After a stressful win against the Denver Broncos, it feels as though the Chicago Bears can turn the page to a new chapter of their season
When the Chicago Bears draft ended, Matt Nagy started his post-draft press conference talking about kickers. He talked about how that was their biggest offseason plan, and he promised to get it right.
Through the offseason, the process had faced adversity, and the team eventually had to trade for Eddy Piniero from Oakland. After a questionable offseason, even for Piniero, the team moved into the regular season and even more questions were brought on.
Nagy did not elect to kick from 50 yards out, but even worse, he looked like he spent an entire offseason worried about a kicker, and not his offense. The team as a whole struggled week 1, and it brought on arguably the Bears toughest test to date.
The Bears had to travel to Denver to play in the altitude combined with summer air. They had to face an old friend in Vic Fangio who knew the Bears defense inside and out.He also knew Trubisky, and was in the room when the team drafted the young quarterback.
Fangio threw everything he could at Chicago on offense. The defense slowly started to crack in the summer heat and altitude. The team needed to be bailed out by a kicker. And they won.
This was a game that was needed for the Bears. It had a very reminiscent nature to the Dolphins and Giants games of last year. Road games against inferior opponents that the Bears found a way to lose. Yes, missed kicks happened, but as a group, the team was not ready to close out those kind of games.
This year, they were able to get over it, thanks to a long kick from a trusted kicker. This was a win where Trubisky can walk away and say that he beat arguably the toughest schemer in the league, especially when it comes to facing him in particular. The defense can say that they held up, got a red zone interception and let up less than 20 points.
And, the team can say that in a close game, their kicker will nail the kick. It was not pretty, but sometimes the sentiment of the win is more important. Is this a game that showed the Bears are ready to mature and turn the next page to be a team that can win anytime, anywhere, against any team?