Bears Tight End Zach Miller Talks About His Road to Recovery and Other Bullets

Dec 08, 2017

Chicago Bears tight end Zach Miller opened up about his season-ending knee injury in a video interview with Jeff Joniak posted on the Chicago Bears’ official website and shared here via the team’s Twitter page:

“I just remember telling the doc, ‘Save my leg, please.'”

Zach Miller shares his emotional story, daily motivation and inspirational outlook. pic.twitter.com/CVbd5BvAeb

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) December 8, 2017

Miller was injured when he landed in the end zone hauling in a touchdown catch that was eventually overturned by the NFL’s replay officials.

His story is emotional and inspirational, so take some time to watch the video when you get a chance.

When Miller went down, the Bears were fighting for a chance to make something out of their season. Or, at minimum, put together something that resembled a glimmer of hope that the team’s rebuilding efforts were on the right path. Unfortunately, the Bears lost that game and sent them on a five-game losing streak. And here we are.

Things have gotten so bad for the Bears, Adam Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times sees some similarities between the 2017 Bears and 2010 Carolina Panthers. That was the team Fox coached before he was fired and replaced by Ron Rivera. Fox was saddled with trying to win with a rookie quarterback after a veteran starter struggled to limit his turnovers. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Mitch Trubisky is on the path to gaining knowledge and experience, while also trying to guide an undermanned offense to score enough to stay competitive with superior opponents. Earlier, we discussed Trubisky’s successes on third down. And over at the Chicago Tribune, Brad Biggs implores the Bears’ offensive minds to open up the play book and let the rookie air it out. This isn’t throw-for-throwing’s sake, but it’s time to let loose after eight starts if Dowell Loggains is truly as committed to developing Trubisky as he says he is.

You could describe Trubisky’s development after Week 13 as stuck in neutral because even though he showed improved accuracy with the throws he made against the 49ers, it was the throws he didn’t attempt (or wasn’t asked to attempt) to make that serve as a cause for concern.

We discussed some of the challenges the Bears will face facing some of the Bengals’ top-end defenders. Over at ESPN, Damien Woody things Cincinnati’s defense will be too much for Chicago’s offense:

Bob LeGere of the Daily Herald sees the Bears offense as a dud. They enter Sunday’s game ranked last in total yards, passing yards, and first downs, as well as 28th in third-down efficiency and 30th in scoring. In case you haven’t heard, the NFL is a 32-team league. So ranking 30th in scoring is far from good.

It’s fair to wonder if the Bears’ lost season is starting to wear on Trubisky. After all, Trubisky and the rest of the Bears’ rookies aren’t really used to all this losing. Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times described Trubisky’s weekly meeting with the media as “sullen and quiet” and added he wasn’t as engaged with the media as he had been in recent weeks.

It’s been a rough stretch for Trubisky since the bye. His team is 0-4 and his numbers aren’t stellar. He has completed 60.2 percent of his passes for 725 yards, 3 touchdowns, 2 interceptions, and an 80.4 passer rating. To be fair, Trubisky has been sacked on 8.1 percent of his drop-backs in the second half. Trubisky has been battered behind an offensive line fighting injuries (Josh Sitton and Kyle Long have missed time and have been the team’s best blockers) and it won’t get any easier against a Bengals front line hungry to put Monday’s loss against the Steelers behind them.

Then again, the Bengals are as banged up as the Bears:

Here’s the Bengals injury report. Six starters are out for Cincinnati. pic.twitter.com/kbntOmnJKm

— Katherine Terrell (@Kat_Terrell) December 8, 2017

Seeing names like Vontaze Burfict, Adam Jones, Dre Kirkpatrick, Nick Vigil, and Shawn Williams out for Sunday is a reminder of how physical and brutal Monday’s game was. It hurts to think about it.

If the Bears offense is wake up from its slumber, rookie running back Tarik Cohen could help push it in the right direction in more ways than one. Special teams contributions from a return specialist can be hard to quantify because so much has to go right for the guys in front of you in order to break a big return. Cohen showed shades of Devin Hester in his 61-yard touchdown return, and ESPN Chicago’s Jeff Dickerson writes the rookie speedster has drawn inspiration from one of the all-time greats.

They don’t call him The Human Joystick for nothing.

According to #nextgenstats, @TarikCohen ran a total of 127.40 yards to score on 61-yard punt return Sunday. (🎥: @nflnetwork) pic.twitter.com/GfxfnfBRio

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) December 4, 2017

Remember, Cohen had almost no experience as a return specialist entering his rookie season. That means he has been learning on the job since signing his rookie deal. That he’s starting to show signs of getting a grasp on his job as a returner is encouraging. He’ll need to show more over the next four games.

written by

Luis C. Medina

Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.

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