Could the Arizona Cardinals — who made seismic changes to their organization — be a blueprint for the Chicago Bears? Brad Biggs’ 10 thoughts after the Week 13 loss dropped the Bears to 4-8.

10 thoughts after Andy Dalton was intercepted four times — giving the Arizona Cardinals a short field on all four occasions — in the Chicago Bears’ 33-22 loss in cold, rainy conditions Sunday at Soldier Field.

Kyler Murray passed for only 123 yards and had a total of 182 yards of offense in his return from a high ankle sprain that sidelined him for three games. Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins caught two passes for 32 yards, running back James Conner averaged 3.8 yards per carry and tight end Zach Ertz had one catch for 10 yards. If you had told Bears coach Matt Nagy about those numbers Saturday night, I’m betting he would have been enthusiastic about his team’s chances.

As it was, the Bears really were not that close against the NFC-leading Cardinals, and the defensive stats — the Cardinals had only 257 yards of offense — are misleading because each of Dalton’s interceptions set up Murray and Co. with premium field position. They started drives on the Bears 28, 15, 28 and 12 after those picks, and that will get you beat just about every time. I’m not saying the Bears played poorly on defense, but if forced to, I believe the Cardinals could have put together longer drives to reach the end zone. The Bears didn’t get a takeaway, didn’t do a great job containing Murray in the pocket in key situations and mustered only one sack.

The Bears haven’t won at Soldier Field in more than two months — since Oct. 3 against the Detroit Lions — and as has been the case in most instances, this was a complete team loss. Dalton became the first Bears quarterback to throw four interceptions in a game since Matt Barkley had five in a miserable 41-21 loss to Washington on Dec. 24, 2016. Honestly, I was a little surprised there had not been a four-pick game in that long.

Once again, there was a critical shortage of explosive plays for the offense. The longest play was on a razzle-dazzle gadget play in which David Montgomery took a direct snap and handed to Jakeem Grant on a jet sweep. Grant pitched the ball to Dalton, who lined up as a receiver, and the first read down the middle wasn’t there. Dalton was nearly tackled for a significant loss before he connected with Grant for a 34-yard gain.

Creative play. Nice gain. But it’s also a sign of the times that the Bears can’t drop back and sling it downfield. Darnell Mooney, fresh off consecutive 100-yard games, was limited to five catches for 27 yards, and without Allen Robinson (hamstring) and Marquise Goodwin (foot/ribs), the Bears didn’t have the personnel necessary to challenge the NFL’s fourth-ranked pass defense.

It would be one thing if the Bears were losing down the stretch run but getting to see quarterback Justin Fields find his way and maybe make some mistakes he can get out of his system before Year 2. It’s difficult to assess much when the Bears lose like this with Dalton on the field. Fields was sidelined for the second consecutive week with what Nagy has said are fractured ribs. Fields was listed as limited in practice all week before being inactive on game day. With some good fortune, he might be able to suit up and take reps with the starters this week.

Otherwise, there’s not a lot to get excited about with a trip to Lambeau Field for a game against the Green Bay Packers that’s in prime time largely because the NFL didn’t have a better option to flex into the NBC slot.

The Bears were trailing 21-7 after Andy Dalton threw interceptions on the first two possessions — one of them a bad throw to Jakeem Grant that was high and behind him and off his hands and another that was dropped by Cole Kmet. They were outmanned by the Cardinals and needed to push the envelope and create some breaks for themselves to have a fighting chance.

The Cardinals won the coin toss to begin the game and deferred, so they were going to get the ball to start the third quarter. The Bears were a little more than 15 yards outside Cairo Santos’ range for a field goal. It looked like an opportunity to put points on the board before halftime and maybe gain some momentum heading into the locker room.

“We tried to get them to jump offside and they did a good job of holding,” Nagy said. “But I knew going in that’s what we were going to do. You could say, ‘Yeah, go for it.’ If you don’t get it then, ‘Why did you go for it? You gave them a short field.’ We had been giving them a short field the whole half. Probably that’s the biggest thing is if you don’t get it, kick the ball to them, see what they can do and they ended up doing nothing from it.”

Yes, if the Bears didn’t pick up the first down there, the Cardinals would have been near field-goal range for Matt Prater and could have stretched the lead beyond two scores, but what did Nagy really have to lose? Might as well put it all out on the field at that point and go with your best call for 2 yards. Go down swinging if you’re in that position.

In the end, this wasn’t the difference in the game. It’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback with decisions like this, but I have to think this is one Nagy wishes he had back.

But it’s worth noting the Cardinals — who have the best record in the NFL at 10-2 — were a league-worst 3-13 in 2018, when everything was looking rosy for Matt Nagy and the Bears. While the Bears have been spinning their wheels and losing traction ever since, the Cardinals have slowly built a team that could challenge for a trip to the Super Bowl.

The Cardinals made seismic changes to their organization after that 2018 season, firing coach Steve Wilks — a former Bears assistant on Lovie Smith’s staff — after only one season and cutting ties with first-round draft pick Josh Rosen after one season, trading the quarterback to the Miami Dolphins. The Cardinals hired Kliff Kingsbury, who had been fired as the coach at Texas Tech and had landed at USC as offensive coordinator, and used the No. 1 pick on quarterback Kyler Murray. General manager Steve Keim, who had built a successful program with former coach Bruce Arians, got a do-over.

The Bears appear well on their way to a coaching change and perhaps more organizational moves, and their quarterback of the future is in place with Justin Fields. The New York Giants own the Bears’ 2022 first-round pick.

“Philosophically, you have to say: ‘The moment is now. Let’s strike,’” Keim told the Washington Post. “You have to be extremely aggressive. You can’t sit back and wait. As long as everything pans out, you’re hoping that you’re paying this quarterback an exorbitant amount of money in three years.”

Murray seems on his way to a blockbuster contract in the offseason after proving to be an electric performer for the Cardinals. If there is a takeaway that could be useful for the Bears to consider, it’s how the Cardinals went about prioritizing some of their other needs as they overhauled the roster.

The Cardinals put an absolute premium on building up the defense. Yes, they acquired wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins to give Murray the kind of player he feels he can win with every time Hopkins is locked in one-on-one coverage, but that was as much dumb luck as anything else. Since-ousted Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien was looking to move on from Hopkins, and for some reason he coveted running back David Johnson, who had a burdensome contract. It was a steal of a deal for Keim and the Cardinals and the kind of good fortune teams trying to build their way up from ground zero need to encounter on occasion.

But the Cardinals really emphasized strengthening the defense, using first-round picks in 2020 and 2021 on Clemson linebacker Isaiah Simmons and Tulsa linebacker Zaven Collins. Clearly they wanted to get bigger, stronger and faster on defense. Their second-round pick in 2019 after Murray, cornerback Byron Murphy, has turned into a pretty darn good player. Four of their top five picks in 2020 and five of their top six in 2021 were on defense.

The natural reaction for the Bears after this season could be to find some offensive pieces to surround Fields with. It’s hard to argue against that with Darnell Mooney being the only wide receiver under contract past this season who is doing anything on offense. The Cardinals’ approach — they made other moves such as reacquiring pass rusher Markus Golden and signing nose tackle Corey Peters — is instructional for a good reason. If they had used their draft capital to find more pieces for Murray, which probably would have meant they didn’t have to sign aging wide receiver A.J. Green in free agency, the offense might be even more powerful. But it would have put Murray in a position where he was forced to produce 30 or more points to win almost every week.

Now the Cardinals have a defense that doesn’t get a lot of publicity leaguewide but is playing well together under coordinator Vance Joseph. The defense is a key reason the Cardinals are 7-0 on the road, all seven by 10 or more points. Good defenses travel in the NFL because they’re not affected by crowd noise, and the Cardinals have one. They also have a marquee quarterback with more than enough skill-position talent in additions such as running back James Conner — a modest signing after Kenyan Drake exited via free agency — and newly acquired tight end Zach Ertz, whom Keim pursued when Maxx Williams was lost to a season-ending knee injury.

Keim remained true to his aggressive nature. He restructured a few contracts to be able to fit in Ertz and executed a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles to ensure Murray still had a target in the middle of the field. But if you’re looking at the Cardinals’ resurgence under Keim and wondering what’s potentially applicable, keep an eye on what the Bears do on defense in the offseason because that’s an aging unit that has been up and down this season and might need new parts the same way Fields does.

Lincoln Riley bolted from Oklahoma for USC. Brian Kelly left Notre Dame for LSU. The Irish wound up promoting former Bears linebacker Marcus Freeman to be their head coach. (More on Freeman in a little bit.) Florida, TCU, Virginia Tech and Washington are just a few other programs with coaching changes, and the Miami job could turn over as soon as Monday. Other programs (and their boosters) have come up with massive contracts to keep their coaches in place. With five weeks remaining in the NFL regular season, it could be a tame offseason in comparison.

The Las Vegas Raiders are likely to be in the coaching carousel unless they make former special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia their next coach after promoting him on an interim basis to replace Jon Gruden. Bisaccia sticking around would be an upset. It’s too early to get a good handle on exactly how much change there will be, but it’s possible 2022 could have the fewest NFL coaching openings in more than a decade. Over the last 10 years, there has been an average of 6.9 coaching hires per year with a high of eight (2019, 2013) and a low of five (2020).

If you’re counting the Raiders as one, are there three other teams that are a lock to fire their coach at the end of this season?

“Not right now there isn’t,” a veteran personnel man said the other day. “When it’s all said and done, there might only be four jobs open up next month. There’s a lot of unknown, though, and it could be more than that. Lot of games left to play. Lot of time for owners and general managers to become disenchanted with what’s happening in their building. Lot of time for some of these teams hovering under .500 — and what is that, like half the league right now? — to really bottom out.

“If that occurs there’s a chance for more turnover, but instead of asking me who is going to be fired, ask me who is going to be hired. That’s what nobody talks about. Twenty teams, nearly two-thirds of the league, have gone through a coaching change in the last three years, and when that happens, you get a lot of so-called qualified guys, coaches that seem like good ideas at the time, hired that wind up being fired. Then the cycle just repeats itself.

“Hiring coaches is just like the draft. It’s an inexact science, there are a ton of factors that determine the success of a coach or a young player and there are a lot of misses.”

Obviously, the Bears could be in the coaching mix. People around the league are keeping an eye on Vic Fangio’s situation with the Denver Broncos, who hired a new GM in George Paton last offseason. The Broncos fell to 6-6 with a loss in Kansas City on Sunday night and are struggling on offense with Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback, a problem that isn’t necessarily Fangio’s doing. Folks are also watching the Minnesota Vikings’ Mike Zimmer, who’s under more heat now after losing to the Lions on Sunday on the game’s final play as the Vikings fell to 5-7.

But for there to be a lot of turnover when this season ends, it probably would require some quick triggers. The teams with the three worst records in the league — the Lions, Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars — all have first-year coaches.

Most years there are one or two surprise jobs that open up out of nowhere. The Giants are another team to watch. GM Dave Gettleman is under fire. If he’s replaced, would a new GM be able to bring in his own coach or would he be ordered to work with Joe Judge, who is in Year 2?

The point is if the Bears are in the coaching carousel — and it certainly looks like they will be — there might not be as much competition for new coaches as there often is. Here are the number of coaching changes over the last decade:

He had a nice game Sunday, carrying 21 times for 90 yards with a touchdown and catching eight passes for 51 yards. Montgomery has been a bright spot for the offense most of the season, and the line did a pretty nice job of creating space for him.

If anyone has found a way to strike the right note as the Bears struggle with six losses in their last seven games, it’s Montgomery, who battled back from a knee sprain earlier in the year to give his teammates a boost.

“Today it’s frustrating,” Montgomery said. “The entire season has kind of been frustrating with the losses we’ve taken. But I’m a fighter. I’m never gonna stop fighting. I’m not gonna stop giving it everything I’ve got, along with the guys in this locker room as well. We’ve just got to keep churning.

“What you realize and what you learn stepping into, I guess you could say, a leadership role or a point where people watch you (is) the things that you do happen to carry a lot of weight. It becomes infectious. Your mentality. How you practIce. How you come into work every day. How you treat everybody around you. Your character. And I take a lot of pride in that. Even when things are bad, I’m still going to have high character. I’m still going to be that guy that tells everybody, ‘Let’s go. Let’s get it.’ I’m going to be that guy that doesn’t feel sorry for nobody, including myself. And understand you just have to keep going.

“I know everybody in that locker room — and I’m not saying this because it’s supposed to be said, I’m saying this because I mean this with everything in my heart — everybody in that locker room cares about everybody. We short. It’s just this (makes the short motion with his fingers). If you pay attention to the game, it’s just this. But when you realize in the league that be the difference, you’ve just got to keep going. I ain’t got no quit in my blood. I’m gonna make sure nobody else in there ain’t got none in theirs either.”

Trailing 7-0, the Bears reached the Arizona 20-yard line when Kmet dropped a pass that went into the hands of Cardinals safety Budda Baker and turned into a 77-yard interception return.

“The ball is wet and kind of just slips through, and you’ve just got to be able to focus and be more focused on catching the ball than what you’re going to do after,” Kmet said. “Just have to be better about that.”

If that wasn’t bad enough, Kmet found himself singled up on pass rusher Chandler Jones in the fourth quarter the play after the Bears benefited from a roughing-the-kicker call for a first down. They were on their 30-yard line with 11:48 to play, trailing 24-14. Andy Dalton tried to connect with Damiere Byrd on a sit route, and Byron Murphy intercepted it. Jones got a piece of the ball, and on the All-22 film, it’s hard to tell if the deflection contributed to the interception.

Dalton had running back David Montgomery open in the flat, and that was probably the best option on first-and-10. There was a small window to throw the deep sit or deep curl route, but it was tight. Kmet opened his hips immediately off the snap, so Jones had an inside path to Dalton. Kmet tried to recover, but he was back on his heels because he was playing too high, a problem against any rusher and a big problem against a skilled player such as Jones.

Without any leverage, Kmet didn’t have any power and Jones ran through him. Kmet got a little piece of him at the end to flatten him out and prevent a hit on Dalton, but Jones was in the throwing window and got a small piece of the ball. Maybe the tip led to the pick, but it was going to be a tight-window throw and Dalton was off. He earlier made a terrible throw to Jakeem Grant on a crossing route for the first interception, and the fourth one on a screen was awful. He never saw the defender. Too many mistakes. Too much for the Bears to overcome.

You’re talking about men who have poured everything they have into establishing a foothold in the league, and so few are privileged to be able to exit on their terms. Even for those players, sometimes it takes a while to determine where their post-playing career will lead them.

That wasn’t the case for Marcus Freeman, named the head coach at Notre Dame on Friday, after his career abruptly ended in 2010 after a physical with the Indianapolis Colts. The Bears drafted Freeman, a linebacker, out of Ohio State in 2009. He had some knee issues entering the NFL and wound up part of the final cuts that summer, which was unusual considering he was a fifth-round selection. Freeman didn’t stand out in training camp after joining a deep group that included Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs, Hunter Hillenmeyer, Nick Roach, Pisa Tinoisamoa and Jamar Williams.

Freeman, now 35, had stints on the Bills and Texans practice squads in 2009 and agreed to sign with the Colts days after their loss in Super Bowl XLIV. He went to Indianapolis for a physical, and that’s when doctors discovered an enlarged heart valve in his left ventricle. This was mere weeks after Bears defensive end Gaines Adams died of cardiac arrest, the result of an enlarged heart. The Bears had traded a second-round pick to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just three months earlier to acquire Adams.

Freeman figured he had found a team with which he would be able to learn the scheme in the offseason and battle for a job in training camp. Instead, he was floored by the news as doctors told him there wasn’t a team in the league that would pass him on a physical. Just like that, his dreams of playing professional football ended. It was over.

“The two-hour drive home from Indianapolis helped me realize, ‘Hey, this is the end of it,’” Freeman told me shortly after. “I was really disappointed, but I wasn’t in the dumps. Right away, I was excited and ready to begin the next chapter.”

Freeman knew precisely the move he wanted to make: diving into coaching. A premature end to his playing career created an early entry into his coaching career. Before he called his father and wife to break the news to them on his way back to Ohio, he phoned Luke Fickell, his position coach with the Buckeyes.

That created a path for Freeman to be hired at Ohio State as a quality control assistant and gave him a chance to return to school to complete his degree in sports management.

“When I look at the things I’ve been able to accomplish, I am truly happy,” Freeman said in 2010. “I feel like I am still fulfilled. Look at what happened with Gaines Adams and the Bears. It’s a dangerous situation. Luckily, the Colts doctors found it before something like that happened to me. I just have to try to look at it as a positive.

“I don’t know if I had this before last year or when it happened. I have no clue. It’s crazy. I have nothing but great things to say about Chicago. They gave me an opportunity. They drafted me. It was a great organization.”

There’s no way Freeman could have known then how quickly he would become a rising star in the coaching business. Fickell, the head coach at Cincinnati, was considered a strong candidate for the Irish job as well. Now Freeman, who served as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator, replaces Brian Kelly, who left South Bend, Ind., for LSU.

Freeman isn’t the only leading figure in the program with ties to the Bears. Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, who played in high school at Lake Forest, is the son of former Bears college scouting director Bill Rees.

In the last meeting, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers told fans in the southwest corner of Soldier Field, “I still own you,” after he ran in for a 6-yard touchdown. Even Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, who is as calculated as they come with everything he says, joked about it the next week.

“I was studying a little bit on the Bears and the Packers and watched a lot of that,” Brady said on SiriusXM Radio in the days that followed. “That was another great game. And actually before we get started, I wanted to say congrats to Aaron Rodgers obviously. I know he’s a great quarterback but I guess he’s now a shareholder of the Bears. I saw a clip of him really enthusiastically telling the crowd how happy he is to own Soldier Field.

“That’s really great stuff. He owns the (Milwaukee) Bucks now, part owner of Soldier Field. He’s got a great career beyond football.”

Go back to the season finale last year, and the Bears could have secured a playoff spot with a victory over the Packers. The Bears were trailing 21-16 entering the fourth quarter and were driving with a chance to take the lead when a fourth-and-1 pass for Allen Robinson at the Green Bay 25 fell incomplete. The Packers took advantage of an interception by former Bears safety Adrian Amos to score two late touchdowns, and it was a 35-16 blowout.

A little more than 12 months ago was the last Sunday night meeting between the teams at Lambeau Field. Rodgers threw four touchdown passes as the Packers raced to a 41-10 lead after three quarters before the Bears tacked on two scores in garbage time to lose 41-25. It was another completely lopsided affair that led to gross hyperbole.

“Nobody will ever forget it,” defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano said afterward. “We all have spots when unfortunately … the space shuttle (Challenger), I know exactly where I was when that thing happened. 9/11 and 2020 ‘Sunday Night Football’ at Lambeau. Never forget it. Scars. You don’t ever forget the scars and the bad things that happen.”

Bad things tend to happen when facing the Packers. The Bears haven’t been closer than seven points in the five most recent meetings and have lost 11 of the last 12 in the rivalry, the kind of thing that has to frustrate Chairman George McCaskey more than anyone else.

He tested the injury on the field two hours before Sunday’s game and was able to go and finished with a team-high eight tackles. Smith has been intensely focused all season. He was the only starter on defense to regularly attend organized team activities (OTAs) in the spring, and surely he’s focused on the possibility of getting a second contract from the team. Not every player would have battled as much as he did to make it back quickly.

“I showed up, I was out there, so, hey, it’s all good,” Smith said.

What did he go through with the extra time after the Thanksgiving game to be able to play?

“Working my tail off,” he said. “Trainers helping me, my people helping me. So, yeah, everybody got a job, so just had to do whatever it takes.”

I don’t know that everyone will remember what Smith went through to play against the Cardinals. It’s another loss in a string of defeats this season, but the folks in power at Halas Hall won’t soon forget what it meant to the linebacker to be available for his teammates.

It’s the third year for the award that goes to the nation’s top FBS long snapper.

“I told you last year, all these kids have gotten so good at long snapping,” said Mannelly, who has noted how the craft has become extremely specialized since his 16-year NFL career began with the Bears in 1998. “We looked at the (10) semifinalists really closely, and they were all very good. When we got down to the final three, the difference you see is kind of the mentality because I like the way they cover. That’s important to me — snap, protect and cover — but in college obviously they don’t have to protect (like they do in the NFL).

“Overall, their accuracy was incredible and their mentality when covering is better than everyone else, and then you kind of grade as well when they snap in certain (clutch) situations, how well they perform. These guys did a real nice job. These three stick out and there were a couple others that were close, so it was tough to get down to the final three.”

Schools submit game tape of snappers they believe are worthy of consideration for the award, and Mannelly said after a college season of keeping detailed notes from games he watched on television, he spent upward of 12 hours going over game film of the semifinalists. Mannelly, veteran NFL agent Kevin Gold and Chris Rubio, who trains long snappers, also consider grading done by Pro Football Focus in the process before voters weigh in.

The award will be announced Saturday in a ceremony at Bernie’s Book Bank in Lake Bluff. Tickets for the event are available, and the award raises funds for the charity, which provides free books to underserved children in the Chicago area.

10a. Second-round draft pick Teven Jenkins was moved to the 53-man roster Saturday and appeared on the extra-point team. Jenkins looked like the first man up if something happened to left tackle Jason Peters or right tackle Larry Borom. We’ll see what happens with Jenkins, but I doubt the team wants to have him replace Peters right away.

Sure, everyone wants to be able to evaluate Jenkins and see him play, but the Bears want to put him in a position where he can build confidence when he’s on the field, and rushing him out there quickly might not optimize that. I still believe there is a chance we see him start before the season ends, and who knows how the line will hold up healthwise. But Jenkins probably would benefit from more practice time before he’s called on.

I do believe the Bears would prefer to have Jenkins as their swing tackle the remainder of the season over Elijah Wilkinson, who is on the reserve/COVID-19 list for the third time this season. Wilkinson is unvaccinated, and his availability has created issues.

10b. Pretty darn good game for cornerback Jaylon Johnson covering the Cardinals’ top wide receiver, DeAndre Hopkins. Yes, Hopkins hauled in a 20-yard touchdown in the first quarter on a fourth-and-2 play, but that required a great throw and nifty footwork by the receiver. Johnson was right with him on the route.

10c. Poor rush by outside linebacker Bruce Irvin in his first game with the Bears that opened the door for Kyler Murray on his 9-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. Irvin got good pressure against right tackle Kelvin Beachum, but he has to have much better awareness in that situation on third-and-goal. Once Murray got outside — and Irvin made it easy for him — there was no stopping the Cardinals quarterback.

10d. Bears quarterbacks have combined for 10 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions.

10e. Former Bears practice squad kicker Brian Johnson booted a 48-yard field goal with 37 seconds remaining to lift Washington to a 17-15 victory in Las Vegas. Washington signed Johnson off the Bears practice squad. He struggled in a brief stint with the New Orleans Saints after they poached him from the Bears, but Johnson, a Bethesda, Md., native, is a guy who could stick in the NFL.

10f. The Packers opened as 13-point favorites over the Bears at Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas for Sunday’s game at Lambeau Field. The largest closing line for the Bears this season was in October, when they went off as 12½-point underdogs at Tampa Bay in a game they lost 38-3.