So much for rallying the troops in the face of adversity.

The Bears took to the desert and were literally rained down on their return from a Hail Mary pass as the Cardinals dominated them from midway through the second quarter in a 29-9 loss on Sunday.

It was the kind of defeat that would leave legitimate questions about the team, the coaching staff, and even GM Ryan Poles’ role in all of this. The Cardinals (5-4), like the Commanders last week, are a team that fired coaches and began a rebuild long after the Bears started, but they are a better team.

“We’ve got to work around the wagons, we’ve got to do a really good job of staying tight,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “That’s what you do in times of difficulty.”

Negative, okay. Instead of all the pressure on Tyrique Stevenson for a Hail Mary at the end of the game, he will now absorb the heat after the entire team collapsed.

After rain and hail in the Phoenix area, everything started to fade, which is really weird. Without the roof covered, it was in danger of affecting even the Bears’ field goal attempt. This was unfortunate considering they never got close to the Arizona 11-yard line to attempt anything other than a field goal.

Soon the Bears were watching the Cardinals’ running game move through their defense. The Cardinals rushed for 213 yards on the ground as James Conner rushed for 107 yards on 18 carries, Emari Demercado had 59 yards and Trey Benson rushed for 37 yards. They needed just 155 yards from Kyler Murray to win.

The crushing blow came before halftime, after Cairo Santos followed up with field goals of 53 and 29 yards and another 53-yarder to close the gap to 14-9. With 26 seconds left in the kickoff, the Cardinals advanced the ball 17 yards and with 12 seconds left in the half, Eberflus called for a blitz. Demercado rambled in a pass down the right side for 53 yards.

“Good play call by them,” safety Kevin Byard told reporters. “Obviously they got us into a blitz or something like that. He managed to cross the line untouched or something. It was luck.”

Eberflus did not see the bad luck involved.

“As far as I’m concerned, the score at the end of the half is my responsibility,” Eberflus said. “I said pass defense, pass pressure, and they ended up running the ball. I can make a better decision there.

“This is my responsibility. I believe our run defense needs to be strengthened.”

It was like a flat tire.

“You don’t want to give up something like that at the end of the half,” linebacker TJ Edwards told reporters.

They did this at the end of the game last week, this time at the end of the half.

After a 21-9 halftime lead, the Bears went straight down the stretch, and the offense could never get past the Cardinals 40 in the second half.

Scoring in the first half on a 2-yard run by Trey McBride and a 1-yard run by Trey Benson, Arizona’s offense bullied the Bears defense throughout the entire second half. Added field goals from Chad Ryland of 29 and 55 yards, and then a safety due to a slashing block in the end zone after the game got out of hand.

Williams went 22-of-41 for 217 yards and was sacked six times. He took a hit late in the game and again on the final play and limped off the field.

Why franchise quarterbacks were playing on the final series of a 29-9 game, absorbing shots at right tackle Darnell Wright leaving the game with a knee injury and left tackle Braxton Jones missing the entire game seems questionable at best.

“In the two-minute operation, we just get work, we get time, we get timing,” Eberflus said.

Williams limped off with an ankle injury but said he would recover.

“It’s not my decision,” Williams said. “If you’re in the game, you fight until the end of the game. If not, the coach makes a decision that you have to deal with and think about the next steps.”

The Bears are now 3-18 in away games under Eberflus, 4-17 if you want to give him credit for the win in London where they are officially the home team.

They will return home for what New England considers their biggest game of the year, not because it could prevent a three-game slump, but because losing another one at home to a bad team would mean they would lose yet another team that has been rebuilding since Eberflus became coach for. It invites many requests for in-season layoffs.

The only positive thing was that in the end no one cared about the Stevenson situation. He didn’t start as a penalty for last week’s Hail Mary pass but was forced to play because his replacement, Terell Smith, suffered an ankle injury and joined Andrew Billings (pectoral), Darnell Wright (knee) and Jaylon Jones (shoulder). We leave the game with injuries.

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