The Bears should’ve been able to bury the Cardinals early, but instead they allowed them to stay within a touchdown in the fourth quarter before finishing off a 27-16 win at Soldier Field.

There was little impressive about the victory other than that it didn’t slide into yet another humiliating defeat in a season that has had too many of them. Here are three takeaways from the game:

Skill shortage

It got dicey for the Bears’ offense with top wide receiver DJ Moore playing through a right ankle injury and tight end Cole Kmet exiting at halftime after hurting his knee. Among the pass catchers, it’s a steep plunge in production after those two. It would’ve been prime time for Darnell Mooney to step up, but he finished with two catches for five yards.

Ground gains

One of the few things the Bears have done fairly well over the last two seasons is run, and they set a season-high by rushing for 250 yards against the Cardinals. They averaged 6.3 per carry. The combination of Khalil Herbert (112 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries) and Roschon Johnson (37 yards on nine runs) is promising.

Pitiful playoff picture

The fact that a team that has played as poorly as the Bears, who remain on track for a top-10 draft pick, aren’t mathematically eliminated yet shows how much the NFL diluted its playoffs by adding the seventh seed in each conference. In 2020, the first season of the 14-team format, the Bears got in at 8-8 while getting blown out at home by the Packers.