Illinois Dominating Ticket Sales For Cardinals-Bears Showdown In Arizona

The Chicago Bears are 3-17 on the road under Matt Eberflus since 2022. That makes their game tomorrow against the Arizona Cardinals, which is in Phoenix under an open roof, pretty important. It figures to be a raucous home crowd to deal with, right? Not based on recent ticket sales data. It appears 37% of those sold so far have come out of the state of Illinois. That isn’t even counting Bears fans who may live in Arizona and the nearby states. Few fanbases have been known for traveling better than Chicago.

That means the Bears may not have to worry much about crowd noise on Sunday because half or more of it will have their own fans present. It wouldn’t be the first time an opposing stadium was overrun with Bears fans.

The Chicago Bears face an interesting challenge.

Arizona has been one of the weirdest teams this season. Their list of games includes a 41-10 win over the Rams and a 42-14 loss to the Commanders. They’ve won three of their last four games, but their one loss was a 34-13 pounding from Green Bay. Defensively, they can’t rush the passer or stop the run. Offensively, it is pretty much the running game led by Kyler Murray and James Connor, mixed with occasional big plays to Trey McBride and Marvin Harrison Jr. This isn’t a team the Chicago Bears should fear.

However, it is one they should respect. After what happened in Washington last week, they absolutely cannot afford to lose either of the next two games before the big showdown against the Packers. If ever there was a time for Eberflus to get that road monkey off his back, this is it.

A loss could spell the end of the season before they even get into the second half. It will also put plenty of people on the hot seat.