Merry Christmas To You Too, Arizona

If the Cardinals' defense has a weakness - other than being paired with such a pathetic offense - it's the running game. They tend to get torn up on the ground. Even Shonn Greene was able to rush for over 100 yards against. Admittedly, it wouldn't be such an issue if their offense could do something, because Arizona could pull far enough ahead teams would abandon the run. But that's not the hand they've been dealt.

All of which is a way of saying Matt Forte was likely to be a problem for Arizona yesterday, and he was. Until he left with an injury. By that time, though, the Cards were already down by a couple of scores and Forte had gained 88 yards on 12 carries, plus a TD.

Really, though, the Cardinals defense didn't do badly. Yes, they surrendered 152 yards on the ground, at a 4.6 ypc clip. But they recovered a fumble, held the Bears under 300 yards of total offense, and kept Chicago to 3-of-13 on 3rd down.

Unfortunately, the Cardinals' offense was held below 250 yards of offense, went 3-of-15 on 3rd down, and had three turnovers. Beanie Wells fumbled on the Arizona 1, which the Bears recovered for a TD. Then Charles Tillman intercepted a pass and returned it for another TD. SO the Cardinals' D only allowed 14 points. Which still would have been enough for Chicago to win, but again, not the defense's fault.

Whisenhunt benched Lindley partway through the game and tried Brian Hoyer. He completed some passes, though one of them was to the Bears. So not much new there. The running game did nothing, 19 carries for 29 yards. At least they tried to run, I guess.