Cardinals continue thriving in cold weather, brought heat to Chicago Bears

It's always sunny in Arizona.

The Cardinals have the luxury of playing in their retractable-domed stadium in Glendale, and no cold weather ever in practice.

But the Cardinals have been highly successful winning in open stadiums during freezing cold temperatures, rain or shine.

Their victory at Chicago Bears' Soldier Field on Sunday extends their win streak to six in games played in 40-degree or lower temperatures dating back to 2013.

The three biggest storylines for the Cardinals entering their Sunday game at Chicago Bears were: the return of Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins after being out the past three games; Cardinals looking to get their first win after a bye week under coach Kliff Kingsbury; the Windy City's rainy and chilly weather at 35 degrees.

They basically had to prove they were back to form after their vacation, and win as 40-below troopers once more.

Left tackle D.J. Humphries despises playing in brick cold weather, especially when its added by precipitation. That's understandable for a Charlotte, N.C.-raised guy and Florida alum who had spent much of his life in warm climates.

But as long as the Cardinals win in those conditions, it's all good to him.

"I've always hated the cold and all stuff like that. I've never been like one of those guys, like, 'This is football weather.' Bulls---. Football weather is 70 degrees with the clouds out and it's nice and breezy," Humphries told reporters on Monday.

“Before this game, I always say the time we went to Green Bay a few years ago and it snowed, like ‘Aww man, it was so cold down there.’ Now, next year, it’ll be, ‘Aww man, remember when we went to Chicago and it was freezing.’ That’s literally the only part that I like about it.”

The Cardinals didn't waste time bringing their heat to the Bears. Arizona struck first with the game's initial touchdown as Murray threw a 21-yard pass to Hopkins, the first catch of his two for 33 yards.

The Cardinals have scored the first TD in 10 games this season. Three of them have come from the Murray-Hopkins connection before the eight-minute mark in the first quarter.

"There’s definitely a different feeling when you got those guys in," Humphries said. "That first drive watching those guys connect on that first pass down the sideline like that, that was super exciting to see. Having them two guys in the huddle, you know the chances of us getting that W is shifted drastically."

But the play before the TD looked like something from an old Looney Tunes cartoon.

Murray (11-of-15, 123 yards, 2 TDs) attempted to throw the wet ball, but it slipped out of his hands and fell behind him. He had to jump on the ball, resulting in an unforced fumble for a loss of six yards.

"We knew it was gonna be sloppy conditions. We knew it wasn’t gonna be pretty all the time," Kingsbury said. "Obviously, there were some plays we would’ve liked to push the ball field when we were in the first half. We weren’t able to because of the weather, but both teams were dealing with it. That’s football in December in Chicago, so we knew what we were getting ourselves into."

Kingsbury decided to run the ball more, holding their reputed Air Raid-style offense to a minimal 15 pass plays. He said to the media the last time he can slightly remember having that little amount pass plays was when he played flag football as a sixth grader.

"That’s not what I’m accustomed to doing. I don’t think anybody was," Kingsbury said. "We had a lot of angry wideouts and tight ends, and I understood it. I didn’t like playing that style either, but that’s what it took to win the game. Defense did a great job setting ourselves up with short fields.

"We were able to run it in, Kyler ran a couple in, and we were able to win ugly. We don’t want to play that style of football consistently if we can help it. I think the next five (games) are in domed stadiums, so we should be able to get back on track there."

The Cardinals had lower team statistics than Chicago. They had 120 passing yards to the Bears' 217, but edged Chicago on the ground at 137 yards to their 112. Arizona had 51 plays to the Bears' 71, and got 14 first downs compared to Chicago's 26. In addition, Arizona had less possession time at 25 minutes, 15 seconds to the Bears' 34:45.

But Arizona was efficient on offense, jumping out to a 14-point lead in the first half and 21-7 lead by halftime.

“That was kind of the first time this season we really had to face anything like that from a weather standpoint. But I thought we did a really good job handling it," Cardinals defensive tackle Zach Allen said. "We knew all week what it was gonna be like, so the guys were mentally prepared for it. Obviously, when the ball gets slick, it’s worrisome. As a defense we were able to kind of capitalize off that.”

The Cardinals scored 17 points off three of their four interceptions.

The second INT was caught by Budda Baker on third-and-6 from the Arizona 20 in the second quarter when Andy Dalton threw a short pass right to tight end Cole Kmet, who lost his grip of the ball as he landed in the zone. Baker grabbed the airbone ball thereafter and returned it for 76 yards. That set up a nine-yard rushing TD by Murray on Arizona's ensuing possession to go up 14-0.

On first-and-10 at Bears' own 30 in the fourth, Dalton threw his third interception after the ball was tipped by Chandler Jones, which was caught by cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. at the Bears 41 before he returned it for 13 yards.

Matt Prater then kicked scored a 25-yard field goal, his second of the game in the Cardinals next series.

Dalton threw his fourth pick on second-and-15 from the Bears 43, which was caught by Allen at their 37 and returned it to the 12. That set up Murray's second rushing TD two plays later with 6:23 left to play to extend the lead 33-14.

"There was definitely a different attitude to coming into the bye week where it wasn’t just, ‘Oh let’s just get out of here and go on vacation, or go see family.' It was, ‘We’re still working and we still have a goal here.’ Guys really just stayed around and got ready like a normal week. We just didn’t play (last) Sunday," Allen said. "There’s some things to clean up from the game, but to get a win like that is definitely a boost.”

Have tips for us? Reach the reporter at dana.scott@azcentral.com or at 480-486-4721. Follow his Twitter @iam_DanaScott.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Cardinals continue thriving in cold weather, brought heat to Chicago Bears