Every national expert has tried over and over again to insist that the biggest Chicago Bears liability going into the postseason is Mitch Trubisky. He’s the quarterback and he hasn’t played like a mad stat machine like
Patrick Mahomes so obviously he’s going to hold this team back. Never mind the fact the Bears have now won seven games in a row that he’s started dating back to the end of October.
His execution in the victory over San Francisco was damn good stuff. That final drive before
Allen Robinson was especially impressive as he continually churned out first downs to drain the clock. People can knock him for his sometimes erratic decision-making, but facts are facts. The Bears are a more dangerous team when he’s on the field.
No, the bigger concern lay elsewhere. People always keep their focus on the offense or defense, trying to identify that one weak link who can ruin everything. In actuality, there are few things who can make or break the season for an NFL team than an unreliable kicker. Enter Cody Parkey
Cody Parkey is the biggest Chicago Bears liability
The 2018 season has been a miserable one for Parkey. It started great with him getting that lucrative new contract he’d been hoping for after a strong run in Miami. Since then? It’s been a gauntlet of mind-numbing headaches. Just look at the same timeline alongside Trubisky since the end of October. Over that span, he has missed a total of seven kicks including the chip shot in San Francisco last Sunday.
It doesn’t include the overtime whiff he had in Miami that cost the Bears a win and would have them in position for a playoff bye right now. Nobody talks about that because they’re too busy trying to find any way they can to pin this entire venture on Trubisky. Chicago is a tough place to kick in general. Chicago in January is a different animal altogether.
The Bears will be going into that game with a kicker who has missed a total of nine kicks this season with six of those coming at Soldier Field. How are not more people talking about this? It’s a genuine problem. Most of the Bears’ victories this season against good teams have been close. Odds are they’re going to face a situation in the playoffs that will require at least one critical field goal or extra point in crunch time.
They don’t have a guy who can be relied upon to deliver it.