a rallying point.

This could get ugly.

Here’s something else just as ugly: the Bears’ report card against Arizona.

Racing game: F

An average of 3.0 yards per carry would be fine in a league where the chains are nine yards long. Their long run was 13 yards, but the upside of the 69 yards rushing was the fact that Doug Kramer didn’t need to carry his ball.

Passing game: F

Williams played exactly like 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, handed it off to DJ Moore where he could only average 8.3 yards per catch, and started desperately getting out of the pocket on the first series. The pass blocking betrayed him for six sacks and even Keenan Allen fouled out with a dropped pass.

Run defense: F

Injury added insult to injury as Andrew Billings was out with a pectoral injury. It’s the reason their run defense went from terrible last year in 2022 to the best in the league in 2023. And pectoral injuries are often season-ending for linemen. So think about it for a moment. In other words, more attacks are coming.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE RUID OF THE BEARS’ LOSS TO THE CARDINALS

BEARS OFFENSE AND CALEB WILLIAMS SEARCH FOR ANSWERS

BEARS DID NOT HAVE A PRAYER IN 29-9 LOSS TO CARDINALS

Pass defense: B

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

Special teams: C-

Cairo Santos’ outstanding kicks and Tory Taylor’s punts were offset by Gervon Dexter’s penalty for illegal leverage and Greg Dortch’s 27-yard punt return put the Cardinals up 11 more points than they could have had. The punt return gave the Bears 41 their first touchdown and the penalty took three off the board and allowed the Cardinals to add seven instead. Even though the penalty was difficult and probably not even the right decision, Dexter wasn’t going to benefit from his intention with how little effort he put in, so there was no reason to even attempt to block it.

Coaching: F-

The rare F- is reserved for someone who contributes well below and beyond all expectations. The coaching staff began preparing them by handling the Tyrique Stevenson situation in a way that dragged down the entire team and created doubt in the minds of everyone from the players to Caleb Williams’ father, Carl . Then they made blitz calls before halftime for no reason and ultimately gave up a 53-yard touchdown. They had an offensive game plan, which led to 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 in the other three quarters exactly the way they usually play in the first quarters.

Overall: F

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

Twitter: BearsOnSI