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

No, really.

After a week on both sides of the ball dealing with the Hail Mary pass and the decisions that led to it, they actually did the right thing to prepare for Arizona.

Due to the physical damage caused by the loss, they took a day off to investigate. More importantly, the theme of the entire week was to focus on the challenge ahead for the Cardinals.

It’s easy to underestimate an opponent who’s struggled to win in recent years, especially after your terrible defeat that hangs like a fog over the team.

But the Bears have been talking about the Cardinals all week like a team on the verge of taking over the NFC West, and they very well could do it.

The offense treated safety Budda Baker like the Terminator. You waited for one of them to say: “Baker is out there somewhere. He can’t be bargained with. He can’t be reasoned with. He feels no pity, no regret, no fear. And he certainly won’t stop. Without stopping.” They didn’t say it, but they came closer.

“Budda Baker is moving there, coming from the middle of the field,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “Mostly they have a three-safety look in a five-man look and he will come in. He doesn’t always stop by, but there will be guys that stop by and for the most part he’s the guy that does it.

“Sometimes it creates a little bit of confusion when you realize your runs. Our guys have done a good job in practice, but it’s still going to be full speed. He’s going to be a really good player and he’s going to be a really good player.” “It’s a good front because they’re moving around a little bit, our guys have to do a really good job of communicating.”

The same respect was given to Kyler Murray, who the Bears faced last year and outperformed James Conner.

Last year the Bears suffered their most painful defeat by a 21-point blowout to Denver, then bounced back the following week and shook off the hangover and embarrassment, traveling to Washington for a brief preparation for the Thursday night game and routing the Commanders.

Eberflus and his team should hope for something similar with their first away win of the season. They desperately need the win.

Here are the keys to doing just that.

1. Passage Protection

They have to keep their quarterbacks’ feet clean, whether it’s through standard pass blocking, play-action passing after establishing the run, or moving Williams around.

Williams was completely ineffective under pressure away from home. He has a 57.11 passer rating when blitzed in road games and a 45.09 passer rating when blitzing or no blitz on the road.

The problem with all of this is that the Bears offensive line will have a new left tackle due to Braxton Jones being out with a knee injury. He will be replaced by Larry Borom and although he is experienced, he did not play all year as he was on IR coming out of camp.

Therefore, tactics such as play-action, setting up the run, moving the pocket, and using runaway action will be huge to prevent Williams from getting harassed.

IF THE BEARS PUNISH TYRIQUE STEVENSON, WHY CAN’T SHANE WALDRON TOO?

BEARS ARE BEST POSITIONED TO HARM CARDINALS

BEARS’ SECONDARY HEALTH IMPROVES BUT O-LINE LOSTS BRAXTON JONES

PASS THE QUICK PRESSURE THAT PULLED CALEB WILLIAMS DOWN IN THE ROAD GAMES

If they give Williams time, he will be able to see how they use Baker and burn the gamble in their plans.

2. Danger Zone

The Cardinals are a nightmare for defenses in man-to-man pass coverage due to Kyler Murray’s ability to scramble and also because his receivers are more effective against the man.

So the opponents dealt them a heavy blow with the territory.

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

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

The district situation also held true for Washington and the Bears, but the Bears still came up short, giving up only four field goals until the final desperation play. However, Washington was protecting the strike zone better than the Cardinals.

It’s the same defensively because they play strong zone pass defense and because they’re #1 in the red zone, they play strong red zone defense.

3. Time of Possession

This is not just ball control, but also possession time as well as possession time. This is big because Arizona’s offense can be explosive and the Bears want to keep them off the field.

In Arizona games, the winning team is usually the team with the highest ball possession advantage. Detroit, Buffalo and Washington had big advantages when they lost three of their first four games. Of course, this is normally achieved by running the ball effectively.

That wasn’t the case in their last game, a back-and-forth clash with Miami. The Cardinals won the Chargers and 49ers games, but the games went in the same direction as the previous ones in terms of ball control. Key turnovers later cost the Chargers and 49ers, nearly detrimental to their ball-handling efforts.

For the Bears, this is easier said than done. It shouldn’t be like that, but the trademark of Shane Waldron’s offense in Seattle was an inability to handle the football. They finished last in time of possession twice and were last in the other season as well. The Bears are about in the middle of the pack in time of possession. Catching the moon and trying big plays should be less important than advancing the ball consistently and scoring goals.

Waldron may even find that this approach helps them score points early in games so they don’t have to get back into a hole like they usually do.

Twitter: BearsOnSI