It’s Christmas Eve and all I have to do is wrap presents and seal the cards. Hopefully, you’re as caught up as I am for the holiday.
For the record, I do not condone fighting in the NFL. But I do have an appreciation for players sticking up for each other, which is exactly what we saw late in Sunday’s Bears win against the 49ers:
To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with a little fire and passion. But when your quarterback takes a dirty hit in front of his own sideline, these are the reactions you’re going to get. And while the most important thing to come of this was that Mitch Trubisky wasn’t hurt, it’s a good look to see guys like Anthony Miller, Josh Bellamy, and Kyle Long come to QB1’s defense. But next time, don’t get tossed out of the game because of some other player’s dirty hit.
Well stated:
Anthony Miller has some Willson Contreras in him. A fiery underdog type who grinds through games with max effort and energy. Miller is still a rookie, so he has some time to get to Contreras’ level, but I can see him growing into being the heartbeat of a team.
As for plays that happened within the boundaries, there was none bigger than this Danny Trevathan interception:
The 49ers were marching and I was presuming they would end up with a Robbie Gould field goal on this drive, which would have forced Trubisky and the Bears offense to come up with a scoring drive of their own to close out the game. Instead, Trevathan became the sixth Bears defender to come up with at least two interceptions this season – which is no small accomplishment.
Fun fact: Trevathan and Bryce Callahan are the only Bears players to have at least two sacks and two interceptions. It would be fun to add some names to that group in the season finale against the Minnesota Vikings. Just saying.
Not-so-fun fact: Robbie Gould is now 81 of 84 on field goal attempts in the 41 games he has played since the Bears cut him in 2016. That’s good enough for a 96.4 percent success rate. He also hasn’t missed against his former mates. Come on, Robbie. Cut us a break, here!
I guess I feel good for Gould finding his groove upon his departure. But it’s wild that his success rate in three years since leaving the Bears is more than 10 percentage points higher than what it was in his final three years with the team.
Timing is everything in life, and as it turns out, Bears GM Ryan Pace saw Gould at the wrong time. Maybe it’s hard to remember now, but Gould looked like he had lost “it” in his final two years in Chicago as he battled through some injuries and some high-profile missed kicks. In Pace’s first year as Bears GM, Gould made just 84.6 percent of his kicks – which was below his career average in Chicago. Further, Gould was coming off an injury shortened year when he made just 75 percent of his attempts. With those numbers as our reference point, you could almost understand why the Bears would part ways with a 34-year-old kicker coming off two sub-par seasons. But at this point, it’s inexcusable to not have found a reliable replacement.
Perhaps Cody Parkey can be that guy, but I don’t think that’s happening this year. Parkey, who had an 86.4 percent success rate coming into this year, has made just 75.9 percent of his attempts and is having his worst year since an injury shortened 2015 when he made just 3 of 4 attempts before having his season ended. Being the guy who followed someone as good and popular as Robbie Gould was never going to be easy, but Parkey is essentially following the guy who followed the guy. Time to get it together, #1.
In five games prior to Sunday’s miss against the 49ers, Parkey made 9 of 10 field goal attempts. The optimistic side of me wants to think Sunday’s miss was a blip and that the run of a 90 percent success rate that came before it was an encouraging trend that could continue. But the pessimistic side of me never wants to see a field goal attempt again. In the end, the realistic side of me doesn’t even know what’s real any more. Kickers shouldn’t drive you crazy, but unless your team has Adam Vinatieri they do every year.
Just for kicks, Tarik Cohen was checking credentials for entry into Club Dub:
Bears fans were in it to win it on Sunday and I almost wish I would have planned a trip to see this game:
https://twitter.com/ChicagoBears/status/1076998135661047808
Maybe I’ll get out there next year when the Bears play the Raiders. Wink.
Bears fans had plenty to cheer for on Sunday, including the continued emergence of Roquan Smith:
https://twitter.com/ChicagoBears/status/1076979502637473792
He’s not just making hits, he’s making history:
In addition to having Trubisky’s back, Anthony Miller has ankle-breaking moves:
This was a nice touch:
And as JJ Stankevitz points out, this is something Nagy has done all season. Michigan born Allen Robinson was a captain in Detroit. Arizona native Prince Amukamara was a captain against the Cardinals.
Because I’m in the Christmas spirit, I didn’t want to dive into the many issues I had with FOX’s broadcast. Between the announcers getting things factually wrong, the camerawork, and the lunacy of some football ideas (I mean, who has ever heard of anyone successfully using a hard count on the road?) there was plenty to gripe about. Heck, maybe that’s why Matt Nagy didn’t carve out time to meet with that crew. Can’t say I blame him:
NEWSLETTER
