Cards look to stay unbeaten on road

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Arizona Cardinals come in with the best record in the NFL, a perfect mark away from home, and maybe some fresher legs following a bye.

No matter who they have suiting up or where they’re playing, they continue to rack up wins. The NFC West-leading Cardinals will try to keep it going when they visit the Chicago Bears on Sunday.

“I think the guys are very focused,” quarterback Kyler Murray said. “Focused on finishing this thing out the way we would like to, going into, hopefully, making a playoff appearance.”

The Cardinals (9-2) won two of three games prior to their bye — beating San Francisco and Seattle on the road with a loss to Carolina at home in between — even though Murray (ankle) and three-time All-Pro receiver DeAndre Hopkins ( hamstring) missed all three games. Both players returned to practice on Wednesday, but they are the biggest question marks for a team that simply keeps on winning.

Arizona is 6-0 on the road, with all six wins by 10 points or more. The Cardinals are the third NFL team to accomplish that feat along, with the 1968 Cowboys and 1936 Bears.

Chicago (4-7) lost five in a row before Cairo Santos kicked a game-ending field goal at winless Detroit on Thanksgiving. That capped a week in which Coach Matt Nagy was answering questions about his job status.

Andy Dalton threw for a Bears season-high 317 yards against Detroit in his first start since Week 2 with Justin Fields sidelined because of cracked ribs. Fields returned to practice Wednesday for the first time since he was hurt in the loss to Baltimore on Nov. 21. The rookie remains Chicago’s No. 1 quarterback, but it wasn’t clear if he or Dalton will start against the Cardinals.

“We got the win,” Nagy said. “And now the next focus is on Arizona. This is a really, really good football team that we’ve gotta be completely locked in. It’s a reset now to go 1-0 and you never know how things go for the rest of the season. .. We have a big challenge here and our guys, they’re competitive.”

Murray said missing games for the first time in his NFL career has been tough, but there have been some benefits. He said watching from the sideline as backup quarterback Colt McCoy led the Cardinals over the past three games allowed him to see things up close from a different perspective.

“I think when you’re back there playing quarterback there’s a lot of moving parts, things are moving faster than they may seem,” Murray said. “And then watching it from the sideline, everything slows down, and you see it for what it is. I definitely think I took something away from it.”

The Bears haven’t been scoring often, but they have been scoring late in recent games.

Chicago is averaging just 16.3 points and ranks 29th in the NFL in scoring.