Happy Birthday Danimal, Honoring Urlacher, ESPN’s Admits Miss, Respect Nagy, and Other Bullets

We generally like to kick things off with Bullets around here, but Danny Trevathan won a major award and he deserves every bit of praise going his way. Here’s to Trevathan being the first of many Bears to earn the NFC’s Defensive Player of the Week award in 2018.

  • Dan Hampton spent his entire Hall of Fame career with the Chicago Bears, wrecking opposing offenses as a defensive lineman from 1979 to 1990. Hampton, who was a four-time Pro Bowler, first-team All-Pro in 1984, and part of the Super Bowl XX championship team, turns 61 today. Let’s celebrate with some highlights:
  • From one Hall of Famer to another, ESPN producer Jay Rothman admits the network missed the boat when it decided not to show Brian Urlacher’s halftime ceremony. “That was a miss,” Rothman said, via Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune. It’s not just that they didn’t show the ceremony, it wasn’t even shown in a clip or referenced later in the game. It’s not like there wasn’t ample time to slip it in, either. Thankfully, the Bears shared the moment via their social media platforms on Tuesday.
  • The Bears went into Monday’s game wanting to impress Brian Urlacher and accomplished that feat with an impressive performance that had us flashing back to an era where No. 54 was leading the charge. Six sacks, a pick-six, a sack-strip-fumble, and a dominant showing certainly did right by Urlacher and the teammates who joined in celebrating his night with him. “We wanted to go out and make him proud and finish the night off with a win for him,” said edge rusher Khalil Mack, per Adam Johns of the Chicago Sun-Times.
  • One down, nine to go. Cornerback Prince Amukamara sealed the Bears’ win with a fourth-quarter pick-six of Russell Wilson, which officially kicked off his campaign to intercept 10 passes in 2018. While that goal seems lofty for a player who snagged his first interception since 2015 only two days ago, Amukamara is prepared for the challenge. “I’ve really just embraced it,” Amukamara told the McNeil and Parkins Show on 670 The Score. “It’s really coming from I know the work I put in in practice. I know what I’m capable of doing. Before, I’ve always thought of the goal very lightly, but now, adding Khalil (Mack) to the equation, it seems a little bit more promising.”
  • To Amukamara’s point, if the Bears are going to jump out to early leads (as they have done in back-to-back games) and put opposing offenses into a place where they have to throw to stay or get back into the game, there will be plenty of chances for passes to be intercepted. And with Mack rushing the passer, quarterbacks could be more prone to making tragic mistakes with errant throws. I don’t know if 10 interceptions is going to happen, but I’m totally here to see Amukamara get it done.
  • It would be cool if Kyle Fuller could join in on the action, too. His dropped interception in Week 1 is one of the things that kept the Bears from starting 2-0. Then again, could the Bears have driven home the point of the importance of finishing strong had they not fumbled away their season-opener? I suppose the world will never know.
  • Fuller has been burned for two touchdowns this year, which is a bummer on multiple levels. First, it’s not as if Fuller had bad coverage, allowed a guy to beat him down the field, or lost leverage on the play – indeed, he had quality coverage on each of the touchdowns he has allowed – it’s just that Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson made throws that few other quarterbacks in the league could make. But don’t get me wrong, either: Fuller probably could’ve made plays on both of these passes had he turned his head a moment sooner. Fortunately, that’s something that’ll probably come up in film study and is correctable. Let’s see how Fuller bounces back from a little adversity before giving up on him two games into a contract extension.
  • We likely wouldn’t view either of these touchdowns in the same light had the Bears’ offense put more distance between themselves and their first two opponents. To that end, quarterback Mitch Trubisky has to be better moving forward. Ex-Bears scouting director Greg Gabriel wonders if the expectations for Trubisky are too high right now and I can see that.
  • Hell, even Trubisky has made it clear that he expects a lot out of himself. There’s nothing wrong with that – no one got anywhere worth going by setting minimal expectations, clearing a low bar, and claiming success – but you don’t want unreasonable expectations to create artificial stressors that can ultimately work against him. But even still … Trubisky should continue aspiring for greatness. Coaches should continue to push him in that direction. And fans should continue to hold out hope that with proper instruction and growth, Trubisky can grow into a quarterback who was worth trading up for.
  • Two team leaders with ties to Pennsylvania just doing stuff to celebrate the good times:
  • Seriously, celebrate each of your triumphs with as much energy as the Bears did when they won their first game:
  • written by

    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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